Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1879 — A SUCKER GIANT. [ARTICLE]

A SUCKER GIANT.

Tho Wonderful Feats of Strength of Col. John Redman. i* 4 Buffalo Express. Col. John Redman is a character well known to the drovers aud stock dealers all over the country, and to many other people as well. He does not visit Buffalo very often in these later years, but a few days ago he struck the town and made his quarters at the American Hotel, where an Express reporter communed with him a little while last evening. He had many callers and a very attentive crowd gathered closely about him, for Colonel John is a famous story teller. His experiences have been varied and interesting, and he mpy he ' said to be the father of the cattle shipping trade of America; but it is bis tremendous strength that has made him a celebrity. Six feet and two and a half inches tall, and proportionately broad, he has an open, pleasant face, and like the majority of strong men he is a pattern of good nature. Marvelous stories are related of his strength. Thev may be believed after seeing him. His muscular arm, as hard as iron, la as thick almost as an ordinarv man’s waist, and his leg pretty nearly as large around as a barrel of flour.

Redman is a native of Virginia, but has fo>* many years resided in Illinois. He was a mightly hunter in his younger days, and no slouch of one now, it is said, but horned cattle have principally engaged his business attention from his boyhood. He is now fortynine years of age. The first lot of cattle ever shipped by rail were shipped by him from Patterson Creek, Hampshire county, Virginia, over the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. The vast proportions which * the business of transporting cattle by rail has since then assumed are familiar to even*body. Before there were any railroads to ship by between the East and West, it is said, he drove thirty-two different lots clear through from Missouri to New York. The Colonel has the reputation of being an honest, faithful, and capable man. He is now operating in the interest of Eastman, bf Christian county, Illinois, the greatest shipper of cattle in the world.

A good many amusing and wonderful incidents in Col. Redman’s career have been related, and about as many of the remarkable man. Turtle Dove, which, next to his wife, was his joy and pride for thirty years. This aged beast was gathered to her fathers about seven years ago, and it is stated that quite a considerable fund has nearly been filled for the erection of a monument over the grave at Chillicothe. A fast trotter and runner, Turtle Dove was possessed of almost human intelligence. She was as handy as a man about the stock-farm, with bucket in her mouth at the regular hours daily bringing from the spring all the water required for the cattle to drink. But to get back to the subject of more general and principal interest, Colonel John’s personal strength, it will best serve to relate some examples of it. These do not come from the Colonel himself, for he is not a man to brag of his own exploits, but they are vouched for by responsible parties who were witnesses. It should be stated that Colonel Redman’s proclivities are peaceful, although he wears the military title. He has seldom, if ever, l>een engaged in personal encounters. Still we are rather inclined to the belief, that he wouldn’t at all dislike a trial with McLaughlin, or any other of the gladiatorial athletes. Once he did engage in a wrestling match. It was In Ohio. They had a pretty good man there, but of course he was not considered as having any business wilh the Colonel. To give this wrestler a reputation, Rednian was offered SI,OOO to allow him to throw him. The moment came, but quickly Coloner John forgot all about the bargain and all about nis strength as soon as they clinched, and landed his opponent in the top of a tall tree. Once the Colonel was passing along a road, when a horse, standing by the wayside, hitched to a fencestake, let fly a hoof, which grazed the strong man’s shin. Somewhat iritated he threw the horse over the fence.

The owner came along by-and-by, and indignantly wanted to find the party who had played such a trick as to lead his horse to the opposite side of the fence and tie it there. Redman’s strength has frequently been handy in his business. When cattle are being loaded a jam often occurs in the gano, way. In such case the Colonel climgover their back to the car-door, anbs seizing the offending bullock, haud, him bodily on board. Here in Buff alls he has been Seen by Mr. I. P. Bowen of the American House, to lift a horse weighing 1,200 pounds over the partition, from one stall to another. Mr. Bower declares that a negro and an

Irish women who witnessed this performance, were so astonished and frightened that they feinted away. Some years ago the late Mr. Crocker* father of Mr. L. L. Crocker,, had a barn-raising on the Tifft farm. The structure accidentally fell, with one of the carpenters under it,and the unlucky artisan was in immediate danger of having the life crushed out of him. It is said that twenty men endeavored to liberate him, but their divided strength could not avail. Redman chanced to be on the farm with some cattle. He came down to the scene of the trouble, calmy took hold of the corner of the bam, and by sheer strength raised and held the structure until the carpenter was rescued. And the chapter of Colonel Redman’s feats of bodily strength might be extended indefinitely.