Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 526 - 527 

LEO L. REDDING, the editor of the Wichita Daily Journal, is a native of the North Star State, having been born at Plainview, Minn., May 5, 1866. He is the son of G. W. and Johanna (Gleed) Redding, who were natives of Vermont and England respectively.

            G. W. Redding, the father of the subject of this sketch, was reared among the granite hills of his native State, and early in life engaged in milling, selecting this business as it was that of his father, G. W. Redding, Sr. The latter was a native of Wales, but early in life had left his home amid the snow-capped mountain peaks of his mother country and crossed the ocean to the New World. He located in Vermont, where he followed the business of a miller until 1850, and then removed to Wisconsin and resided until his death in 1868.

            Mrs. Redding, the mother of him of whom we write, was the daughter of Rev. C. S. Gleed, a Congregational minister in England. He was the heir to a large property, which finally came to him, but during the war made by the Church of England against all dissenters, early in the century, he drew down upon himself the persecutions of the hierarchy of an intolerant religion, and suffered the confiscation of all his possessions. Being incensed at this ruthless action, and strongly dissatisfied with the laws of his native land, which were then opposed to any independent thought in religious matters, and moved by the spirit of the Puritan Fathers, in 1830 he crossed the ocean to the shores of free America. For several years he preached the Gospel to a little settlement in Southern Canada, but afterward removed to Morrisville, Vt., where he made his home until 1870, when he was called to a better land. He was a man of great ability, and of a most Christian and charitable character, and with his words and actions "allured to brighter worlds and led the way."

            G. W. Redding, the father of our subject, was married at Morrisville, Vt., and in 1847 came West, and located at Beaver Dam, Wis., where, giving up his trade of miller, he embarked in agricultural pursuits. In 1865 he made a further removal, and located at Plainview, Minn., where he again assumed the life of a farmer. At this place, in 1872, he was called to his final rest: his wife died in 1883. Leo L. Redding was reared upon the broad and fertile prairies of his native State, and received the benefit of the excellent educational facilities afforded by that noble commonwealth. After a term of years spent in the usual district schools, he attended the High School of his native county, from which he was graduated at the age of sixteen. Having already a taste for journalism, he went to Ft. Scott, Kan., and assumed the position of city editor of the Daily Monitor of that place. In 1884, Denver, the metropolis of the mountains, seeming to offer superior inducements to him, he removed to that place and occupied. the same position on the Tribune, one of the leading papers in Colorado. From Denver he next removed to Sioux City, Iowa, to assume the business management of the Tribune, but Jan. 12, 1887, removed to Wichita, and became the local editor of the Journal. In May following he was promoted to the position of editor-in-chief, which place he now fills.

            Having determined to have a home of his own, and knowing that it would be incomplete without " a woman's heart and a woman's life and a woman's wondrous love," he, accordingly, on the 25th of October, 1887, led to the marriage altar Miss Jessie M. Fletcher, a daughter of Charles W. and Carrie (Moore) Fletcher, who was born in Charles City, Iowa, Dec. 29, 1865. She is a graduate of the Northfield University, Minnesota, and is a highly accomplished and amiable lady. Politically, Mr. Redding is a strong adherent to the principles of the Republican party, and conceives it his duty to advocate its advancement both by tongue and pen. In his journalistic capacity he is a shrewd thinker, with broad convictions, and handles a facile pen. Although but a young man, he has already made his mark in the world, and will, no doubt, rise to eminence, as he is gifted with a heaven-born genius, and a capacity for hard work.

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