Ellis Ruley

1882-1959

Ellis Ruley was born in Norwich, CT in 1882 to a former slave.  His father was of mixed descent from African American and Native American. Ruley worked in the construction trade most of his life.  He renovated a 100 year old house with an $8,500 settlement he received from a work related truck accident.  That same year, 1933, he married a second time to a white woman, Wilhelmina Fox.  It is this marriage that lead to his untimely death in 1959.  Perhaps motivated by racist hate for his mixed marriage, his death occurred within 200 feet of his home and his body was found partially frozen with a gash in his head.  Another theory was that he was murdered on his property in a white neighborhood since he had turned down numerous offers to sell. As outlined in a book by Glen Robert Smith, Discovering Ellis Ruley, the mystery surrounding his death may never be solved.  Ruley started painting in the late 1930s and worked primarily with Masonite and poster board and produced approximately 84 known works.  He painted scenes from everyday life in Norwich.  He painted in house paint with subject matters such as animals, cowboys, Indians, bathing beauties, and landscapes.  He did have a solo exhibit at the Slater Memorial Museum in 1952.  In 1984, his masterwork, Adam and Eve, was discovered at a Brimfield, Massachusetts, antique market.  Glen Smith documented all of Ruley’s known work and staged a highly successful showing of his work in 1995 that traveled to Atlanta, San Diego, DC, and NYC.  Ellis Ruley was a subject of a segment on CBS’s Sunday Morning in 1995. - Source Discovering Ellis Ruley by Glen Robert Smith