Company B, 1st Artillary Regiment, hometown-Rockford111

Hiram D. Rudd, now living a retired life in the village of Kaneville, is a veteran of the war for the union. since 1856, he has been a resident of the village of Kaneville, and is now its oldest living settler. He was born in Rutland County, Vermont, at Middletown, December 8, 1820. His father, Samuel Rudd, was born in Westfield, Connecticut, of which state his grandfather, Increase Rudd, was also a native. The latter served in the Revolutionary War, and was at the battle of Bunker Hill, where he broke off the butt of his gun over the head of an enemy. From Connecticut, Increase Rudd moved to Vermont, when his son Samuel was a small child. The latter was carried by his mother on the back of a horse, the entire distance. He there grew to manhood and married Mary Ames, a daughter of Elijah Ames, who was also a soldier in the Revolutionary War from Connecticut, but who later moved to Vermont, locating in the wilderness, where he hewed out a farm. Samuel Rudd was also a farmer by occupation, and lafter rearing his family in Vermont, he later removed to Jefferson County, New York, locating in the town of Ellisburg, where his death occurred.

Hiram D. Rudd spent his boyhood and youth in Vermont, under the shadow of the Green Mountains. In early life he had fair common-school advantages, his education being supplemented by reading and study in after life. In September, 1846, he was united in marriage with Miss Emily Jane Lyman, a native of Rutland County, Vermont, born in the town of Ira, and a daughter of isaac and Achsah (Ames) Lyman, both of whom were natives of Vermont, the latter being a second cousin of Charles Ames, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Rudd resided one year in Vermont, and in 1848 moved to New York, and settled in the town of Ellisburg, Jefferson county, where he engaged in farming for several years, and also in the carpenter's and joiner's trade. From Jefferson County, he moved with his family to the town of Gaines, Orleans County, New York, where they remained two years. In 1856, they came to Kane County, Illinois, and located at Kaneville, where he has since continued to reside. Here Mr. Rudd worked on a farm until September 18, 1861, when he enlisted in Company I, Eighth Illinois Cavalry, as a private, and with his regiment went east, where it was assigned to the Army of the Potomac; with that army our subject remained while in the service. He participated in the fight on the Rappahannock, and also at Fairfax Courthouse, and in various cavalry engagements, at the same time doing a good deal of scouting duty. In 1862, he met with an accident caused by the stampede of a number of horses, at which time he got his back and hips badly hurt, and was permanently disabled. He was first sent to the regimental hospital, and later to Douglas hospital in Washington, District of Columbia, where he remained three months, and in 1863 was discharged from the service and returned home. He has since been crippled and unabled to work to any extent.

Politically, Mr. Rudd was first an old-line Whig, but on the organization of the Republican Party, became identified with it. As a Whig he voted for Henry Clay, a man whom he greatly admired and who was without doubt one of the greatest statesmen this country ever produced. As a Republican he voted first for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, a vote for which he has never been ashamed. Mr. and Mrs. Rudd are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which they both take an active interest. For thirty-four years Mrs. Rudd has had charge of a class in the Sunday-school, and was in attendance nearly every Sunday. As the eldest resident of the village of Kaneville, Mr. Rudd is well known and his many friends will be pleased to read the record of his life work in the Biographical Record of Kane County.18