A LETTER FROM MARY RUDDOCK SILZEL?S RELATIVES IN ST. JOHN?S, NEW BRUNSWICK CANADA IN 1942.
132 Arma, G?
Moncton, N.B.
Feb. 16, 1942
Mr. W. A. Ruddick
8016-87th Ave.
Woodhaven, Long Island, N.Y.
Dear Cousin William;
My sister, Jane MacGowan gave me your letter to answer as she thought I knew more about our relatives than she did and could give you a fuller account. Shortly after I got your letter, I was taken ill with a cold, consequently the delay in answering.
The Ruddick family was of Scotch decent and settled in Northern Ireland during the Reformation.
Our grandfather, Andrew Ruddick came from Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland, and finally settled with his wife, in Saint John, N.B. I am not sure, but I think, they first went to New England.
If I remember rightly, our grandmother?s surname had been Mac Connell, or McConnell. Aunt Rebecca Ruddick told me that her mother was the daughter of a titled gentleman, and that she was disowned by her family when she married grandfather, beneath their rank, although the Ruddick family were wealthy gentleman farmers. Therefore we know very little about our grandmother?s people. Aunt Rebecca told me, at different times, how proud she had been of mother because of her good looks, refinement in manners and in dress. Our grandparents visited Ireland after coming here, but I think from what I learned, it was to grandfather?s relatives they went.
Grandfather and grandmother Ruddick had eleven children; James (our grandfather), Hamilton, Robert, William, Andrew (my father), John, Margaret, Hannah, Dinah, Rebecca, and Maria (Maria and John were twins).
Dr. James Ruddick died the year of the cholera. He was living in St. Johns. My father often used to speak of him, said he worked night and day and finally came down with the disease himself. The family were moved from Saint Johns to Saint Martins, N.B., to get away from the disease and I think, my father said he went out there about every day to see how they were. Uncle James left a wife and four children; James, Nellie, Anna, and William. Nellie has a son, Guy? Richardson, living at 104 Polmoree? Ave. in Plain Mass.
Anna Ruddick was a very bright, charming person, but somewhere around middle life became very nervous. A doctor, an old friend of Anna?s, persuaded her to go to his house and take electrical treatments but, I understood, the treatments did not have the affect they had hped for and she returned to Nellie, where she had been making her home and finally committed suicide by shooting (with a revolver which had been kept in a drawer in the room she occupied). This was a terrible shock to Nellie and a great blow to us all. Anna had visited at my father?s home, I think, not more than a year before and seemed bery bright and cherry. She told me, when on that visit, that she did not remember her father, nor mother, and looked forward with the greatest of joy to meeting them beyond. She said, that sometimes when she thought of it, it seemed hard to wait for the time to come when she would meet her parents.
Uncle Hamilton Ruddick had one son, Harry, by his first wife, after she died he married Emily Beard (her father was of the old firm Beard and Venning, Saint John). Aunt Emily had one son, Walter, and died when her baby was three months old, giving him to Aunt Rebecca Ruddick. Walter became a fine young man, married and settled in one of the Western States. I have not heard from Walter for some years and often wonder where he is.
Uncle Robert Ruddick, I think, married a Miss Starkey and had three children; William, Frank and Margaret.
Uncle William Ruddick married Josie ??? and had, I think three children; Gertrude (who is now Mrs. Charles Cummings, of Dorchester, Mass.), Herschel, and another boy ?. I have forgotten his name.
Andrew Ruddick (my father) married Lydia Ellen Cochran, of Saint Martins, N.B.and had ten children; Ida, Jane, Robert, Andrew, William, George, Margaret, Adelia, Elizabeth and Arvilla (Dollie). Jane married Peter A. Macgowan, of Moncton, N.B., and has two sons; Andrew R. , superintendent of Hoboken Manufacturers Railroad Co., Hoboken, N.J., and Harry James of Moncton.
Margaret married Charles Sayre, of Tacoma, Wash., U.S.A., formerly of Nova Scotia, and had one daughter, Marjorie, (who is now Mrs., Cyrus Happy, Jr. address: Route 1, Box 448, Tacoma, Wash., U.S.A.) Margaret died June 1910, and followed next year by her husband.
Adelia, is now Mrs. Elewellyn Davis. She and her husband are at present making their home in Moncton.
Elizabeth is still a spinster.
Arvilla (Dollie) married Harry K. Todd of Tacoma, Wash. They are at present spending the winter at El Mirado Hotel, Palm Springs, California.
The other members of our family died during the diptheria epidemic---Our home at that time was in Saint Martins, later we moved to Moncton.
Uncle John Ruddick never married and lately made his home with his sister, Rebecca, in Saint Johns, where he died in 1918 or 1919.
Aunt Margaret Ruddick married Andrew Foster, of Saint Martins, and had five children; Maria, Andrew, Margaret, Robert and Alice.
Maria Foster was for many years a nurse, never married and is now in the Furraline Home, 776 Queen St. Frederictin, N.B. Maria is now around 91, or 92 years of age.
Andrew Foster married a St. Johns girl, Annie ??? and had a small family. They moved to the U.S.A. Andrew died some years ago and I have lost sight of the family.
Margaret Foster married Robert MacLeod, of Black River, N.B. They had no children.
Robert Foster married Bessie ??? and had no children of their own, lived and died in St. Johns.
Alice Foster married Kimbal Cronk a widower of St. John?s. Alice had no children of her own.
The Foster family lived for many years in Saint Johns, moved there from Saint Martins.
Aunt Hannah Ruddick married Harry Sharpe. They made their home in St. John and had two children; Margaret, who taught, in one of the public schools of Saint John, for some years.
Alice, who was also a graduate of the Normal School, Frederictin, but owing to delicate health stayed at home with her mother, who was then a widow.
Aunt Dinah Ruddick married Harry MCAlary and made their home in Moncton, they had three children; Albert, Robert and Emma.
Albert McAlary married and had a smally family, I think, two boys. Albert died young and I have lost sight of them.
Robert McAlary was a cripple and died young.
Emma McAlary became a nurse, and engaged to be married to one of the doctors in the hospital, in Boston, where she trained, when she was taken ill and died.
Aunt Rebecca Ruddick and Aunt Maria Ruddick never married.
Andrew Ruddick, our grandfather, had a cousin, Dr. William Ruddick, who also came to this country and settled in Saint Martins, N.B. He married a Miss MacDonnah, whom he met here. They had a small family, those I remember were; George, who never married and lived on the old homestead, at Saint Martins; Maria who married ? Raymond, of Saint John, and had two daughters: Frances, and I have forgetten the other girls name. The girls went with their mother to U.S.A. sometime after Mr. Raymond?s death.
Dr. Robert Ruddick married Ella Wallace of Albert County, and had two children; Dr. Wm. Ruddick now of Montreal; and Ellen who is, I think, living somewhere in Western Canada.
Our grandfather had a wealthy brother-Uncle George (James?) Ruddick, living in Newry (Ringclare?), County Down, Ireland, whol married a woman much younger than himself (Mary Kidd?) and when he died she fell heir to all he had. She later married a young man (William Cummins?) and after signing over her estate to him, he left her?a poor, broken heated woman. The man married a woman (Annie Porter?), I understood, to whom he had been engaged and they were sporting on our Aunt?s money.
I visited your father and Margaret in the Fall of 1907, and had a very pleasant time, but was disappointed in not meeting you. Where are Margaret and her daughter, Mary? I have not heard from them since your father died.
In giving you the number of children in our Uncle and Aunt?s families, are just those I remember, there may have been others who died in infancy.
I would be glad to hear from you any time, and to give you any information, that I can, about our relatives.
Yours sincerely;
Elizabeth M. Ruddick
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