The Redding Family

The Redding Family

Families
Genealogy

Vera Abbott worked her way through college during the Great Depression. She was studying to be a teacher at Commerce State College in Commerce, Texas. After she earned her teaching certificate, Vera moved to Smithfield, Texas, to live with her brother, E. Foy Abbott and his family.

At the time, Smithfield was a small town surrounded by a large rural area. There were no conveniences. Five-to-10 people used the same telephone party line. The streets were just dirt, with the exception of Smithfield Road, which was hot-topped. It still had plenty of chug holes, however. Water from a well at the schoolhouse was piped through very small pipes into the homes. When someone on the north side of the school took a bath, the people on the south side had no drinking water. There was no form of transportation or fire protection, except for the “tow-sack brigade.” There was a post office, a grocery store, a barber shop and a telephone office. The fire that ravaged the city earlier, burned the rest of it. The city of North Richland Hills had not yet been born.

Vera’s first teaching position was at Glade Elementary. Her $70-a-month salary added to the family income. Ruth Walker was her assistant. Ruth taught the lower grades, and Vera was principal. Ruth, from another pioneer family, was the daughter of Edd Walker. Teaching at the Glade school was difficult for both Vera and Ruth. They roomed and boarded with Sidney and Lottie Gilbert. Sidney was on a special vegetable, no-salt and no-seasoning diet. Vera and Ruth went on the same diet - unwillingly.

Ruth had a car. When they didn’t walk the four miles home, they used her car. Every Friday they went to Fort Worth and ate a chicken-fried steak dinner after school. That luxury was expensive and left a hole in their paychecks. But the treat was worth every penny of the 25 cents it cost.

In 1934, A. D. Roach, the county school superintendent, got Vera a place in Bedford to teach. It was there Vera fell in love with teaching. The Bedford people were proud of their school and loved their teacher. Each evening after the day’s work was done, the teachers were invited to have dinner in someone’s home.

Vera taught in Bedford nine years. While teaching in Bedford, Vera also fell in love with Bernice C. Redding, a native son. After five years of stormy courtship, she married him. That meant moving out of the Abbott family home to the other side of the tracks, as B. C. built a grocery store on Main Street across from where they lived in Smithfield. Vera kept on teaching.

B. C. was christened Bernice C. Redding in 1902. When his family moved to Fort Worth, he and his father, Eugene, worked for Armour’s Meat Packing Company. But Uncle Sam called Eugene to service, so B. C. moved with his family to the country where he supported his mother by growing tomatoes and milking cows. Armour’s didn’t pay a boy of 15 very much.

In 1937, the family moved to Smithfield where B. C. met Vera, and they were married in 1941. B. C. remodeled the old blacksmith shop, making it into a grocery store. When the economy improved, he bought more property, at the corner of Main Street and Smithfield Road from the Lewis family where he built the cream brick store still standing, and a new home just east of the store.

Prior to his marriage, B. C. and friends followed the various government projects and did plumbing work. On one of the jobs, B. C. fell and injured his back and hip, an injury which would later cause the army to reject him for service. When World War II was declared in 1941, B. C. enlisted, but was sent home because of the old injury. So he went to work building airplanes at General Dynamics. The Depression had eased by now and there was money to be made. The bread and soup lines had disappeared. Many who could not go to war, worked in the war plants.

Vera moved to the Smithfield school to teach so that B. C. could have her gasoline coupons. Everything was rationed, food, gasoline, clothing, etc. Everything was reserved for the Armed Forces. It was very unpatriotic for women to wear hose or for families to buy white flour and sugar.

Although Vera had married, she was still deeply involved with her Abbott family, and B. C. had his own parents to be concerned about. Vera was called by Birdville school Superintendent Wiley G. Thomas to come to Birdville to teach. That meant $100 per month. “I don’t want to interview you,” Mr. Thomas told her. “I want you to go to work!” She did, taking her brother Foy’s two boys, Tommy and Don, with her. As the boys progressed grade-wise, Vera moved up a grade. When asked why, she told people, “Eula is not well. Foy works from light to dark. Someone has to keep up with Tommy and Don.” Vera spent the next 25 years teaching in Birdville.

With his marriage, B. C.’s interest in Smithfield grew. After his dog, Bozo, and his wife, Vera, B. C.’s greatest love was the Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department, which he, with the combined efforts of the volunteers, helped to organize from scratch. With sheer grit, and a determination that Smithfield would never burn again, the volunteers stretched their credit to buy a fire engine which they dubbed “Old Red,” and to build “The Smithfield Volunteer Fire Station No.1.” With barbecues, races, public rallies, and other activities, they paid off their debt. College professors came in and taught the volunteers how to fight fires and give first aid. The community was knitted together by their loyalty to the fire department. B. C. gave 23 of the best years of his life to the fire department and to the up-building of Smithfield. In return, he received many honors. When he retired from the fire department in 1972, he was made Honorary Chief for Life.

B. C. Redding was a breed of man who made “Old Smithfield” a special place in which to live. Outwardly, he was blunt, salty, crusty, independent and matter-of-fact. However, under his tough exterior was a warm, caring person who was always there for you. Being Irish from his toes up, he was full of wit and humor. His word was his bond. His motto was “fairness, honesty, and hard work.” His philosophy was “Do your best, then don’t worry.” B. C. was a Christian man, and had the respect of all who knew him. He was known affectionately in the community as “Uncle Burney.”

Vera Redding was active in Smithfield Church of Christ for 50 years, and she taught the church’s young people for most of that time. Vera, who still lives in her home on Main Street in the Smithfield section of NRH, retired from Birdville schools in 1969 to care for her ill mother. B. C. passed away in 1980.

Submitted by Vera Redding