Nevada Genealogy Trails Lyon County Dixie P. Randall Biography

DIXIE P. RANDALL. From colonial days the Randall family has sent its representatives into various walks of life to become active and influential residents of the communities with which they have been connected. They are of English descent, and settled in the east prior to the war of the Revolution. The grandfather of D. P. Randall fought valiantly in the old historic battle of New Orleans under General Jackson. He was a blacksmith and machinist by trade, and in 1838 removed from the old family home in the east to Kentucky, where he became identified with agricultural pursuits, and there his death occurred when he had reached the sixty-fifth year of his age. His wife bore the maiden name of Mary Thornton, and she was born in London, England. Her death occurred at the good old age of eighty-nine years, she passing away in the faith of the Baptist church, of which she and her husband were worthy members.

George Perry Randall, a son of this sterling old pioneer couple, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1830, and when twenty-two years of age, in 1852, started on the long and arduous journey across the plains with ox teams, settling at Angels Camp in Calaveras county, where he became the owner of a mine. On the 22d of April, 1855, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Eliza Catherine Williamson, and their names were inscribed on the roll of the honored pioneers of the Golden state, as well as that of the Silver state. In 1864 they came to Nevada, where Mr. Randall erected a sawmill at Markleyville, and subsequently removed to Carson valley, Douglas county, where he turned his attention to ranching and the stock business, being for a time also engaged in blacksmithing and freighting at Enterprise. In 1874 he took up his abode in Dayton where he resumed his blacksmith operations and also continued to cultivate his ranch in the Carson valley. The Democracy has always received his hearty support and cooperation, and on its ticket in 1881 he was elected to the office of sheriff of Lyon county, the duties of which he performed faithfully and efficiently for four years. He has now reached the seventy-third milestone on the journey of life, but is yet an active and industrious man. To this honored old couple have been born twelve children, eight of whom still survive, four being residents of California and four of Nevada.

D. P. Randall, the second in order of birth of this numerous family, is a native son of the Golden state, for his birth occurred in Calaveras county, California, on the 2d of July, i860. When only four years of age he was brought by his parents to Nevada, his education having been received in the public schools of Dayton, and in his youth he learned the blacksmith's trade of his father. As the years have passed by he has prospered in his business ventures, and is now the owner of a fine ranch of five hundred and sixty acres, located one and a half miles east of Dayton, where he is engaged in the raising of alfalfa, hay, wheat, barley and potatoes, the land being especially well adapted for general farming. He, too, has been a life-long Democrat, and in 1892. was elected to the position of county commissioner of Lyon county, in which he served faithfully and efficiently for four years, while for two years he was the deputy sheriff under his father, and was subsequently elected to that position. Mr. Randall gave such excellent satisfaction in the latter position during his first term that he has been thrice elected, and is now serving his third term. While filling the position of assessor of the county he was faithful, honest and diligent in the discharge of his duties, and thus won the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. When he assumed command the property valuation was very low, while the tax rate was as high as three dollars and thirty-five cents a hundred, but through his instrumentality the valuation was raised and the rate of tax reduced to one dollar and seventy-five cents a hundred, and this gave to the county the same revenue. Mr. Randall is one of the county's most public-spirited and enterprising citizens, taking a deep interest in everything pertaining to the public welfare, and he withholds his support from no movement intended to prove of public benefit.

In the year 1888 he was united in marriage to Miss Emma Gertrude Hazlet, who was born in Dayton, Nevada, being a daughter of Dr. J. C. Hazlet, a prominent pioneer physician of the state and at one time the candidate of his political party for governor of Nevada. Four children have been born to this union, as follows: Dixey Clark, Ray Frank, Arthur Hazlet and Dorothy Gertrude. The family reside in one of the pleasant residences in the city of Dayton, where they dispense a gracious hospitality to their many friends and acquaintances.