Ruggles family papers

The Ruggles Family Papers consist of correspondence, household accounts and receipts, leases and other personal and financial papers of Herman, Ellen McCoy, Thomas Colden, Julie Flewwelling, and Ellen Rosalie Ruggles. Since both daughters remained with their parents and since Thomas Colden Ruggles also returned home periodically, the papers form a nearly continuous record of the family's social and economic life over a period of nearly twenty five years, ca.1845-1867. Particularly well documented are the household accounts and business transactions involving land holdings in the Union Square area of New York City and around Cleveland, Ohio, and the purchase, refurbishing, and upkeep of a new family home in Jersey City, New Jersey, ca.1855.

Papers of a specific family member, including letters addressed to them by immediate family members, correspondence with others, and financial records kept by them, are arranged by family member at the beginning of the collection. Other more general types of papers, such as household bills and receipts, inventories, calling cards, and clippings, are arranged by record type.

The papers of Julia Ruggles are the most extensive. Her correspondents include her brother, writing concerning his engineering work on the railroads of Virginia in the 1850's and of his Civil War assignments around Cincinnati. He also writes of his political leanings and his opinions of Lincoln. Sister Rosalie, in 1853, visited her brother in Virginia and took "the cure" at Hot Springs and White Sulphur Springs. Her letters to Julia describe the area and the social life.

Another of Julia Ruggles major correspondents is John Sweet, her agent in Rockport, Ohio. Following the death of her father in 1857 Julia assumed many financial responsibilities for the family's land holdings. Sweet's letters discuss tenants and rents, taxes, prospects for land sales, and oil rights. In 1864 the family decided to sell the Ohio property, and Julia traveled alone to Ohio to negotiate the sale. Her papers contain her notes made at the time as well as frequent letters from Rosalie describing conditions at home and giving advice.

The provenance of the Ruggles Family Papers is unclear. There is some indication that a portion of these papers was received with the Baldwin Company Papers, Ms.No.56. Similar papers were found in the Baldwin Family Papers, Ms.No.55 and were removed from them when the Ruggles Family Papers were processed in 1984.