Malcolm Day Rudd Papers

Malcolm Day Rudd, of Lakeville (a part of Salisbury), Connecticut, was born on 3 April 1877, the son of General William Beardslee (1838-1901) and Maria Coffing (Holley) Rudd (1842-1914).

A descendant of Lieutenant Jonathan Rudd, a native of England and resident of New Haven, CT, as early as 1642, and of Saybrook, CT, in 1646. His father was secretary, treasurer, and general manager of the Holley Manufacturing Company of Lakeville, manufacturers of pocket cutlery.

Malcolm Rudd attended public and private schools until 1891, including the Robbins School (Norfolk, CT), and prepared for college at the Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, CT). He entered Yale College in the fall of 1896, but was obliged to leave in February 1897 due to illness. The following fall he enrolled as a special student at Harvard College, but again ill health forced him to abandon his studies.

After dealing in real estate for two years, he was appointed chief clerk to the Supervisor of the 1900 Census of the State of Connecticut. In 1901, he was made treasurer and general manager of the Holley Manufac, offices he held until his death on 22 January 1942.

Deeply interested in the work of patriotic societies, Rudd served as Division Commander (1904-1906) of the Connecticut Division, Sons of Veterans, and secretary of the Tri-State Grand Army of the Republic Association, and was a member of the Connecticut Society of Sons of the American Revolution (secretary of the Colonel Sheldon Company), the Connecticut Historical Society, and the American Historical Association.

He was actively interested in the policies of the Republican Party, serving as a representative to the General Assembly and chairman of the Committee of Military Affairs (1917, 1919), and State senator and Senate Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs (1921, 1923). For twelve years he was a trial justice of the peace of Salisbury, and served as a member of the Salisbury Board of Finance for fifteen years. From 1917 to 1921 he was a captain in the Connecticut State Guard, secretary of the Selective Service Draft Board number 19 (1917-1919) and chairman of the Salisbury War Bureau. He was deputy State tax commissioner (1921-1922), deputy commissioner of motor vehicles (1923-1933), and was appointed chief examiner of the Connecticut Bureau of Old Age Assistance in 1935.

Rudd gave much time to the study of local history, was secretary-treasurer of the Salisbury Association, Inc. for twenty-five years, and served as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Department of War Records of the State of Connecticut.

Among Rudd's publications are Men of Worth of Salisbury Birth (1991), “Inscriptions at Salisbury Center, Lime Rock, Etc.,” (1898), “An Historical Sketch of Salisbury, Conn” (1899), and “Historical Collections Relating to the Town of Salisbury”, published by the Salisbury Association, Inc., volume 1 (1913) and volume 2 (1916). He also wrote numerous articles on historical subjects for various newspapers and magazines.

[Source: Condensed from the New England Historical Genealogical Society Register, October 1942, v. 96, pp. 393-394.]