RANDOLPH COLLEGE (Eastland County). Randolph College, at Cisco, opened as Cisco Christian College during the 1922 Cisco oil boom, when members of the Cisco Christian Church under the leadership of E. H. Holmes decided to combine the library and equipment of the defunct Midland College and the buildings of the Britten Training School to establish a junior college. Robert F. Holloway was its first president and teacher of mathematics. The school had five other faculty members. In the fall of that year the college acquired a dairy and a hatchery and began publishing a bulletin called the Christian College Broadcast. After the Christmas holidays only about fifteen pupils returned. Most of the faculty also resigned. Furthermore, the boys' dormitory burned. Despite everything there were three graduates in 1923. In May 1923 operations of the college were suspended until September 1924. College officials spent the year trying to raise $65,000 to pay debts and obtain operating money. When the college reopened in 1924-25, Holloway continued as president. In 1924 the institution was renamed Randolph College, in honor of Holloway's father-in-law, Randolph Clarkqv, who was a benefactor of the college. That year fifty-five students enrolled, but again enrollment dropped after the Christmas holidays. At the end of the year there were two graduates. T. T. Roberts was president from 1925 to 1931; he cooperated with Carr-Burdette College in an unsuccessful effort to secure needed funds for the school. Roberts was succeeded by Lee Clark, 1931-33, and David F. Tyndall, 1933-35. J. T. McKissick was president from 1935 to 1937, when the school closed. The Cisco Independent School District purchased the property and subsequently used it for Cisco Junior College.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ruby Pearl Ghormley, Eastland County, Texas: A Historical and Biographical Survey (Austin: Rupegy, 1969).
