STRASMA | LOWTHER | DRINAN | RUDDELL

The Ruddells and Moomaus of Crawford County Illinois

    The Ruddells trace their family roots to the pre-Revolutionary War days when the first family members emigrated from England to America. Almost 200 years later they were united in Crawford County, Illinois, with another early American family, the Moomaus, who came to the US from Prussia, part of what is now Germany.

    That union was the 1910 marriage of Arthur Ruddell, a 21-year-old blacksmith, to Jane Lee Moomau, 19.

    Through the years there have been numerous spellings of the Moomau surname, beginning with Leonard (Lenhard) Mumma who arrived in America on 18 September 1732 from Rotterdam on the ship “Johnson” with his wife and five children. Four additional children were born in America. He was born in 1694 in Stolberg, Rheinland, Prussia.

    The Mummas of America are believed to be descended from the Momma family who were thought to have been French Huguenots who were driven into Belgium and the city of Aachen in the late 1500s. They later spread into other parts of Europe, including Prussia.

    Among Leonard’s American-born children was a son, John Leonard Mumma, who was born 10 March 1742 in Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was baptized a month later in Trinity Lutheran Church, New Holland, Pennsylvania. He died in 1817.

John Leonard was married to Maria Catherine, and they had 13 children

Their second son, David, was born in 1768 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

David’s first wife died, and he subsequently married Rosina Beck. David and Rosina had a son, Christian, born 26 April 1792 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. David and Rosina moved to Virginia about 1799-1800 where they raised their family. David died in 18 Sep1828 in Shenandoah County, VA. The 1850 federal census for Shenandoah County shows the 85-year-old Rosina living with her son David, and next door to Christian and his family. (Son David and Son Christian both had wives named Elizabeth, no doubt to confuse future genealogists.)

On 12 September 1814, Christian married Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Henry Walker in Shenandoah County. She was born in 1794 in Virginia They had eleven children, including a son Henry was born in 1821. The family remained in Shenandoah County. (Their youngest child, Rebecca is 6 in the 1850 census, suggesting that her mother was 49 at the time of her birth.) Both Christian and Elizabeth are recorded in the 1860 census for Cabin Hill, Shenandoah County, Virginia. the 1870 census shows Christian, aged 79, living with Elizabeth, 42, who may be his daughter. (Brother David and his wife Elizabeth are still next door.)

Henry married Lee Ann Feaster in 1846 in what would later be West Virginia (West Virginia did not exist until the 1860s when Virginia was split by the Civil War). Henry and Lee Ann had five children.

The 1850 census for Barbour County, Virginia, records Henry Mumaw, a 29-year-old farmer living with his wife Leah Anna, 34. They had just two children at that time.

By the 1870 census, Henry (now Moomau), 51, is a farmer in Arcola Township, Douglas County, Illinois, with his 53-year-old wife LeeAnn and five children still at home, including John Henry Moomau, 12.

Henry died 30 June 1878 in Douglas County, Illinois, after being bitten by a rattlesnake as he was hoeing broom corn. He is buried in Broadus Cemetery, Carmargo Township, Douglas County, Illinois, under a gravestone showing his name as Henry Mooman.

John Henry Moomau had been born 6 February 1858 in Ohio and later moved with the family to Illinois.   After the death of his father from the rattlesnake bite, the family apparently returned to Ohio. The 1880 census for Concord Township, Ross County, Ohio lists John Henry, age 22, living with his brother Abram and his wife Elizabeth along with their widowed mother Leanna, age 65. Abram is a farmer and John a farm laborer.

The next year, John Henry married Sarah Ann Whetstone, who was born 6 Sep 1860 in Buckskin Township, Ross County, Ohio. They were married 3 Mar 1881 in Ross County, Ohio. Sarah was the daughter of George W. Whetstone and Eliza Jane Hire.

John Henry and Sarah Ann had six children - Ella Mae, born 3 Dec 1881; George, born 26 Dec 1884; Ethel Pearl, born 10 June 1886; Mary Sabrina, born 24 Jan 1889; Janie Lee, born 26 Jan 1891; and Iva Gale, born 5 August 1895.

Sometime between the birth of Janie Lee in 1891 and that of Iva Gale in 1895, the family moved to Jackson in Jay County, Indiana. The 1900 census shows the family there with father John employed as an oil pumper. (The family name is recorded as Moorman — one of the many variations through the years.)

The family then moved to Oblong, Crawford County, Illinois, apparently for a job in the oil industry — the 1910 census shows John to be a laborer on an oil lease. Only Iva Gale remains with her parents. Their son, George, and his family are neighbors, and George, too, is an oil lease laborer.

Janie Lee married Arthur George Ruddell in March of that year and the census, recorded in May, shows them in Oblong with Arthur working as an oil field laborer.

The Ruddell family had led an adventurous life in America, serving in the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. Later, a Ruddell would head west in the Gold Rush before returning to settle in Crawford County, Illinois.

The Ruddell family is from Bishops Canning, a small village in Wiltshire in the southwest of England (just about five miles from Avebury, the location of the Avebury Stone Circle and other ancient sites). John Ruddell, who was born in 1696, immigrated to America in about 1715 and settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Cook that year. Their son, Archibald was born in 1727, joining three older brothers. Another brother, Isaac, was born two years later. The family later moved to Virginia in about 1740, and John was authorized to build a water mill there. He died in May 1781.

(Much of the information is found on the Ruddell family website:
http://www.walthertree.com/JohnRuddellTree.html)

Archibald — of our family line — served in the French and Indian War as an officer in the Virginia Colonia Militia. Later accounts lists him as a private in the Revolutionary War.

His brother Isaac became a Captain in the Revolutionary War, serving under George Rogers Clark on the western frontier. In 1779, along with other family members, including Archibald’s son James of our line, he fortified an existing settlement in Kentucky, forming Ruddell’s Fort.   In June of 1780 the British together with Indian allies, captured the fort and many of the settlers were taken as prisoners.

James, his uncle Capt. Isaac Ruddell, and others were taken to Detroit and later Canada and imprisoned for two and a half years. Other family members were taken by the Indians and a few children were “adopted” in to Native American families.

James Ruddell had been born August 20, 1758, in Shenandoah, Virginia. After his release from captivity, he returned to Kentucky. He married Jane Mulheron, who was the widow of James’ cousin, Cornelius, who had been killed by the Indians.

Jane died around 1835 and James died in Boone, Kentucky, around 1840 when he was 81 years old.

Charles Mulherin Ruddell, was the third child of James and Jane. He was born 8 March 1791 in Bourbon County, Kentucky. He became an officer in the War of 1812. In 1818 he married Polly Collier. Charles was appointed Sheriff in 1818 in Grant County, Kentucky, where he held other local government positions as well. Charles and Polly had —- children, including George Perry Ruddell, who was born 4 May 1824 in Grant County, Kentucky,

In about 1852 the family, along with brother George Ruddell, moved from Kentucky to Crawford County, Illinois. Charles settled with his family in Robinson Township several miles east of Robinson while George located near Palestine, Illinois.

He and his wife, Polly Collier, later moved to Crawford County in about 1852.
The DeCamps

Charlotte DeCamp, who married George Perry Ruddell, was descended from Laurence DeCamp, a French Huguenot who came to New Amsterdam in 1664 from Holland. Charlotte’s grandmother, who married Silas DeCamp, had the unusual name of Rheuhameya. Charlotte’s father, Israel, was born in Vermont in 1792. The family moved to New York sometime about 1804 and then on to Indiana before 1820 (Silas is listed in the 1820 census in Franklin County, Indiana).

Charlotte’s father, Israel, is listed in the payroll records of the New York State Militia as a musician in Captain Michael Redman’s company. He joined the militia on 22 Oct 1814 and two days later deserted.

Israel married Sybil Graves who had been born in 1800 in Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York. Daughter Charlotte was born 21 Feb 1832 in Fayette County, Indiana. She had 8 siblings.

Israel died 31 May 1852 in St. Joseph, Missouri. (Note: St. Joseph is the “jumping off point” for travel to California. Is the possible that Israel and his family — or at least daughter Charlotte — were heading for California and Israel died en route? Charlotte married George Perry Ruddell in California in April 1853.) They settled in Robinson Township, several miles east of Robinson. One of their sons later served in the Confederate army while two grandsons fought on the Union side.

Polly died in 1875 and Charles lived to the age of 94, dying in 1886.

Son George Perry went west with the Gold Rush and while there married Charlotte Jane DeCamp. Charlotte had been born 21 Feb 1832 in Connerville, Ohio. She is listed in the 1850 census for Elkhart County, Indiana, living with her married sister Louisa. George and Charlotte were married 12 April 1855 in French Ravine, Sierra County, California. (French Ravine was in the heart of California gold county where gold nuggets weighing more than 25 pounds each were found in 1851 and 1855.).

The 1860 census for California lists George Perry Ruddell's occupation as blacksmith while many of his neighbors were recorded as miners.

That census shows their post office as being Alleghany — which still exists in Gold Country in Sierra County, California, with a population of just 58. Their first three children were born in California: Richard, born 1 Jan 1856; Lizzie, born 13 April 1861; and George Franklin, born 1 June 1866. Lizzie later died at the age of 6.

The family returned to Illinois, and the 1870 federal census shows them living in Crawford County next to George Perry's brother Charles H. and his father Charles M. Son Elmer was born on March 25 that year.

Back in Crawford County, George and his brother Charles were blacksmiths. George died 20 July1873 at the age of 49, and Charlotte lived another 25 years until her death 4 Feb 1898 at the age of 66.

Their son, George Franklin, married Anna Elizabeth Jennings on 30 June 1887 in Crawford County. Anna was born 13 Aug 1867 in Eaton, Crawford County, Illinois.

They had five children: Arthur G., born in 1889; Emery D., born in 1890; Nora, born in 1894; perry, born in 1895; and Raymond, born in 1904. The 1910 census for Oblong, Illinois, records that George Franklin is a blacksmith in his own shop.

He was also a Justice of the Peace -- an elected position with limited jurisdiction to hear misdemeanor and other minor cases -- and served several terms as a Village Trustee in Oblong. He was also a candidate for Sheriff in 1910. There is no evidence that his candidacy was successful.

The Robinson Constitution reported on Oct 12, 1910:

Candidate for Sheriff, George Ruddell, the Prohibition nominee for Sheriff, was born in California, and came with his parents to Crawford county when he was two years old. Resided one and one half miles east of Robinson with his parents until he became of age. Meantime he learned the blacksmith trade with Beam Brothers, at Robinson. Afterward he lived at Annapolis two years, when he removed to Oblong, where he was since resided. He has been a citizen of Oblong for the last twenty years, and has been elected as Justice of the Peace of that township and it is the unanimous opinion of every lawyer of the Robinson bar that he is one of the best Justices of the Peace in the county, well informed as to the law for one of his opportunities and absolutely honest in all his decisions. He is a member of the M. E. church, and stands for all things honest and upright as a citizen. He has also served several terms as Village Trustee of Oblong, and if elected Sheriff will put an end to the bootlegging and gambling conditions which are so common in almost all parts of the county."

George died in 1918, while Anna Elizabeth lived another 20 years, dying in 1938.

Arthur George was the first born son, born 2 June 1889 in Oblong. He married Jane Moomau in 1909. Jane was born 26 January 1891 in Ohio, and the 1900 census shows her living in Jackson Township, Jay County, Indiana, where her father was an oil pumper.

The 1910 census records that Arthur is an oil field laborer. His 1917 draft registration stated he was a tank builder in the oil fields. He was a blacksmith in the 1920 census, and 10 years later he had added welder as an occupation. The Illinois Death Index lists his occupation as a farm tools salesman.

Arthur and Jane had seven children: Bernadine, born in 1911; Pauline, born in 1914; Carl, born in 1916; Harold, born in 1913; Arthur Jr., born in 1919; Josephine, born in 1922; and Charles, born in 1924.

Arthur died 11 September 1937, and Jane, also known as Jennie, died 1 January 1967.

 