Carolyn Amanda Hacker  was born March 16, 1841 in Shelbyville, Indiana, to  William and  Mary Ann (Sargent) Hacker.  She was an older sister to  Lida Virginia Hacker Jennings,  my great grandmother and  Myrta's  grandmother.  Amanda was educated in Shelbyville, Indiana, schools and was a member of the Methodist Church.
          On December 27, 1864, she married  Thomas Jefferson Randall, born in Columbus, Ohio.  He was a brother to  Joseph B. Randall, who married  Cornelia Jennings.  Amanda and Tom had three children born in Shelbyville:
            Rosella May Randall, born 18 November 1865, died 18 April 1908,
            James William Randall, born 26 February 1867, died 29 June 1944,
            Harry H. Randall, born 7 September 1877.
          Rosella and James were known by their middle names, May and Will.
          William Hacker owned a section of land, 320 acres near Hartford, Kansas and on November 9, 1878, he gave Amanda a 160 acre farm six or seven miles east of Hartford, Kansas, where she and her family moved.  This was one mile west and about three miles south of Lebo, bat at that time this land was more associated with Hartford than Lebo, Kansas, because Lebo was a newer town.  The stage coach line went through the farm from Lebo to Hartford.  They received their mail from Hartford.
          Tom and Amanda first built a log cabin in a grove of trees on their farm just north of the stage coach trail that went from Lebo to Hartford.  Amanda was the first schoolteacher and held school in her cabin before District #18 schoolhouse was built. (DTJ)
          Amanda had her sister, Fannie, and her husband, Cornelius, as neighbors to the north.  But Fannie (Frances Cornelius) passed away in 1878 and perhaps her husband died at the same time.  Tom and Amanda moved into the small two-room house on Fannie's land.  She planted a bed of asparagus near the fenceline between the two farms and  Myrta Jennings Walker  remembers cutting Aunt Mandy's wonderful asparagus in the 1920s.
          In August 1882, William and Mary Ann west to Kansas to visit Amanda and family and found them "in good health and with plenty around them.  Though she works hard and has to take it rather roughly, yet she is in splendid health and enjoys the labor she has to go through with every day.  Looking over her farm with the condition she has it in with her crop of oats, corn, hay and potatoes, her 30 head of cattle, 4 head of work horses, farming implements and all together, she is today worth not less than between $5 and $6,000 every cent of which is productive, no dead capital.  About all she yet lacks to make her comfortable and give her the pleasures of life is a suitable house of her own to live in, and this she will have within the next year or so."
          Thomas Randall  had built all the fences on both pieces of property, theirs and the 160 north of their land.  Around 1884, Tom and Amanda built a frame house on their land east of their cabin close to the new section road.  This house is still standing and is the first house south of Marydale Farm. (2002)
          All the children attended the country school district #18 .  In 1893 or 1894, Will went to Seattle, Washington and liked it so well he persuaded his parents to move to Seattle.  So Tom and Amanda sold their farm to William (Bill) Thomas, and with Harry, moved to Seattle September 21, 1895.
          Before they moved, May Randall married  Tom Wallace  who taught school at District #18.  Later they moved to Lebo and Tom sold insurance.  After their son was born, they moved to Seattle, Washington.  [May and Tom had two children:]
            John Randall Wallace, born about 1895-6, Lebo, Kansas,
            Gertrude A. Wallace, born in Seattle, Washington.
          Thomas J. Randall died in June or July, 1909, in Seattle, Washington at the age of 70 years.  He died from heart trouble and a complication of diseases.  He leaves three sons and his wife, Amanda Hacker Randall.  He was a brother to  Joseph B. Randall,  John W. Randall,  Mrs. Mary Ellis,  Mrs. Sarah E. Wiles,  and  Miss Rebecca Randall.  This confirms that Amanda Hacker married  Thomas Randall, brother-in-law of Cornelia Jennings Randall, and  Thorp Jennings  married  Mary Ann Sargent Hacker.
          Dana Close  writes, "In May, 1949, the bus stopped in front of our farm on K-99, two miles north of Olpe and seven miles south of Emporia and a 60-ish man got off, carrying a suitcase.  He was  Randall Wallace,  Dana T.'s cousin.  He said his family had moved to the West Coast in 1896.  This was his first time back and he was amazed at the great increase in the number of trees.  He worked as a sawmill hand and as an oyster-digger.."
          In spring, 1949, Randall Wallace (again, the family used the middle name as their common name), returned to Kansas and visited  Myrta Jennings Walter on her fam south of Riley.  He would have been a first cousin to Myrta's father, Frank.
          In June, 1995, the movie, "Brave Heart" was released starring Mel Gibson.  At the end of the movie, I saw "Written by Randall Wallace."  I wonder if this is a descendant.
Written by Glenna Harrison, Wichita, Kansas

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