JAMES LEDWITH
Great Grandfather of Don Ledwith
.James Ledwith was born at Elizabeth, New Jersey
on September 3, 1841, one of
five children. During his childhood the family moved to Rockford,
Illinois,
and in 1869 James drove from Illinois to Lincoln, Nebraska with a
mule team
before the railroad had entered that part of Nebraska.
James was one of Lincoln's first merchants; the 1876 Lincoln City
Directory
listed his occupation as "Proprietor of the Congress livery
stable and
liquor store, and dealer in coal, wood, and feed." The 1880
City Directory
showed him as "Grauer, coal and wood dealer;" the i889
City Directory says
of him "Dealer in choice and staple groveries;" and the
City Directory for
1890 shows him as "Owner, Ledwith House (hotel) at 1034 P
Street, and a
capitalist."
He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1884,
which
convention nominated Grover Cleveland for president.
He was a member of the Lincoln City Council for six terms, from
1677 until
his death.
His first home in Lincoln was on a part of the present campus
of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the home he and his
family were
occupying at the time of his death is now the site of a large
theater
complex in the heart of downtown Lincoln. His business property
was only
three blocks from his home and the grocery, coal, and feed store
was just
west of the hotel he owned at the time of his death. The hotel
had to be
sold at auction shortly after his death because Lincoln's banks
had failed
and the mbney left in his estate had been lost in those failures.
The hotel
has been demolished and the sit e is now a parking lot.
Mr. Ledwith was a leader in the religious community too. He
served on the
reception committee to welcome the first Catholic Bishop to
Lincoln; served
on the committee to raise funds for the first parochial school in
the
Lincoln Diocese; and was on of the committee establishing
Calvary, Lincoln's
Catholic Cemetery. He died in Lincoln on March 30, 1890, and he
and his
wife, along with his brother John A. and sister, Margaret C., are
all buried
in Lincoln's Calvary Cemetery.