Tom Randolph

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Thomas Randolph came into this world on November the thirteenth, 1854, down in Tennessee. He wasn't quite five years old when his family packed up and headed to Grayson County, in 1859.

Now, a lot of folks who end up shaping a town arrive with grand plans and loud intentions. Tom Randolph arrived as a child, which maybe tells you something about the kind of roots that stick. The county raised him, and he gave it back something considerable.

He was groomed to be a businessman, and at nineteen years old, somebody took notice. That somebody was C. C.

Binkley, who invited young Randolph to join him at the Merchants and Planters Bank. That institution grew, as the marker puts it, into a very prosperous and influential financial institution. Not just a bank.

A force. Randolph became bank president in 1886, and here is the part that ought to make you sit up straight. He held that position until his death.

Not until a better offer came along. Not until he got restless. Until January the eighth, 1918.

As president, he helped attract new industry and business to Sherman, and he worked to establish the city's first hospital. He also served as Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of Commerce, up in St. Louis, Missouri.

Chairman of the board of a St. Louis bank, and he still called Sherman home. That right there might be the whole story.

A Tennessee boy, brought west before he could remember much of anywhere else, who spent his life making sure the place that raised him was worth the trouble of stayin'.

What the marker says

(Nov. 13, 1854 - Jan. 8, 1918) Tennessee native Thomas Randolph came to Grayson County with his family in 1859. Groomed to be a businessman, he was invited at age 19 to join C. C. Binkley at the Merchants and Planters Bank, which grew into a very prosperous and influential financial institution. Randolph served as bank president from 1886 until his death. In that capacity, he helped attract new industry and business to Sherman, and worked to establish the city's first hospital. He also served as Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of Commerce of St. Louis, Missouri, but always considered Sherman his home. Recorded - 2002