"R" is for Randolph, Benjamin Franklin (ca. 1820-1868

"R" is for Randolph, Benjamin Franklin (ca. 1820-1868). Legislator, clergyman. Born free in Kentucky, Randolph grew up in Ohio and graduated from Oberlin College. He was ordained a Methodist Episcopal minister and served as a Presbyterian chaplain with the 26th Colored Troops at Hilton Head. After the war, Randolph settled in Charleston and worked for the American Missionary Association and then the Freedman’s Bureau as assistant superintendent of schools. He joined in Reconstruction politics as an active Republican. Randolph represented Orangeburg County in the 1868 constitutional convention, was elected county school superintendent and represented the county in the state Senate. He chaired the Republican Party’s state central committee. In 1868 while campaigning on behalf of the Republican Party, Benjamin Franklin Randolph was assassinated as he stepped off the train at Hodges station in Abbeville County.