Israel Ludlow

Israel Ludlow (1765 – January 1804) was a government surveyor who helped found Cincinnati, Dayton and Hamilton in southwest Ohio.

[1] In 1786, each of the thirteen states was to appoint a man to help survey the Seven Ranges in the easternmost portion of the Northwest Territory under the Land Ordinance of 1785.

[2] Ludlow was one of two surveyors to stay in settlements near the Ohio River the winter of 1786–1787, and completed the survey of the seventh range, plats, and notes by August 1787.

Symmes had Ludlow survey a line between the sources of the Scioto and Little Miami to determine the boundary between the tracts, afterwards known as the Ludlow Line,[5] the subject of decades of legislation and court action due to the difficulty in determining the source of the Scioto River.

[12] He died on January 21, 1804, after a 4 day illness[13] and was buried with Masonic honors in the Presbyterian Graveyard in Cincinnati.

The Ludlow Mansion, located near Spring Grove Cemetery, in Cincinnati, at the time known as Ludlow's Station. Israel Ludlow had it built around 1800. After Ludlow's death, Jared Mansfield lived there. The home was demolished in 1891, and this drawing comes from a photograph taken shortly before demolition.