Fred and Janet Rutledge

The picture below is of Fred Marvin Rutledge. It was taken in 1951 when he was in the Korean War. He was born Dec. 10, 1923, in Fresno California.


This is Fred M. Rutledge in an undated photo, probably taken between 1928 and 1930. He recalls some early memories during Prohibition, including his mother Leah and his grandmother inadvertantly taking him to a Speakeasy one night in north San Francisco.



He grew up in Fresno during the Great Depression. His father worked as a retail salesman selling clothes and as a car salesman. He recalls being relatively well off comparatively speaking during this time, though he worked various odd jobs including a paper route.

The picture below is of a family outing in the 1930s. From left to right is Guy, Fred, Grandma Schofeld (b. just prior to the Civil War of which she had girlhood memories), and Leah.

After high school Fred Rutledge entered Fresno State as a History Major, but like so many of his generation, quit school in 1942 and joined the infantry. He recalls sitting on a front porch on a mild December day in 1941 with a group of friends, when his mothere came out and told them that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. He saw action first in the Phillipines, and then towards the end of the war in Korea (which suffered under Japanese occupation). The writing on the back of this photo succinctly states, "Lakawe 1945 after a strenuous patrol".

These are Fred M. Rutledge's army papers, complete with artillery scores.

Below is a picture of Fred M. Rutledge in 1945 in his dress uniform.

On the picture below was written simply "From left to right, Schenkel, Grim, Rutledge, Alexander". The picture was taken in Korea in 1945. I recall that growing up, especially as I grew older, he grew more willing to give accounts of his experiences in both World War II and Korea. As was the case with many of his contemporaries, the memories were not always pleasant.

In 1946 Fred M. Rutledge met Janet Jensine Rutledge at Huntingdon Lake, California. Below is a picture of Janet Rutledge at the age of 17. She was born November 14, 1925 to Anna and Carl Overgaard, and grew up on the family farm in Madiera California. Because she grew up on a farm, she was luckier than many in the Great Depression, though she recalls a great deal of thrift on the part of her parents, who raised, among other things, turkeys and pigs. Her father was generous enough to let the economic refugees from the Dust Bowl camp out on their farm.

Here she is in the photo below at the age of 19, at which point she was working for the war effort in San Francisco.

The photograph below is roughly contemporaneous with the one above.

This is Huntingdon Lake California. It was home to a summer camp which one could attend for college credit back then. It was here, in the summer of 1946, that Fred met Janet. Fred relates the story that Marion, Janet's brother, was also at the camp, and that he initially thought that he was my mother's boyfriend and so was slow to make his approach. Once that got settled, however, things moved rather quickly, and very soon (I believe within a week or so) my father was talking marriage. The backs of the postcards indicate that my mother was not feeling well one week, and another week received a care package from her mother which included fried chicken.

Below is Janet Rutledge with a friend on Huntingdon Lake.

Carl Overgaard liked a party, and he used the opportunity of Janet and Fred's engagement to fete the couple and their families.

Janet Rutledge's wedding picture from the Fresno Bee.

The wedding announcement from the Fresno Bee.

The Marriage License.

Their wedding invitation.

Janet Rutledge's wedding photo. They were married on March 6, 1947.

By January 7, 1948, Fred James Rutledge had been born; Joyce Carol Rutledge came along on December 15, 1949. The picture was taken on the beach in Santa Cruz in 1951.

After they were married, they not only started a family but continued their education: Fred recalls the story of seeing Janet have to leave from biology class ill, sufficiently naive in those days to not realize that they were on their way to being parents.

Janet Overgaard-Rutledge's Family.

The above picture is of Anna Tommerstool. She arrived in this county at the age of 16 from Nordfjordeid, in Nordfjord Norway, very early in the century through Elis Island New York. She was forced to leave home as a result of poverty in western Norway at the time. In her early years in this country she worked as a housemaid, but in WWI worked as a nurse, and continued to work as a nurse caring for the sick and the dying in the great flu pandemic of 1919-1920. The experience of taking care of the sick and the dying was something her daughter, Janet Rutledge, was to recall that she never forgot.

Anna Tommerstool here is in the middle of the picture in the back dressed in white with no black cape. It was taken in South Dakota during the First World War.

The picture below is of Carl Overgaard, whom Anna Tomerstool married shortly after the war. It was taken in Yosemite sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Carl Overgaard was born in 1886 in Hobro, Denmark, but was raised in Aarhus and did a stint in the Danish navy before arriving in this country via New Orleans. Anna and Carl settled eventually in Madiera, California, where he made a living in farming. They had six children, Pete, Avery, and Marion Overgaard, Gennie Pauline Overgaard-Jessen, and Janet Overgaard-Rutledge; one other child was born in the 1930s but died after three days. Carl Overgaard passed away of a heart-attack in 1961 at the age of 75 (he had had one at the age of 55 as well), and Anna passed away in 1969 after a brief illness.

This is an undated photo of Carl's father, Janet Rutledge's grand-father, Anders Overgaard; since he is older the picture may date to as late as the turn of the century.

Below is a photo of his wife, Jensine Overgaard, also undated, but presumably also dating to the turn of the century.

Below is a photo of Anna Overgaard, Carl's sister, with Carl's mother Jensine; it is undated, but Anna died sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I myself met Anna during my parents' 1972 visit to Scandinavia. At the time she was quite old but extremely spry and prepared some of the finest meals that I can still recollect them to this day - in particular a slew of herring dishes. Perhaps it was her work in their victory garden that kept her so vigorous.

Below is a picture of Carl Overgaard with his brothers, taken sometime between the (late) 1930s and early 1940s. From left to right are Chris, Niels, Holm, and Carl Overgaard.

Fred Rutledge's Family History.

The following narrative gives an account of the life of Leah and Guy Rutledge, the parents of Fred M. Rutledge, and their forebears.


This is Fresno in 1886. By that time John Brown Rutledge (b. in Kentucky or Tennesse in 1839) appears to have owned the general store you see below. He is second from the right leaning on the post. He died sometime in the 1890s. John Brown Rutledge was the father of Guy Rutledge.

In the photo below is Clark Levitt Nichols. This is Leah Nichol's father, Fred Rutledge's grandfather. He was b. in Indiana in 1857 and died in Fresno in 1904. The photo was taken the year of his death. He was married to Wilhamie Culver, b. in Missouri on March 7, 1862, in 1885. She passed away in Fresno Ca., April 2, 1949. They had seven children: Delbert (b. Jan. 3, 1886, d. Fresno 1949), Alice May Nichols (b. Nov. 21, 1887, d. in Fresno in the 1980s); Homer Nichols (b. 1889, d. 1890); Millard Nichols (b. 1892, d. 1960); John Newton Nichols (b. 1894, d. La Canada Ca., 1980s); Stanley Nichold (b. Jly 30, 1896, d. Sept. 6, 1905, possibly due to a horse accident); and Fred Rutledge's mother, Leah Nichols, b. 1900 in Clovis Ca., d. Fresno, Feb. 22, 1956.

Below is a picture of Grandma Scholfeld, Fred Rutledge's grandmother.

Below is yet another picture of Grandma Scholfeld with Fred Rutledge's mother, Leah (Leah Nichols).

This is the earliest picture I have of the Nichols children; the second from the Left is Leah, and the picture dates to 1906. Based on Fred Rutledge's information, one of the girls is certainly not a Nichols, since there is only one other girl in the faimly, three years older than Leah. Possibly she is a cousin. It is also difficult to imagine that the boy is a sibling, but rather a cousin, since Leah's brothers all were born a good six or more years before her.

This is Leah Nichols in 1908.

This is Guy Rutledge, son of John Brown Rutledge (see above photo). Guy Rutledge's mother was Nancy Mouser, b. in Indiana or Iowa in 1849, d. Fresno in 1934. Guy Rutledge was their only son; he was b. in Hanford Ca., Feb. 2, 1888, and d. in June of 1949. The picture below shows Guy in his WWI dress uniform in 1918 at the age of 30.

Guy Rutledge on the left with a friend in England during WWI.

Guy Rutledge was a survivor of the first incident of mass casualties for Americans in the First World War when the troop transport he was on, the Tuscania (click on the link for more information about the history of this episode), was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The telegram below indicates that he was safely rescued from the disaster.

Once safely in Britain they put on a show for the survivors. Below is a copy of the program that Guy Rutledge kept.

King George V sent a letter to his regiment, the 158th aerosquadron, congratulating them on their deliverance.

King George also reviewed the regiment's troops. The man in the front is the king; Guy Rutledge is barely visible in the front row. Count to the eighth soldier down on the front row.

Below, Guy Rutledge receives a medal for service.

A picture of the fighting 158th - Guy Rutledge is kneeling, 2nd from the right on the bottom row.

Below is the obituary of C.L. Nichols, Leah's father, from some years before.

This is Leah Nichols sometime between 1918 and 1920. By the time Guy Rutledge married Leah he had already been married and divorced once (to a Ms. Kendall). From that marriage Fred M. Rutledge had a half sister, Phyllis Mulcahy, who d. in Fresno in the 1980s.

Leah Nichols and Guy Rutledge, Fred M. Rutledge's parents, in 1920.

If you have further information concerning these individuals, or want me to add images, please contact me via email.

Steve

Welcome!

This web site has been started and constructed by Steven H. Rutledge. He is also the manager of the sitre. If you have images and contributions to make to this site, please contact him. The site is a photo history of our family. Enjoy!

Steve