RANDOLPH CEMETERY
- Program
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- Location
- Lat/Long
- Grant Recipient
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NYS Historic
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Cemetery, Site
- 278 W Main St, Randolph, NY 14772, USA
- 42.159590231725, -78.991413416409
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Town of Randolph
RANDOLPH CEMETERY
Inscription
RANDOLPH CEMETERYORGANIZED 1854, HERE LIE
MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS
JOEL LYMAN & ALBERT MARSH,
PROF. MARTHA VAN RENSSELAER &
BASEBALL PRO “SLIM” CALDWELL.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2024
Organized in 1854, Randolph Cemetery contains more than 3,000 interments, including some of the area’s most notable citizens such as Medal of Honor recipients Joel Lyman and Albert Marsh, educator and activist Marth Van Rensselaer, and professional baseball player Ray “Slim Caldwell.”
Both Joel Lyman and Albert Marsh received their Medal of Honor designations for actions during the Civil War. Marsh, who was a Corporal Sergeant in Company B, sixty-fourth regiment of the New York Infantry, was awarded his for the capture of a Confederate flag in Spotsylvania, Virginia where he was wounded. Lyman, who rose to the rank of first lieutenant during his military service, was awarded his Medal of Honor when, in an attempt to capture a Confederate flag, he instead captured an enemy officer and returned him behind lines.
Another notable figured interred in Randolph Cemetery is Professor Martha Van Rensselaer, who co-founded the College of Home Economics at Cornell University. Her obituary, published in the Buffalo Evening News on Friday, May 27, 1932, detailed her remarkable career:
Miss Van Rensselaer was selected by the National League of Women voters in 1923 as one of the 12 greatest American women…During the World War she served in Washington as director of the home conservation division of the National Food administration and in 1923 was sent to Belgium by Gerbert Hoover to study the needs of women which were served by the educational foundation of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. For this work she was decorated by King Albert with the insignia of the Order of the Crown.
Another famous figure, professional baseball player Ray Caldwell, is buried in the Randolph Cemetery as well. Along with a tumultuous career of interest to any baseball aficionado, Caldwell is the central player in one of the most harrowing moments in MLB history when he was struck by lightning during a game. In the article titled, “The incredible story of Ray Caldwell, the MLB pitcher who survived a lightning strike to finish a game,” written by Ryan Hockensmith and published on August 24, 2021 on the ESPN website, the remarkable event in which Caldwell was struck by lightning on the mound, knocked briefly unconscious, then rose to finish the game is detailed at length.