Rare Book Monthly
Tracking Down Lost Lives: A Family For Sale on eBay
Judge Rudd and woman (wife Aimee?) and unknown man (son Terry?)
The last items to be taped into this album come in 1929. These are a series of articles noting the passing of Judge William P. Rudd. He was 78-years-old and a man of great respect. And with his passing came the end of good times in America, quite literally. The date was October 19, and less than a week later, the stock market would crash and the nation began to sink into a long hard depression. William Rudd would not know any of this.
Less than a month after Judge Rudd's death, his wife Aimee also passed away. They had only one child and no grandchildren when they died. We don't know if there are any living descendants today. However, their son Tracy had no children at the time and was 45 years of age. Having a first child after 45 would have been extremely unusual in that day. And he is clearly no longer with us, as there is no one still living born as far back as 1884.
The scrapbook does not end with the last taped article. There remains a collection of loose clippings. However, with only one more exception, these no longer deal with the Rudd family. That exception is the tiniest of articles noting the passing of the youngest Adeline, who it says was 45-years-old. That would place her death around 1940. The article is so brief it does not even tell us who were her survivors, but we know she never remarried because her name was still Mrs. Schaschke. Other than this, there are items about the hard times, coming of war, and religious pieces. The last are clippings concerning a visit to Wellesley by Madame Chiang Kai-shek in 1943. In the midst of war she stops to give the women of her alma mater some inspiration and encouragement. Then, the album falls silent. There is no more. Sixty-five years after the railroad conductor's daughter graduated from St. Agnes School, we hear no more from this family we now almost seem to know.
So who kept this album? My first impression was William P. Rudd. More than anyone else, it chronicles his career. The only other participant with much space is his father, all concerning the later years of his life. However, this theory is quickly put to rest by the appearance of his obituary. It's not his wife's album either, since her obituary is also present. It can only be that of his sister, the middle Adeline. It starts with her school graduation. It seems likely to me that this album was a graduation gift to her. The focus on her brother, almost to the exclusion of her own family, seems surprising, but it may well be that he was the only one to achieve sufficient prominence to generate a collection of news clippings. The number of clippings about William P. from Albany, particularly after Adeline's marriage, was a bit confusing. After all, she moved to the Boston area and never returned. How did she come upon these clippings? My guess is she convinced her relatives, particularly her brother, to send them. There are a couple of envelopes marked "clippings," which, while not postmarked, may have been hand delivered to her or placed within other packages. Many of these shorter clippings concern other people, most of whom were more distant relatives, cousins and such. Then, in the only handwritten letter in this collection, a "Dear Addie" from her brother, there is a comment about a newspaper article describing a speech he gave. He must have been sending her an occasional clipping concerning his career.
