History of Randolph
The area on the Dodge-Columbia County Line attracted many different ethnic groups. A count taken in 1895 indicates there were 592 inhabitants, including Welsh, Dutch, Deutsch and many from England and Germany. The arrival of the railroad allowed for the increase in the village population.
The average size of a family included seven children but only three would reach the age of twenty. The average life span was 55 years. Early health records in 1881 show the community was plagued with scarlet fever. Estimated population in 2007 was 1869, with an estimated household income of $42,600.
The school budget for 1867 was a total of $250 which rose in 1920 to $18,000. In 1886 a new public school was built and in 1915 a high school was added to the community. Randolph met its growing population pressures in 1962 by erecting the present high school for $500,000, thus replacing the 1915 structure.
The library was organized in 1907 and the new Hutchinson Memorial Library was built in 1936 and still stands at its present location. The library is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Monies for this great library were donated in 1936 in the sum of $22,000 for the specific purpose of constructing and equipping a library.
Randolph is proud to have employers that have national and international clientele including: the J. W. Jung Seed Company which was started by John W. Jung in a little room of his family's farm home in the Township of Courtland in 1907. The first catalog was a small book of which 400 copies were printed on a toy printing press. Jung Seed Company sells throughout the United States, with nine catalogs and a distribution of eight million copies.
Busse Brothers was organized in the spring of 1946. The operation was based on equipment for handling cans into and out of retort crates which are used for batch type processing in canning factories. Busse Brothers exports its products all over the world.
Hopkins Agricultural Chemical Company was organized in 1949 by James D. Hopkins for the sole purpose of formulating insecticidal dust for the canning trade in Wisconsin and its neighboring states. The company later ruled out the formulation of herbicides from its program. It now is a leading formulator of both liquid and dust type insecticides, fungicides and rodenticides. Hopkins is also a worldwide producer.