The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-03-08
JUDGE RANDOLPH DEAD.
Long and Useful
Career, in Public and
Private Life Ended.

Ex-Judge Bennington T. Randolph
died at his home on York street at fou
o'clock yesterday afternoon. For tn
past year the Judge. who was a man o
remarkable activity, has been failing
rapidly. He was President OF the Boarc
OF Riparian Commissioners and the las
of the original Board which WIS APP
pointed in 1869. The original Board COLI
sisted Of Ex-Governor Charles s. Olden,
Peter V~reedenberg, Francis .. LathroI
and Bennington i. Randolph.
Judge Randolph always took HI active
interest in the affairs OF the Commission,
and IL was this devotion to the interests
of the State which undoubtedly fastened
his death.
ACTIVE TO THE END.
The Board held a meeting on February
81 and although the Judge was then prac-
ticaily upon a sick bed with q severe cold,
he arose and insisted upon attending. HI
did so and aggravated his cold. Pneu-
monia set in and he was soon a very sick
man. DR.. Lutkins was called in, and see
ing that the patient was dangerously i'll,
called to his assistance a physician from
New York.
All that human skill could command
was done, u the Judge grew gradually
worse until he passed away yesterday.
HIS CAREER.
Bennington +. Randolph was born in
B~elvedere. Warren county, December IL,
1877. His father was Francis G. L. Ran
dolph, a we'll known Newark LAWYER. who
was at time a member of the Legisla7
ture and Surrogate of Essex county. He
diet when he was about thirty years old.
Young Bennington attended Lafayette
College, but owing to ill health was
Obliged to leave before taking a degree.
STUDYING LAW
TIo hnrap fha at,11u of lorr .-;<l. LIZ
uncle, Joseph f.. Randolph, who after
ward became a Justice OF the Supreme
Court. Bennington Randolph was adj
mitted to the bar as an attorney in Feb
ruary term, 1889, and three years later he
became u counsellor.
He began to practice in Freehold, and
shortly after locating there married Eliza
+. Forman, the daughter OF John b.
Forman, a prominent citizen of Mon.
mouth county. While at Freehold Judge
Randolph did Il large business in real es-
tate matters. Every one had ~unbounded
confidence in him.
REMOVAL TO THIS CITY.
In 1861 he left Freehold and came to
Jersey City. In the fall of the same year
he became counsel for the Central Amer
lean TRANSIT Company, which ran a line
of steamships from there to San Fran
cisco. He remained counsel to the COM
panY during its existence, during which
tAoAO A0 - NANaF bAAS
Nicarauguan government, and spent sew
eral months in that country.
He then associated himself with Alex
ander Green, of New York, and practiced
with that firm for several years.
II FIRST LAW JUDGE.
About 1868 he was appointed the first
law judge OF Hudson county. AT the ex-
p~iration of his term as judge he resumed
the practice of law in Jersey Guy.
When the District Court was established
in Jersey City, Judge Randolph was made
its first judge and occupied the position
for two terms. He was one of the organ
izers of the Equitable Life Assurance
Society of New York and has been a
director OF the company ever since. He
always served on its important financial
committees. He has been regularly en-
gagged with this society since he left the
District Court Bench.
He was also one of the first to found
the First National Bank of this city, and
was in the directory OF the bank till the
day of his death.
HIS CHURCH WORK.
Judge Randolph always took g deep
interest in religious aud educational
matters. He was q member of the State
Board of Education and the Board of the
State Normal School from their organi-
cation to about three months ago, when
he resigned.
He has been an elder in the Presby-
terrain Church and was prominent in the
movement which eliminated in the
consolidation of the old First Presby-
terrain Church with the Bergen Presby-
terrain Church. He was for many years
president of the Hudson County Bible
Society.
In politics Judge Randolph was origin
ally a Wing, but he could not follow the
movement which led up to the nominal
tion of Fremont, and became a Demo-
crat. In local matters, however, and
those in which no question of national or
State policy was concerned, he was an
independent.
A o OFFICE.
He always refused to run for any cleo
tive Office. In early life, if he would have
accepted the nomination, he could have
represented his district in Congress.
Judge Randolph was a man of the pur-
est life, a benevolent and devoted Chris
tian, and stood high in the regard of all
who knew him. No man was better in
formed in the history of New Jersey than
he, and his collection OF books and docu-
ments upon that subject is perhaps I'M
equalled.
His wife and four daughters, Althea
f., wife of Ex-Governor Bedle; Frances
f., unmarried; Julia f., wife OF Fiavei
MCGEE, and Isabella F., wife of the Rev.
Albert Dood Minor, of Mohawk, N. Y,
survive him.
The funeral will take place at ten a. m.
Tuesday in the Bergen Presbyterian
Church on Emory street. The interment
will be in the family plot at Freehold.
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