The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-12-11

Il
General Washington held the enemy
in ch ack. In the autumn days of the
campaign the Hessians began to desert.
and occasionally small parties of them
would make their way 10 an American
camp Eight of these di-conteuted
m-rcenaries were captured by Lud-
wick's comrades and brought TO his com
manding officer. A question arose as to
where the could be safely consigned
Let Us, said the worthy Christopher.
take them to Philadelphia and there
show them our fine German churches
Let them see how our tradesmen eat
good beef. drink out of silver cups every
day. and ride out in chairs every after
noon; and then let us send them back
to their countrymen, and they will all
soon run away, and come and settle in
cur city, and be as good wings as any of
Us
This was the beginning of systemat-
ic attempt TO lure the Hessians from the
English service. Dr. Franklin caused
printed papers TO be folded inside of
packets of tobacco, setting forth, in good
German, the charms of America, and the
happiness of its inhabitants. These
were sold and given away to the Hes
slams, until their officers discovered the
trick. Ludwick rished his life in the
attempt to increase the disaffection of
the Hessian troops. Assuming the char
acter of n deserter, he went to a camp of
these soldiers on Staten Island where he
labored among them with such success
that, in the course of the war, as oppor-
tunity afforded. several hundred desert
ed and made their way, as Ludwick had
advised, to the counties in Pennsylvania
! inhabited chiefly by Germans. Dr. Ben
! jamin Rush records that, thirty years
/ after. a large number of these soldiers
| were still living in Pennsylvania, settled
ON good farms of their own, with sons
| and daughters married and established
near them.
But the great service rendered by Lud-
wick to the cause of his adopted country
was in supplying her soldiers with good
! bread. In 1777, Congress gave him a
| regular commission as Superintendent
! of Bakers, and Director of Baking in
the Army of the United States" at sew
enty-five dollars a month, and two ra-
tions a day, with power to appoint his
subordinates. When a Committee of
Congress waited upon him to present
him with this commission, "a document
preserved to this day in Philadelphia)
they expressed the expectation of Con-
gress that for every pound of flour he
received he would furnish one pound of
good bread. On these terms he would
lave made an enormous fortune.
No gentlemen, he said. II will not
accept your commission on any such
terms. Christopher Ludwick does not
want to get rich by the war He has
money enough. | will furnish one hun
dred and thirty pounds of bread for
every hundred weight of flour you put
into my hands"
From that time to the end of the war
the soldiers were supplied with an abun-
dance of good bread, except when Con-
gress was unable to supply Christopher
Ludwick with good flour. He generally |
lived near the headquarters of the army,
where he often dined at the table of the |
commander in-chief General Washing |
ton not only valued his services and rel |
ished his bread, but enjoyed his humor-
Ous comments on men and things. my |
honest friend Ludwick," the General |
used to call him. 1t was thing under |
stood at headquarters that old Christie |
pheT Ludwick was Il privileged charac- |
ter, whose hOmely satire and pungent |
sense were to be taken in good part by |
ends of the earth he had brought rare
stock of anecdotes and curious informa-
ton, which proved highly entertaining /
to officers wearing out their time in win
ter quarters. 1t was often remarked that /
wherever Christopher Ludwich was a
guest, even in the gloomiest DAYS of the |
war, there was to be found mirth and |
good humor.
Ia at fha curran1ar nf /
Lord Cornwallis. at Yorktown, and had
the pleasure of baking six thousand
pounds of good bread for the captured
army, the same day.
Let the bread be good, old gentle
man" said General Washington, when
he gave the order, land let there be
enough of it, if l should come short my
self"
After serving to the close of the war,
he retired to his farm at Germantown,
few miles from Philadelphia He found
his house plundered cf every article of
value, by the enemy-plate, furniture,
bedding, clothes and all were gone.
Like the rest of the army, he had been
paid in paper, which had become worth
less; so he was unable, for several weeks,
to procure articles considered indispens-
ible. 60 in debt he would not He sold
part of his real estate to procure the
means of furnishing his house. But he
used to point 70 a small object, hanging
in his parlor, and declared that it COM
pensated him for all the losses lie sus-
tanned. 1t was a certificate, neatly
framed, written by the hand of General
Washington, TO the effect that Christie
pher Ludwick had been true and
faithful servant of the public, and de
tected impositiOns, and been the cause
of much saving in his department" and
afforded unquestionable proofs of his
integrity and worth"
He lived many years in retirement,e en-
joying universal esteem, and preserving
his quaint humor to the last. Soon af
ter the death of General Washington, the
old man, then past eighty, was called
upon to subscribe for biography of the
General.
No" said lie, Il will not | am
travelling fast to meet him. | will then
hear about it from his own lips"
During the last few years of his life he
spent nearly all his time, and a large
portion of his income, in doing good,
searching out deserving objects, and lib
orally responding TO every proper appli-
cation. During the prevalence of the
yellow fever, i'll his seventy-seventh
year. he volunteered to superintend the
baking of the bread for the hospitals, and
stood faithfully at his post through all
the terrors of the time. His favorite
mode of expending money was to send
poor children to school. There were tif-
ty persons at his funeral who owed
to him the opportunity to acquire the
rudiments of knowledge; and lie left
the greater part of his fortune TO found
and endow free school in Philadelphia
the first of the kind established in the
city.
He died in 1901, full of years and hon
ors. \ vast concourse of people follow
ed his remains to their last resting place
i'll Germantown; and a memoir of his
life was written by DIR. Rash. The free
school which he founded was one of the
most useful institutions in Philadelphia,
until it was superseded by the public
school system.
THE DANGER or DABBLING.-ln ac- .
for many of the recent failures
in that city New York journal ascrlbes
them to tendency TO dabble in a va
riety of businesses when the victim hap
pens 10 understand but one. 1t cites
the passage in the memoirs of Sir Powell
Buxton. in which the founder of the ia
,,,,,,, I,,,,,o Of rho RnthehiIdS onea said |