1820–1896

Introduction

Born: Oc­to­ber 18, 1820, Wood­bridge, New Jer­sey.

Died: Ju­ly 1896, West Hamp­ton, Long Is­land, New York, where he was spend­ing the sum­mer.

Buried: Green-Wood Ce­me­te­ry, Brooklyn, New York.

portrait

Biography

Randolph moved to New York Ci­ty at age 10, and be­gan work­ing as an er­rand boy in the New York De­po­si­to­ry of the Am­er­ican Sun­day School Un­ion. He stayed with that or­gan­i­za­tion 21 years, leav­ing in 1851 to set up his own book­sell­ing bu­si­ness.

The first store Ran­dolph oc­cu­pied was at 609 Broad­way, op­po­site Bond Street. The lo­ca­tion was con­si­dered ve­ry far up town, as the Ap­ple­tons, Car­ters, Charles Scrib­ner, and M. W. Dodd were then clus­tered around Ci­ty Hall.

From the first, Ran­dolph made a spe­cial­ty of re­li­gious books, and in his first year re­pub­lished Hints to Chris­tians, orig­in­al­ly pub­lished in 1832 by Ed­ward Beech­er and Dr. Skin­ner.

In 1852, Ran­dolph moved to the cor­ner of Third Street and Broad­way, where he wea­thered the pa­nic of 1857.

During the Am­er­ican ci­vil war, he had a pro­fit­a­ble bu­si­ness pub­lish­ing pamph­lets, ser­mons, and ad­dresses deal­ing with the na­tion­al strug­gle. Among oth­er works, he pub­lished de Join­ville’s re­port on the Ar­my of the Po­to­mac.

In 1864, Ran­dolph moved fur­ther up town to a store on the south­east co­rner of Broad­way and Ninth Street, where he stayed un­til 1876, when he took a store on the cor­ner of Twen­ti­eth Street and Broad­way.

After ten years there, he moved to the block on Twen­ty-Third Street be­tween Fifth and Sixth Ave­nues, where he was among pub­lish­ers such as Put­nam, Dut­ton, Hen­ry Holt, and F. W. Christ­ern.

In 1892 he moved yet again, to 192 Fifth Ave­nue. He stayed there un­til he sold his re­tail bu­si­ness to the Bap­tist Pub­li­ca­tion So­cie­ty and moved his re­main­ing whole­sale bu­si­ness to 91 and 93 Fifth Ave­nue.

Works

Sources

Lyrics