Christopher Ludwick

Christopher Ludwick [or Ludwig] (1720 Germany - 1801 Philadelphia) was a German immigrant in Philadelphia who served as baker general for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

Biography

Makes his fortune

Early in life, he enlisted in the Austrian army and served in the war against the Turks. He endured the hardships of the seventeen weeks' siege of Prague, and, on its capture by the French and Bavarians in 1741, he entered the Prussian army. When peace was declared he became a sailor, and between 1745 and 1752 he made many voyages. In 1753 he sailed for Philadelphia, taking with him £25 worth of clothing. Making £60 by this venture, he returned to London. In the following year, he returned to Philadelphia and became a gingerbread baker and confectioner located in Laetitia Court. In this occupation he amassed a fortune.

American revolutionary

At the beginning of the American Revolution, he gave his money freely to aid the cause of the revolutionaries. He was an aggressive advocate of the Revolution. From the very first he maintained that no compromise measures would be effective, and spoke for war with England even if it be one of long duration. On one occasion, when it had been proposed by Gen. Thomas Mifflin to purchase firearms by private subscription, which caused dissent, Ludwick silenced opposition by saying, “Let the poor gingerbread baker be put down for £200!” The proposition was adopted unanimously. In the summer of 1776, at 55 years of age, he enlisted as a volunteer.

He was of no little service in persuading his Hessian countrymen to desert from the British ranks and become residents of Philadelphia. Having learned that among the prisoners taken during the Battle of Germantown were eight Hessians, Ludwick went to headquarters and induced the commander-in-chief to place these men in his hands. He then constituted himself their host and guide, and taking them all about Philadelphia and its vicinity, showed them how the citizens of German heritage were prospering, how comfortably they were housed, what fine churches they had, with what freedom and independence they followed their avocations, and with what happiness those in the humbler pursuits of life were living. He then dismissed his prisoners, charging them to return to their regiments and inform their fellow-soldiers of all that they had seen, and explain to them the happiness awaiting those who would desert and settle in Pennsylvania. The seed thus planted bore rich fruit. It is said that among the deserters resulting from this action, numbers afterward became prosperous citizens of Philadelphia.

Ludwick's success in this enterprise encouraged him to further endeavors in the same direction. He visited a Hessian camp on Staten Island, and without detection succeeded in causing several soldiers to flee to Pennsylvania.

Baker general

Ludwick had learned the baking trade in his native city of Giessen. In 1777 he was appointed by the Continental Congress baker general to the American army. It was stipulated that he should return one pound of bread for every pound of flour delivered to him, but he at once replied, “Not so; I must not be enriched by the war. I shall return 135 pounds of bread for every 100 pounds of flour.”

He was often invited to dine at George Washington's large dinner parties, and frequently consulted with him in relation to the bread supplies of the army. One of Ludwig's notable achievements was the prompt execution of Washington's order, immediately after the surrender at Yorktown, to bake bread for the army of Cornwallis; Ludwig baked 6,000 pounds of bread in one day. The commander-in-chief usually addressed him in company as “My honest friend,” and in 1785 gave him a certificate of good conduct in his own handwriting.

Philanthropy

He delighted to discover objects of charity and relieve their wants. During the yellow-fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793, he worked at bread baking gratuitously to aid in relieving the wants of the destitute. At his death, his will awarded sums to the Deutsche Gesellschaft von Pennsylvanien (an immigrant-aid society), the University of Pennsylvania, and to two churches that were to award the income to poor children. The residue of his estate, £3,000, was given to found a free school, which in 1872 was named in his honor as the Ludwick Institute.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Ludwick, Christopher". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. 
• Albert B. Faust (1909). The German Element in the United States. I. Boston: Houghton & Mifflin. pp. 71, 302–304. http://www.archive.org/details/germanelement01fausrich. 
• Andrew D. Mellick, Jr. (1889). The Story of an Old Farm. Somerville, New Jersey: The Unionist-Gazette. p. 369. http://books.google.com/books?id=mEYVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA369. 

External links

Biography portal

• The Christopher Ludwick Foundation

Persondata
Name	Ludwick, Christopher
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1720
Place of birth
Date of death	1801
Place of death