Howard-Wabash County IN Archives Biographies.....Ruddell, Richard 1850 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 5, 2006, 4:05 am

Author: Jackson Morrow (circa 1909)

RICHARD RUDDELL.

   The life of the eminent and successful business man, though filled to
repletion with activity and incident, presents fewer salient features to excite
the interest of the general reader than the man whose place in the public eye
has been won through the glamour and display of military achievement. But to
acquire distinction or great prosperity in the business pursuits which give to
the country its financial strength and credit requires ability of as high if not
higher order than that which leads to victory on the field of battle. This will
be readily appreciated by all who tread the busy thoroughfare of trade.
Ordinarily, merit may attain a respectable position and enjoy a moderate
competence, but to spring from the common walks of life to the first place of
monetary credit and power can only be the fortune of a rarely gifted personage.
Eminent business talent is composed of a combination of high mental and moral
attributes. It is not simply energy and industry; there must be sound judgment,
breadth of capacity, rapidity of thought, justice and firmness, the foresight to
perceive the course of the drifting tides of business and the will and ability
to control them, and, withal, a collection of minor but important qualities to
regulate the details of the pursuits which engage attention. The subject of this
review affords an exemplification of this talent, if not in its highest
development, yet an extraordinary character, and notwithstanding the limited
theater of his operations he has achieved a reputation which places him among
the first of Indiana's eminent financiers and distinguished business men.

   Richard Ruddell, president of the Citizens' National Bank of Kokomo. was born
in Rush county, Indiana, on the thirty-first day of August, 1850, of respectable
parents whose fortune, however, did not admit of their starting their son in
life with those advantages which, to a certain extent, supersede the necessity
of relying upon one's own exertions. His father, George Ruddell, was a dealer in
live stock and fairly successful in his business dealings, thought by no means
wealthy in the sense the term is usually accepted. When Richard was a year old
his parents removed to Wabash, Indiana, where the father engaged in business and
in the schools of which place the son obtained the knowledge of books which,
supplemented by contact with the world, has made him a widely informed and
practically a well educated man. On quitting his studies young Ruddell worked
for some time at various kinds of employment and then accepted a clerkship with
a Wabash mercantile firm, in which capacity he continued during the ensuing six
years, when he resigned his position to engage in the boot and shoe trade in
that city. His previous experience as a salesman enabled him to bring' to his
business a well disciplined mind, with the result that his mercantile venture
proved successful from the beginning, and it was not long until he added dry
goods to his stock and built up a lucrative patronage which in due time made him
one of the most enterprising merchants of the city. After conducting a very
prosperous business in Wabash until 1882, he disposed of his interests there,
and purchasing the old and well-known dry goods establishment of Haskett &
Company in Kokomo, the largest and most successful mercantile house in the city,
embarked upon a business which at once placed him among the foremost merchants
of the place, and which under his successful management grew in magnitude and
importance until the house more than regained its former ascendancy as one of
the leading dry goods stores in the northern part of the state. Increasing the
stock by the addition of full and complete lines of general merchandise, he soon
built up a trade which amounted to one hundred thousand dollars annually, this
volume of business being easily maintained during the six years he remained at
the head of the establishment, as was also its reputation for fair and honorable
dealing. At the expiration of the period indicated, Mr. Ruddell decided to turn
his attention to another line of enterprise; accordingly, in 1889, he retired
from the mercantile business and on October 8th of that year organized the
Citizens' National Bank of Kokomo, which, like his previous enterprises, has
fully justified his expectations by becoming one of the leading institutions of
the kind in this part of the state, doing a large and steadily increasing
business and growing constantly in public favor. As president of this
institution he has displayed executive ability of a high order, besides a
familiarity with monetary matters which has made him an authority on banking and
won for him a conspicuous place among the representative financiers of the
state. In addition to the lines of business enumerated, Mr. Ruddell has also
been quite active in promoting the material growth of Kokomo, and to this end
has become interested in various industrial enterprises which have added greatly
to the city's high standing as an important manufacturing and business center.
Among the enterprises with which he is identified and for the growth of which he
has contributed liberally of his means and influence are the Kokomo Steel and
Wire Company, the Kokomo Nail and Brad Company, the Globe Stove Company and
others of lesser note,  being a heavy stockholder in several of these concerns
and officially connected with their management. As a business man fully in touch
with the progress of the times, Mr. Ruddell easily stands in the front rank
among his compeers in the state of Indiana, being broad-minded and liberal in
his relations with the public and possessing a genius for large and important
undertakings. His judgment has ever been sound and seldom at fault, his
foresight clear and accurate, these qualities, with shrewd tact and well
developed common sense, enabling him to achieve a series of continued successes
such as few in a much longer life attain. Although in his fifty-eighth year, he
still retains to a marked degree the possession of his physical powers, while
his mental faculties are as strong and vigorous as they were at the beginning of
his career. His private life has been marked by honor, integrity and a strong
sense of justice, which have won for him the confidence and esteem of all who
come within the range of his influence. Independent in his political views, he
has ever avoided, rather than sought, the arena of political conflict, though
always ready to assume any burden his friends might deem it expedient for him to
bear. With an abiding interest in the welfare of his fellow men, he has been
active in promoting the general good, and for a period of nine years was a
member of the city school board, serving as secretary-treasurer and president of
the board three terms each.

   Mr. Ruddell has a beautiful and palatial home, one of the finest and most
attractive in the city, the presiding spirit of which is the gentle and refined
lady who so worthily bears his name and to whom he was united in marriage in
June, 1878. Mrs. Ruddell before her marriage was Rose McLain, the daughter of
Judge McLain, of Wabash, in which city she spent her girlhood and received her
educational training. She has borne her husband three children, the oldest of
whom, a daughter by the name of Ruth, is the wife of J. C. Patton; Raymond, the
second in order of birth, is manager of the Kokomo Nail and Brad Company, and
Fred, the youngest member of the family, holds a position in the bank. Mrs.
Ruddell, who is a lady of many admirable qualities, moves in the best social
circles of Kokomo and is also interested in various lines of educational and
benevolent work, being a member of the Orphan Home Society.

   The Citizens' National Bank, of which Mr. Ruddell is president and chief
stockholder, was organized October 8, 1889, with a capital of one hundred
thousand dollars, which was increased to two hundred thousand dollars in
December of 1907. The bank has met with encouraging success and, as stated in a
preceding paragraph, its steady growth in public favor, managed as it is by safe
and conservative business men, is indicative of its solidity and popularity,
being at this time one of the best known institutions of the kind in the
northern part of the state. There are now on deposit about one million one
hundred thousand dollars, with sixty thousand dollars surplus. The original
incorporators were Richard Ruddell, Jacob R. Bruner, George W. Landon, J. C.
Blacklidge and others, the first named being elected president, which
responsible position he has since filled to the satisfaction of all concerned.
The others officials at this time are G. W. Landon, vice president; Frank
McCarthy, cashier; R. F. Scherer, assistant cashier.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)



File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/howard/bios/ruddell294nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/infiles/

File size: 9.5 Kb