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13        <title>History — Randolph County, Missouri</title>
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116    <h1>History</h1>
117    <p>Randolph County was organized on <strong>January 22, 1829</strong> and named for John Randolph of Roanoke. The courthouse has stood at Huntsville ever since.</p><p>What made the county was the railroad and what was under the ground. Moberly grew from nothing into the <em>Magic City</em> in a decade of railroad boom, while coal came up out of drift mines and, later, strip pits across the countryside. The county sent Omar Bradley to West Point and the world, opened one of Missouri’s early junior colleges, and has farmed this ground the whole time.</p>
118    <h2>A county in dates</h2>
119    <ol class="chronology">
120                    <li class="chronology__entry">
121                <span class="chronology__year">1829</span>
122                <span class="chronology__event">Randolph County is organized on January 22 and named for John Randolph of Roanoke, the Virginia congressman and senator. Huntsville becomes the county seat.</span>
123            </li>
124                    <li class="chronology__entry">
125                <span class="chronology__year">1830s</span>
126                <span class="chronology__event">Settlers arrive from Kentucky and Tennessee, bringing slavery with them and planting hemp and tobacco. The county sits at the heart of the region Missourians came to call Little Dixie.</span>
127            </li>
128                    <li class="chronology__entry">
129                <span class="chronology__year">1866</span>
130                <span class="chronology__event">Moberly is platted by the North Missouri Railroad and named for Colonel William E. Moberly, the first president of the Chariton and Randolph County railroads.</span>
131            </li>
132                    <li class="chronology__entry">
133                <span class="chronology__year">1872</span>
134                <span class="chronology__event">The railroad opens huge repair shops at Moberly — among the earliest railroad plants west of the Mississippi. The town grows so fast it earns the name the Magic City.</span>
135            </li>
136                    <li class="chronology__entry">
137                <span class="chronology__year">1880</span>
138                <span class="chronology__event">Moberly counts 6,070 residents. Coal is the county's other pillar: drift mines worked since mid-century, and strip mining by the 1920s.</span>
139            </li>
140                    <li class="chronology__entry">
141                <span class="chronology__year">1893</span>
142                <span class="chronology__event">Omar Nelson Bradley is born near Clark on February 12. He will become the last of the nine five-star generals in American history.</span>
143            </li>
144                    <li class="chronology__entry">
145                <span class="chronology__year">1927</span>
146                <span class="chronology__event">Moberly Junior College opens as part of the Moberly public schools. It is now Moberly Area Community College.</span>
147            </li>
148                    <li class="chronology__entry">
149                <span class="chronology__year">Today</span>
150                <span class="chronology__event">The 2020 census counts 24,716 residents across 488 square miles — half of us in town, half of us out on the land.</span>
151            </li>
152            </ol>
153
154    <h2>From the county&rsquo;s albums</h2>
155    <p>Photographs kept by the county and lent by residents. If you can name a face, a place, or a
156       year we have wrong, the <a href="/departments/county-clerk">County Clerk</a> would like to
157       hear from you. For the fuller record — the museum, the genealogical archives, and the
158       railroad museum — see the
159       <a href="https://www.randolphhistorymo.com/" rel="noopener">Randolph County Historical
160       Society</a> in Moberly.</p>
161
162    <ul class="album">
163                    <li>
164                <figure>
165                                        <img
166                        src="https://cdn.csdurant.com/media/randolphcounty-mo.com/history_photos/f48210fa-1094-4eb7-ac63-7b06984c94f0/football-team-1931.jpg"
167                        alt=""
168                        width="1920"                        height="980"                        loading="lazy"
169                        decoding="async">
170                    <figcaption>The football team, 1931.</figcaption>
171                </figure>
172            </li>
173                    <li>
174                <figure>
175                                        <img
176                        src="https://cdn.csdurant.com/media/randolphcounty-mo.com/history_photos/5ecd29ac-4819-4818-a3a1-5768d435e16a/aerial-view-1932.jpg"
177                        alt=""
178                        width="1920"                        height="1154"                        loading="lazy"
179                        decoding="async">
180                    <figcaption>Moberly from the air, 1932. Recorded as a St. Louis Post-Dispatch photograph.</figcaption>
181                </figure>
182            </li>
183                    <li>
184                <figure>
185                                        <img
186                        src="https://cdn.csdurant.com/media/randolphcounty-mo.com/history_photos/b8e2ce2d-4568-40a9-a107-55fa0238ceb9/victory-parade-historic.jpg"
187                        alt=""
188                        width="1920"                        height="1280"                        loading="lazy"
189                        decoding="async">
190                    <figcaption>A “Recipe for Victory” float on a brick street during the Second World War.</figcaption>
191                </figure>
192            </li>
193                    <li>
194                <figure>
195                                        <img
196                        src="https://cdn.csdurant.com/media/randolphcounty-mo.com/history_photos/7a11bc6e-cf66-47a4-9212-28417c86bd2f/football-team-early.jpg"
197                        alt=""
198                        width="1920"                        height="1169"                        loading="lazy"
199                        decoding="async">
200                    <figcaption>An early football squad, in the leather helmets of the day. Date unrecorded.</figcaption>
201                </figure>
202            </li>
203                    <li>
204                <figure>
205                                        <img
206                        src="https://cdn.csdurant.com/media/randolphcounty-mo.com/history_photos/e6b4bdae-60bd-4215-aaab-734dfaf79908/junior-college-1940s.jpg"
207                        alt=""
208                        width="1920"                        height="1563"                        loading="lazy"
209                        decoding="async">
210                    <figcaption>The Junior College building, with the cars of the 1940s parked out front.</figcaption>
211                </figure>
212            </li>
213                    <li>
214                <figure>
215                                        <img
216                        src="https://cdn.csdurant.com/media/randolphcounty-mo.com/history_photos/c5637a15-493b-4f69-84b3-050a4f87e536/football-team-1936.jpg"
217                        alt=""
218                        width="1920"                        height="1518"                        loading="lazy"
219                        decoding="async">
220                    <figcaption>The football team, about 1936–37.</figcaption>
221                </figure>
222            </li>
223                    <li>
224                <figure>
225                                        <img
226                        src="https://cdn.csdurant.com/media/randolphcounty-mo.com/history_photos/af1902fd-5962-4768-908c-27a91358732a/junior-college-historic.jpg"
227                        alt=""
228                        width="1904"                        height="1920"                        loading="lazy"
229                        decoding="async">
230                    <figcaption>The Junior College campus and its running track from the air. Date unrecorded.</figcaption>
231                </figure>
232            </li>
233                    <li>
234                <figure>
235                                        <img
236                        src="https://cdn.csdurant.com/media/randolphcounty-mo.com/history_photos/720c9cd8-0fe4-4048-a30e-1662c8313b82/staircase-1928.jpg"
237                        alt=""
238                        width="1424"                        height="1920"                        loading="lazy"
239                        decoding="async">
240                    <figcaption>On the staircase, 1928 — recorded in the county&#039;s albums as the Piggly Wiggly.</figcaption>
241                </figure>
242            </li>
243                    <li class="album__wide">
244                <figure>
245                                        <img
246                        src="https://cdn.csdurant.com/media/randolphcounty-mo.com/history_photos/de40fc49-dc06-4f63-98cd-27e8c50f0acd/historic-football-clipping.jpg"
247                        alt=""
248                        width="1920"                        height="571"                        loading="lazy"
249                        decoding="async">
250                    <figcaption>A newspaper clipping naming the whole squad of the Moberly Junior College team — every player, row by row.</figcaption>
251                </figure>
252            </li>
253            </ul>
254
255    <h2>The county today</h2>
256    <p>Randolph County covers 488 square miles and is divided into twelve townships. Its cities are
257       <strong>Huntsville</strong> (the county seat), <strong>Moberly</strong> (the largest),
258       <strong>Clark</strong>, <strong>Clifton Hill</strong>, and <strong>Higbee</strong>, with the
259       villages of <strong>Cairo</strong>, <strong>Jacksonville</strong>, and <strong>Renick</strong>.
260       We border Macon, Monroe, Shelby, Audrain, Boone, Howard, and Chariton counties.</p>
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267            <h2 class="site-footer__heading">Randolph County Courthouse</h2>
268            <address>
269                372 Hwy. JJ<br>
270                Huntsville, MO 65259<br>
271                Toll Free: <a href="tel:+18442776555">844-277-6555</a>
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