Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

Use Restrictions

No physical characteristics affect use of this material.

Preferred Citation

Rust Family Papers (M 087), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Acquisition Information

Stirling Murray Rust, Jr., Orleans, MA

Historical Information

The Rust family, a prominent family in the United States, Virginia, Loudoun County, and Leesburg, descends from William Rust (1642-1697), who emigrated from Suffolk County, England to Westmoreland County, VA in approximately 1650. Rusts have also intermarried with other prominent Virginia families, notably the "Stratford" Lee family, of Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794) and Robert E. Lee (1807-1870).

General George Rust (1788-1857), a prominent Loudoun County gentleman, Superintendent United States Arsenal at Harper's Ferry during the Andrew Jackson administration, and member of the Virginia House of Delegates, built the house known as "Rockland" in Leesburg in 1822. The house is considered one the finest Federal plantation dwellings in the area and is now on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register. Gen. Rust's son, Col. Armistead T. M. Rust (1820-1887), was an 1842 West Point graduate who served with the 19th Virginia infantry during the Civil War. His death in 1887 left his second wife, Ida Lee (1840-1921), with 14 children and a large debt. Displaying tremendous diligence and business acumen, she repaid the debt and educated their minor children. Several of their children had great success in the engineering industry in the twentieth century. In 1900, Edwin Grey Rust (1869-1925) invented the Rust Boiler, which minimized the buildup of coal dust and scale in a steam boiler. In 1913, brothers Stirling Murray Rust (1881-1954), Edmund Jennings Lee Rust (1877-1939), and Ellsworth Marshall (E.M.) Rust (1879-1946), founded the Rust Engineering Company. The company designed and built factories and manufacturing plants until its sale in 1967. From 1914-1934, brothers Henry Bedinger (1872-1936) and William Fitzhugh Rust (1874-1940) served as President and Vice President, respectively, of the Koppers Company.

The Rust family has also been one of Loudoun County's most generous philanthropists. In 1986, William F. Rust Jr. (1914-1991) and his wife, Margaret Dole Rust (1918-1995), gave 141 acres to Leesburg to build Ida Lee Park (named after William F. Rust Jr's grandmother) and Rust Library. In 2000, their children donated the Rust manor house to the Audubon Naturalist Society to create the Rust Nature Sanctuary in Leesburg.

E.M. Rust edited and published Rust of Virginia: Genealogical and Biographical Sketches of the descendants of William Rust, 1654-1940. The book traces the descendants of William Rust from the seventeenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. In order to produce the book, E.M. Rust engaged professional researchers and genealogists, and contacted libraries, court houses, historical societies, and distant relatives all over the United States. The book was privately published and distributed to libraries and Rust family members.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of correspondence, documents, and other materials collected and created by E.M. Rust in the process of researching his book, Rust of Virginia, as well as materials related to the publication and distribution of the book. The collection is divided into three series. Series 1 contains correspondence, and Series 2 contains research materials and other documents, and Series 3 contains a bound book of family portraits.

Series 1 contains correspondence of the Rust family dating from 1791-2009. The letters are organized chronologically. Much of the earliest correspondence includes letters written by General George Rust and between Hancock Lee (1797-1860) and his son, James Kendall Lee (1829-1861). Some of the letters are original, and some are handwritten copies. Many have typescript copies with notes by E.M. Rust. Topics addressed in the letters include the European conflict of 1848, the Mexican War, education at Princeton University, development of Virginia's internal railroad system, family relationships in the City of Richmond, political campaign issues, mid-Atlantic travel accommodations, and others. The bulk of correspondence from 1900-1940 is related to genealogical research. Correspondents include members of the Rust family (including Una Owen (1888-1979), E.M. Rust and Stirling Murray Rust) as well as genealogists and researchers. Correspondence dating from 1940-1942 concerns the distribution of Rust of Virginia to libraries, historical societies, and other institutions throughout the United States. From 1943 on, the correspondence deals with sales of Rust of Virginia to interested parties, as well as corrections and additions to the book.

Series 2 consists of research materials used by E.M. Rust to write Rust of Virginia. It contains copious notes, excerpts from court records, family histories, memoranda, and other materials compiled by and for Una Owen and E.M. Rust. Also included are surveys sent to members of the Rust family all over the United States, ancestry charts and family trees, and other materials, including an early nineteenth century document concerning the publication of The Constitution and Regulations of the Society of Ancient Masons. In addition, there is a memoir written by E.M. Rust's sister, Ida Lee Rust Follett (1867-1950), about her childhood at "Rockland" in Leesburg.

Series 3 consists of a bound book of portraits of Colonel Armistead Thomson Mason Rust, C.S.A. (1820-1887), Ida Lee Rust (1840-1921), and their family and children. Portraits include: Laurence Rust (1850-1895) and Evelyn Jenkins (1857-1938); Edward Jennings Lee (1877-1939) and Rebecca Lawrence Rust (1855-1882); Captain Armistead Rust, U.S.N. (1862-1941) and Annie Weems Ridout (1864-1951); George Rust (1868-1940) and Gertrude Roberts (1872-1951); Edwin Gray Rust (1869-1925) and Margaret DeHuff Meiley 1872-1966); Henry Bedinger Rust (1972-1936) and Elizabeth Sage Watkins (1879-1970); William Fitzhugh Rust (1872-1940) and Mary Elizabeth Lee Fleming (1886-1967); Edmund Jennings Lee Rust (1877-1939) and Ethel Morrow Snyder (1882-1969); Ellsworth Marshall Rust (1879-1946) and Eva Thompson Manigault (1976-1945); Stirling Murray Rust (1881-1954) and Mary Hilton Coburn (1878-1979); William Meade Coulling (1859-1932) and Henrietta Lee Rust (1864-1932); Thomas Washington Edwards(1854-1927) and Lily Southgate Rust (1867-1937); John Dawson Follett (1869-1918) and Ida Lee Rust (1867-1950).

Chronological

Related Material

See surname "Rust" in Loudoun County Public Library catalog (http://catalog.lcpl.lib.va.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=); See also memoirs by Ida Lee Rust Follett, H.B. Rust, Edwin Gray Rust in Unpublished Papers Collection, and "Fleming, Lee, and Rust families" in Oversized Family Charts, undated (OMB 019), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA.

Separated Material

None

Adjunct Descriptive Data

Other Finding Aid

None