Los Angeles County
Biographies
CLAIBORNE PRICE RANDOLPH
RANDOLPH, CLAIBORNE PRICE (sic)
Live Stock and Contracting, Los Angeles, California, was born in Montgomery
County, Missouri, August 10, 1861, the son of Frederick Monroe Randolph
and Eliza (Hammond) Randolph. He married Adele Reyes in Los Angeles,
March 10, 1895, and to them there have been born five children, Mary
Bethel, Claiborne Price, Jr., John, Irene and Lee Jennings Randolph.
Mr. Randolph’s mother died when he was eighteen months
old and he was reared by foster parents. He worked on the farm of his foster
father until 1876, at which time the family moved to California, and he has
spent the greater part of his life in the latter State. He received his
education in the public schools of Independence, California, but the principal
part of his training he received in the world of business and experience.
About the year 1880, Mr. Randolph, who had worked at
various occupations for about three years, engaged in mining in the Mammoth
Mining District of Mono County, California, and later mined and prospected in
the region around Bodie, Cal., and Candelaria, Nev. He gave up the
life in 1881, however, and went to Oakland, California, where he became a
salesman for the Singer Manufacturing Company. His next connection was with
T. B. Laycock & Company, of
Indianapolis, Ind., with whom he remained four years, and subsequent to this he
was in the employ of J. W. Morris, a wholesale and retail grocer of
Los Angeles.
In 1890 Mr. Randolph embarked in the contracting business
and this has been his field practically ever since, his work taking him to
various sections of the West. He began as timekeeper and assistant manager for
a contractor named S. S. Watson and remained with him for approximately
two years, being active during that period in various important building
operations.
Mr. Randolph, in 1891, was engaged in canal building,
being superintendent of construction of the Tulare Canal in California, and
completed the work early in 1892. He then accepted a position as superintendent
for a large contracting firm in Texas, being engaged in large enterprises in
different parts of the Lone Star State for several years. Upon leaving Texas he
went to Rantana, Arizona, where he was with the Grant
Brothers Construction Company, engaged in railroad building. Other important
work of Mr. Randolph in Arizona included the building of the Gila Canal, a
large irrigation project. He began on this work as camp boss and finished as
superintendent of construction. For two years after the completion of this
enterprise Mr. Randolph worked for a contracting firm, and in 1895
embarked in business for himself, as contractor in grade construction. He met
with success from the outset and during the nine years of his activity he
figured in a great deal of development work in the South.
In 1904 Mr. Randolph took a position in the Department of
Streets of the City of Los Angeles and remained about a year, returning at the
end of that time to his own business. His work since
that time has been principally in the improvement of real estate tracts in and
around Los Angeles, his operations including a large amount of work at Venice
and Ocean Park, Cal., two seashore cities; Alamitos Bay and various residence
tracts in the city proper.
Mr. Randolph also was an active factor in the improvement
of Imperial Valley, Cal., where he owns a farm and is interested in live stock,
having a great many head of valuable mules. He has devoted considerable time to
the raising of these animals. Since 1908 a large part of his business has
consisted of renting mules to grading contractors and others.
The real estate operations of Mr. Randolph included the
subdivision and improvement of the Venice Park Tract near Los Angeles, he
having opened it up and personally financed it.
Mr. Randolph’s success in life has been brought about
through his close application to duty and an ever-present ambition to improve himself by study, and he has given the benefit of his
experience to other young men through the medium of books and correspondence.
He is the author of a unique analytical work entitled “Randolph’s Cost of
Construction, Contractors’ and Engineers’ Guide,” in the writing of which he
devoted nearly four years. In this work Mr. Randolph shows the exact cost
of materials and building, with the value of every known implement used in the
construction, and also has made a careful analysis of the working value of a
man, as compared with that of animals.
He is a member of the Gamut Club.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
13 October 2011.
Source: Press Reference
Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 686, International News Service,
New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2011 Marie Hassard.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES