James Ludington - Biography

Biography

When Ludington was sixteen in 1843, the family moved from New York to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With his father, Lewis Ludington, they founded Columbus, Wisconsin in 1845.

On October 11, 1854 Ludington loaned funds to George W. Ford for a sawmill operation in what was then known as the village of Pere Marquette in the northwestern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Ford defaulted on the loan and became insolvent in 1859. Ludington then took over the operations of this sawmill.

The post office for the village was established in 1864 in Ludington's original store at this sawmill. A boarding house called the Filer House was constructed in 1866 to house the employees of Ludington's sawmill.

Ludington platted the village of Pere Marquette in 1867. In the same year Ludington built a large commercial building that sold a variety of goods called The Big Store. Ludington founded the first newspaper of the village called the Mason County Record in 1867.

The sawmill that Ludington acquired had developed into an independent entity called the Pere Marquette Lumber Company that was the operator and management of the sawmill and The Big Store. Ludington sold his interests to them in 1869 for half a million dollars - making him a very wealthy person. Ludington used a portion of this money to develop the village. On March 22, 1873, the city of "Ludington" was chartered. The streets of Ludington Ave and James Street are named after him. The village city streets of Lewis, William, Robert, Charles, Harrison, Emily, Lavina, and Delia are named after his family members.

Ludington lived in the state of New York as a boy and in the state of Wisconsin as an adult. He never lived in Ludington, Michigan - the town that bears his name.