Pryor Cemetery near Stuart, Oklahoma
Elijah Randolph
Ardelle Randolph Elms
Cleton Randolph
This set of photos was provided to me by a friend I met via a mutual interest in genealogy and using the internet as a research tool. The story of her encounter with Elijah Randolph's final resting place is an eerie one, occuring on a foggy afternoon complete with spine-tingling chants off in the distance (source unknown). But the location of Elijah's headstone was first revealed to me in a Family Group sheet Pedigree Chart for Everett Eugene Baugh that was prepared by Neomah Baugh in 1971. Bob Keene of Lincoln, Ark. was kind enough to send me a copy and Lila was even kinder to make the trip to Stuart to get these photos.
The interesting thing about these headstones is that they were among the few in Pryor Cemetery that were freshly decorated with flowers. So there is apparently still a relative (name unknown to me at this time) in the area, still thinking of Elijah Randolph. The two adjacent headstones are for Randolphs unknown to me but most certainly related and probably descended from Elijah. The last record I have of Elijah's family and children is an 1880 Indiana census which shows my ggmother Sarah Naomi Randolph at age 6 with younger brothers (2 years and 9 months). Sarah may have had another sister after this census. The DOB of Ardelle makes this seem reasonable. It's then easy to suppose that Cleton was Ardelle's son except that the surname is incongruent.
With further help from Lila I hope to be able to make contact with the person or
persons maintaining these graves, see if we are related and if so, share some time
and stories.
Winter 1997:
A second internet friend (irc nick: young^sis) had the idea of leaving a note attached to
Elijah's headstone after it became obvious that the site was being tended by a family member.
Amazingly, in the fall I received a letter from Billie Jo Lawrence, a resident of Stuart, Okla.
and a descendant of Elijah and his second wife, Ardelle saying that she had picked up the note
and "who are you?". A chain of events ensued during which
I was contacted by Bobby Jo Randolph from Borger, Texas and Sherrell Buchanan of Ft. Smith, Ark.
who has been researching Randolphs for 35 years. Sherrel even put me in touch with Neomah Baugh
who I've been trying to find for over two years and whose name you will see sprinkled around these
pages. She is an accomplished and travelled Baugh researcher.
So to put it all together; Elijah's first wife, Laura, died in Arkansas and he took a 16 year old bride as his second wife. Elijah and Ardelle relocated to Indian Territory in what would become Oklahoma soon after getting married. After Elijah passed, Ardelle remmarried an Elms. Cleton was the only son of Elijah and Ardelle.
Billie Jo Lawrence is the descendant who spends so much time at the graves of Elijah and the rest of her family. She was at the cemetery in August, 1997 for the funeral of Ruth Marie (Randolph) Stallings when she found the note containing my contact information.
Just an amazing story.