James Ludwig, 1899 Biography

LUDWIG, LEGELER, FELDMANN

Posted By: David Reineke (email)
Date: 6/6/2006 at 21:18:49

I translated the following biography from Der Carroll Demokrat, a German-language newspaper published in Carroll, Iowa, between about 1874 and 1920. It was originally published in a special 25th Anniversary Edition of the paper on Friday, 20 September 1899. Information in brackets and notes at the end are my own explanations. It reads as follows:

James Ludwig

The subject of our present description was born in Bückenriede, Province of Saxony, on the 13th of April 1846. He spent the years of his youth and attended elementary school in his little hometown, and when he was 16 years old his parents and their children immigrated to the United States of North America. The family settled first in Joe Davis [Jo Daviess] County, Illinois, and after their son James had spent the first winter on the farm, he made his way to East Dubuque, where he found employment for a year in a butcher shop. He was then offered employment in a hotel, where he worked two years and six months, and then he worked again in a butcher shop where he remained for two years. He then made his way to Manchester, Iowa, where he obtained employment in a butcher shop and remained for two years. At that time, his father sold him a small farm of 80 acres in Kniest Township, which Mr. James Ludwig operated on his own for two years. He then moved to Georgetown, Wisconsin, where he likewise took up farming again. In 1873 he married Miss Barbara Legeler, and this happy marriage produced 10 children, of whom, however, six died at a tender age. Mr. Ludwig lived near Georgetown, Wisconsin for two years, and in the same year that he was married, the young couple moved to Kniest Township, Carroll County, Iowa, where he operated his farm very successfully. After a few years, he purchased an additional 80 acres, so that he now has a fine home of 160 acres to call his own. Unfortunately, in May 1892, he was struck by a hard blow from fate when his dear wife died. Mr. Ludwig later married the widow Henriette Feldmann, who brought four children into the marriage. Mr. Ludwig then worked on, loyally and industriously, and by 1895 he had the ability to increase his real estate by another 120 acres. Mr. James Ludwig and his wife and children still live today on the land that was purchased first, which is equipped with large and solid barns and stalls. He is a hard-working and progressive farmer, and an esteemed German-American who is respected and honored by all his neighbors and acquaintances. May James Ludwig and his dear family yet enjoy health for a long time, and as in the past, so also in the future, may God’s blessings rest upon the Ludwig household.