Reverend Randolph E Smith

 

A number of pastors have lived their final years if not most of their lives in Idaho Falls, and their bodies are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery. One of these is Rev. Randolph E. Smith, who died 100 years ago, on November 25, 1925.

Rev. Smith came to live in Idaho Falls in 1909 but was familiar with the city many years before in his position as Presiding Elder in the Montana district of the Methodist church, which at the time extended as far south as Pocatello.  He visited Idaho Falls in his official capacity in the early days of Eagle Rock and knew this community from almost its beginning. 

Randolph Smith was born near Williamsburg, Ohio in 1844.  At age 18 he enlisted in Company G, 89^th regiment of the Ohio infantry as a volunteer. About 13 months later he was wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga and was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps until being honorably discharged in 1865.

Shortly after his return from the war, his aunt, whose brother was the noted preacher Rev. Enoch West but had passed away, guided her nephew Randolph toward the ministry as his life’s work and encouraged him to fill the place left by his uncle. In August 1866, Randolph was licensed to preach by the Williamsburg circuit and a month later accepted “on trial” by the Cincinnati Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  In 1869 he received his Elder’s order.

The first 19 years of his ministry were in Ohio, but he felt the call to go west and in 1885 was appointed to what was then known as the Montana Mission Territory, as pastor of the Broadway M. E. Church[1] in Helena, Montana, and during this period also served as chaplain of the local G.A.R.[2]. In September 1887 when he received his appointment as Presiding Elder of the District, the Helena newspaper reported:

The M. E. Church has never had an abler, more popular and loveable pastor than Rev. R. E. Smith, and his election by the recent conference as Presiding Elder of the church in this Territory will, we think, be hailed with profound satisfaction by the congregations throughout Montana. We believe Mr. Smith will continue his residence in Helena, and while his new duties and responsibilities will necessarily involve his absence at times, he will probably retain the pastorate of the Broadway Church and to a considerable extent continue to supply its pulpit.[3]  

In 1888 he founded and then served as the first president and financial agent of Wesleyan University, for which construction began in Helena the following year. In late 1889 Rev. Smith accepted a call to Cincinnati but was back in Montana by the summer of 1892, locating in Livingston after spending some time in Yellowstone.[4]

He preached in the Methodist Church in Eagle Rock and then Idaho Falls numerous times before choosing this area for his retirement in 1909.  However, once here he became active in religious and civic affairs and also served for 10 years as commander of the Joe Hooker post of the G. A. R.  A front-page article about him in the Idaho Falls Daily Post of November 27, 1925 included, “His religious experience was real, Christ was his daily companion, and to the end he was vitally interested in the success of Christ’s work.”[5]  In the Idaho Falls Methodist Church service of August 13, 1944, new pew cushions given by Mr. & Mrs. W. L. Shattuck were dedicated in memory of Rev. Randolph E. Smith and his wife Mary, noting that they were workers for many years in Trinity Methodist Church.[6] [7]

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[1] Later known as St. Paul’s Methodist Church.

[2] A veteran’s organization following the Civil War, Grand Army of the Republic.

[3] Helena Weekly Herald, September 1, 1887, p.5.

[4] The Livingston Enterprise, July 30, 1892, p. 6

[5] Idaho Falls Daily Post, Nov, 27, 1925, p. 1, “Pioneer Clergyman Goes to His Reward; Had Reached 80^th year,” Subtitle: “Honored pastor and superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal church also member of the G. A. R passed to his eternal reward Wednesday morning November 25^th at his home in Idaho Falls, Idaho”

[6] The Post-Register, August 11, 1944, p. 8.

[7] Other non-footnoted information from The Times-Register (Idaho Falls), November 27, 1925, p. 1, “Death of Rev. R. E. Smith, Pioneer of the West in Ministerial Field Dies After Continued Illness;” also accessible at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74481080/randolph-ellsberry-smith.