Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920

Biography of Annie Bell Redd, 1858-1945

By Hallie Borstel, independent historian

Annie Bell Redd was born on July 24, 1858 to the well-to-do Albert Gresham Redd and Henrietta Euphrasia Daniel. Annie was the fourth out of five children to survive past early childhood. Her father had owned a plantation outside of Columbus, Georgia, but during Annie's childhood the family lived in the city of Columbus where Albert operated a series of dry goods stores. The family home on Rose Hill came to be locally known as "Redd Place."

As a young woman, Annie attended Columbus Female College. This may have provided her with the training she needed to become a teacher, as she taught in the Columbus city schools from at least the 1890s through the 1910s. Education and literacy were clearly important to Annie, as both her social and professional lives centered on learning, and in particular on reading and writing. Throughout her adulthood Annie was an active member of the Students' Club, a social and literary club dedicated to lifelong learning. She wrote a book of poetry, Christmas Greens, which was published in 1905 and dedicated to the aforementioned Students' Club. In 1908, she was the editor of the "In Social Realms" page of the Columbus Daily Enquirer. Annie was also a supervisor over Muscogee County's anti-illiteracy campaign during the early 1920s.

When the Equal Suffrage Party was organized in Columbus in 1914, Annie was elected its president. That same year, she worked on the special suffrage edition of the Columbus Ledger newspaper and wrote an article about leading suffragist Susan B. Anthony. In the following year, 1915, Annie served as the assistant chairman of the Fourth Congressional District for the Equal Suffrage Party.

Other causes and social clubs taken up by Annie throughout her life included the Rose Hill Social Club; the Rose Hill Presbyterian Church; the YMCA, for which she worked to raise funds in 1887; the Ladies' Memorial Association, where she served on committees from 1909 into the 1930s; the City Federation of Women's Clubs and Columbus City Woman's Club House Association; and briefly the Women's Christian Temperance Union in 1922.

Annie never married. She lived alone for part of her adult life, then with various family members. Towards the end of her life she moved to Macon, Georgia to live with a niece. She died on December 29, 1945 at the age of 87.

Sources:

"Annie Bell Redd," FindAGrave.com.

The Columbus Daily Enquirer [Columbus, GA].

"Columbus Female College," in U.S., School Catalogs, 1764-1935 [database]. Ancestry.com.

The Columbus Ledger [Columbus, GA].

Georgia Death Index, 1933-1998 [database]. FamilySearch.org.

Georgia, Marriage Records from Select Counties, 1828-1978 [database]. Ancestry.com.

The Macon Telegraph [Macon, GA].

Redd, Annie Bell. Christmas Greens. Columbus, Ga., 1905. Archive.org.

U.S. Federal Census.

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