Andrew L. Randell

Randell's Masonic work reached far beyond Texas. The Sherman Democrat obituary of March 16, 1931, transcribed for West Hill Cemetery, says he was elected Grand Master of Texas Masons in December 1920 and was a principal organizer of the Masonic Service Association of the United States, later serving as its executive secretary in Washington. During the Mississippi Valley flood, it says, he collected $600,000 and distributed it to Masonic families in need at a cost of under one percent. He died after an operation for a spinal infection, at 51, and was buried in Sherman.

What the plaque says

Andrew L. Randell (Aug. 15, 1880 - Mar. 14, 1931) A native of Denison, Andrew Randell graduated from Princeton University and the University of Texas. He opened a law practice in Sherman nad was active in civic and church affairs. He and his wife Vera (Harrison) had two daughters. It was in Freemasonry that he marked his greatest achievements, serving as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas; as executive secretary of the Masonic Service Association of the U.S., leading national disaster relief efforts; as a director of the Dallas Masonic Homes; and as an advocate for Masonic education programs, publication and ideals. Recorded - 2005

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 9.6 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 10 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Eisenhower State Park — 12 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 24 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.

More markers nearby

• The Great Sherman Storm of 1896 — steps away
• Thomas Jefferson Shannon — 0.2 mi
• Tom Randolph — 0.3 mi
• Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild — 0.3 mi