Montgomery County AlArchives Biographies.....Ruth, Charles Leonidas & His Son, William Hardwick Ruth January 17, 1841 - 
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Carolyn Golowka http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00012.html#0002972 October 3, 2006, 10:34 am

Author: "Notable Men of Alabama:  Personal and Genealogical with Portraits," by Hon. JOel C. DuBose, editor, pages 62-63

The RUTH family were natives of the counties of Ayr and Lanark, Scotland.  
Adherents of the Pretender, who was disastrously defeated at Culloden in 1746, 
they were compelled to flee Scotland.  Among these, James Ruth and Jean 
MacCalla, his wife, settled in Philadelphia, Pa.  James Ruth inherited the 
combined trade of wheelwright, gilder and carver and was of Presbyterian 
faith.  His son, David Ruth, was born in 1761.  When sixteen years old he was 
drafted into the Pennsylvania militia, and engaged in the battle of Brandywine, 
Sept. 11, 1777.  His name appears on the rolls of the State Library, 
Harrisburg, Pa.  After the Revolution he married Mary MacLochlin, near 
Wilmington, Del., and removed to Granville county, N. C.  Their youngest son, 
born Oct. 6, 1799, unnamed until the first President, touring the State in 
November, passing the residence, stopped, took the child in his arms and named 
him George Washington Ruth.  At the age of seventeen, the youth was apprenticed 
to the watchmaker’s craft in Raleigh, which term completed, he traveled to 
Mobile, Alabama Territory, thence to St. Stevens, the capital.  His health 
failing, he went to Huntsville, Ala., but finally located in Shelbyville, 
Tenn., marrying there, Anne Downs, May 30, 1824.  His business career was 
successful, he was an officer of his church and contributed to the growth of 
Shelbyville as mayor.  Charles Leonidas Ruth, fourth child of George, was born 
Jan. 17, 1841, and learned from his father the watchmaker’s trade.  In August, 
1861, he joined the Twenty-third Tennessee, C. S. A., then organizing near 
Murfreesboro, with Col. Mat Martin.  Pat Cleburne was senior colonel of the 
brigade which formed part of the army commanded at Bowling Green, Ky., by 
Albert Sydney Johnston.  After Johnston’s death at Shiloh, Gen. Braxton Bragg 
took command, marched to Kentucky and fought at Perryville, in which battle C. 
L. Ruth was.  After a furlough he was under General Longstreet at Bean’s 
Station and Fort Sanders.  Later was on detached duty in the medical department 
of Surgeon-General Ramsey, of the Confederate East Tennessee and Virginia 
army.  He surrendered at Marion, Va., after Beauregard’s surrender, and was 
proceeding home from Jonesboro, Tenn., but was arrested and sent to a Federal 
prison at Chattanooga, the headquarters of Gen. E. Canby, of the Federal army 
of Tennessee, May, 1865, with orders to report every thirty days.  He was 
released from this parole by Canby on condition that he leave the State, which 
he did, coming to Montgomery, and in August, 1865.  He worked for other 
jewelers until 1873, when he established business for himself.  He married, 
July 16, 1867, Juliet Hardwick, whose mother’s maiden name was Sarah Caffey; 
her great grandfather, John Caffey, was at the battle of Bunker Hill, also 
served with Gens. LaFayette, Francis Nash and Nathaniel Greene.  John Caffey 
removed from Rockingham county, N. C., to Montgomery, and died in 1826.  His 
obituary, published in the Alabama Journal, Aug. 26, 1826, gives account of his 
Revolutionary record, as does the Montgomery directory of 1878.  Charles L. 
Ruth built up his business from small beginnings to its present position as one 
of the largest in the South.  He has filled several public positions, such as 
president of the Alabama Retail Jewelers’ association, city alderman and is 
identified with Masonic and other fraternal societies and Camp Jeff Falkner, U. 
C. V.  William Hardwick, Charles L. Ruth’s only child, was born in Montgomery, 
Sept. 12, 1869.  His early education was received at the private schools of 
Miss Callie Hinkle, and of Prof. O. F. Casey; in August, 1883, he entered the 
junior department of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., of which 
institution he is an alumnus and a member of the board of trustees.  After 
three years at Sewanee, he attended Parson’s School of Horology at La Porte, 
Ind., during the year 1887.  He studied optics in New York City in 1888 and 
graduated in two schools for opticians.  Returning to Montgomery, he engaged in 
business with his father, being admitted to partnership in 1900.  W. Hardwick 
Ruth was married Jan. 17, 1884, at Jacksonville, Ala., to Maud Crook, daughter 
of Emmett Crook, probate judge of Calhoun county.  They have four children, 
Emmett Crook, Charles Leon, Sarah Crook and Juliet Hardwick.  W. Hardwick Ruth 
is a member of several social, literary and business clubs, and has served as 
director in the Commercial and Industrial association, and for many years 
filled office in the Y. M. C. A.  He is a vestryman af St. John’s Episcopal 
church, Montgomery, and is identified actively with the interests of Sons of 
the American Revolution and the Sons of Confederate Veterans.  He has enjoyed 
exceptional advantages of education and travel, having visited nearly all the 
principal cities of this continent and Europe.

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