BIOGRAPHY: Rev. John J. LUDDEN, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 233-4
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REV. JOHN J. LUDDEN, the scholarly and affable pastor of St Augustine church, at 
St. Augustine, this county, is a son of Michael and Sarah (Corcoran) Ludden, and 
was born at Castlebar, Mayo county, Ireland, May 12, 1861.
     His grandfather was James Ludden, a native of the “Emerald Isle,” where he 
was engaged as a farmer in county Mayo, until shortly after the War, when he 
came to America, having been preceded to this country by a number of his sons. 
He located at Florence, New York, where he spent the remainder of his life in 
happy retirement, dying August 27, 1886, at the ripe old age of ninety-one 
years. His marriage to Nora Ludden resulted in the birth of ten children, six 
sons and four daughters: Rev. John, now deceased, was pastor of St. Mary's 
church, of Florence, New York; Martin, deceased, was a merchant of Camden, New 
York; Ann became the wife of Peter Acton, of Ireland; Margaret died young; 
Michael (father); Mary, wife of John Carson, of Ireland; Ellen, wife of James 
Sullivan, of Florence; James, Pastor of St John's church, at Albany, New York, 
Anthony, pastor of St Mary's church, at Little Falls, New York; and William an 
attorney-at-law and a judge, at Troy, New York.
     Michael Ludden, his father was born at Castlebar, in the county of Mayo, 
Ireland, in 1838. He has always resided on the old Ludden homestead in his 
native country, where he has successfully followed the pursuits of agriculture, 
owning one hundred and fifty acres of land.
     He married Sarah Corcoran, a sister of the late Father Thomas Corcoran, of 
St Agnes' church, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. To this marriage were born five sons 
and five daughters, as follows: Rev. John J., subject; Ellen, deceased; James, a 
physician of Cleveland, Ohio; Nora, who resides with Rev. John J.; Mary, wife of 
Owen McKenna, of Pittsburg; Martin, who died at St Vincent's college, Latrobe, 
Pennsylvania, November 17, 1894, at the age of twenty-one years. He was 
preparing for the priesthood, and was within six months of his ordination, when 
struck down by the hand of death; Anthony resides on the old homestead with his 
father; Joseph Patrick, now attending the medical department of the Western 
University of Pennsylvania, at Pittsburg; and Helena, who died in childhood.
     The boyhood days of Father Ludden were spent upon the Ludden homestead in 
Ireland, and he attended the national and classical schools at Castlebar. On 
November 28, 1879, he came to America, and at once entered Mt. St. Mary's 
College, at Emmettsburg, Maryland, where he finished a classical and scientific 
course, graduating in 1885. He then entered St. Mary's seminary, of Baltimore, 
and after completing the required theological course, was ordained to the 
priesthood on December 17, 1888. He was immediately appointed assistant pastor 
to his cousin, Rev. O. P. Gallagher, of St. John's church, South Fourteenth 
street, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
     On April 30, 1892, he was transferred to his present charge. Since he 
located at St. Augustine, he has shown himself an active and energetic worker in 
the cause of the church. He has built the magnificent brick church which now 
adorns the town. It is a brick structure, of the Gothic style of architecture, 
imposing in appearance, and built at a cost of thirty thousand dollars.
     Rev. John J. Ludden is a young man possessed of a deep religious zeal, and 
of that executive ability and broad comprehension of public affairs and events, 
that can but contribute to the good of Christianity, and the promotion of the 
common brotherhood of humanity.