Sunday’s Obituary—John Adam Redles

My maternal 2nd great grandfather John Adam Redles was born June 10, 1817, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He was married to Jane Eliza Myers, and he was a ship chandler (wholesaler for ships). The letter copies that I found in my grandmother Leona (Roberts) Redles’s desk at my mom’s house from the 1840s indicate he was in business at the time as Redles and Stewart. Thirty years later, as of the 1874 Philadelphia city directory, he’s in business as Young and Redles [1]. He died in Philadelphia on October 5, 1880. Below is a transcription of his death announcement.

JOHN REDLES, A WELL KNOWN AND highly respected citizen of Southwark, died at his residence, No 122 Almond street, on Tuesday last. He was a quiet, earnest worker among the poor, taking a deep interest in the welfare of the Southwark Soup Society, of which he was a member. His left hand never knew what his right hand was so quietly and unostentatiously doing. He was a vestryman of the Old Swedes’ Church, and for the past twelve years its rector’s warden. An upright, earnest Christian, earth can illy afford to spare such men as he.     S.

Philadelphia Inquirer 11 October 1880.

His death certificate indicates that he died from heart disease. I had trouble reading the doctor’s handwriting (of course), but the second word on cause of death is “pulmonale” [2]. John was buried on October 8, 1880, at the Gloria Dei (Old Swedes) Church [3], [4].

An interesting side note: the undertaker was John C. Rulon, a cousin of John Redles [5]. John Redles’s mother was Sallie Rulon. The 1880 census lists John C. Rulon, age 43, as an undertaker [6]. According to The Rulon Family and Their Descendants, John C. Rulon’s grandfather was Nathaniel Rulon who was the brother of my maternal 4th great grandfather John Rulon [7].

Catherine

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[1] Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Beta) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

[2] "Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Death Certificates, 1803-1915," index and images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JDVY-BQS : accessed 16 Sep 2012), John Redles, 1880.

[3] See footnote 2 above.

[4] findagrave.com memorial for John Redles.

[5] See footnote 2 above.

[6] Ancestry.com, 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Roll 1174, Family History Film 1255174, page 410B, Enumeration District 229, Image 0141.

[7] John C. Rulon. The Rulon Family and Their Descendants. (Lineaweaver & Wallace, Philadelphia, 1870).