When the doors open here at the Bassett Historical Center, we never know who or what is getting ready to enter.  Patrons visit us regularly to do research and to look for that elusive ancestor that they have been searching for for a long period of time.  But often when the doors open, it’s someone bringing in a display item hoping to find it a home and we are more than excited to help!  Recently, this is exactly what happened when a portrait of Major John Redd entered the Center.

According to copies of pages from the family Bible, Major John Redd was born 25 October 1755 in Orange County, Virginia.  He made his way to the area that would become Henry County as a young man and found work as a common laborer on a local farm.  Before he became the progenitor of the Redd family of Henry County, he was a pioneer who served in the Indian Wars, the Revolutionary War, and was present with George Washington at the surrender of Yorktown in 1781. After the war, returned to Henry County and married Mary Winston Waller, the daughter of Colonel George Waller and Anne Winston Carr, on 14 August 1782, at the home of the Waller’s in Fieldale.  Major John Redd and Mary Waller Redd had the following children:

• Waller Redd married Keziah Carter Staples
• Ann Redd married Col. Thomas Starling
• John Overton Redd married Martha Fontaine
• Carr Redd died after a fall from a swing or see-saw
• Elizabeth Winston Redd married Col. Peter Hairston Dillard
• Mary Carr married Rev. John James Fontaine
• Martha Waller Redd married (1) William Clark (2) James Moss Smith
• Dr. John Giles Redd married Apphia Fauntleroy Carter
• Col. James Madison Redd married Ruth Penn Staples
• Lucy Dabney Redd married (1) John Taylor Wooten (2) Rev. William Bullard
• Edmund Burwell Redd married Sarah Anne Fontaine

Major John Redd died in August 1850 at his home that he built in 1783 and named Bellevue.  He is buried in the family cemetery.

The portrait of Major John Redd that was recently donated to the Center was a copy painted in 1921 by S.V. Anderson.  He copied the painting from the one done in 1842 by G.W. Fitzwilson.  The portrait was donated from the estate of William Thomas Dod Smith.

The portrait of Major John Redd is right at home with the portraits that we have of his daughter, Mary Waller Redd Smith, and her second husband, James Moss Smith.   Mary Waller Redd was first married to William S. Clark and they had two children, Mary Waller Clark and William Thomas Clark.  She then married James Moss Smith and they had the following children:  John Redd Smith, James Moss Smith, Jr., Martha Redd Smith, Ann Elizabeth Smith, and Susan Caroline Smith.   These two portraits were donated to the Center by Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Smith III.

We appreciate being entrusted with such unique pieces of history and family heirlooms.  Stop by the Bassett Historical Center and see them for yourself!  We can’t wait to see who or what is coming to the Center next!