Samuel B. Ruggles

Samuel Bulkley Ruggles (April 11, 1799 – August 28, 1881) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. He was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1838, and a Canal Commissioner from 1839 to 1842 and in 1858. As a large landholder, he donated the land for the creation of Gramercy Park in New York City. Its restrictive covenant has preserved it through much development nearby. He was a member of the city's Chamber of Commerce, which published his reports on economics and public policy. In the 1860s, he represented the United States at several international conferences on economics and statistics in Europe.

Early life Samuel Ruggles was born in New Milford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, of an old New England family. He was the son of Ellen (née Bulkley) Ruggles and Philo Ruggles (1765–1829), who became Surrogate and District Attorney of Dutchess County, New York. He urged appointment of Gibbs on the basis of his qualifications and also the upgrading of Columbia's curriculum to include more of the physical sciences, and made a plea for a strong college. At the time, some people considered Gibbs' Unitarian orientation controversial. The university has long been secular.

In July 1858, Ruggles was appointed by Governor John Alsop King as a canal commissioner again, this time to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Samuel S. Whallon, and he served briefly until the end of the year.

In the 1860s, Ruggles was selected as a United States delegate and representative to several European assemblies, such as the International Statistics Congress in Berlin in 1863, the Paris Exposition of 1867, and the 1869 International Statistics Conference at The Hague.

Gramercy Park Flagstone near west gate to Gramercy Park bearing the words "Gramercy Park Founded By Samuel B. Ruggles 1831 Commemorated By This Tablet Imbedded In The Gramercy Farm By John Ruggles Strong 1875"

As a large landholder in New York City, Ruggles created Gramercy Park, dedicated in 1831, to which he personally donated the land. He deeded the property to the city with a covenant restricting surrounding uses to residential and providing that the residents be taxed to maintain the park. He was also instrumental in getting Union Square established. Of the parks and squares he said,

Come what will, our open squares will remain forever imperishable. Buildings, towers, palaces, may moulder and crumble beneath the touch of time; but space—free, glorious, open space—will remain to bless the City forever.

Study of the Hawaiian Language In 1819, with the assistance of Hawaiian-born Henry Opukahaia, Ruggles published the first grammar of the Hawaiian language during his work with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Cornwall, Connecticut. Prior to his work, the Hawaiian language had never been given serious analysis, and was only understood from hastily written notes from explorers visiting the Hawaiian islands. Missionaries in the Hawaiian islands who studied his grammar were not prepared for the diversity of consonant sounds used in practice on the island, as his grammar did not explain variations in the usage of consonants such as /t/ versus /k/ or /l/ versus /r/.

Ruggles' work was mostly ignored by Hawaiian language scholars for centuries possibly because of his idiosyncratic transcriptions using numerical symbols, for example using 3 for /a/ and 8 for /u/. Ruggles was married to Mary Rosalie Rathbone (1800–1878), the daughter of prominent merchant John Rathbone Sr. Together, they were the parents of: Ellen Ruggles, who married to the attorney George Templeton Strong (1820–1875) and lived in New York James Francis Ruggles (1827–1895) also lived in New York and who married Grace Baldwin (1857–1930). After his death, she married Henry Meyer Johnson.

Ruggles died on August 28, 1881, at the Surf Hotel on Fire Island where he spent his summer vacations. After his wife had died several years before, he had given up their big house and lived during the winter season at an apartment in the Westminster Hotel in New York City.

Descendants Through his daughter Ellen, he was the grandfather of John Ruggles Strong