# Ruggles Wright

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ruggles_Wright
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ruggles_Wright.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruggles_Wright
> Source revision: 1355565073
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Canadian lumber merchant (1793–1863)}}
'''Ruggles Wright''' (1793 &ndash; August 18, 1863) was a [Canadian](/source/Canadians) [lumber](/source/lumber) merchant, the second youngest son of [Philemon Wright](/source/Philemon_Wright).<ref name=gard/>

He was born in [Woburn, Massachusetts](/source/Woburn%2C_Massachusetts) but moved to Canada with his parents while still young. He later joined the family business in the [timber trade](/source/Ottawa_River_timber_trade). Wright also served as [justice of the peace](/source/justice_of_the_peace) and postmaster during the 1820s.<ref name=rpcq>{{cite web |url=http://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=9381&type=pge |title=Wright, Ruggles |work=Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec |publisher=[Culture et des Communications Quebec](/source/Ministry_of_Culture_and_Communications_(Quebec))|language=fr}}</ref> In 1829, he built the first [timber slide](/source/timber_slide) on the [Ottawa River](/source/Ottawa_River) to transport logs past the [Chaudière Falls](/source/Chaudi%C3%A8re_Falls), creating [Philemon Island](/source/Philemon_Island). However, by 1840, a competing slide built on the opposite ([Ontario](/source/Ontario)) side of the river had won over most of the business.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZLSf-I0XgIC&pg=PA48 |title=Lumber Kings and Shantymen: Logging and Lumbering in the Ottawa Valley |last=Lee |first=David |pages=48–51 |year=2006 |isbn=1550289225}}</ref> He also took on management of the family [cement](/source/cement) manufactory and greatly expanded it during the construction of the [Rideau Canal](/source/Rideau_Canal).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeOMfpYMOtYC&pg=PA199 |title=A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: 1500-1830  |page=199 |last=Skempton |first=A. W |year=2002 |isbn=072772939X}}</ref>

Wright was married twice: first to Hannah Chamberlain and later to Rosina McDowell. His daughter Hannah, married [Joseph Merrill Currier](/source/Joseph_Merrill_Currier), a lumber baron, in 1868. His son [William McKay Wright](/source/William_McKay_Wright) served in the Canadian House of Commons.<ref name=gard>{{cite book |url=http://www.ourroots.ca/page.aspx?id=887015 |title=Pioneers of the Upper Ottawa and the humors of the valley |pages=73–74 |year=1906 |last=Gard |first=Anson Albert}}</ref>

In partnership with [John Egan](/source/John_Egan_(Canadian_politician)), he operated [steamship](/source/steamship)s transporting goods on the Ottawa River.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xwmvAwAAQBAJ&pg=PR67 |title=Upper Ottawa Valley to 1855 |page=lxvi |year=1990 |isbn=0773584080 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press}}</ref>

==External links==
* [http://www.wrightfamily.ca/ the Wright Family]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
;Bibliography
{{refbegin}}
*{{Citation
        |last = Laberge
        |first = Edward P.
        |title = Philemon Wright, a Yankee who helped build Canada. Bytown pamphlet series. 
        |year = 1989
        |publisher = The Historical Society of Ottawa
        |location =Ottawa, Ontario
        |isbn = 
        }}

{{refend}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Ruggles}}
Category:1793 births
Category:1863 deaths
Category:19th-century Canadian merchants
Category:Settlers of the National Capital Region (Canada)
Category:American emigrants to pre-Confederation Quebec
Category:People from Woburn, Massachusetts
Category:Canadian people of English descent
Category:Immigrants to Lower Canada
Category:Canadian justices of the peace
Category:Canadian merchants

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ruggles Wright](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruggles_Wright) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruggles_Wright?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.