Robert "Bob" Trull was born in 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.
He married Edith "Edie" Hilton in about 1882 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). There were two news articles published on Feb 7th and 8th, 1902 regarding Edie and 2nd husband John Milton Reid (see below). In the article published on Feb 8th, 1902, Edie states that she has four children, three of them living. This phrasing makes me wonder if she and Bob had a fourth child together who had died, perhaps in infancy thus why there does not appear to be a record of him or her. Edie would have been pregnant with her fourth child, George Selwyn Reid, at the time of the article; George was born a little less than 5 months later on June 28th, 1902. He was J. Milton Reid and Edie's first child together.
However, Bob also had a son, Robert Chester Trull (my great-great grandfather) in 1893 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 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. In the 1902 news articles, Edie states that Bob died "four months ago" 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 -- the same year that 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 apparently not raised by either of his parents; R. C.'s living granddaughter (my grandfather's sister who raised me) has always told me that he was raised by Mary Broom because his parents were absent, but she doesn't know exactly why. R. C. is on the 1900 census at the age of six living with Mary, her elder sister Sarah Ellen Broom who owned a boarding house, and three unrelated boarders; his name was simply given as "Bob". Interestingly, he was noted as the Broom sisters' "brother." He was still living with Mary (and another sister of hers, Drucilla, who took over the boarding house) on the 1910 census at the age of 18 and was noted as their "adoptive brother." In 1920, he is living with his wife Annie Mae in a separate household.
I have also considered that Edith and Lizzie could have been the same person by different names, however I highly doubt this is the case. As previously mentioned, Edie stated in 1902 that she had three living children, but including R. C. she would have had four (Flonnie, Vander, Bessie, and R. C. were all living in February 1902. Edith did not have her fourth child, George Selwyn Reid, until June 1902). R. C. is the only child not present in Bob and Edie's household on any census, but I don't see any other reason why he was not raised by them unless Edie was not his mother. Bessie Trull was born June 3rd, 1892, then R. C. was born March 11th, 1893, just barely over 9 months later. This isn't necessarily evidence, but I think it would be rather unlikely for the same woman to have carried them so close together.
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 census 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.
