In 1857 Lewis Mordecai Ruddick founded a farm in Ukiah, Mendocino County, California, which exists today.This page is to inform Ruddick researchers where this Jackson County, Indiana, youth, who was the son of one of the first commissioners of that county, went and what became of his progeny.
Lewis M. Ruddick was born in Jackson County, Indiana, September 12, 1836, the son of Mordecai and Elizabeth (Marshall) Ruddick.Both parents died while Lewis was young and he was too young to go the the California Gold Field in 1849.In 1855 he had saved sufficient funds and came west and immediately went into the Sierras to join his brother, Abraham Marshall Ruddick, sister Matilda Ruddick Buck and several cousins who were working at or near the Wheeler Mine near Jackson, Amador County, California.Not "striking it rich" he traveled to Mendocino County where he selected a piece of property in the Ukiah Valley a short distance south east of the current City of Ukiah.He then returned to Jackson County and brought back several members of the family who settled here and engaged in farming.While all the other family members moved on Lewis remained and the "Home Place" remains in the Ruddick family today.
On July 1, 1875, he married Sarah S. Miller. Their marriage resulted in eleven children who all remained in California and most lived nearby.
I am also Lewis M. Ruddick, born in 1942,a great grandson of Lewis M. Ruddick.My paternal grandfather is Vernon Earl Ruddick and my grandmother is Ethel Snyder Ruddick.My maternal grandfather is William Warren Alexander and my grandmother is Ethel Velma Tingley Alexander.My father is Robert L. Ruddick and my mother is Velma Mae Alexander Ruddick.
In addition to the above I am searching for any information which will fill in the missing links in the Ruddick Alexander family genealogical trees.
I have completed DNA testing and found that we come from Ireland and that out surname was originally spelled Ruddock.
I will share all my information including DNA results with Ruddick, Ruddock and Alexander family researchers or related family researchers.
I can be reached by mail at 2945 Dalarna Ct., Turlock, CA 95382, or (209) 667-0536.