Remembering Albert Lea's fallen cop, more than a century after run-in with an angry father

Just three weeks into his job as an Albert Lea police officer in 1899, Judson Randall went to carry out a court order to move 23-year-old Fred Wing to a pestilence house. Fred had smallpox, but his parents refused to let him go.

Randall would become the southern Minnesota city's only cop killed in the line of duty after Fred's father, Charles, smashed the officer in the head with a broom handle and maybe a stove lid lifter and fractured his skull. Randall died two days later at 51.

"Charles Wing hit Judson with such force that the broom handle broke into three pieces," according to a recent "Officer Down Memorial Podcast" episode.

"Judson Harrison Randall was simply doing his best to serve his community," Dodge County Sheriff Scott Rose said in the podcast, part of a series that rekindles the stories of fallen Minnesota police officers. "He understood service before self — the importance of working for a greater good — trying to make a small difference in the community."

Randall's ultimate sacrifice disappeared into the fog of history for 120 years, until Albert Lea Police Sgt. Jason Taylor stumbled upon his story in the archives of the Minnesota History Center in late 2019.

"I'd been on the force for nearly 20 years and had never heard about him, and when I asked around, no one else had either," Taylor said. "He'd been forgotten and, as a history enthusiast, his story piqued my interest and struck me as special — and ironic because here we were in the middle of another major disease outbreak."

Researching the story during the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor earned recognition for Randall from the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial Association. A 2020 story in the Albert Lea Tribune came next, followed by the "Officer Down" podcast. Taylor hopes additional research can help get the Albert Lea officer remembered at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Smallpox raged in Minnesota at the turn of the 20th century, with 1,160-plus cases and 28 deaths in the state in 1899 and 1900. The Anti-Vaccination League rose up in opposition to public health leaders requiring smallpox vaccines and authorizing police officers, such as Randall, to transport infected people to pestilence houses.

Randall, a wheat buyer, had been appointed a special or temporary officer "watching houses quarantined for smallpox," according to the Nov. 8, 1899, edition of the Freeborn County Standard. He was with Albert Lea Police Chief J.J. Sullivan, another cop and two local doctors when he was fatally assaulted.

"The officers were doing their duty and an unpleasant duty it was at the best," the newspaper said, adding: "The resistance offered them was unexpected and, it would appear, unjustified if not criminal."

Charles Wing, a carpet weaver, and his family lived near a school, one reason cited for removing his son from the home. His wife Henrietta was the first to wield the broomstick — which she "flourished vigorously" — but dropped it before Charles picked it up for the fatal blow.

"They were undoubtedly impressed with the mistaken idea that the officers had no right" to enter their home because no crime had been committed, the Standard reported.

After the deadly altercation, Fred Wing "was ready and anxious to go" to the hospital, "stricken with grief over the terrible calamity."

A Freeborn County jury, following a spectator-packed five-day trial, ultimately acquitted Charles Wing of first-degree murder. The judge ruled that the order sending Randall to the Wing home was invalid.

Married in a Kiester, Minn., sod house in 1868, Charles and Henrietta Wing moved to Iowa after his acquittal and lived there until Charles died at 92 in 1938. Census records show Fred Wing was a structural draftsman in Minneapolis by 1930; he was buried at Lakewood Cemetery after dying in 1953 in his late 70s.

Randall, the fallen officer, was born in Nova Scotia in 1848 and immigrated with his family to the United States when he was 9, settling in Madison, Wis. A teenage soldier with a Wisconsin cavalry unit during the Civil War, Randall married in 1877 in Glenville; he and his wife had one daughter. The 1880 census lists him as a laborer in Shell Rock Township, on the Iowa border. He's buried in Albert Lea's Graceland Cemetery.

Randall "was an intelligent and worthy man, and possessed the good will of all," the Freeborn Standard stated. "In every respect, the tragedy is most lamentable."

Taylor, the Albert Lea police sergeant who discovered Randall's story, said he's been unable so far to unearth any photos of Randall or locate any descendants.

"To me, it was very important that he be recognized and remembered," Taylor told the Albert Lea Tribune. "He's a guy who gave his life in service to this city."

Curt Brown's tales about Minnesota's history appear every other Sunday. Readers can send him ideas and suggestions at mnhistory@startribune.com. His latest book looks at 1918 Minnesota, when flu, war and fires converged: strib.mn/MN1918.