REDLONS OF YORK, MAINE.
597
especially the grist-mill, and when waiting for water to rise in the mill-
pond, worked at a bench, making tubs, pails, and keelers, or shaved shingles,
in a shed near the mill. A granddaughter now living remembers well
that he used to bury her and other children in his shavings when they were
playing in his shingle-camp. "Ridlon's Mills" were probably the earliest
in town for grinding corn, and it was to them that Robert Martin carried
his corn on a raft, after bringing it all the way from Saco Falls the same
day on his shoulders. Like nearly all of the old Ridlons, Matthias was
very ingenious, and could build almost anything from a "pare of shose"
to a "sleaup" or "skuner," as he spelled the names of vessels upon which
he worked at Saco. Shoe-making was his principal business during his
residence in Saco and Buxton; but he and his sons were employed several
weeks every year in the ship-yard of Coffin & Deering, at Saco Ferry.
Rachel Edgecomb informed me when 95 years of age, but possessing an
accurate memory, that when a girl she was hired to cook for the ship-
builders, and "Old Berthias" and "Young Berthias" were often at the
table. Mr. Redlon was of medium height; had broad shoulders and a
very short, thick neck; his cheek-bones were high; nose large and fleshy;
mouth and chin broad; upper-lip wide and full; hair and beard sandy; eyes
gray and deep-set; brows thick, long, and outstanding; forehead broad, jet-
ting, and wrinkled. He was considerably bowed over in old age. In dis-
position quiet and serious, but possessing a quick temper. He was firm
and determined when his convictions were once settled. Several of his
grandchildren remember him as resembling Matthias Ridlon, late of Swe-
den, Oxford County, Me., only that he was a larger man. The exact date
of Mr. Redlon's death cannot be ascertained, but it was probably about
the year 1810. He was then living in his house at Moderation Falls, and
had a shingle-camp down the river, just back of the homestead of Robert
Carl. While making shingles there he took a violent cold, was seized
with colic, and started for home; he was in such distress when he reached
the house of Mr. Vaughan, who then lived on the mill-brow, that he was
obliged to stop. Mrs. Vaughan administered some stimulants, and he
was enabled to reach his own home. His sons and daughters were imme-
diately summoned to his bedside, and that evening the patriarch passed
away. He was buried on a high knoll between the river-bank and the
homestead of the late Nathaniel Haley, now in the pasture of Martin
Foss, Esq., and I think upon his own land, which became the property of
his daughter Judith, who married Nathaniel Townsend, after her father's
decease. Mrs. Redlon went across the river and lived with her youngest
son, Jacob, after her husband's death; she probably survived him many
years and must have been a very aged woman. Her great-grandchildren
can remember of her crossing the river in a boat to visit her sons and
daughters in Hollis, and say she was called "Old Gramy Redlon," to dis-
tingush her from the wife of her son Thomas, whom they called "Grand-
marm Ridlon." Old Mrs. Redlon died at the house of her son in Buxton,
and was buried by the side of her husband on Hollis side of the Saco
River. She was more than 90 years of age. There were eleven children in
this family, and the records of their births are recorded in an old account-
book, by their father's hand. The descendants of Matthias Redlon and
Rachel Edgecomb, his wife, have numbered more than five hundred.
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Daniel Redlon² (1), fourth son of Magnus¹ (1), was born in York,
then in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, - York County, Me., May 4,
1730, and was carried to Biddeford by his parents the same year. He
