William Byers Ruddell

(John MacDonnell Barb, Jr. Collection; scan by Kyle Mason)

William Byers Ruddell was born in 1849 in Bates, Arkansas. He married Alice Mason. They had nine children. William was a farmer.

The Ruddell's son Simon Adler Ruddell invented a Cattle Guard for Railways. Another son Lawrence, pictured below, ran and was elected to be Sheriff of Independence County, AR in the early twentieth century.

William's grandfather George, and great uncle Abraham, were pioneers of Arkansas. They formed mills, and ran business in Independence County.

William Byers Ruddell's son Lawrence served as Sheriff of Independence County, Arkansas around 1910.

William Byers Ruddell's father John Francis Ruddell was son of George Ruddell. Whose father Capt. Isaac Ruddell settled Ruddle's Mills, Kentucky in the 1780s.

John was Coroner in Independence County, he also worked on making the water ways more navigable.