My Genealogy Hound

LEVI LUDDEN, teacher, Wilkinsburg, was born in Peru, Me., March 21, 1833. His great-grandfather, Joseph Ludden, came from Wales, settled in Turner, Me., and was one of the historical “Boston tea party.” His son, Levi, was born in Turner, cleared a farm in Peru, and died in Dixfield. Remember, wife of the latter, was Miss Soule, a descend ant of George Soule, who came over in the Mayflower. Timothy, son of this couple, born in Peru, married Bethiah Fobes, a native of Maine, and became a prominent attorney. When Levi, our subject, was a lad, he (Timothy) moved to Turner, and later to Lewiston, where he died in March, 1859, judge of probate for Androscoggin county and reporter of decisions for the state. Levi Ludden fitted himself for college at Hebron Academy, and graduated from Colby University at Waterville in 1859. He followed teaching till 1862, when he joined a band of five hundred who went from Maine to join the D. C. cavalry. He served in Gen. Wilson’s raid along the Weldon railroad, in the siege of Petersburg, being among the first to enter that place, and at Appomattox. After the latter engagement he was commissioned lieutenant in the Forty-first regiment United States colored troops, and sent to Texas, where he did provost duty till December, 1865, when he was discharged. He came at once to Wilkinsburg, where he took charge of the academy, assisted by his wife. For the last twenty years Prof. Ludden has been principal of the preparatory department of the Western University. He is an elder in the Wilkinsburg Presbyterian Church, and an active republican. In September, 1859, he married Sarah Williams Dudley, of Boston, Mass., daughter of Samuel and Sally (White) Dudley, natives of that state, and of English descent. Gertrude Virginia, eldest child of Prof. Ludden, is the wife of Charles D. Armstrong, and resides in Wilkinsburg, as does Clarence Dexter, the other child.