It has already been observed that the earlier generations of the Ludington family, in colonial days, were prolific; as, indeed, the Ludingtons of the Old Country are said to have been. In revolutionary days, Comfort, Elisha, Stephen, and other collateral relatives of his were the comrades of Henry Ludington in the war and his neighbors in Dutchess and the adjoining counties. Their descendants, and the descendants of those of Colonel Ludington’s twelve children who married and had issue, have been numerous, and many of them have made their mark in contemporary affairs in various parts of the land. It is not the purpose of this work, nor would its compass permit it, to give any detailed chronicle of all the ramifications of the family. Brief notices of a few of its members follow. Let us first deal with some of a collateral line.

Colonel Henry Ludington married, as already noted, his cousin Abigail Ludington. Her brother, Comfort Ludington, who has been mentioned as a soldier in the Revolution, had a son named Zalmon,[216] who in turn had a son also named Zalmon. The last named was a soldier in the War of 1812; in 1818 he went to Virginia, and four years later married Lovina Hagan, of Preston County. Three of his children are still living, namely: Mrs. M. L. Patrick, of Louisville, Kentucky; Dr. Horace Ludington, of Omaha, Nebraska; and General Marshall I. Ludington, U. S. A. Another, Colonel Elisha H. Ludington, U. S. A., died in 1891. Zalmon Ludington himself lived to be more than ninety years of age, and at the age of eighty-eight was able to make an important public address in the city of Philadelphia.

One of the sons of Zalmon Ludington, Elisha H. Ludington, entered the United States Army as a captain in 1861, did important field service with the Army of the Potomac in 1863, being engaged in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and for “gallant and meritorious service” in the latter conflict was brevetted a major on July 2, 1863. On March 13, 1865, he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel “for meritorious services during the war,” and also colonel on the same date “for faithful and meritorious services in his department.” He served at Washington and elsewhere as assistant inspector-general until his retirement for disability on March 27, 1879, and died on January 21, 1891.

FREDERICK LUDINGTON,
Son of Col. Henry Ludington.

Marshall I. Ludington was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1839, and entered the army as captain of volunteers and acting[217] quartermaster-general on October 20, 1862. Like his brother he served in the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns, in the Wilderness, and at Petersburg, and then became chief quartermaster at Washington. In January, 1867, he became major and quartermaster in the regular army, and served in various places and was successively promoted until in 1898 he was made brigadier-general and quartermaster-general of the United States Army, with headquarters at Washington. For several years he had been acting quartermaster-general, but had not enjoyed full authority to organize the department according to his own ideas. Consequently, when he became quartermaster-general, only four days before the declaration of war with Spain, he was confronted with a task of peculiar difficulty, for which he had not been able to make satisfactory preparations such as had been made in other branches of the service. Before he retired from the office, however, he had so perfected the organization and equipment as to make the department a model which military experts from Europe were glad to study. He served until July 4, 1903, when he was retired under the law for age, with the rank of major-general, U. S. A. Since his retirement he has lived at Skaneateles, N. Y.

Mention has been made of Frederick Ludington, son of Colonel Henry Ludington, who with his brother Lewis engaged for a time in general merchandising at Frederickstown, or Kent, N. Y. He married Susannah Griffith, and among their children[218] was a son to whom they gave the name of Harrison, in honor of the general who was just then winning distinction in the United States Army and who afterward became President. Harrison Ludington was born at Kent, New York, on July 31, 1812, and served for a time as a clerk in his father’s and uncle’s store. In 1838 he removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in company with his uncle, Lewis Ludington, and there engaged in general merchandising, in partnership with his uncle Lewis and later with his younger brother, Nelson. They also had extensive interests in the lumber trade. Withdrawing from their firm, he formed a partnership with Messrs. D. Wells and A. G. Van Schaick, in the same business, with extensive lumber mills on Green Bay. He was for many years conspicuously identified with the development of the city of Milwaukee, and as the proprietor of a “general store” is said to have purchased the first bag of wheat ever brought to market at that place. He served for two terms as an alderman of Milwaukee, and in 1872-75 was mayor of that city. His admirable administration of municipal affairs fixed the attention of the whole State upon him, and as a result he was elected governor for the two years 1876 and 1877. He filled that office with distinguished success, but at the end of his single term retired from public life and resumed his manufacturing pursuits, in which he continued until his death, which occurred at Milwaukee on June 17, 1891.

HON. HARRISON LUDINGTON,
Governor of Wisconsin, 1876-1878.

Grandson of Col. Henry Ludington.

George Ludington, second son of Frederick Ludington,[219] and grandson of Colonel Henry Ludington, was born in Putnam County and spent his life there. He married Emeline C. Travis. For some years he occupied and conducted the store which had formerly been managed by his father and uncle, as already related, and afterward became cashier of the Bank of Kent, later known as the Putnam County National Bank, a place which he filled until his death.

A great-grandson of Colonel Henry Ludington, through his son Frederick and the latter’s daughter Caroline, is Lewis S. Patrick, formerly in government service at Washington but now and for many years living at Marinette, Wisconsin. To his painstaking and untiring labors must be credited the collection of a large share of the data upon which this memoir of his ancestor is founded.

Old store at Kent, built by Frederick and Lewis Ludington about 1808

Sibyl Ludington, Colonel Ludington’s oldest daughter, who married Henry Ogden, a lawyer of Catskill, N. Y., (elsewhere called Edward and Edmund,) went to live at Unadilla, N. Y., and bore four sons and two daughters. The distinguished career of one of these sons may well be told in a quotation from the “New York Observer” of October 18, 1855, as follows:

Major Edmund A. Ogden, of the United States army, who recently died of cholera at Fort Riley, Kansas Territory, was born at Catskill, N. Y., Feb. 20th, 1810. Soon after, he removed[220] to Unadilla, N. Y., where he remained until he entered the United States Military Academy. On graduating, he was attached as brevet Second Lieutenant to the First Regiment of Infantry, then stationed at Prairie du Chien. He was subsequently appointed a First Lieutenant in the Eighth Infantry, where he served until appointed a Captain in the Quartermaster’s Department, in which corps he remained until his death. He served with credit and distinction through the Black Hawk, Florida and Mexican wars, and was created a Major by brevet, for meritorious conduct in the last named of these wars.

His services, ever faithfully performed, have been arduous and responsible. He has disbursed for the government millions of the public money; he has labored hard, and always to the purpose, and after giving to his country five and twenty years of hard and useful service, he has died poor.

For the last six years previous to last spring, Major Ogden was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, where he has rendered important service to the army in his capacity of Quartermaster. From this post he was ordered to California, and he removed with his family to New York with the expectation of embarking on the 20th of April last, when his orders were suddenly suspended, and he was sent back to assist in outfitting the expedition against the Sioux Indians. He was afterwards charged with the arduous duty of erecting, within three months, barracks, quarters and stables for a regiment of troops at Fort Riley—a point about 150 miles west of Leavenworth, and which he had himself selected as a suitable place for a government post, when stationed at[221] Fort Leavenworth. This place was not settled, and was an almost perfect wilderness. He took with him about five hundred mechanics and laborers, with tools and provisions, and commenced his labors. In a new and unsettled country, so destitute of resources, many obstacles were encountered, but just as they were being overcome, and the buildings were progressing, cholera in its most fatal and frightful form made its appearance among the men, from two to four of them dying every day. Far removed from homes and kindred, and accustomed to depend upon Major Ogden for the supply of their daily wants, they turned to him in despair for relief from the pestilence. He labored among them night and day, nursing the sick and offering consolation to the dying. At last the heavy hand of death was laid upon him, and worn out with care, watching and untiring labors, he fell a victim to the disease whose ravages he had in vain attempted to stay.

In the death of this officer the army has lost one who was an ornament to its list; his own corps has lost one of its most efficient members—one whom they appreciated, and whom they delighted to praise. Among his associates in the army there is but one sentiment—that of regret for his loss and admiration for his professional and private character, and love for his estimable qualities. His associates in the army are not the only sufferers; but many and many in various parts of the land have lost a warm and true friend, and the country has lost an honest man and a Christian soldier.…

In the hour of death, far from all he most loved[222] on earth, he was cheered by his Christian hope. His faith was unshaken and enduring, and proved capable of supporting him in that last sad hour. Although weak and exhausted, he repeated the Lord’s Prayer audibly, and said to his friend the chaplain, who was by his side, “Tell my dear wife and children to try and meet me in heaven,” and then sank sweetly and quietly to rest.

So died ............