As you travel the road descending the hill into Ludlowville, time slows down. You can feel the history. The distinctive sound of tires crossing a steel decked bridge echoes our modern method of entering the hamlet where horses' hooves and carriage wheels once traveled the busy intersections of the 1800's. New York State, in order to maintain its quota for the Continental Army, provided land called Bounty Grants to those who enlisted and served till the end of the Revolutionary War. Thomas
Ludlow, who served as an officer bought the 600 acre military lot #76 for $60.00, and the Ludlows settled here in 1792. Soon after, a bustling village much larger than Ithaca thrived using hydropower from Salmon Creek Falls. There were mills, general stores, wheelwrights, smiths and three churches. Visitors can take a short walk up Cemetery Hill to the old graveyard where headstones mark the burial sites of Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers and some of the hamlet's earliest settlers.
One of Ludlowville's most prominent citizens was Abijah Miller, a lawyer, first postmaster, and church founder. His brother, Elijah was a judge in Auburn where young William Seward worked as a clerk after finishing law school. Judge Miller's daughter Frances often visited her uncle Abijah at his home in Ludlowville, built around 1815 and now known as The Federal House. William Seward traveled here from Auburn with the news for Frances that her father had consented to their marriage. Seward and
Frances were married and lived in Judge Miller's Auburn home, and Seward went on to become a New York State Senator, Governor of New York, and United States Senator. Nominated and a front runner as presidential candidate at the Republican convention in 1860, he lost the candidacy to Abraham Lincoln, but accepted Lincoln's request to serve as Secretary of State. Among his many accomplishments, he signed and helped draft the Emancipation Proclamation.
Judge Miller's home in Auburn is now the Seward House, a National Historic Landmark, and a museum with a fascinating collection of furniture, decorative arts, photos, historical documents and memorabilia. Only half an hour away by car, it is well worth an afternoon of exploring. As the Sewards threw virtually nothing away, the Seward House still has the receipt paid for services to Brigham Young for carving woodwork and the mantelpiece in Judge Miller's home. The mantelpieces in the Federal House are nearly identical to one in the Seward House, and also reputedly carved by Brigham Young, the early Mormon leader.
