Zebulon Rudulph was the second son of Tobias Rudulph, an account of
whose family is given elsewhere in this volume. He was born in Elkton,
June 28, 1794. Though well remembered by some of the older residents of
the place of his nativity who knew him when they were young, but little
is known of his early life except that he was possessed of a kind heart
and an affable disposition; and appears to have been more given to the
cultivation of his literary tastes, than to the practice of those
utilitarian traits which had they been more highly developed, would have
enabled him to have reaped a richer pecuniary harvest than fell to his
lot from the cultivation of the others.
For a time in early manhood Mr. Rudulph was engaged in merchandising in
Elkton, and subsequently became the first agent of the Philadelphia,
Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company in that town, which office he
held from the time the company commenced business in 1837, until 1840 or
'41, when he removed to Memphis, Tennessee, where in 1847 he published a
small volume of 247 pages entitled "Every Man's Book; or, the Road to
Heaven Staked Out; being a Collection of Holy Proofs Alphabetically
Arranged as a Text Book for Preachers and Laymen of all Denominations."
Mr. Rudulph was a Universalist, and the object of the book was to
inculcate the tenets of that denomination.
Mr. Rudulph remained in Memphis for a few years and subsequently removed
to Izard county, Arkansas, where he died a short time before the
commencement of the war of the rebellion. He was a voluminous writer,
and the author of a large number of fugitive poems, many of which are
said to have been quite humorous and possessed of much literary merit.
Very few of his poems have been preserved, which is much regretted for
the reason that it is highly probable that those extant do not fully set
forth the poetical ability of their author. The following poems except
the one entitled "Thoughts on the Death of his grandchild Fanny," were
published in _The Elkton Courier_ nearly half a century ago.