604
REDLONS OF HOLLIS, MAINE.
and removed to Wayne, in Kennebec County, Me., where his sons had
settled. His first wife died in Saco, and he married a widow named
Dorcas Williams (I think her maiden-name was Carter), by whom he had
five children, in addition to the six children by the first wife. His chil-
dren in Wayne changed the spelling of their names to Ridley, after their
removal East, but two sons who settled in Hollis, Me., and Clarendon,
Vt., held the name Ridlon, and their descendants so continue to this day.
He died in Turner, at the home of his daughter, in 1840, aged 89 years,*
and was buried in the family cemetery in Wayne, near the brick-house
built by his grandson, Daniel Ridley. His name upon his gravestone is
Ridley, and should have been changed long ago; the names of all his
children, with his own, on the records of Saco, are spelled Redlon. He
resembled his father; had broad, high shoulders, was above medium
height, had a large nose, wide mouth and chin, broad, heavy jaws, ruddy
complexion, gray eyes, long, shaggy brows, receding forehead, and wore
his hair in a long cue behind. Was very bald in old age. He is remem-
bered as a very kind, quiet, and honorable man.
――
Rachel Redlon (1), eldest daughter of Matthias (1), was born in
Saco, Me., Oct. 10, 1751, and was married April 29, 1773, by Rev. Paul
Coffin, to Daniel Field, of Narraganset No. 1,- now Buxton. Her hus-
band was a brother of the first wife of her brother Matthias, before men-
tioned. After the death of her husband she lived in the family of her
daughter Annie, who married Joseph Decker, but was subsequently car-
ried to Greenwood, by her son-in-law, Paul Wentworth, it is said, much
against her wishes, who seems to have had a desire to secure her pension-
money, which was granted for her husband's five years' service in the
Revolution. She died in Greenwood at the age of 96. "She had
drawn more than a thousand dollars in money from the Government, all
of which went into the hands of the Wentworths": so says her grand-
daughter and namesake, Rachel Miles. Her grandson, Daniel Decker,
says, "I remember grandmother Field well; she lived with us, and at one
time was standing on the door-step, holding a smooth, slender twig in her
hand. Father was about to whip me, for some bad behavior, with a
rough, knotty apple-tree limb, when grandmother held out her hand and
said, 'Here, Joe, swap sticks with me, and lick Daniel with a smooth one.""
Mr. Decker asks, "And who would n't remember such a grandmother as
that?" She was not tall, but quite stout in old age; her features were
coarse, and her under lip turned out prominently. She frequently fell
asleep in her chair and dropped her work.
James Redlon³ (1), second son of Matthias² (1), was born in Saco,
Me., Dec. 10, 1753; married Hannah Cozens, of Kennebunk, and settled
in Little Falls Plantation, on the west side of Saco River, on a tract of
land consisting of eleven hundred and forty acres, called the "Dalton
Right," which he purchased in conjunction with his brothers and others.
Mr. Redlon's house was on the hill about one mile north of Moderation
Village, on the road from that place to Bonnie Eagle Falls, and on the farm
since owned by his son Robert, and now (1884) by Edward Whitehouse.
When he left Saco and commenced clearing his land, it was in a dense wil-
derness, and the screams of wild beasts could be heard around his home every
night; his first plantation was made on newly burnt ground, and the corn
* MATTHIAS REDLON was born in 1749, and would consequently have been 89 in
1838. If he lived till 1840 he was 91 years of age at his death.
