Hannah Strong Ludden (1832 - 1919)

Born 15 Nov 1832 in Westhampton, Massachusetts, USA

Ancestors

Wife of Abner Pomeroy Bridgman — married 5 Nov 1855 in Westhampton, Massachusetts, USA

Descendants

Died 1 Oct 1919 at age 86 in Florence Hampshire County Massachusetts, USA

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Biography

Hannah Strong (Ludden) Bridgman was born in Westhampton, Massachusetts, on Nov. 15, 1833, the fourth of the seven children of Almon Barnes Ludden and Clarissa (Clapp) Ludden. Her mother Clarissa was the granddaughter of the Rev. Enoch Hale, Westhampton's first minister and brother of the patriot Nathan Hale.

When Hannah was a little girl her father built the house that is still standing today on the corner of Main and Southampton roads in Westhampton, near the present-day Outlook Farm. It was in the front parlor of this house on Hannah's twenty-second birthday that she married Abner Pomeroy Bridgman. The wedding was a double service, as her brother Almon Strong Ludden married Laura Clark at the same time.

Hannah and Abner set up housekeeping with Abner's parents in the Israel Bridgman farm on North Road in Westhampton. This house, too, is still standing today. There Hannah gave birth to six children, two boys and four girls. The youngest boy died in infancy, but the rest of the children lived into adulthood, with the eldest, Dwight Stuart Bridgman, reaching the age of ninety-seven years.

Abner Bridgman served briefly during the Civil War, returning home to Westhampton much broken in health. He never fully regained his strength. In 1875, Hannah and Abner relocated to Onarga, Iroquois County, Illinois, where they lived for a year-and-a-half. The reason for the move was an effort to find a climate more suitable to Abner's health. They returned to Westhampton in September of 1876, where Abner once again tried to continue on the work of the farm.

In the fall of 1881, Abner and Hannah and their four daughters moved to the village of Florence, where Abner took the less strenuous job of custodian at the Florence High School on Pine Street. They lived in rented housing for a few years, but in 1887 they purchased the house at 12 Pine Street in Florence, where Hannah lived for the rest of her life.

Hannah was a homemaker, caring for her sickly husband and keeping house for her daughters. She was also a loyal attendant at the Florence Congregational Church. She survived her husband by thirty years, dying at the age of eighty-five.

© 2013 James E. Bridgman

Sources

• See book "James Ludden, The Old Planter, 1611-1692, and Descendants" by Wallace Ludden, 1971. Pages 50-51.

US Fed census 1850 Westhampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=39695842