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Puritan. In 1847 he built the Pilgrim and Ithaca. The Milan Tribune published the following item, reprinted in the Cleveland Herald in all probability concerning the Ithaca: Mr. Ruggles is about commencing another Schooner in his prolific shipyard. It is to be of about 200 tons burthen, and in readiness for the spring trade. This, if we count right, will be the seventh Schooner built by him within two years, and none of them less than 200 tons, custom-house measurement. The total number built here within that time, is nine, with an aggregate of over 1,800 tons.95 Salmon and his brother, Enos, who was also a ship carpenter, were born in the Webb Settlement, near Monroeville, not far from Milan. Their family was originally from Connecticut. Salmon Ruggles was still a builder of record as late as 1865, when he signed the master carpenter's enrollment to the schooner Nettie Weaver. It is possible that either or both Bates and Ruggles were master carpenters for the firm of Merry and Gay. Ebenezer Merry was the founder of the town. He was born at East Hartford, Connecticut, on July 21, 1773. He died at Milan in 1846. James P. Gay was brought in from New York by Merry, and was largely a promoter. When the shipbuilding firm was dissolved, Gay reputedly went into the forwarding and commission business at Cincinnati, and later went to the West.96 Henry Bates appears as a builder in the 1840's and 1850's. Whether there was a relationship to Eveline Bates is not known. In the published notice of the survey of the Huron River, prior to the construction of the canal, a "Mr. Bates of New York" appears as one of the undersigned.97 Again there is a possibility that he built for Merry and Gay. Dave F. Edwards was brought in by Merry and Gay in 1854 from the shipyard of W. H. Webb at New York. Edwards was born December 20, 1819 in New York City. In 1830 he shipped as a cabin boy on board the bark Sarah, bound for Brazil. He served on board the frigate U.S.S. Constitution between 1837 and 1840. Edwards sailed and commanded several vessels between 1841 and 1848, sailing all over the world. In 1849 he traveled to the region around Milan where he must have met Ebenezer Merry. In 1852, W. H. Webb, a noted builder of clipper ships in New York, sent Edwards as carpenter on board the Alabama to locate the sunken clipper ship San Francisco. The Alabama, in turn, was nearly lost, but Edwards managed to keep the pumps going long enough to save her. In 1853 he returned to work for Webb, and in 1854, as stated above, came to work as foreman for Merry and Gay. This association lasted until 1861 58