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Trude Family Genealogy
by Thomas Lee Trude


Biography of: William B. Trude

23. William B.3 TRUDE, (William D.2, John1), born 29 Dec 1831, Lisbon, St Lawrence County, New York, died 3 May 1892 and was buried in Amboy, Lee County, Illinois.  He was married 6 July 1858 in Amboy, Lee County, Illinois to Candice ROLF, born 25 Dec 1836, Lisbon, St Lawrence County, New York; the daughter of Aaron and Mary Rolf.  As a boy William lived on his father's farm near Hartland Township, Niagara County, New York until they moved to the midwest in 1853 and settled in St. Charles, Kane County, Illinois.  There he found work as a fireman with a small branch railroad.  He then moved to Amboy, Lee County, Illinois on the 14th of March 1855 and started work with the Illinois Central Railroad.  In 1862 he became an engineer hauling freight until 1864 when he stated passenger service on the road between Lasalle and Dubuque Illinois.  In 1892, at the age of 61, his train went through a misplaced switch in Sublette Illinois and collided with a freight train standing on a side track.  He was killed instantly in the 35 mph wreck and his fireman was severely scalded.  The freight train's fireman lost a leg in the head-on crash and one of the mail agents was also badly injured when the mail car was thrown from the track.  The person responsible for misplacing the switch was never discovered, but the engineer of the freight was not aboard at the time.  William was a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and also of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

Candice came West in 1855 to visit her brother George Rolf in Chicago and remained there until the date of her marriage.  Her father, Aaron Rolf, was of English parentage and was a native of Essex County, N.Y. He was educated for the medical profession, but became disattisified with it and settled on a farm in St. Lawrence County,N.Y., becoming one of its most honored and influential citizens.  He was frequently elected to public office and attained the advanced age of eighty-one years (or 86) and died in 1879.  Her mother, Mary, died June 9, 1839, at about thirty-five years of age.  Candice had eight siblings:  William Rolf lived and died at Watertown, N.Y.; Rosella married John Loard and lived in St. Charles, Ill.; Nancy married Henry Armstrong and lived in Ogdensburg, N.Y.; Elizabeth became the wife of David Getty and lived in Amboy; Sophia, married Samuel Wells and died in Baldwinsville, N.Y., Winter Rolf moved West somewhere; George Rolf was accidentally killed in the yards of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad in Chicago--he was the oldest engineer in the service of that company; Robert Rolf lived in Minnesota, and Candice was the youngest.  She was a Methodist.

Amboy News, Lee Co., ILL., Saturday. Jan 12, 1884. P4

"Mrs. Wm. Trude came near unto death by suffocation last Sunday morning. She had been down..cellar cleaning out and fixing a wood stove which was kept in the cellar to prevent freezing. A pail or two of charred ashes had been removed, the fumes of which were almost stifling. She barely reached the top of the cellar stairway, when she called to her husband and then fell to the floor exhausted. Mr. Trude had come in from his run on the early morning train, and hearing the cries of his wife awakened to find her in a senseless condition. Had she become exhausted while in the cellar her cries for help would not have been heard and undoubtedly she might have perished before assistance came. Restoratives were applied and she has about wholly recovered from the experience."

Children:

+ 90.    i.  Frederick W.4 TRUDE, born 19 Jul 1859. 
  91.   ii.  Frank E.4 TRUDE, born 3 Apr 1868.
  92.  iii.  Georgia W.4 TRUDE, born 1870,
             died at age 10 months.

Note:  The 1880 census shows them in Amboy, Lee County, Illinois with two children and an Etta Rolf.

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