Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 433 - 434

ALONZO E. RUDD. Among the self-made men of Sedgwick County-men who have accumulated a sufficiency of this world's goods through their own energy and thrift - may be reckoned the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He is a resident of Waco Township, where he owns a fine farm of 240 acres, on section 26, and where he is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, meeting with great success in his chosen calling.

        Mr. Rudd is a native of Illinois, born in Will County, July 3, 1841, and is the son of Barak and Lavona (Atwood) Rudd. His parents were natives of the State of New York, but are residents of Joliet, Ill., where his father lives retired from the active duties of life, having achieved a competency upon a farm. To the parents were born a family of seven children, viz: Amy, William, Alonzo, Adelia, Charles, Sophronia and Eveline. Amy married, for her first husband, Frederick Barringer, and became the mother of three children, and for her second husband, Peter Tim, a quarryman, of Joliet, Ill.; William married Miss Eliza Haden, who died in Missouri, leaving a family of five children, and he is again married, and follows the business of farming in Missouri; Alonzo is the subject of this sketch; Adelia married Albert Parrent, a cabinet-maker, and resides at Joliet; she has two children, one living and one dead. Charles married Miss Almeda Knight, and is in the real-estate business in Wichita; Sophia married, for her first husband, Warren Brown, who died in Joliet with smallpox, after which she married John Maxson, who is a retired farmer, living in Wichita; and Eveline is married, and makes her home in Joliet.

        Our subject received his education in his boyhood days in the common schools of his native State, and remained with his parents until attaining his majority. The great Rebellion having broken out, and the General Government being in need of men to oppose the armies of rebels that threatened our National life, when twenty-one years old, July 2, 1862, Mr. Rudd enlisted in Company K, 100th Illinois Infantry, and was mustered in at Joliet, to serve three years. He participated in most of the privations, hardships and campaigns of the Armies of the Tennessee and Cumberland, and was present in thirteen general engagements, where the gallant regiment to which he was attached carried their flag into the thickest of the fight. Stone River, Chattanooga, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge were among the chief battles where he bore himself so gallantly. At the latter engagement he received a gunshot wound through the leg, which broke the bone and laid him up for six months-one month in the hospital at Chattanooga and five at home. On returning to the service he participated in the famous Atlanta campaign, and when Sherman left that city and swung off toward the sea, Mr. Rudd returned with his regiment to the Army of the Cumberland, and was present at the sanguinary conflicts of Franklin and Nashville, Tenn. He was mustered out of the service June 12, 1865, and returned to his home in the Prairie State. Like Cincinnatus, he returned to his agricultural pursuits, which avocation he has followed ever since.

        September 9, 1866, was solemnized the marriage ceremony which united our subject and Miss Charlotte Empie. The bride was a native of Grundy County, Ill., born Nov. 29, 1852, and was the daughter of John and Emily (Louden) Empie, both of whom were born in the Empire State. In her parents' family, besides herself, there were the following children: Dwight, who died in infancy; John M., who married Miss Rose Henry, and is a farmer in Grundy County; Adelbert, who married Miss Winnie Allison, and is a farmer in Grundy County; Emma, Mrs. Seth Clother, who is living in Greenwood County, Kan.; Dexter, who died at the age of fifteen years; and Charlie, Charity and Davie, who died in infancy.

        Mr. Rudd remained in Illinois, engaged in tilling the soil of the Prairie State, until 1879, when he came to Kansas and settled where he now lives. He commenced life with no capital except energy, industry and economy, and has met with great success in life. He is the owner of 240 acres of some of the best land in the county, which is well improved, and on which he has some fifteen head of fine horses, a drove of forty-five high-grade cattle, and a large number of hogs. On account of his crippled condition from the wound he received in the service, he has been compelled to hire much of his work done that he otherwise could do himself, which has been a source of continual expense. He is a refined, intelligent and intellectual gentleman, who occupies a remarkably high position in the estimation of the people of the community, and is known far and wide as one of the leading representative men of Waco Township. He is greatly interested in educational work, and has served for many years as a member of the School Board of the district.

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