Wilbur Loomis Rude, the clerk of the district court of Morris county, was born in Bone Gap, Edwards county, Illinois, Sept. 21, 1867, being the first son of David B. and Mary O. (Loomis) Rude. His paternal grandparents were natives of Massachusetts, but moved to Upshur county, West Virginia, where their son, David, was born. He attended the public schools there and accompanied his parents when they moved to Edwards county, Illinois, about 1860. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in Company I, Fortieth Illinois infantry, and took part in the following battles: Shiloh, Vicksburg, Kenesaw Mountain, Lookout Mountain, and many other fierce engagements. He was mustered out of the service in 1864; returned to Edwards county and worked with his father on the farm. In 1866 he married Mary O. Loomis, the daughter of Jason Loomis, a farmer who lived near Albion, Ill. Seven children were born to this union, as follows: Wilbur L., Ida Christiana, born Aug. 24, 1869, who in March, 1887, married Thall Burns of Diamond Springs, Kan., where she died in October, 1893, leaving two children; David Burns, born in December, 1887, and living at Weber, Kan., and Robert, born in 1889, a farmer in Delavan, Morris county, Kansas; Halbert Holmes, born Aug. 2, 1871, now a farmer near Louisville, Kan., who has been twice married, first to Ella Kinison, who died in March, 1904, and the second time to Clara Snodgrass of Louisville; Stella Delana, born Aug. 3, 1873, now the wife of Charles Batty, an employee of the Missouri Pacific railway, Kansas City, Mo.; Glennwood, born Jan. 7, 1876, who married May Roherman of Hope, Kan., and lives in Lucille, Ozark county, Missouri; Clara Ruth, born June 20, 1878, who has been twice married, first to Claude Feigley, who was killed in a railroad accident at Wichita in 1895, and then to Frank Lockhard, an employee of the Santa Fe railway at Emporia; and a son who died in childhood. The parents removed from Illinois to Junction City, Kan., in 1869, where Mr. Rude took a contract getting out stone for the state capitol building. In 1870 he, with his father and brother, bought a 400-acre farm in Morris county, near Diamond Springs, where he lived until his death, Jan. 5, 1908. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and a Mason. Mrs. Rude passed away April 13, 1884. Both were members of the Congregational church. Wilbur was educated in the public schools. From 1886 to 1893 he was employed on a cattle ranch, but was incapacitated for outdoor labor, having lost a foot in a railway accident at the age of twenty-three. He was appointed station agent for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad, at Diamond Springs, which position he held until Nov. 28, 1910, when he resigned to become a candidate for the office clerk of the district court of Morris county, to which he was elected. He has always been a Republican and takes an active interest in local politics, and it was that party which elected him to his present office.

March 14, 1893, Mr. Rude was married to Susie, the daughter of John and Anna (Hibbard) Symes, who live on a farm in Morris county, near Lincolnville, Kan. Mrs. Rude's father was born in England but came to the United States in 1861 and immediately enlisted in the army as a private in one of the Illinois cavalry regiments, serving until the close of the war. Her mother was born in New York state, her maiden name being Hibbard. The family consisted of three boys and three girls, who were all reared and educated on the old family homestead. Two children have been born to Wilbur and Anna Rude: Clifford, born Jan. 8, 1894, a student in the Council Grove High School, and Lenora Olive, born June 14, 1899. Mr. Rude is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Congregational church, of which Mrs. Rude is also a member.