A Goliath among the Giants: Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr.

Giant Lemuel Redd continued...

In the spring of l923, Lemuel rode a horse from Monticello to Blanding in a driving cold rain. He caught a bad cold, which developed into mastoiditis. Albert R. Lyman reports that his condition deteriorated quickly. “When I hurried to see him, I was shocked at his appearance. Worse, he despaired of his own recovery. His speech was slow and labored and hardly audible. The last words he uttered to me were ‘I have had more than my share of good things in this life. The Lord has been very good to me. I should be more than satisfied.’”

His sons took him to the hospital in Moab where no effort was spared to save him. But it was too late. He passed on June 1, l923.

Albert R. Lyman: “I could hardly adjust my mind to the report of his death. He had become a fixed part of my life… of my way of thinking. As I contemplated his body ready for burial, his steel-gray eyes were peacefully closed. Then there came to me the words he had uttered over the body of Hanson Bayles, ‘Character is written in that face.’”

The family of Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. went on to stand on the shoulders of their great father. One son, Charles, was knighted by the Queen of England for his work in perfecting the Hereford Cattle breed. Lemuel would not have been overly inclined to give verbal praise to his progeny for the contributions they made to build San Juan County.

But from his perch in the heavens, I have no doubt that buttons are popping off his chest as he survey’s the goodness and greatness of his vast posterity.