Person:Frederick Luderus (1)

Bio by Tammy L. Hensel (2nd great-grandaughter)

According to the records of the Michigan 17th Rifle Regiment of the Union Army, Fred P. Luderus of Detroit enlisted on 3 October 1862. Fred was reported missing, presumed dead on 13 December 1862, but it was later learned he had been captured as a prisoner of war. He was paroled in a prisoner exchange on 27 December 1862, examined by the medical staff, and sent back to the Army of the Potomac on May 23, 1863. In the meantime, he'd been charged with desertion, apparently because they thought he had been released earlier. There was a mix-up with the records, with some records keeping him on the deceased list, some of the desertion list, all the while he continued to serve until the end of the war. Michigan Volunteers of the Civil War published by the state of Michigan still has him on the casualty list. Apparently, his parents had been informed of his death and never knew that he had survived the war and gone to Texas. In 1898, his mother petitioned for his Civil War pension stating in an affidavit that he had no wife or children when he died in 1862. The government denied the petition because of the desertion charge.

Fred appears to have re-enlisted after the war, although I have not as yet found a record of that service. The only evidence for it is a story my grandmother told me that her grandmother, Louise Hitzfeld, had told her about him being a soldier in the U.S. Army when they met in Fredericksburg, Texas about 1867. It also appears he may have received property in Travis County, Texas, as he noted in a Bill of Sale a building that belonged to the "Soldier Estate." (The next time I get a chance to look in the Texas Archives, I plan to search for more records on the property and what "Soldier Estate" meant. I suspect it was a tract of land dedicated to be given to soldiers in lieu of salary at the conclusion of their service. I document the full text of this Bill of Sale after the next paragraph). I discovered that the U.S. Seventeenth Infantry actively recruited throughout Michigan and the mid-west for men to go to Texas in1866. Several units were stationed in and around the Austin, Texas area, not far from Fredericksburg. So, I speculate that the was assigned to one of those units.

In the 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Fred's occupation was not listed, but I assume he was no longer in the military as he was boarding with the William Lehne family in Fredericksburg, Gillespie, Texas. Details on the Census list him as Fred Luderes, 23 years old, born in Belgium, which is error, since he was born in Holland. In a transcription of the 1880 Census, he and Louise were listed as Lendenes family with three children, Pete, Emmlia, and Willie, on Brazas Street in Austin, Travis, Texas. His place of birth is correct as Holland in the record. His occupation was given as laborer, however, the Bill of Sale noted below indicates that he ran a saloon called First and Last Chance Saloon, which he sold to Louise two months before his death for $300. I don't know why he sold it to her instead of just leaving it in a Will. It looks like he was afraid of someone else making a claim on it, so he may have had a partner. Here a transcription of the handwritten record:

Travis County Deeds September 6, 1880 Vol 47 pg 548

Fred Luderus, Bill of Sale, To Louisa Luderus The State of Texas County of Travis

Know all men by these presents that I, Fred Luderus, of the County and State aforesaid, for and in consideration of the sum of Three Hundred dollars to me in hand paid by Louisa Luderus, the receipt of which is hereby duly and fully acknowledged, have this day and do by these presents bargain, sell, alienate, deliver & convey unto said Louisa Luderus the following described personal property, to wit: One Mirror, Forty bar glasses, One Water Cooler, Two Tables, Four light colored chairs, Two xxxx Johns, One jug, one tin waiter, Three bar bottles, two xxxxx, Two Txxx shakers, One (Haco) lamp and reflector, One tin quart xxxx xxxx, One Sxxxxx, two small lamps, One Cork screw, Five small spoons, One Small xxxx john, one nutmeg grater, one ice bar, one bar counter, all of which is now in a one story frame house on South side of Colorado River, Known as the First and Last Chance Saloon, and also the said frame house and the right of lease thereto to the ground on which the same stands, the said frame house being on the Fredericksburg road, on the International and Great Northern Railway Extension from the City of Austin, towards San Antonio, and about one mile from the City of Austin; and on land belonging to the (Soldier) Estate All of which to have and to hold unto said Louisa Luderus in her own right and title forever and I hereby bind myself, my heirs and legal representatives to warrant and forever defend the title of the above described property unto said Louisa Luderus, her heirs and assigns, against the claims of all persons claiming or to claim the same or any part thereof.

Witness my hand, this 6th day of September AD 1880 Fred Luderus, State of Texas, Before me the undersigned authority, at this Travis County, today personally appeared Fred Luderus, know to me to be the person whose name is subscribed to the foregoing instrument, he acknowledged to me that he executed the same for the purposes and considerations therein expressed.

Witness my hand and Seal of said Court, this Sept 6 1880.

Mark Brown, Clerk

Three of Fred and Louise's five children survived to adulthood. Louise was pregnant with their last child when Fred died on 27 November 1880. She later married Frederick Frank Wagner and had two more children with him.

1. ↑ Geboorten, in Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands. Burgerlijke Stand
   Akte 622, 1844.
2. ↑ U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934.
3. ↑ Frederick Pierre "Fred" Luderus, in Find A Grave.

   Birth: May 9, 1844
   Utrecht, Netherlands
   Death: Nov. 27, 1880
   
   35y, 6m & 18d
   
   Son of Pierre & Deina Kuijpers Luderus
   
   Family links:
   Spouse:
   Louise Hitzfeld Wagner (1853 - 1930)*
   
   Children:
   Peter J. Luderus (1872 - 1934)*
   Emilie Elisa Luderus Stein (1875 - 1963)*
   Fred H Luderus (1889 - 1938)*
   
   *Calculated relationship
   
   Burial:
   Oakwood Cemetery
   Austin
   Travis County
   Texas, USA
   Plot: Sec 4, Lot 138

4. ↑ National Archives and Records Administration. New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957. (Washington, D. C.: National Archives and Records Administration).
5. ↑ Stuart, Donna Valley, and Detroit Society for Genealogical Research (Michigan). Index to the 1860 federal population census of Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan. (Detroit, Michigan: Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, c1979).