Conversations with Mildred Rudd Ragsdale about Rudd family
(C. Avis Catalog entry #196)
Her father (James Calvin Rudd) born Madisonville, Tn about 1850. Capt. Joe Rudd was in Civil War and was the older brother of J. C. Rudd. Capt. Rudd came home through Union lines to visit on a white horse.
During the Civil War, the family moved to Dalton, Ga because Tennessee was a divided state. Grandfather Rudd got involved with soldiers during the move and was imprisoned by the Union with a ball and chain. His mind began to go as a result. Mildred assumes that he died in Dalton, Ga. Then his wife R. C. (Maples) Rudd went to Texas (Pittsburg). A daughter Alice went to Atlanta, married Hightower.
J. C. Rudd came to Tennessee (Nashville?), married and had 2 children. They lived with her mother. He tried to get family moved out, but his wife would not go, so he left. J.C. Rudd divorced his wife. The two children stayed with their mother and J. C. came to Texas.
The older child was Sister Maud and the younger was Brother Lowry.
Home situation was not good, so Brother Lowry ran away and went to Texas anyway when he was 12 or 14. J. C. and Maggie Rudd tried to get him to go to school in Temple, but he ran away from them. He fought in the Spanish-American War and got a bullet in right forearm. He would fiddle with the bullet, as it was not taken out. He fought with Canadians in WW I and got shell shocked and/or gassed. Brother Lowry never married.
Sister Maud had one daughter named Ruth Ellen aged between Mildred and Hilda Rudd. Ruth married Murdock from Ohio. Sister Maud (or Ruth ??) wound up in California.Sister Maud got separated from husband Mark Stokes and came to Temple with daughter Rose Ellen for a year.
J. C. Rudd married for second time in Lampassus. Wife and child died in childbirth in Lampassus.
J. C. Rudd and Maggie Mooring married in San Antonio. In Temple, he had the Harvey House Hotel concession food rights and the opera house.
J. C. Rudd died of pneumonia after being sick about 10 days. Mildred thinks he was riding back home on a horse and fell off. When he got home, he was panting and seemed to have gotten a heavy cold. He died in the middle of the night.
About 1915 or so, Mildred saw the Aurora Borealis from Temple. The children were awakened in the night and bundled up and taken outside to see it. J. C. and Maggie both knew a lot
about the stars.
The story of the plums and Squire Harris' bull was told by J. C. Rudd, and was about he and his father. He also had a story about him coming home after dark by the frog pond, etc. He would entertain the neighborhood kids with his stories.
She said that she and sister Madge had no middle names. Sister Fay had middle name Mooring and brother Charles had middle name Maples.
Mildred Rudd Ragsdale : born 1-28-1905 in Temple, Tx. She and sisters went to College of Industrial Arts in Denton, TX (later Texas State College for Women). Married Dr. Luney Varnon Ragsdale in New York City, 11-30-1935. Dr. Ragsdale died 11-6-1968, buried in Bessemer, Ala.
Children:
James Stirling Ragsdale,
John Milton Ragsdale,
Margaret Mooring Ragsdale.
Address:
35 Courtney St.
Fall River, Mass 02720
also:
James Stirling Ragsdale
12 Noteworthy Dr.
Danbury, Conn 06810