By Richard O Jones
Although he never lived in Hamilton, Israel Ludlow established its geography as the founding landowner and pioneer surveyor.
Like John Cleves Symmes, who made the Symmes Purchase and was named judge of the Northwest Territory, and many other early settlers of Butler County, Ludlow was a native of New Jersey, born at his family’s Long Hill Farm in Morristown. The Ludlow family has been part of England’s aristocracy, but fled persecution in 1760 after the restoration of Charles II as a Ludlow was one of the judges who passed the sentence of death on Charles I.
Israel Ludlow was 12 years old when the Revolutionary War broke out and is said to have witnessed some of the fighting that took place on his family’s farm, the blood-soaked memories of which, according to his biographer Henry Benton Teetor, “enkindled” “the ardor of his patriotism.”
After learning the trade of the surveyor and graduating college, he began his journey down the Ohio River to survey the area known as the Seven Ranges in what is now Eastern Ohio, appointed in 1787 by Thomas Hutchinson surveyor-general of the United States, who was assured of his “ability, diligence and integrity.” In the following years he would survey more Ohio land than any of his peers through government appointments, personal commissions, and surveying and platting land he purchased himself.
In 1788, Ludlow reported to Judge Symmes at Limestone, near present-day Maysville, Kentucky, and with three other surveyors proceeded downriver to lay out a town on 640 acres across from the mouth of the Licking River. Surveyor Johnathan Filson named the town Losantiville–a crunching together of Licking (River which fed into the Ohio River from the southern side), so (Latin for “mouth”), anti (Greek for “opposite”), and ville (French for “town”). The other surveyors went out on missions, and Ludlow is credited as the first man to “stretch a chain” in Cincinnati.
In his early 20s, Ludlow was the youngest of the surveyors and at first had no proprietary interest in the territories, but was given one-third ownership in Losantiville after Filson disappeared while out on his first surveying mission up the Great Miami River, presumed killed by Indians. The original lay-out of Losantiville disappeared with him.
The prevailing story is that General Arthur St. Clair disliked the name Losantiville and changed the name to honor the Society of Cincinnatus, an association of officers of the Revolutionary war, of which he was a member, as was Cornelius Ludlow, the surveyor’s father. George Washington was president of the society. Israel Ludlow’s biographer reports that the first time the name “Cincinnati” was written on any legal documents, it was in in Ludlow’s hand when he re-mapped the city after Filson’s disappearance, a full six months before St. Clair’s arrival as Governor of the Northwest Territory. St. Clair did conduct a dedication ceremony and read the official proclamation, but in his diaries and letters, Judge Symmes said he suggested “Cincinnata,” so the real story will never be known.
When Hamilton County was formed in 1790, at the time including current Butler County, Ludlow became county clerk. That same year, he established Ludlow Station near the northern lines of Cincinnati in the vicinity of what’s now known as Cumminsville and built a block house for protection against the Indians. It was from this station that St. Clair organized his army in August 1791 on his way north to meet Little Turtle’s army, and there they returned after their infamous defeat.
In November 1790, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton charged him with surveying the Symmes Purchase to find the exact boundaries, promising a military escort to protect Ludlow and his assistants from the hostile natives of the region. But when he arrived at Fort Washington, General Joshiah Harmar, commander of the Northwest Territory forces, told him the military posts on the western frontier had no soldiers to spare. Ludlow hired “three active woodsmen,” according to his report to Hamilton, as scouts and spies. Still, he had a number of close calls and was at times forced to interrupt his progress to seek safety.
After the Greenville Treaty in 1795, he received a further appointment from the federal government to survey the boundary between the United States and Indian Territory.
On July 27, 1795, Ludlow purchased a section from General Jonathan Dayton that included the land around Fort Hamilton. He laid out the first streets just outside of the fort and named the town Fairfield, though it was changed to Hamilton after the fort was abandoned to carry on the name.
His plat laid out Front, Second, Third, and Fourth streets. It’s speculated that he did not name Water Street (now Monument Avenue), as was conventional in river towns to name the street along the river, because it would have been on land occupied by the fort. When the state carved Butler County out of Hamilton County after statehood in 1803, Ludlow donated a square for a county courthouse, donated $4,200 to build a courthouse, and set aside another square for a church and cemetery at the edge of town on Fourth Street, now known as Symmes Park, to win the bid to become the county seat.
In partnership with Generals St. Clair, Dayton and Wilkinson, he also founded and laid out the city of Dayton.
In 1796, he returned to Philadelphia to file his reports, stopping at the home of General James Chambers Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. On his way back to Cincinnati, he paused long enough to marry the general’s daughter Charlotte, November 10, 1796, and took her to Cincinnati.
Upon his return, he built the largest and first frame house in Cincinnati near the Ludlow station blockade. He and his young wife became prominent citizens, raising subscriptions for the first church in Cincinnati, among other distinctions. Although as a surveyor and land speculator he was absent a good deal of the time, he frequently brought his wife and growing family when going to Hamilton for business.
In January 1804, he fell ill at the mansion and died four days later. He was just 38 years old. His four children were all under the age of seven. Judge John Cleve Symmes gave his memorial address at the church he helped charter. Nearly a century later, his remains were moved to nearby Spring Grove Cemetery.
After his death, his business affairs in Hamilton continued and carried on by his wife and, later on, his sons and other descendants, including a dentist who practiced on High Street.