Gaines Ruger Donoho: Life & Art Early Life and Education Born: December 21, 1857, in Church Hill, Mississippi. Donoho’s father, Robert Donoho, was a planter from Virginia, and his mother, Julia Sophia Ruger, hailed from New England. His childhood on a Mississippi plantation was disrupted by the American Civil War, during which his father was killed. Following this tragedy, Donoho and his family relocated to New England under the care of a maternal relative, General Thomas H. Ruger. He received formal artistic training at the Art Students League of New York before embarking on an e…