The John Henry and Ethel (Roberts) Randall Family

John Henry Randall

John Henry Randall was born on February 11, 1888 to John Randall (born circa 1833) and Maria (Wilkerson/Wilkinson) Randall (born December 1859). 

His parents married on December 1, 1877 and had four children besides John Henry: William (born May 3, 1879), Mary (born August 1881), Victoria (born July 1889), and Julia (born February 1891).

Johny Henry's grandparents were Henry and Abbie Randall from James City County, VA and George and Martha Wilkerson/Wilkinson from York County, VA.

John Henry grew up in York County. In 1900, his father, John, was renting a farm. His brother, William, who was 21 years old at the time, was working as a sailor. John Henry and his younger sisters, Victoria and Julia, were attending school. John Henry was able to complete four years of schooling, despite the barriers to education at the time.

Rebuilding Livelihoods

After losing his independent livelihood as a farmer and oysterman, John Henry had to rebuild a livelihood in Penniman. Alongside others in his neighborhood, John Henry found work at the Navy Mine Depot when it opened in 1926. He returned each day to the land he once owned to work for the U.S. Navy that had displaced him.

John worked in the Ordnance Department. The work that employees like John performed in the Ordnance Department was extremely dangerous. Employees were involved in building torpedo warheads, each of which contained 710 pounds of the explosive, Torpex. The Torpex was made in large vats and had to be poured into the torpedos. A single torpedo constructed at the Mine Depot had enough power to crack a ship in half. 

Deloris (Druitt) Crump recalled being a young child of about 5 years old, waiting for her grandfather, John, to come home from work each day:

Building Families

The siblings who settled in the Penniman area began to build families from the 1930s onwards. A year after moving into their new home on the family property on Penniman, Samuel and Annie had their first and only child. Deloris Druitt was born in 1937 in the family's new home with the help of a midwife, Mary Jones. She would later marry Reginald A. Crump.

As the first grandchild, Deloris (Druitt) Crump remembers happy times growing up with multiple generations together on Penniman. 

John Henry was as a quiet man, whom she called "Pa Randall." She referred to her grandmother Ethel as "Mama Randall" and described her as "gentle and kind, just as sweet as she could be to me." 

John Henry passed away two years after Ethel on February 24, 1946.

When Ethel died, her youngest daughter, Lorraine, was just 9 years old. Annie B. and Samuel took Lorraine into their home. Lorraine was Deloris' aunt but they grew up like sisters. They attended the Bruton Heights School together in Williamsburg. Lorraine graduated in 1952, and Deloris graduated in 1956. 

In the 1950s, John Henry and Ethel's other children began to build families. Wilfred and Courtney had two children, Raynaide Randall (born 1950), who later married Samuel Carson, and Edgar Wilfred Randall (September 26, 1957-January 24, 2019), who later married Belinda Fulton. Tom and Sarah had three boys, Jerome Randall, Gary Randall, and Dale Randall. John and Flora had one child, Brenda Randall.

The cousins played together on the family property. Raynaide (Randall) Carson remembers playing with Jerome, as they were just a year apart in age: "we used to make mud pies in the backyard, played hopscotch, and played marbles. Later, the boys used to play football in the backyard with friends from up the street." And Deloris (Druitt) Crump, who was the oldest of the cousins, recalled that "I was the babysitter of them all!"

The children also enjoyed living close to their aunts and uncles. Stanley could always be trusted to give the children quarters. The family chuckled recalling how John Christopher always liked to chew gum. And Flora, John Chrisopther's wife, was a fantastic cook. She was the life of all the parties and would keep everyone laughing. Tom was mild-mannered and well-liked. Gary Randall remembered the love between his parents, Tom and Sarah, that he witnessed until their deaths: "My parents definitely loved each other. He passed away first, and she passed away five days later."