Pvt. Isaac Rugg (1765–1853)
A Revolutionary War Veteran of Ruggtown, Perrysburg, New York
Pvt. Isaac Rugg was born on February 25, 1765, in the rural hills of Greenwich, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, a frontier community where the ideals of independence were already taking root long before the first shots of the American Revolution. He was the son of John Abbot Rugg and Dorcas (Streeter) Rugg, members of a large New England family whose name would eventually become woven into the landscape of Western New York. Like many boys of his generation, Isaac grew up in the shadow of war, and as a young man he entered military service during the final years of the Revolution. His later pension records confirm his status as a Revolutionary War veteran, placing him among the thousands of citizen soldiers who helped secure the nation’s independence.
After the war, Isaac married Dorcas Gates, and later Emma Mattoon around 1799, followed by Abigail Skinner around 1813 after moving into New York State. His family grew to include at least two known children, Jonathan Gates Rugg and Almira E. (Rugg) Leonard though early Rugg genealogies suggest the possibility of additional children who accompanied him during the family’s westward migration. Like many veterans of his era, Isaac followed the expanding frontier, moving steadily west from Massachusetts into the interior of New York as new lands opened for settlement.
By the early 1800s, Isaac had reached what would become West Perrysburg, a remote and heavily forested corner of Cattaraugus County. Here, the Rugg family established one of the earliest homesteads in the region, and the small settlement that grew around them became known locally as Ruggtown a rare case where a Revolutionary War veteran’s name became permanently attached to a place on the map. Isaac lived out the remainder of his long life in this frontier community, witnessing the transformation of the wilderness into farms, roads, and villages.
Pvt. Isaac Rugg died on January 31, 1853, at the remarkable age of 87 years, 11 months, and 5 days, and was laid to rest in Ruggtown Cemetery, the burial ground that still bears his family’s name. His grave, marked and documented as that of a Revolutionary War soldier, stands today as one of Perrysburg’s most significant links to the founding generation of the United States. Though his military service occurred far from the forests of Cattaraugus County, his legacy took root here in the land he settled, the family he raised, and the small community that still carries the Rugg name nearly two centuries later.
Research completed by Town of Perrysburg Historian - Steve Stockwell