Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr.

Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr. - 1880

January 1867 - 13 May 1944

Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr. was my maternal great grandfather.  He is the young man standing on the right holding at hat.  I do not know the context of this picture.  I received it from my cousin Randy Reynolds after he cleaned out his Mother's personal belongings when his family placed her in a nursing home.  Randy was named after his great grandfather. His mother, Jeanette Hadfield Reynolds is Randall Hadfield's granddaughter.  She was the family keeper of all the old Hadfield pictures.


Do you see a family resemblance between me and my maternal great-grandfather?  I do and others in the family say the same.  The genes pass on down.


My great grandfather was born in January 1867 in Philadelphia to my great-great grandfather Thomas Hadfield and Sarah Leighton, from whom he received his middle name.  Thomas and Sarah Hadfield emigrated from Derbyshire, England by way of Liverpool to the United States on the ship 'Underwriter' through the port of New York CityOctober 28, 1863.  Thomas Hadfield was 25 years old when he arrived in the United States.


I do not remember my great-grandfather because I was only three years old when he died in 1944.  My earliest memory of anything on this earth is when I was four years old in 1945. However, my Mother remembered her grandfather well.  She only remembered him as an 'old man' though and as some of these pictures attest, my great grandfather Randall Hadfield was a very handsome man in his youth.

Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr. 

abt. 1880

Randall Leighton Hadfield, Sr.

abt. 1885

My cousin Randy told me that the family story was that the rest of the people (or person) was cut out of this picture by Randall's future wife, my great grandmother Belle Donaly.  We don't know the reason why but we suppose there was some kind of animosity involved towards the other person in this picture. Who else was in this picture will be one of those mysteries for the ages I suppose.

Randall Hadfield - about 1890

Quite the dapper young man with the world ahead of him.

Randall Hadfield, Sr. and his family - 1910

(Click on picture to embiggen)

This picture was taken at his father and mother's 50th wedding anniversary celebration

Randall is with his wife, my grandfather, George Lincoln Hadfield (the tall 14 year old boy standing by his right shoulder) and the rest of his family, including Randall Hadfield, Jr, sitting on his knee

Randall and Belle Hadfield abt 1942

This picture was taken on the porch of their last home on Chestnut Street in Downingtown, Pennsylvania bout 1942.  Sitting on my great-grandmother's lap is my cousin (once removed) Sandy Hadfield, the daughter (and only child) of Randall Hadfield, Jr. Randall Hadfield died in this house two years later.  

Aren't these old pictures great!  I have more to post.  I wish I had a lot more though!