Matthias Ludlow (1802-1879)

 

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 to the early 1800s, their last name was transitioning from Ludlum or Ludlam to Ludlow. And this was not just our immediate family. All over northern New Jersey and New York City there were multiple people whose legal transactions referred to them first as Ludlum, then as Ludlow, sometimes even in the same document. Matthias was also a common name in New Jersey and New York. Probably they were all descendants of another of our ancestors, Matthias Hetfield, who was described in the 1660s as a “high duchman of Dantsick,” [sic] (Dantzig, Germany, is now known as Gdansk, Poland).[2]

Matthias’ mother was Abby (short for Abigail) Littell.[3] Matthias was named for his paternal grandfather.[4]

Although he spent most of his life working as a mason, by the end of his life, Matthias owned more land than most people, and his first purchase was in 1825, for land in Westfield Township, Essex County, New Jersey, that his father Ebenezer was losing because of debts.[5]

Matthias married Phebe Kennedy in New York City on June 21, 1829.[6] Phebe was a very common name for women in the area at that time. I haven’t found any death or burial record for her, but as divorce was so difficult to obtain then, I assume she passed away before Matthias married Sarah Ann Todd “youngest daughter of Mr. Wm. Todd” in New York City on April 5, 1836.[7] The usual cause of death of young women then was childbirth, but no children born before 1836 lived with Matthias. For the first five years of his second marriage, he lived with his Todd in-laws at 89 Clinton St. in Manhattan.[8]

In the mid-1840s he moved to Rahway, Essex County, New Jersey with his wife Sarah Ann and three children, Sarah Ann, Eliza Day, and William Todd Ludlow, where he still worked as a mason. The Ludlow family had lived in Rahway for a century or more, so he was surrounded by relatives. In 1852 his last child, Ebenezer, was born.

In 1855 he was able to buy 68 lots in Rahway for $1,600 at a foreclosure auction on the courthouse steps.[9] I haven’t been able to find any record of any inheritance that would explain how he got that much money. With the rents he was able to charge, he was set for life financially. He was about 54 years old, certainly the work of a mason was becoming too difficult physically for him, and he still had four children to support. Half a year later he bought several lots in Woodbridge, the next town over.[10] For the rest of his life, Matthias was steadily buying lots in Woodbridge Township, Rahway, Elizabeth and even New York City.[11] He often bought land auctioned at the courthouse steps. He became a farmer, and despite having three women in the family capable of doing housework, and only one child, they had an Irish servant.[12] By the middle of the Civil War, he was taxed on $1,893.00 of income, probably rental income, by the IRS, a new agency created to fund the war effort.[13] At the time, this income was the equivalent of over half a million dollars today.[14] Matthias was too old to fight in the war, and fighting never reached New Jersey, so his life was much different than that of people living in the South.

That decade saw three additions to the family. Eliza Day Ludlow, 24, was the first to marry. In 1862 or 1863 she married a carpenter, Richard M. Randolph. William, 24, married Sarah Elizabeth Laing, whose great grandfather Matthias Ludlow was also William’s great grandfather. They were second cousins. They married on March 15, 1865, in New York City, where Sarah lived.[15] Finally, Sarah Ann, 27, married John S. Brower on August 22, 1865.[16] Matthias gained his last daughter in law on March 5, 1874, when his son Ebenezer, 21, married Adaline Applegate.[17]

Matthias went on buying city lots through the 1860s and 1870s. In his will he left generous bequests to the children of his sisters Phebe Ludlow Whitlock, Elizabeth Ludlow Day, and Abby Ludlow Rogers, although none of them lived nearby, as well as his children and wife. When he was 77 years old, he died on Oct. 1, 1879, of pneumonia and was buried at Rahway Cemetery.[18] His widow and all four children survived him, and it took years to settle his large estate.[19]

 

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[1] There are two entries for Ebenezer Ludlam/Ludlum, mason, one at 106 Warren and one at 71 Murray. They may be two entries for the same person, who moved while canvassing was done. Longworth’s American Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory… (New York: D. Longworth, 1801), Ebenezer Ludlam and Ebenezer Ludlum, 219; “New York City Directories,” images, New York Public Library (https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/7a1bd8f0-db60-0134-db5a-35fa217b9e74/book#page/225/mode/2up: accessed 12 Feb. 2024), image 223. For birth year, New Jersey, death certificate no. 1879-80. 93-L2, (1 Oct. 1879) Matthias Ludlow; New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, N.J.

[2] Abraham Hatfield, “Note on the Origin of Matthias Hatfield,” New York Genealogical & Biographical Record, 70:17-18 (Jan. 1939).

[3] George W. Thomas, Inscriptions from the cemetery of the Presbyterian Church at Westfield in New Jersey from the year 1740 to the year 1899 : with illustrations from the Rahway Cemetery (San Francisco, Ca.: The Pioneer Press, 1923), 14; FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/292000/?offset=0#page=14&viewer=picture&o=download&n=0&q=L : accessed 13 Nov. 2022), view 14 of 32.

[4] “New Jersey, Wills and Probate Records, 1739-1999” (Essex > Wills, vol. C, 1818-1823), database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 3 February 2020), image 666 of 710, will dated 6 May 1820, Mathias Ludlow, p. 593 of will book.

[5] Essex County, N.J., Deeds, T2: 430, George C. Thomas, Oliver Nuttman and George C. Barber to Matthias Ludlow, 18 June 1825; “Deeds, 1688-1901; index 1688-1909; Deeds, v. T2-U2 1825-1826,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSYH-23QL-6?i=446&cat=215486:  accessed 17 Mar. 2021) > DGS 8354719 > image 447.

[6] “New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, U.S., United Methodist Church Records, 1775-1949,” image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/9188/images/42514_342745-00586?pId=392212: downloaded 11 Mar. 2021) > New York > New York > Vol 72-78: Methodist Episcopal Church: Marriages, Members and Probationers, 1799-1837 > image 68; 21 June 1829, Matthias Ludlow and Phebe Kenneday; New York Marriages 1819-1837, Vol. 73, p. 97.

[7] “Married,” Commercial Advertiser (New York, N.Y.), 6 April 1836, p. 2, col. 4; image, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com: downloaded 13 Mar. 2021).

[8] See New York City directory listings from 1837-1842.

[9] Woodbridge, Middlesex County, N.J., Deeds, 67: 233-236, Jaquis V. Gordon, Sheriff, Joseph T. Moore, defendant, to Matthias Ludlow, 16 Feb. 1855; “Deeds, 1784-1942; deed indexes, 1784-1922,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSY4-VJJ9?i=852&cat=219248: accessed 16 Mar. 2021) > Deeds, v. 65-67 > 1854-1855 > DGS no. 8352054 > image 853-855.

[10] Woodbridge, Middlesex County, N.J., Deeds, 69: 332-334, John H. McKinley to Matthias Ludlow, 13 Sep. 1855; “Deeds, 1784-1942; deed indexes, 1784-1922,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSGS-JTN9?i=547&cat=219248:

accessed 25 Mar. 2021) > Deeds, v. 68-70 > 1855-1856 > DGS 8210934 > image 548-549.

[11] There are too many deeds to cite here. His estate was probated in both states since he had property in both when he died.

[12] “1860 United States Federal Census,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7667/images/4235194_00335?pId=54517712: accessed 14 Mar. 2021) > New Jersey > Union > Rahway > image 179 of 180; pop. sch., p. 178/336, line 5, dwelling 1110, family 1331, Matthias Ludlow.

[13] Internal Revenue Assessment Lists for New York and New Jersey, 1862-1866, series M603, roll 25 (Washington, D.C.: NARA, 1864), Division 16, Collection District 3, p. 7, line 30, Ludlow, Matthias; “U.S., IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918,” database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1264/images/rhusa1862_101407-00246?pId=992781: downloaded 14 Mar. 2021) > New Jersey > District 3; Annual Lists; 1864 > image 240, Ludlow, Matthias, line 30.

[14] "Purchasing Power Today of a US Dollar Transaction in the Past," MeasuringWorth (www.measuringworth.com/ppowerus/: accessed 15 Feb. 2024).

[15] “Marriages and Deaths,” New York Daily Herald (New York, N.Y.), 18 Mar. 1865, p. 2, col. 5; images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com: accessed 14 Nov. 2020).

[16] "New Jersey, County Marriages, 1682-1956," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VWRS-Y6H : accessed 4 April 2020), John Brower and Sarah Ludlow, 22 Aug 1865; citing Union, New Jersey, New Jersey State Archives.

[17] Union County, New Jersey, Marriage record, no. 300, Ebenezer Ludlow – Adaline Applegate, 5 Mar. 1874; “New Jersey, County Marriages, 1682-1956,”

database and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939Z-1ZSW-H8?i=207&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AVWRS-LS6: accessed 18 Feb. 2024) > Marriages file 36 no.18-30 1874-1878,1903-1910 > 4541261 > image 208 of 1369.

[18] New Jersey, death certificate no. 1879-80. 93-L2, (1 Oct. 1879) Matthias Ludlow; New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, N.J.

[19] “Legal Notice,” Albany Morning Express (Albany, N.Y.), 30 July 1883, unpaginated, col. 7; image, Old Fulton New York Postcards (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html: downloaded 15 Mar. 2021).