Cranmore Nesmith Wallace (1844-1918)

   A Massachusetts resident who earned distinction in multiple fields during his life, Cranmore Nesmith Wallace served a brief term as Braintree, Massachusetts's representative in the state legislature during the mid-1870s. A lifelong resident of the Bay State, Cranmore N. Wallace was a descendant of a long-established family in Massachusetts, being born in Braintree on November 6, 1844. One of four children born to William Vinson and Maria Keene Wallace, Cranmore is recorded as having attended the public schools of Braintree until the age of eighteen, leaving to join the Union Army.

   Wallace's service during the Civil War is notable, as he served as a volunteer in four separate army corps, including both the "Department of North Carolina and the Army of the Potomac." His Boston Evening Globe obituary chronicles Wallace as serving with "distinction in the 42nd and 43rd Massachusetts Regiments" and also notes that he was wounded in battle at Kinston, North Carolina. In addition to seeing action at Kinston, Wallace also fought at the battles of  Whitehall, Goldsboro, Rawles Mills, and Little Washington, all located in North Carolina. He later became a Lieutenant and aide-de-camp, serving until the close of the hostilities in 1865.

   After leaving the military Wallace became employed as an office clerk at the Boston Flax Mills in Braintree. Over the next few decades, he worked his way up through the hierarchy of this company, which underwent a name change to become the Ludlow Manufacturing Company. Wallace later became a selling agent and president of this textile mill, and is remarked as being "largely influential in their successful growth." Wallace continued to be actively engaged with this company until his death, and under his stewardship, it grew from one mill to over a dozen. Its growth eventually led to the establishment of a model town in Ludlow, Massachusetts where many of its mills were built.

  Cranmore Wallace married in April 1873 to Mary Ann Avery, who died shortly after their marriage. Wallace remarried in December 1882 to Eunice Sprague, and both of Wallace's marriages are marked as being childless.

Cranmore N. Wallace during his time in the General Court, circa 1875.

  While still involved in the manufacturing of textiles, Cranmore Wallace was elected to represent Braintree in the Massachusetts State House of Representatives. His one term in this body commenced in 1875 and during his service held a seat on the committee on Leave of Absence. After the conclusion of this session, Wallace became the water commissioner of Braintree and also served as a member of that town's school committee for several years. His later years were highlighted by involvement in numerous civic and fraternal organizations, including the following: trustee of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital and Massachusetts Soldier's Home, member of the Boston Athletic Association, the New Boston Riding Club, the Algonquin Club, the Eastern Yacht Club, member of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, and the Bostonian Society. Wallace is also noted as being an active parishioner at the Emmanuel Church at Boston, where he served as a vestryman.

                        This sketch of Wallace appeared in the Boston Evening Globe in May 1893.

   In addition to his civic activities, Wallace belonged to three veterans organizations, holding memberships in the Society of the Grand Army of the Potomac, the Massachusetts Grand Army of the Republic, and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. In 1889 he was named as Quartermaster General of the Department of Massachusetts and in 1905 journeyed to Washington for President Roosevelt's inauguration on the staff of Major Gen. Adna Romanza Chaffee (1842-1914).

   In his later years, Wallace and his wife maintained a summer home in the city of Beverly, Massachusetts. He died here on August 26, 1918, at age 74 and was survived by his wife Eunice. A burial location for both Cranmore and his wife is unknown at this time. The large portrait of Wallace at the top of this profile was featured in the Men of Massachusetts, originally published in 1903.

Wallace's obituary from the August 26, 1918 edition of the Boston Evening Globe.

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.