John Churchill Golding Readding Blount
1791 - 1879
John Churchill Golding Readding Blount was the
original pioneer settler of Bartow, Florida.
Tampa Sunland Tribune, March 1, 1879
AN OLD CITIZEN GONE
Mr. Readding Blount died at his residence in Polk County on the 22nd day of
February in the 89th year of his age.
The deceased was a native of Georgia, and had lived in Florida for the last
half century. He was an honest man and a consistent member of the Primitive
Baptist Church.
Tampa Sunland Tribune, March 15, 1879
OBITUARY
Died at his residence in Polk County, Florida on the 21st day of February,
1879, REDDING BLOUNT.
The subject of this memoir was born in Augusta, Georgia, March the 12th
1791. His parents moved from Augusta in the winter of the same year, to
Beaufort, in South Carolina, where he resided until 1812, when he returned
to Georgia and settled near Savannah, where he remained until the War of
1812 between Great Briton and the United States was settled; he then
returned to South Carolina, and remained until December, 1835, when he moved
to Florida and settled on the Suwannee River in Columbia County, and
remained there until January, 1852 [October 1851], when he moved and settled
in that part of Hillsborough County, now Polk, on Peace Creek, being one of
the first settlers of the eastern portion of the County.
He was a soldier in the War of 1812, stationed at Savannah, and served five
years as a volunteer in the war with the Seminole Indians in Florida.
He was a good and law-abiding citizen, opposed to secession of the State in
1861, but after secession was an accomplished fact, he accepted the result
and did all in his power for the success of the Confederate Government. Many
of the Confederate soldiers remember and appreciate his kindness to their
families during their absence.
No one was ever turned away from his home hungry, or refused a favor if
within his power to grant it. The writer of this remembers him as a kind
parent, at all times doing for his welfare. During the rebellion, though we
differed in respect to secession, his advice was always, "Son, do your duty
faithfully to your country as a soldier."
In 1841, he joined the Primitive Baptist Church, in which he remained
faithful up to his death. For several years previous to his death, he was
fully aware that the end was approaching, and on many occasions in speaking
of it to the writer, expressed an anxiety and willingness to die and be with
his Savior. But a few days previous to his death, he spoke freely to
everyone on the subject, and to his children and relations he bid them not
to doubt his fitness to meet his God. Though suffering great pain, he
maintained his mind and conversed with his friends up to a few minutes of
his death.
The Savannah Weekly News will please copy.
N.S.B. [Nathan Snow Blount]
Marker in the Oak Hill Cemetery, Bartow