Edward C. Randall papers, (majority within 1904-1935) 1922-1935

Summary

Creator:

Randall, Edward C., 1860-1935

Abstract:

The Edward C. Randall papers are largely correspondence and writings of Buffalo, New York, attorney E. C. Randall, who studied and wrote extensively on spirit mediums, spiritualism, and eschatological subjects in the first decades of the 20th century. The collection includes complete, partial, and drafts of essays and books by Randall, around 250 incoming letters (many with retained copies of responses attached), materials by or belonging to Virginia and Mai Randall, and other items.

Extent:

4.5 linear feet

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Cheney J. Schopieray, November 2023

Background

Scope and Content:

The Edward C. Randall Papers are largely correspondence and writings by Buffalo, New York, attorney E. C. Randall, who studied and wrote extensively on spirit mediums, spiritualism, and eschatological subjects in the first decades of the 20th century. The collection includes around 250 incoming letters to Randall, most of them accompanied by retained copies of his responses, 1908-1935 (bulk 1917-1935). Also present is a bundle of documents pertaining to Delaware Laundry, Inc., including its articles of incorporation and stockholder minutes, as well as materials pertinent to E. C. Randall's resignation from the Board of Directors, 1930-1934. Other documents include a bundle of seven items related to the estate of Edward Porter as probated by attorney E. C. Randall (including Porter's last will and testament), 1931-1932.

The bulk of the papers is drafts, partial, and complete writings by E. C. Randall; and a few items by/belonging to Mai Howard Randall and Virginia Randall. E. C. Randall's typescripts and drafts include the following works:

• "Frontiers of the Afterlife" (1922)
• "Philosophic Discussions with a Living Dead Man"/"Coloquy with an Etherian" (1923-1924)
• "Told in the After Life" (1927)
• "Mission Work" (April-May 1928)
• "Heritage of the Dead : Biographical Sketches of the Living Dead in the Earthbound Zone" (1928)
• "Taps and the Dawn" (1931)
• "The Living Dead" (1931-1932)
• "Miscellaneous Essays" and "Miscellaneous Psychic Memorandum" (early 1930s)
• "Nero's Redemption" (early 1930s)
• "Drama – Nero's Redemption" (early 1930s)
• "Memoirs of an Eschatologist" (four volumes plus additional chapters, circa 1934-1935?)
• Additional essays, book chapters, interviews, and notes. Many or most of these appear to be drafts, typed copies, or extracts from works listed above.

The collection includes two volumes pertinent to E. C. Randall's daughter Virginia Randall, who died at age 21 on February 3, 1925, after a week-long illness. A two-ring volume contains cuttings of printed artwork depicting Biblical scenes with manuscript scriptural passages written beneath them. Virginia apparently created the volume while attending the Dobbs Ferry school or Mrs. Wickham's school in New York, around 1920. The other volume is a typed collection of "Virginia Randall's Letters" with added supplementary newspaper articles. The original letters [not present] dated between 1922 and 1927—both before and after Virginia's death in 1925.

Two manuscript volumes in the collection apparently belonged to Mai Howard Randall, containing manuscript writing dating between 1904 and 1915, and around 1921. The papers also contain two circa 1920s-1930s typescripts sent to E. C. Randall by William Smith titled "Philosophic Teachings of Spirit People" and stated to have been received through automatic writing by Smith. One printed item accompanies the collection: The Origin of Life; or Where Man Comes From. The Evolution of the Spirit from Matter, through Organic Processes; or How the Spirit Body Grows. Fourth Edition. By M. Faraday . . . T. C. Budington, Medium. Springfield, Mass.: Star Publishing Company, 1887. This item has a round hole all the way through it, middle left.

Biographical / Historical:

Edward Caleb Randall was born in July 1860, to parents Nelson and Priscilla Eddy Randall of Ripley, New York. He was one of at least four children. He attended the local district school and academy before entering higher education at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1879, he began work for Morris & Lambert in Fredonia, New York, and trained for the bar while working for Holt & Holt at Dunkirk, New York. He was admitted to the New York bar on April 3, 1883, and spent his career as a trial lawyer at Buffalo, New York. He first partnered with Joseph P. Carr, as Carr & Randall, then spent ten years in solitary practice before becoming senior member of Randall & Hurley.

E. C. Randall served as legal counsel for railroad firms, including the Tonawanda Valley & Cuba Railroad and the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad, and was active in the Republican Party in Buffalo. Randall married Maria L. Howard in 1897 and they had at least two children, Virginia Randall (1903-1925) and Marion H. Randall (1905-1975). The family lived for many years on Tudor Street in Buffalo, New York, and E. C. Randall apparently conducted business out of the newly built Buffalo Industrial Bank at 17 Court Street in the later years of his life.

E. C. Randall met Emily S. French, a Buffalo-born woman living in Rochester who had gained some notoriety as a voice medium. Randall intended to study her and reveal her as a fraud, but instead became convinced "she was possessed of a vital force" unknown to him. He spent around 20 years investigating and collaborating with Emily French, and he became a vocal proponent of Spiritualist beliefs.

He published seven books, including Life's Progression : Research in Metaphysics (1906), The Future of Man (1908), Psychic Truths Told in the Afterlife (1914), The Dead Have Never Died (1917), Frontiers of the Afterlife (1922), The Living Dead and The Direct Voice (1926), and An Hour in the Afterlife (1931). He produced many other writings for periodicals, an apparently unpublished play, and an unpublished memoir.

Edward C. Randall died in July 1935.

Acquisition Information:

1993. M-2951 .

Custodial History:

E. C. Randall gave at least a portion of this collection to nephew Thomas Hall Graham for Christmas in 1933, "to be turned over to him at the age of fifteen years." Graham moved from New York to Michigan, and married Nancy V. LaPaglia in 1958. At least a portion of the papers apparently remained with Thomas Graham until his death in 1991, after which they were acquired by the Clements Library.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into the following series:

• Correspondence
• Documents
• Edward C. Randall Typed Writings and Typed Copies of Writings, with Manuscript Revision

Rules or Conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Related

Additional Descriptive Data:

Bibliography

The Men of New York: A Collection of Biographies and Portraits of Citizens of the Empire State... Buffalo, N.Y.: Geo. E. Matthews & Company, 1898: 168-169.

Tymn, Michael E. "Biography of Edward C. Randall (1860-1935)." Academy for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies, Inc., 2011. https://ascsi.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Randall_E.pdf [accessed February 25, 2024].

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Apparitions.
Death--Religious aspects.
Eschatology.
Future life.
Ghosts.
Immortality.
Mediums--New York (State)
Mediums--United States--History--20th century.
Spirits.
Spiritualism.
Women mediums--New York (State)

Formats:

Documents (object genre)
Drafts (documents)
Essays.
Final drafts.
Interviews.
Letters (correspondence)
Plays (performing arts compositions)
Scrapbooks.
Writings (documents)

Names:

Randall, Maria Howard, 1875-1962.
Randall, Virginia, 1903-1925.
Randall, Virginia, 1903-1925 (spirit)
Smith, William.