McKercher John Randall (1872-1918)

Portrait from the Iowa Red Book, 1917-18 edition.

   A one-term member of the Iowa House of Representatives, McKercher John"Mac" Randall was born on May 17, 1872, in Hartland, Iowa,  the son of John and Almeda Randall. The Randall family moved to Nebraska in the year following their son's birth and returned to Iowa in 1879. "Mac", as he was familiarly known, attended schools local to the Worth County area and went on to study at several colleges, including the Iowa State College in Ames, the Cornell University in Mt. Vernon, and the University at Iowa City. 
   Randall earned his law degree from the last-named school in 1901 and opened a law practice in the town of Lisbon, practicing here for several years. He would also serve a term as Mayor of Lisbon beginning in 1905. He married Katharine Stahl (1870-1970) in February 1897 and this union produced two sons, John David and Milo, the latter dying nine years before his father. McKercher Randall's obituary in the Lisbon Herald gives note that he was engaged as a minister for the United Evangelical Church while residing in Lisbon, and that "he was strength in itself in this profession, being deep and ready in the pulpit and tactful and sympathetic in the pastorate."
   Mac Randall left Lisbon in 1908 and soon after resettled in Cedar Rapids. He established another law practice here and also became active in civic affairs in that city, serving as the president of the Cedar Rapids school board and later was the grand master of the grand lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows from 1914-1915. 

A Randal campaign notice from the May 25, 1916 Lisbon Herald.

    In early 1916 Randall announced his candidacy for the Iowa House of Representatives from Linn County and hit the stump, campaigning throughout the district he hoped to represent. His candidacy was profiled in the Mount Vernon Herald in May of that year, in which he was acknowledged as: 

"A firm believer in the doctrine of few laws and those laws sufficiently enforced without regard to friends or influence and believes that the legislature would do better service by perfecting present laws than by adopting a lot of new laws. Mr. Randall is a forceful and convincing speaker and if elected will efficiently represent this county in the State Legislature."

   Following his primary election win in June 1916 Mac Randall won a legislative seat that November, garnering 8,692 votes on election day. Taking his seat at the start of the 1917 session, Randall sat on the committees on Commerce and Trade, Judiciary, the State University, Public Utilities, Municipal Corporations, Labor, and the Soldier's Home.
   With a bright future in state government before him, Randall's service in the state legislature was cut short by his death on May 9, 1918, shortly before his 46th birthday. His obituary lists the cause of his demise as an attack of apoplexy, and that he "passed away two hours later". His sudden passing was acknowledged in the following assessment given by his fellow legislators shortly after his death:

"As a member of the legislature he was always ready to listen, to investigate, to discuss, and to give and take when it was fair and right, but never willing to comprise with wrong. He was an untiring worker and a man of broad vision and generous sympathies, and he easily ranked as one of the ablest and most popular members of the House of Representatives."

   McKercher J. Randall was subsequently interred in the Lisbon Cemetery in Lisbon, Iowa. He was survived by his son John and wife Katharine, who died in 1970 at the age of 100.

                                                                     From the Lisbon Herald, May 16, 1918.