A leading representative of the agricultural interests of Latah County is Jesse W. Randall, who owns and operates a fine farm pleasantly situated nine miles southeast of Moscow. He is most practical and yet progressive, and his untiring industry and capable management have brought him a handsome competence. He was born in Wisconsin, October 3, 1855, and is of Scotch descent, his paternal great-grandfather having emigrated from Scotland when this country was still a British possession. He settled in New York colony, and when the attempt was made to throw off the yoke of British tyranny he joined the American army and valiantly aided in the struggle for independence. The grandfather, John Randall, was born in the Empire state and married Emily Wasson, also a native of New York. By trade he was a blacksmith. With his wife and six children he removed to Illinois in 1847, locating in Boone county, where he died at the age of sixty years, his wife surviving him until she had passed the eightieth milestone on the journey of life. They were earnest Christian people, and their rectitude of character won them high regard.
Almeron Randall, the father of our subject, was born in New York, in 1827, and married Miss Mary Ann Wright, a native of Maine, by whom he had a family of eleven children, eight of whom are yet living. The father was a farmer and also a contractor and builder. He served his fellow townsmen in the office of county commissioner and was a reliable and trustworthy citizen. He and his wife were members of the Baptist Church, and he died at the age of sixty-eight years, while her death occurred in her sixty-sixth year.
Jesse W. Randall, the fifth in order of birth in their family, was a youth of fourteen when the parents removed from Illinois to Missouri There he remained three years, and in the spring of 1872 made the overland trip to Oregon, locating in Douglas County, where he worked as a farm hand for six years. He was married in the Sunset state, in 1877, to Miss Frances Sutherland, a native of Douglas County, and a daughter of Fendel Sutherland, an Oregon pioneer of 1848. Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Randall came to their present home in Latah County, whither his brother, John E. Randall, had preceded them. He told them of the rich and fertile land to be procured from the government in what was then Nez Perces County, and making his way to this section of the state our subject obtained both a preemption and a homestead claim, which he has transformed into a fine farm. As time has passed he has also purchased other property until his landed possessions now aggregate seven hundred acres, all in one body. He has upon the place a commodious frame residence, large barn and all the accessories and conveniences of the model farm of the latter part of the nineteenth century. He has three hundred acres planted to wheat, and the alluvial soil has yielded as high as fifty-five bushels to the acre. He also raises other grain, vegetables and fruit and has a good orchard, in which he is cultivating many varieties of fruit, principally for the consumption of his family. He also raises some high-grade sheep, cattle and Percheron horses, and introduced into the county some Norman-Percheron horses, thereby improving his own and his neighbors’ horses. He is a very industrious man, and though he employs others to aid in the operation of his farm, he also works with them, and the present fine condition of the place is largely due to his personal labors.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Randall have been born seven children, five of whom are living: Ernest, John, Rena, Edith Pearl and ______. The two eldest sons assist their father in the operation of the farm. Ernest is a graduate of the high school of Moscow and carried off the honors of the class of 1898. The mother of this family holds membership in the Christian church.
In his political affiliations Mr. Randall is a Republican and keeps well informed on the issues of the day, but has no time or inclination for public office, preferring to devote his attention to his business interests, in which he is meeting with gratifying success. He and his family are very highly spoken of by all who know them, and their record is deserving of a prominent place in the annals of Latah County.