Robert Preston Randall collection

The Robert Preston Randall Collection is a synthetic collection of surviving papers from the ancestry of one man. By his own account, additional records of this type were previously disposed.

The collection covers the period of 1834 to 1944, more than a century, and includes the proceedings of a local literary organization, several examples of nineteenth century correspondence, diaries, an autograph album, manuscript poems, family legal documents including deeds and land contracts, various news clippings, a guidebook to the 1890 United States Pharmacopoeia, a new centennial history of Sylvania, Ohio, and an extremely valuable literary production, the memoirs of Dr. Ephraim W. Tucker.

Of greatest value is the last item, Dr. Tucker's childhood "memories." This 1883 manuscript, in the author's own hand, is seventy-two pages in length and is formatted essentialy as a letter to or a conversation with his sister. In this fascinating series of intimate personal narrative sketches, Dr. Tucker recounts how his mother shamed him out of nursing, the building of the Erie Canal (in New York State), life in a log house, the custom of boys wearing dresses, two particularly horrible storms, a local "witch" and the superstitions surrounding belief in witches in Tucker's family, tilling the soil with a horse, a church raising, the accident which crippled him, the widespread use of alcoholic beverages in the early nineteenth century, hunting experiences, corporal punishment and the old country schoolhouse, the election of Jackson in 1828, and a strange medical case involving a man infected with parasitic worms.

Especially when read with Dr. Horace Green's and other contemporary correspondence in this collection, Dr. Tucker's memories paint a clear picture of life in western New York during the nineteenth century. The longer document, however, is perfectly capable of standing alone.

The letters included, as noted above, give strong evidence of the values of Americans in rural Ohio and New York during the early nineteenth century. The letters include correspondence of the Burbank family of Wayne County, New York, letters from Dr. Horace Green in Sylvania, Ohio to his wife, as well as letters to Dr. Green from his brother Joel. Of special interest within the Horace Green correspondence are his comments as a new settler and physician in Whiteford, later Sylvania, Ohio. The autograph album of Irene Green (1844-1854) provides further insight into the nineteenth century mindset.

The 1896 and 1899 diaries of Eliza Upham are of interest in that they record events and give commentary, but also because they faithfully track the weather and cash accounts of her household. The minutes of the Scribbler's Club (1942-1944), Toledo, Ohio, provide considerable evidence of the workings of a local literary club. The minutes are typed in rough draft form and include pencilled notations, probably added by Coral Randall.

A fairly complete Green-Randall family genealogy is included in this collection. The data was compiled by Horace Randall prior to 1964. A supplement to the earlier genealogy is also provided by the donor of this collection.

Of the printed material included, the bulk is clippings from newspapers. Of these, a good many are song lyrics and poems, some of which were composed by family members. A centennial history of Sylvania (1933) also is included.