Barbara Leroy

The following I obtained from Barbara Leroy.  After seeing her name as a contributor on Ancestry for the Ruedger family, I emailed Barbara.  She has published a family history book on Blurb.com titled An American Family highlighting the Ruedger, Gurrad, Foster, Clark families and more.
She extracted this information from her book and shared it.

John F Ruediger came to these shores from Saxony in 1854.  He joined his fellow countrymen in south Cook County, where he clerked in a store.  He wooed and won the heart of Margaretha Gurrad, daughter of a well-off farmer three years later.  Her brother, Lorenz, and John apparently went into business together; their households are side by side in Bremen (later Tinley Park) and they are listed as merchants [1860 census].  That same year, John is listed as postmaster of Bremen Station.
The Civil War dramatically changed the life of John and his family.  Like many of his brothers-in-law, John heeded the call of his country and enlisted in Company B, 13th Illinois Cavalry as Commissary Sergeant in March, 1862.  This company was made up of mostly German speaking men and was known as The German Guides.  It was while in the army that the spelling of John's surname was changed--the "i" was left out, and John kept the new spelling the rest of his life. [Note: if you look at the Illinois Muster and Descriptive Rolls, they have the surname as "Rendgers" or something like that!}
The German Guides were assigned to patrol the Black River in southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas.  The area was swampy and conditions were not healthy, and by summer John was "taken violently sick with fever and other diseases". He was treated at the court house in Greenville MO and then transported to the hospital at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis, from where he was discharged.
After his discharge, John went back home only to find his business in ruins.  Wartime inflation coupled with many people defaulting on loans he'd made them meant he was out of business.  In 1863, he spent some time clerking in Cincinnati, OH, where his second son, Frederick, was born.  His youngest son, John, said they moved back to IL when his father was given the Ford County farm in payment for a loan.  It is known that the family had moved there by 1870.
 It is doubtful that John was able to do much work; his pension application states theat he could do "only light work on farm".  He started applying for a pension in 1879, and would have likely obtained one had he not died from typhoid fever in 1880.  His widow was unable to get the pension; the government demanded a copy of John's physical examination, which had never been done.  John died without a will, and died "seized in fee of certain real estate", according to the probate records.  The court gave Margaret permission to to sell the property and "she did on the 18th of November AD 1882, between the hours of ten o'clock in the forenoon and five o'clock in the afternoon of said day at East door of the Courthouse in Paxton in Ford County in the State of Illinois, offer for sale at public venue the real estate described in said decree, and Francis L. Gurrad (misspelled "Garrad") bid the sum of Sixteen hundred and two and 82/100 dollars for the real estate described in said decree--and the said Francis L Gurrad, being the highest bidder for said described real estate, the same was struck off to him at the sum aforesaid, and I executed and delivered to him a deed for said real estate as Administrator of the Estate..."  Frances was Margaretha's brother.  The final report in this probate record indicates that $600 was paid to the estate of Lenhardt Gurrad, Margaretha's father; apparently her brothers had given her more than her share of inheritance to help her out. {Her father also died in 1880].  Francis apparently gave the farm back to Margaretha; at the time of her death, it was in her hands again, though mortgaged to her brother-in-law and neighbor, Jacob Blesch.
John Ruedger, youngest son of John F Ruedger, states that his mother was kicked by a horse and thereby developed uterine cancer.  Whatever the cause, she did die of this disease, but had presence of mind enough to make a will ... [contents follow in the book]