HISTORY OF THE REDLON FAMILY.
587
religious tendency. Hundreds have been prominent and devoted Chris-
tians; a score have filled the deacon's office, and ten or more have been
ministers of the gospel.
The members of this family have excelled as farmers and mechanics;
in these vocations they have manifested a commendable pride, and the
exhibition of their ingenuity and skill has been conspicuous in whatever
work they have accomplished. They were born with mechanical procliv-
ities, and took naturally to the trades; they were possessed of self-reliant
qualities, and never asked another to do what they could do themselves;
without learning from others, they seemed ready to turn their hands suc-
cessfully to the construction of their own mills, farm-buildings, and imple-
ments. They were builders of vessels at Saco; erected the first mills in
towns where they settled, and constructed almost every article of hus-
bandry and domestic use, from wood, iron, or leather. Few members
have been engaged in trade or speculation, and fewer still have been good
financiers. Of a quiet, retiring disposition, they did not aspire to public
life or political distinction, and but few have held official stations. Many
of them, however, have cultivated a taste for reading, and being generally
possessed of retentive memories, they became men of wide information
and profound thought. They kept close at home, and despised notoriety;
read for their own comfort, kept their mouths shut, and hence few ever
knew of the fund of knowledge they had acquired. Plainness of speech
was a conspicuous trait of character in the family; indeed this feature
prevails in all branches and has been universally recognized. Emphatic
in their intercourse with others, their answers were brief and pointed,
and no words were wasted. A peculiar eccentricity seems to have been
stamped upon every generation and individual; this is proverbial, and
noticeable where they are known; it is a hard trait to describe, and its
development must be seen and known by association to be appreciated ;
it gives color and tone to everything they do or say. They appear cold
and reserved in the presence of strangers, and visitors at their homes have
sometimes felt the influence of this disposition so much that their stay.
was cut short, when their welcome was virtually most cordial and sin-
cere. But when once they have opened their hearts to their friends, they
remain firm and true to the end of life.
The wives and mothers taken from this family have been worthy of the
highest praise. They have been the faithful assistants of their husbands,
and it can be truly said of them, as of the model woman of the Bible, "she
will do him good and not evil all the days of his life." They have been
first and last at the sick and dying bed, proving the most careful nurses,
and their discretion and sagacity were observed by all who knew them.
But I cannot undertake to delineate all the peculiar traits of character
so common in the family; these seem to be stereotyped upon every gen-
eration, and until the blood of the clan shall have been neutralized by the
infusion of many foreign tributaries, a Ridlon will be born, will live, will
die, and will be buried in a way peculiar to himself.
