Caldwell County MO Archives History .....GEORGE REDDIE, PIONEER LUMBERMAN OF HAMILTON 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 6:04 pm

	GEORGE REDDIE, PIONEER LUMBERMAN OF HAMILTON
	Narrators:  Eva Glasener and Mrs. Helen Booth of Hamilton
     
     Mr. Reddie for many many years was a familiar figure on Hamilton streets, 
with his short stature, white hair and beard, rosy skin, blue eyes and the 
burr in his speech of his native Scotland.  He often told friends of his early 
life.  He was born 1826 in East India, son of an officer in the British army.  
At 5 years, he went back to Scotland with his parents, and the father did not 
live long.  The young mother took her two young children to Conn. USA to make 
a home.  When a young man, Mr. Reddie was attracted to the western migration 
to Wisconsin where he married his first wife.  In the 60s, he decided to make 
another change and go to California, overland.  On his way, he stopped at 
Hamilton, and went no further.
     This was in 1866.  He bought a lumber yard (which was on the site of the 
first lumber yard in town).  This site is that of the present north lumber 
yard.  He stayed in the lumber business till 1898 when he sold to the Hannibal 
Saw Mill co.
     He gradually grew weaker with the years and died 1908 aged 82.  He was 
buried in the old cemetery by the side of his first wife Ethelinda (1825-
1873), being almost the last one to be buried there.  But both his body and 
that of his first wife were removed to a new lot in Highland cemetery later, 
where also lies his second wife, Emily Wharton Reddie (1825-1916).  There were 
no children of the first marriage, and but one, Clara Morris, was born of the 
second.  She became the wife of George Morris.
     Concerning the first Mrs. Reddie, few people now living recall much.  
Mrs. Mamie Eldredge remembers her, for they were all Episcopalians, and Mrs. 
Reddie was her Sunday school teacher and she and Miss Alma Clark (her bosom 
friend) colored Easter eggs for the whole Sunday school.  Most middle aged 
people still recall Mrs. Emily Reddie well.  She was for years a sort of 
social arbiter here, both as to good manners, social standing and good taste.  
You had to be very particular in your ways to be invited to her exclusive 
affairs.  She also was a fine musician and gave lessons to a few pupils.  Cora 
Cosgrove was one of her pupils.
     Both Mr. and Mrs. Reddie were strong Episcopalians and never entered 
other churches.  In fact, it was due to his work that the Episcopal church was 
started here soon after he came.  He was the head warden (and often the only 
one when the church dwindled down in membership).  He was superintendent of 
the Sunday school and she was organist for years.  They always insisted on 
keeping the church key, which was not so bad, for they lived across from the 
church.  (The church was on the site of the Mrs. Corda Sloan house, and the 
Reddies lived in the present Peyton Stokes home.)
     Both of them loved cats greatly and always had a large number.  In his 
lumber yard office, he had cat holes at the bottom of the doors to make it 
more convenient for the cats.  There love for animals is also seen from the 
following story.  The squirrels had built a nest for their brood in the 
chimney of the little church.  When the Reddies realized this, they refused to 
let a fire be built in the chimney and consequently blocked church services 
till the young squirrels had left the chimney.  This fact even kept the arch 
deacon of the diocese from holding service here.
     They were distinctly of the "low church" type of the Episcopal church, 
and strenuously resisted any innovation by any new rector which leaned 
toward "high church" ideas.  Under some circumstances, they absolutely refused 
to attend services when such practices were used.  But every one in town 
looked on them as the real heads of the small struggling church, which gave up 
its struggle for existence after their passing.
  
     The interviewer can still recall seeing Mr. Reddie as he walked up the 
one aisle in the church, with a collection box made with a box at the end of a 
long stick, and this he pushed way in to the end of each pew.
     Interviewed  1934.


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