James Ludington was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

.

Biography

When Ludington was sixteen in 1843, the family moved from New York to Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...

. With his father, Lewis Ludington, they founded Columbus, Wisconsin

Columbus, Wisconsin

Columbus is a city in Columbia and Dodge Counties in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 4,991 at the 2010 census. Columbus is located about northeast of Madison on the Crawfish River. It is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area...

 in 1845.

On October 11, 1854 Ludington loaned funds to George W. Ford for a sawmill operation in what was then known as the village of Pere Marquette in the northwestern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan

Lower Peninsula of Michigan

The Lower Peninsula of Michigan is the southern of the two major landmasses of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is surrounded by water on all sides except its southern border, which it shares with Ohio and Indiana. Geographically, the Lower Peninsula has a recognizable shape that many people...

. Ford defaulted on the loan and became insolvent in 1859. Ludington then took over the operations of this sawmill.

The post office for the village was established in 1864 in Ludington's original store at this sawmill. A boarding house called the Filer House was constructed in 1866 to house the employees of Ludington's sawmill.

Ludington platted the village of Pere Marquette in 1867. In the same year Ludington built a large commercial building that sold a variety of goods called The Big Store. Ludington founded the first newspaper of the village called the Mason County Record in 1867.

The sawmill that Ludington acquired had developed into an independent entity called the Pere Marquette Lumber Company that was the operator and management of the sawmill and The Big Store. Ludington sold his interests to them in 1869 for half a million dollars - making him a very wealthy person. Ludington used a portion of this money to develop the village. On March 22, 1873, the city of "Ludington" was chartered. The streets of Ludington Ave and James Street are named after him. The village city streets of Lewis, William, Robert, Charles, Harrison, Emily, Lavina, and Delia are named after his family members.

Ludington lived in the state of New York as a boy and in the state of Wisconsin as an adult. He never lived in Ludington, Michigan

Ludington, Michigan

Ludington is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 8,357. It is the county seat of Mason County.Ludington is a harbor town located on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Pere Marquette River...

 - the town that bears his name.

Positions

At one time or another Ludington held the following positions.

• Treasurer
  Treasurer
  A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
  
   of LaCrosse Railroad (La Crosse, Wisconsin
  La Crosse, Wisconsin
  La Crosse is a city in and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States. The city lies alongside the Mississippi River.The 2011 Census Bureau estimates the city had a population of 52,485...
  
  )
• President of Bank of the West (Madison, Wisconsin
  Madison, Wisconsin
  Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
  
  )
• Vice-President of the Juneau Bank (Milwaukee, WI)
• Alderman
  Alderman
  An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
  
   in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Family reunion of the Ludingtons

According to the Ludington Daily News the descendents of Ludington have a family reunion about once every three years in the town of Ludington consisting of some 50 to 75 people. According to this newspaper article James Ludington is a descendent of William Luddington (with two "ds"), who arrived in Massachusetts in 1637 from England. Ron Ludington is the grandson of William and the family genealogist who wrote the newspaper article. He says in the article that the branch of Luddingtons still in England spells the name with two "ds." The name was apparently changed to one "d" when Col. Henry Ludington

Henry Ludington

Colonel Henry Ludington was the commander of the 7th Regiment of the Dutchess County Militia, a volunteer regiment of local men who fought in the Battle of Ridgefield in April, 1777, during the American Revolutionary War. His daughter, Sybil Ludington, is known as the female Paul Revere for her...

 of the American Revolution married his first cousin and had it changed to avoid confusion in the family. A past prominent family member is Sybil Ludington

Sybil Ludington

Sybil Ludington , daughter of Col. Henry Ludington, was a heroine of the American Revolutionary War who became famous for her night ride on April 26, 1777 to alert American colonial forces to the approach of enemy troops...

, an American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

 herione that rode her horse at night to alert the American forces of an eminent attack by the British, much like that done by Paul Revere

Paul Revere

Paul Revere was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride...

. Ron points out that the family members come from all parts of the United States and Canada, as well as from England. Their relationship to each other has been confirmed by DNA testing.
There is a complete genealogy family history at Google Books of the Ludingtons in a memoir of Colonel Henry Ludington, printed by his grandchildren L.E. Ludington and C.H. Ludington in 1907.