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Highlands Today

A Whole Lot Of History

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By Norm Cukras | Highlands Today

Published: June 28, 2008

"This makes it official," William Elmo "Mo" Redding said as he proudly showed me a congratulatory card he and is wife Annie Louise received from President George and Laura Bush. It was for the couple's 50th wedding anniversary reached on this June 15, Father's Day.

The couple was wed in the Limestone Baptist Church located in a little crossroads town near Scottie's Castle. And today the population of Limestone will double as friends and relatives gather at the wedding site for a golden anniversary party.

"Our first list had over 600 names," the Redding's daughter Lara Bryant said. But nobody is sure how many will be there. It's a big family that has had its share of historical influence on central Florida.

"Every time history was made in Florida," Annie said, "one of our families was involved." Annie is a McClelland, whose ancestors migrated to Florida from Georgia in the 1790s. They fought in the Seminole Indian Wars as did the Reddings. And Elmo, as he's most commonly called, has traced his family back to the 17th century England and their emigration to the colonies in 1658. In fact the rugged farm hand proudly points out that Redding, Pa., is named after his family.

Home On The Range
A plot of land where Mo lived most of his life — except when his house burned down and he had to live "over there" — is somewhere in Wauchula where the roads ramble through cattle country and citrus groves and lead nowhere but out. The family home, which is watched over by Duncan, the family dachshund, is a treasure trove of generations of memories.

"Here's a picture of my grandmother," Elmo said with a cattleman's grin. The picture had about a dozen people in it. On one side was an attractive woman holding a baby. "The baby is my grandmother. She was the eleventh of 16 children. When the picture was taken my great-grandmother was pregnant with her twelfth." And Annie, "Babe" to her lifelong companion, brought out her family photos and framed articles written about the McClellands.

The attractive farm wife, who first caught sight of the world in Lake Alfred, is the eldest daughter of the 16 children her mother bore. At the time her father worked for the railroad, but he changed occupations becoming a cattleman, eventually settling in Limestone. Elmo is the eldest of five children.

The two met and attended the same high school, but actually met in church, "If you didn't go to church," Annie pointed out, "you were a heathen." So you went to church. And you met people. And in this case Annie decided that she wanted Elmo. Six months later they were married.

Steady Employment
At the time they met the young man was working for the 3-D ranch, as did his father. With a ranch bordering on 100,000 acres there was always plenty of work for ambitious hands. Although the cowboy trade had changed from when Elmo's father and grandfather drove herds across the state. "It was still open range until the fence laws of 1946," he pointed out. Also the original property has been subdivided over the years.

And while Elmo did his share of cow herding in his younger years he went into the citrus groves where he works as a superintendent today. While citrus work is a bit less hazardous that riding the range he was once "thrown" by a John Deere tractor that led to the need of a recent hip replacement.
And in-between his ranching chores he was able to put in 20-years in the active Army Reserve.

While the man of the house provided for his bride, she brought into the world four children: twins, Tammy and William, followed by siblings Earl and Lara. And now she dotes over nine grandchildren, a couple of which have appeared in productions of Wauchula's "The Life of Christ," and two great grandchildren. That is when she is not tending to her Martha Stewart inspired yard, growing vegetables that will find their way into canning jars or watching over her small but plump flock of chickens.

Happy Anniversary Elmo and Annie Redding.

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