in memorial & for the record

Today is Memorial Day.  A perfect day to document the story (or part of it) of Reddick Newton Allred, the name sake for our son Reddick James, just born on May 10th.

Reddick Newton is my 5th great Uncle on my mother's side.  Reddick marched with the "Mormon Batallion", he was also a Colonel in the Territorial Militia and in command at the battle of Salina where Black Hawk had made a raid on stock and killed two white men.
Reddick lived in a time when his courage, strength & faith were needed.  His was the opportunity to do many great things.  Levi Savage was a Subcaptain for the Willie Handcart company, he wrote in his journal that the following story of rescue "was one of [Reddick] Allred's finest moments".

This excerpt comes from THIS General Conference talk given by President Eyring in 1997.

"God offers us counsel not just for our own safety, but for the safety of His other children, whom we should love. There are few comforts so sweet as to know that we have been an instrument in the hands of God in leading someone else to safety. That blessing generally requires the faith to follow counsel when it is hard to do. An example from Church history is that of Reddick Newton Allred. He was one of the rescue party sent out by Brigham Young to bring in the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies. When a terrible storm hit, Captain Grant, captain of the rescue party, decided to leave some of the wagons by the Sweetwater River as he pressed ahead to find the handcart companies. With the blizzards howling and the weather becoming life-threatening, two of the men left behind at the Sweetwater decided that it was foolish to stay. They thought that either the handcart companies had wintered over somewhere or had perished. They decided to return to the Salt Lake Valley and tried to persuade everyone else to do the same.

Reddick Allred refused to budge. Brigham had sent them out and his priesthood leader had told him to wait there. The others took several wagons, all filled with needed supplies, and started back. Even more tragic, each wagon they met coming out from Salt Lake they turned back as well. They turned back 77 wagons, returning all the way to Little Mountain, where President Young learned what was happening and turned them around again. When the Willie Company was finally found, and had made that heartrending pull up and over Rocky Ridge, it was Reddick Allred and his wagons that waited for them. (See Rebecca Bartholomew and Leonard J. Arrington, Rescue of the 1856 Handcart Companies[1992], 29, 33–34.)"

This year I read "Allred Heritage, A History of James Henry Allred And Kate Markland Jones Allred" Written and gathered by Carolyn Lundgren (my Aunt).
I was overwhelmed at the family I belonged to.  There were so many stories I had never heard.  The history that I read, filled me with such a pride I can hardly explain.  I felt a desire to be better than I was.  Mostly because I knew they were counting on me.  They are the ones that will greet me when I die.  They will ask, "what have you done with my name?" 

To our kids: Benjamin Aaron, Sarah Lyn, Joshua Delmer & Reddick James,

"I have given unto you the names of our parents....; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written that they were good.
Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them.
And now my sons, behold I have somehwhat more to desire of you, which desire is, that ye may not do these things that ye may boast, but that ye may do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose hath been given to our fathers." Helaman 5:6-8