Fruits of One Tree

  There were so many men in New Jersey named Matthias Ludlow! But this post is about our most recent ancestor of that name. This Matthias was the father of William Todd Ludlow, my grandfather’s grandfather, about whom I blogged on July 29, 2023. I remember when I was about eleven or twelve, my grandparents displayed a daguerreotype of a man on the mantel. When I asked my grandmother who the man was, she said it was one of my grandfather’s ancestors, but she didn’t know which one. Unfortunately, my grandfather was not at home, and although I spent a lot of time with them, I never saw that old photo again, and no one else in the family I’ve asked recalled seeing it. Since Matthias was the wealthiest by far of all that side of the family, I believe it must have been an image of him. I remember my grandfather saying “Matthias Ludlow” in a very dramatic way. Matthias was born in 1802 in New York City, where his father, Ebenezer Ludlum, worked as a mason. [1] From the late 1700s t...