ISAAC LUDWIG.  Three and a half miles southeast of Delphos on rural route No. 1 is the home of Isaac Ludwig, one of the honored survivors of the great Civil war and a man whose work as a farmer and whose good citizenship have been factors for good in the affairs of Marion Township for a long period of years.
     Mr. Ludwig whose home is in section 32 of Marion Township, was born at Stringtown in Pickaway County, Ohio, Jan. 3, 1842.  He represents a very patriotic ancestry.  His great-great-grand-father, Jacob Ludwig, was a Revolutionary soldier.  A son of this patriot, named Jacob, married a Miss Reece probably a native of Germany and they spent their last years at their home on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.  Of their nine children one was given the name Jacob.  He was born in Pennsylvania and married Elizabeth Fink.  This Jacob, grandfather of Isaac Ludwig, served as a soldier in the War of 1812.  In 1818 he moved to Pickaway County, Ohio, and died there in 1824.  His children were Sophia, William, Jacob and George W.  The widowed mother married George Crites and had two daughters, Fredericka and Ozilla.  Fredericka became the wife of John Deal, while Ozilla was married to Josephus Drum.  Mrs. George Crites died Sept. 26, 1879, having survived her second husband.  Sophia Ludwig, the only daughter of her first marriage, became the wife of Charles Crites in 1833 and in 1839 moved to Allen County, Ohio.  Her children were Daniel, Jacob, Catherine, Betsey, Rebecca, Cyrus, Elias, Emanuel, Mary E., Charles, George and Fredericka.  The father of Isaac Ludwig was also named Jacob and was born in Salt Creek Township, Pickaway County, Dec. 10, 1818.  He was six years of age when his father died.  He was then bound out to Peter Maney and later to John Pontius, both of whom proved hard taskmasters, and the yeas when he should have been in school were devoted to the labor of the fields.  At the age of fifteen he went to the home of John Ctites, with whom he remained three years.  He was apprenticed to learn the blacksmith trade with Charles Crites, and eventually became proprietor of a shop.  He married Louisa DeLong, daughter of Andrew and Catherine (Laudig) DeLong, Pennsylvania families that were pioneers in Pickaway County.  Louisa DeLong was the seventh in a family of eleven children, the others being John, Rebecca, Isaac, Elizabeth, Susan, Catherine, Caroline, Sarah, Amelia and Andrew.  Both the DeLongs and Ludwigs were of Huguenot French ancestry.  The DeLongs were driven out of France about 1620, and a century later Peter DeLong came to the United States, settling near the present City of Reading in Berks County, Pennsylvania.  One of his descendants was drowned in the Little Schuylkill River in 1799, leaving a wife and five children, one of whom was Andrew, father of Louis DeLong.  Andrew DeLong married Catherine Loudig, daughter of Peter and Catherine Loudig.  Catherine, the wife of Peter Loudig, was of Hebrew ancestry.
     Jacob Ludwig, after his marriage to Louise DeLong located at Stringtown in Pickaway County, but soon after the birth of their son Isaac moved to Adelphi in Ross County, where he remained seven years.  In 1849 Jacob Ludwig brought his family to Allen County and settled near Elida.  For a few months he worked at his trade and in September of the same year bought thirty-nine and a fourth acres in section 33 in Marion Township.  Sixteen acres of this tract had been cleared, but all the rest was in heavy timber.  A log cabin sheltered the family for a year, until he had completed a better residence.  Jacob Ludwig owing to the circumstances of his youth had little or no education, but profited by his keen mind, habits of observation, and a practical knowledge gained by work and contact with men.  He showed good business judgment, and became one of the large land owners of Allen County, accumulating 575 acres.  He had come to the county a poor man,  but for years his signature was honored at any of the county banks for large sums.  He was a thorough Bible student and was devoted to the church as a worshiper and also as a liberal supporter.  He united with the Presbyterian Church at Delphos Feb. 12, 1869, and subsequently two of his sons, Isaac and Obed, became elders in the same church.  Jacob Ludwig died Feb. 21, 1903, being survived by six children, twenty- five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.  His second wife is also deceased.  Jacob and Louisa DeLong Ludwig had the following children: Isaac; John D., who died at Fort Wayne, Indiana; Charles C., who was born May 12, 1853, and lived in Marion Township at Delphos; Mary Jane, born Feb. 21, 1856, is the wife of George W. King; Obed A., born Mar. 20, 1859, lives at Bluffton, Ohio; and Jacob L., born Dec. 13, 1861, lives at Lima.
     Isaac Ludwig was seven years of age when brought to Allen County, and he grew up on his father's farm and acquired his first educational advantages in a log schoolhouse.  He was a little past nineteen when the Civil war broke out, and he enlisted in Company B of McLaughlin's Squadron of the Ohio Volunteer Cavalry.  He was in service three years, and for a short time was a prisoner in Libby Prison.  Leading up to his confinement in this famous southern prison was an interesting incident of his military career. Mar. 11, 1865, while with the armies near Fayetteville, North Carolina, he and four companions were sent for forage supplies.  Arriving at a mill, two were detailed to grind corn, while two others went to a nearby farmhouse for some chickens.  A squad of Wheeler's Southern Cavalry belonging to the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry surprised the two at the mill and made them prisoners.  The officer in charge was Lieut. A. K. Houk, and before sending Mr. Ludwig and his companions to Richmond, Virginia, requested a favor of his prisoner, that when exchanged he should write the circumstances of his capture to the father of Lieutenant Houk and incidentally assure the father of the son's welfare.  Mr. Ludwig complied with this request, and the reply he received from the family is one of his most interesting mementoes of the war.  Just thirty years later, in 1895, while attending a National Grand Army of the Republic Encampment at Louisville, Kentucky, he paid a visit to the home of Lieutenant Houk and their meeting was exceedingly cordial and Mr. Ludwig was most hospitably entertained.
     In 1866 Mr. Ludwig married Sophronia J. Harbaugh, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Exline) Harbaugh.  Her father, who died in Steuben County, Indiana, Apr. 7, 1884, was born in Harbaugh's Valley, Frederick County, Maryland, in 1796, son of Yost Harbaugh, a farmer.  The Harbaughs were among the first converts of Otterbein and Boehm, founders of the United Brethren Church.  The Harbaugh barn was a meeting place for the early converts of this denomination.  Ludwig Harbaugh, grandfather of Thomas Harbaugh, was born in Switzerland about 1728.  Thomas Harbaugh became a skillful cabinet maker and was a man of excellent business ability and of fine character.  After his marriage in Maryland he moved to Muskingum County, Ohio, and later to Sandy Valley, Ohio, where all his children but four were born.  About 1848 he moved to Putnam County, Ohio, and bought a quarter section in Pleasant Township, then an almost unsettled community.  Twelve children were born to Thomas Harbaugh, two of whom died in infancy and one at the age of seventeen.  Two of his sons, Valentine and Rev. Thomas J., were Civil war soldiers, and the latter for forty years was active in the ministry of the United Brethren Church, serving two terms as presiding elder and was twice State Senator.  He was also chaplain in the Sixth Ohio, Spanish-American war.
     Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig had the following children: Thomas J., Omar I., Luella and Edwin Guy. The daughter, Luella, died at the age of sixteen.  Thomas J. married Daisy Peters and has two children, Mary and Lawrence D.  The second son, Omar, married Daisy Musetta Taylor, and their four children are Cecil R., Sidney M., Nellie and Dwight L.  The youngest son, Edwin Guy, is an engineer of the Pennsylvania Railway Company and lives at Fort Wayne, Indiana.
     Mr. Ludwig during his long residence in Marion Township has been one of the successful cultivators of the soil and has been very active in farmers' organizations.  He has served as president of the Farmers' Institute, is a member of the Marion Grange No. 302, is a past master of Edith Lodge, Knights of Honor, and a member of Hope Lodge No. 214, Free and Accepted Masons, Delphos Chapter No. 105, Royal Arch Masons, Council No. 72, Royal and Select Masters, and belongs to the Eastern Star.  He is a republican in politics and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Source:  A Standard History of Allen County, Ohio - Vol. II - Publ. Chicago: Warner i.e. Warner, Beers & Co., 1921 - Page 261