Background

Epes Randolph was born on August 16, 1856 in Lunenberg, Lunenberg County, Virginia, the son of William Eston and Sarah Lavinia (Epes) Randolph.

Career

At the age of twenty he entered railroad service which he was to make his life work. His primary interest was in the pioneering and constructive aspects of the industry. He early associated himself with Collis P. Huntington while the latter was engaged in building the Southern Pacific, and among other surveys ran the location west from San Antonio, Texas, toward California.

In the eighties and early nineties Randolph was Huntington's representative in Kentucky where he acted as chief engineer of the Kentucky Central. At the same time he served in similar capacity for the Cincinnati Elevated Railway, Transfer, and Bridge Company for which he built a double-track railway, highway and foot bridge over the Ohio River from Cincinnati to Covington.

Until 1894 he was associated with other Huntington projects. In that year he was obliged to give up active service because of an attack of tuberculosis and went to reside in Arizona. He entered the service of the Southern Pacific, and although handicapped by his poor health, accomplished extraordinary results in his chosen field for twenty-five years. His two chiefs, Huntington and his successor, Harriman, found in him a man after their own hearts, and came to rely upon his judgment in critical emergencies and concerning problems of construction and reconstruction. In 1901 Huntington took Randolph to Los Angeles to build and operate the Pacific Electric Railway. After two years as vice-president and general manager he was forced by the condition of his health to return to Arizona. By establishing headquarters in Tucson, he was enabled to continue in active service in spite of his disabilities.

He was constantly on the frontier of new problems and became well known throughout the Southwest and Mexico for his accomplishments. In 1904 he became president of a group of small railroads in Arizona and vicinity and following their merger (1910) into the Arizona Eastern became its president and general manager. Not an unimportant feature of Randolph's service was the protection of these small lines against the inroads of the Santa Fé. With a vision of the future which would have carried him far had his health permitted he built nearly a thousand miles of line in Mexico and became president in 1911 of the Southern Pacific of Mexico. This position, together with a similar position in the Arizona Eastern, he held until his death in Tucson in 1921.

The achievement most closely associated with Randolph's name was that which concerned the rescue of the Imperial Valley from destruction. The problem of the control of the Colorado River, which the California Development Company had been unable to cope with, and the permanent protection of the Valley became acute in 1905.

The vital interest of the Southern Pacific led Harriman to place Randolph in charge of the situation, and from this time until February 1907, when the turbulent and lawless stream was finally forced back into its bed and the Valley was made safe once more, Randolph was more or less continuously occupied with the problem. Failure after failure did not daunt him, and it became at the end a question of dumping rock into the stream faster than the River could carry it away.

Achievements

• He constructed railroads in America's South, Ohio, Arizona, California, and Mexico. From 1905 to 1907 he led the successful effort to restore the Colorado River to its banks after irrigation canal construction and flooding diverted it from the Gulf of California and into California's Imperial Valley, creating the Salton Sea.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Arizona Eastern Railroad Company; Rules and Regulations of the Transportation Department

    (Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part...)

Personality

Randolph was a man of the pioneer type, a devoted follower of Huntington and Harriman, daring, courageous, tackling difficult problems with zest, and conquering them by the force of his drive and efficiency. He was impatient of restraint, and looked with misgiving upon the growing tendency toward federal and state interference with railway building and operation. He had little sympathy with attempts to check the activities of men of the Harriman type whom he whole-heartedly regarded as public benefactors.

Connections

Randolph was married in January 1886 to Eleanor Taylor of Winchester, Virginia, who survived him. He had no children.

Father:

William Eston Randolph

Mother:

Sarah Lavinia (Epes) Randolph

Spouse:

Eleanor Taylor