Dr. Holman was educated at Cherry Valley Medical School, New York, and prepared for his missionary work at the Cornwall Foreign Mission School in the summer before his departure for the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii].

Dr. and ¤Mrs. Holman, members of the Pioneer Company, sailed from Boston, October 23, 1819, brig Thaddeus, Captain Blanchard; anchored at Kailua, Hawaii, April 4, 1820, a voyage of 164 days.

They were left at Kailua to establish a missionary station at the residence of the king, Kamehameha II. Later they moved to Lahaina and on to Honolulu before spending eight months on the Island of Kauai.

Dr. Holman, as the mission's first physician, delivered many of their first children to the young missionary couples. However, he and his wife did not adjust in spirit to their fellow workers and there was a mutual decision that they depart the mission. They did so July 30, 1820, returning to the United States with their one child, Lucia Kamamalu, in the whaleship Mentor, via Canton and the Cape of Good Hope, 1821, arriving at Boston, May 15, 1822. They had received their dismissal from the ABCFM. May 12, 1822. [Missionary Album Portraits and Biographical Sketches of the American Protestant Missionaries of the Hawaiian Islands, Sesquicentennial Edition, (Hawaiian Mission Children's Society, Honolulu, HI), 1969, pp. 168-169]

I'm sure that there must be a very interesting story lurking behind that last paragraph! They stayed only 3 months! -R.

See the page for his brother, John.

• Brother: ¤RUGGLES, John D. [1859-1892] American bandit

Was a member of the Boston Tea Party during the revolutionary war and the last member to pass on. Member of St Andrews Lodge in Boston - met on a lodge day above the Green Dragon Tavern (Masonic meeting place) dressed as Indians. They went to the Boston Tea Party. Comfort Ruggles on his death bed told he was one of them.
[Bev and Tom's Genealogy Page, attributed to a letter from Iva Queen to Mrs. Lawrence Helton]

• Brother: ¤RUGGLES, Charles L. [1870-1892] American bandit

Born in Brookfield, CT, Ruggles studied at the mission school at Cornwall before sailing with the first company of American missionaries [to Hawaii] in 1819. He and his wife, Nancy Wells Ruggles (1791-1873), future mother of six children, helped to establish two missions in the Hawaiian Islands; one at Waimea, Kaua'i, with the Samuel WHITNEYs, and another, at Hilo, with the Joseph GOODRICHes. Ruggles, who was so beloved by the Hawaiians that they called him "Keiki" (child), struggled with ill health and finally returned to the United States with his family in 1834. Samuel's sister, Lucia Ruggles Holman [qv], and her husband [qv] were in the same party of missionaries. [Day, op cit, p.111]

On October 23, 1819, Samuel Ruggles and his wife joined the first missionary company sent out by the American Board to the Hawaiian islands, others in this company being Rev. Hiram Bingham, 1st; Rev. Asa Thurston, Dr. Thomas Holman, Rev. Samuel Whitney, Elisha Loomis, Daniel Chamberlain -- each accompanied by his wife -- and three Hawaiian youths from the mission school at Cornwall, CT. Samuel Ruggles and his wife remained at the Hawaiian Islands fifteen years and did valuable work as teachers. They returned in 1834. [Hawley, p.549]

1819 10 23

Mr. and Mrs. Ruggles were members of the Pioneer Company which sailed from Boston in the brig Thaddeus, Captain Blanchard,

1820 04 04

Arrived at Kailua, Hawaii, a voyage of 164 days.

1820-1823

Established the station at Waimea, Kauai, with the Whitneys

1824-1825

Established the station at Hilo, with the Goodriches

1825-1826

They returned to Waimea

1826-1828

Were again at Hilo

1828

Rev. Samuel takes cuttings from the coffee plants at Chief Boki's estate and brings them to Kona. The coffee Reverend Ruggles plants is a strain of the variety Coffee Arabica that originated in the high plateaus of Ethiopia. It becomes known in Hawaii as "Kanaka Koppe" (Hawaiian coffee). It is still cultivated in Kona today. [http://kona--coffee.com/cof-hist.html]

1828-1832

Kaawaloa

1830

Time briefly spent in Waimea, Hawaii, for his health

1833

Translated the Catechism on Genesis

1834 01 06

He struggled with poor health and finally returned to the United States with his family (ship Telegraph, Captain Sayre). They had lived in the Hawaiian Islands fourteen years. In their care on this voyage were the small daughters of the Whitneys and the Binghams, Emily Elizabeth Whitney, seven years of age, and Lucy Whiting Bingham, seven years and two months.

1834 06 19

They arrived at Saginaw Harbor, Long Island

1836 11 29

Were released from the ABCFM.

[Missionary Album Portraits and Biographical Sketches of the American Protestant Missionaries of the Hawaiian Islands, Sesquicentennial Edition, (Hawaiian Mission Children's Society, Honolulu, HI), 1969, pp. 168-169]

wiki: 

His wife, ¤Bathsheba Ruggles, contracted with two men to murder him, which they did and threw the body into the well. After discovery of the body, they were apprehended in a nearby tavern -- wearing some of the dead man's clothes!