Ephraim C. LUDWIG, a retired farmer residing in West Salem township [Mercer County, Pennsylvania], was born March 4, 1835, in that township, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, a son of Abraham LUDWIG, who was born February 16, 1810, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The grandfather, Ludwig. was born in Germany and located in Allentown, as a carpenter. He went to Salem township and there bought and cleared an eighty-acre farm, to which he later added until he owned, at his death, three hundred and fifty acres. He died in Allentown when his son Abraham was but ten years of age.

Abraham LUDWIG, after obtaining a limited amount of schooling, worked on his father's farm, until his death, November 21, 1881. He was married in 1831 to Anna GANGWER, who died in 1864. She was the daughter of Milton GANGWER who fought in the Revolutionary war. The issue by this marriage was: Viona, wife of Joseph AUBEL, a farmer of West Salem township; Caroline, wife of L. LININGER, a farmer of the same township; Frank, a laborer in Oregon ; Lucinda, widow of John AUBEL; Alvina, wife of A. BORTZ, a farmer of West Salem township; Henry, a carpenter of Oklahoma; Eliza, wife of A. HEIL, a farmer of Transfer, Pennsylvania (now deceased) ; Emeline, unmarried, at Hancock, Ohio; Austin, also of the same place; and Ephraim, of this notice, who was the third child in the family. The father was a member of the Lutheran church and politically a Democrat. For eight years he served as treasurer of Pymatuning Township Mutual Insurance Company. He was also the administrator of many estates.

Ephraim C. LUDWIG attended school until seventeen years of age and was then employed on his father's farm. In the meantime he learned the carpenter's trade which he followed successfully for forty years. February 29, 1864, he enlisted at a point in Ringgold county, Iowa, while there on a visit, joining at Davenport, Iowa, Company H, Twenty-ninth Iowa Regiment, under Thomas H. BENTON, and was sent to Memphis, Tennessee, and from there to Little Rock, Arkansas, where they remained eleven months, and from there went to New Orleans, from which city they were taken by transport to Mobile, Alabama, where they engaged in battle, driving the rebel forces out of their rifle-pits and capturing eight thousand of the Confederate soldiers. From there the command was sent to Galveston, Texas. Mr. LUDWIG was within eight miles from headquarters of Emperor Maximillian. of Mexico. At the close of the Civil war, Mr. LUDWIG was honorably discharged at New Orleans and returned to West Salem township. Mercer county, and followed the carpenter's trade. He purchased his present farm in 1900 and since then has retired from active work. In politics, he is a Republican. He is a member of the Baptist church.

Mr. LUDWIG married Annabell STULL, daughter of David STULL, who died leaving a daughter, Isabella, wife of E. HARTMAN, of West Salem township. For his second wife, Mr. LUDWIG married January 6, 1876, Mathilda FOULK, who was born November 17, 1841, at Liberty, Ohio, a daughter of Charles FOULK, a millwright, and his wife, Sarah RIDDEY. who died in 1860. Mr. LUDWIG's second wife was the widow of H. JONES, who served in the Civil war as a corporal in Company I, Pennsylvania Volunteers. Mrs. LUDWIG had four children by her first marriage: Mary, Emma, Colman (all three now deceased); Charles JONES, a plumber, of Greenville, Pennsylvania. By her second marriage she had: Orestus, and Adessa, both at home.

Mrs. LUDWIG had two brothers in the Civil war: Samuel, killed at Hatches Run; and Marcellus, who died in Libby prison, Richmond, Virginia.

SOURCE:  WHITE, J. G. A Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania Vol. II. Pp. 680-81. Lewis Publishing Co. Chicago. 1909.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2009