Robert "Bob" Trull was born in about February 1867 to Charles E. Trull and Rhoda P. Helms Trull, in Union Co., North Carolina. He has many descendants also named Robert Trull. For sake of clarity, I will refer to this Robert Trull by his nickname, Bob.
On the 1880 census, he was 14 years old and living with parents Charles (M, 42) and Rhoda (F, 35) as well as siblings William (M, 16), Elizabeth (F, 12), John W. (M, 9), Dora W. (F, 6), Maggie L. (F, 4) and Fannie (F, 2) in Monroe, North Carolina. I have not been able to locate the family at all on the 1870 census, unfortunately.
Bob married Edith "Edie" Hilton in about 1884 per census records.
Edith "Edie" Hilton was born on July 21st, 1866 in Union Co., NC to parents John W. Hilton and Margaret Gardner.
Bob and Edie had three known children together: Flonnie Trull Pressley (1884-1983), Vander Trull (1889-1947), and Bessie Trull Law (1892-1987).
However, Bob also had a son, Robert Chester Trull (my great-great grandfather) in 1893 or 1894 with Lizzie Medlin. For sake of clarity, I will refer to this Robert Trull as R. C.. A marriage record for R. C. to wife Annie Mae Shuman in 1915 gives his parents as Bob Trull and Lizzie Trull (both deceased), and his death certificate (informed by Drucilla Broom) states their names as Bob Trull and Lizzie Medlin. Unfortunately, that is about all I know about Lizzie at this time.
I suspect that Bob and Lizzie were never married for several reasons. First, there were two news articles published on Feb 7th and 8th, 1902 regarding Edie and 2nd husband John Milton Reid. Per the articles, Edie states that Bob died "four months ago" (so about October 1901) and describes herself as his widow -- though she did also state that she had been separated from Bob for 9 years. This suggests they separated in about 1893 -- around the time R. C. was born.
However, it seems that Bob and Edie never legally divorced nor stopped living together; on the 1900 census (7 years after R. C. was born to Bob and Lizzie), Bob and Edie are still living together with two children in Berryhill, Mecklenburg Co., NC, and they are recorded as husband and wife. Their names are given as Robert Trull (head, M, 35) and Edelie (wife, F, 33), and the census states that they had been married 18 years (which suggests they married in about 1882). Their children on the same census are Vander (M, 11) and Bessie (F, 8). Eldest child Flonnie had married and is on the 1900 census in the household of her husband, Marcus "Mark" Pressley. I cannot locate any divorce records for Edie and Bob nor any marriage records for Lizzie and Bob.
Furthermore, R. C. was not raised by his parents; R. C.'s living granddaughter (my grandfather's sister) maintains that he was raised by the Broom sisters (daughters of Squire Broom and "Betsy" Phillips) because his parents were absent, but she's never known exactly why. And, indeed -- R. C. is on the 1900 census at the age of 6 living with boarding house operator Sarah Ellen Broom, her younger sister Mary, and three unrelated boarders; his name was simply given as "Bob". He was recorded as the Broom sisters' "brother." He was still living with Mary and other sisters, Melissa and Drucilla (the latter of which was the informant on R. C.'s death cert., as I mentioned earlier) on the 1910 census, recorded as their "adoptive brother." Drucilla was the owner of the boarding house at that time, apparently having inherited it from Ellen after her passing in 1904.
Additionally, per the Union Co. Deed Indexes, a Robert Chester Medlin was bound to Sarah E Broom in 1894 as an apprentice; I believe this was R. C. and that he was bound to Ellen as an infant due to illegitimacy (I hope to locate the full deed for more information in the future). I suspect his surname was given as such because it was his mother's surname. I cannot find evidence of a Robert Chester Medlin living in NC outside of this document, so I don't believe it was a different person.
No death certificate can be found for Bob Trull, but I believe he did die in about October 1901 as Edie stated. As expected, I cannot locate him on the 1910 census nor in subsequent years. In 1910, Edie was still living in Berryhill with 2nd husband John and their sons George S. and John T. (7 and 5 years old, respectively). Edie and John remained married until his death in 1935, then Edie remained a widower until her death until 1952. On the 1910 census, Bessie and Vander Trull had married their spouses (Robert Milton Law and Katie Pressley, respectively) and were living with them in separate households. Interestingly, Vander's wife Katie was the daughter of a fifth Broom sister, Lucinda!