Flag First: The Life of Edward Ludecke Under the American Flag

Nov 10

Edward Ludecke was an American soldier when the U.S. Army raised the Stars and Stripes over Sitka in 1867. It was an event that changed Alaska and defined his life.

(photo: Edward Ludecke sitting with an American flag. Courtesy of Alaska State Library Photo Collection, Ed Ludecke-1)

*A painting depicting the signing of the Treaty of Cession in 1867. Secretary of State William H. Seward is shown sitting with a pen in his hand. (image source:* *Wikipedia Commons*)

Going West

Edward Ludecke was born on September 17, 1835 in Brunswick, Germany. In 1866, around the age of 31, he immigrated to New Jersey. According to an article in the October 6, 1921 Wrangell Sentinel reprinted from The Pathfinder,

“On November 13, 1866 he enlisted in the Ninth Infantry, Company F at New Jersey and in the fall of the same year he left for Davis Island with the company on the steamer San Francisco for Panama. After marching across the Isthmus the company re-embarked on the steamer America for San Francisco, California.”

This was the period of American history after the Civil War. A war-weary nation aspired to move past its bitter feud by forging a new future in the Western frontier. On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward signed the Treaty of Cession to purchase Russia’s interests in Alaska. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty days later on April 9, 1867, and President Andrew Johnson signed the treaty on May 28, 1867.

Article IV of the Treaty specified that there would be a formal handoff:

“His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias shall appoint, with convenient despatch, an agent or agents for the purpose of formally delivering to a similar agent or agents appointed on behalf of the United States, the territory, dominion, property, dependencies and appurtenances which are ceded as above...”

In order to facilitate the handoff from Russia to the United States, the two empires planned a ceremony as grand as the land being transferred. Edward Ludecke, who had spent less than a year in the United States, was about to participate in one of its most historic events.

*“1867 North western America showing the territory ceded by Russia to the United States, by A. Lindenkohl” clipped to show southeast Alaska. (image source:* *Wikipedia Commons*)

North to Alaska

Edward Ludecke was one of over two-hundred men in the U.S. Army’s 9th Infantry stationed in San Francisco. In the October 1907 Alaska-Yukon Magazine, Edward Ludecke described the long, cramped steamship voyage from San Francisco to Sitka:

“‘Forward, March!’ was the gruff command of Captain [Charles O.] Wood which set the two detachments in motion at Ft. Mason, San Francisco, pursuant to orders from the department, ordering the troops to Sitka to consummate the ceremonies attending the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States.

As the soldiers, equipped in heavy marching order, tramped along the streets no maidens waited on the corners with roses for their buttonholes; and no enthusiastic crowds gathered to cheer them on their way. The public disfavor of the purchase of Alaska was made manifest by the absolute disregard of the troops marching to take possession of it.

The march was a bit tiresome for the heavily laden soldiers, and no time was lost in getting aboard the steamship John L. Stevens, which had been chartered to take the troops and supplies to Sitka. Sitka seemed at that time to be a long way off; and provisions, such as they were, were stored in the hold of the Stevens in quantities supposed to be sufficient to last the garrison for a year. A temporary stable was constructed forward; and the stalls contained four teams of mules and sixteen head of horses. Wagons were included among the list of freight.

It was probably a fortunate thing for all on board that every day of the entire voyage was pleasant, for the crowded condition of the boat was such as to have even in pleasant weather made living most uncomfortable, while it would have been hard to have secured food which could have in any way been worse than that upon which the troops subsisted on that voyage from San Francisco to Sitka.”

*View of New Archangel, 1837 (image source:* *Wikipedia Commons*)

“The Stevens arrived at Sitka on the morning of October 9th, twenty days from San Francisco... The men on the Stevens were hungry; but they were as anxious to get ashore for the purpose of ‘stretching their legs’ as they were for the opportunity of getting some decent food.

The landing was deferred, however, pending the arrival of the United States ship, Ossipee, which did not arrive until the morning of the 18th, nine days after the arrival of the Stevens, the troops remaining aboard in their confinement and unpleasant quarters all that time, impatiently waiting for the day to disembark.”

*Baranoff Castle, 1893. (image credit:* *Wikipedia Commons*)

Raising the Flag

After nine days of waiting at anchor aboard the John L. Stevens, Edward Ludecke and the 9th Infantry disembarked at Sitka to begin the long-awaited ceremonial transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States.

There are many eyewitness accounts of the ceremony featured in As the Old Flag Came Down by Chris Allan. Edward Ludecke’s version of the flag transfer story is told in the unpublished manuscript Sourdough, Lucy Ware by Lynn Worden Holmes. In the early 1900s, Holmes was a young girl in Wrangell who befriended Edward Ludecke. In her manuscript, she recounts him telling a colorful version of the flag transfer story, with never-before heard details:

“Our major — Major Charles O. Wood — he stepped from the boat with the feeling that he was making history. You could see from his face that he knew this was an important day, maybe the most important in his life. We soldiers followed our orders, marching solemnly up the hill to Baranoff Castle which stood bold and beautiful on a hundred-foot knoll straight up from the shore. There we halted and took our position…

The mist was gone, for a stiff breeze had come up, and the Russians standing about the ‘Captain’s Walk’ could see way out over the bay. Maybe other eyes were watching us too from the watch-tower that loomed at the top of the Castle’s roof. There were windows looking out in every direction.

Our General Rousseau with his two hundred fifty men dressed in parade uniforms made a fine-looking sight, and the Russian officers all in brass buttons and the Russian soldiers with their shining bayonets completed the circle.”

Princess Maria Vladimirovna Matsukoff. Born in 1834, she was close in age to Edward Ludecke at the time of the transfer ceremony. Marietta Davis, the wife of commander Jefferson C. Davis, described her as “She is a young woman, quite pretty and very agreeable.” (image source: *Alaska State Library*)

“The residents of the town were there and some of the Indians, but what interested me most was the royal party — the Prince and Princess Matsukoff. The Princess wore a long cape faced with ermine and a little ermine cap with dangling ermine tails. Her black hair streamed down her back and her earrings glittered, though her eyes were ‘most as bright as the diamonds. She wore the most beautiful boots I ever saw before or since. Her hands were tight together as if she felt sad about losing her home and had to hold herself in check. The Prince was a tall and dashing figure, too, but we were most interested in the Princess.

There was a signal. The color guardsman slackened the rope. The flag started to descend, but caught somehow and hung close to the pole’s top. There she stuck, and no amount of jerking could budge her! Then we could see that in trying to dislodge the flag, the Russian guardsman had torn it. What had been a symbol of the great Czar’s power was now two pieces of ragged cloth! Well, two of the Russian sailors began to climb the pole but it was a ninety foot go. They made a good try, but after a little time, down the slid, exhausted.

There was nothing to do but make a boatswain’s chair. They put a Russian in that and hoisted him up. He reached the top all right — and then he did a crazy thing. He let the flag drop! He was supposed to set it straight so the ropes would carry it down gracefully, but when he loosened her, down she came to the ground. Worse than that, she didn’t fall to the ground, but smack on the upturned points of the Russian bayonets…”

“Ron Conklin portrays Russian Commissioner Alexi Pestchouroff, and Roman Sorokin portrays a Russian sailor at Castle Hill, Sitka, Alaska, during the Oct. 18, 2017, reenactment of the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States.” (image source: *U.S. Army National Guard* *photo by Sgt. David Bedard/released)*

“You should have seen Captain Pestchouroff — fit to be tied, he was. He could’ve horse-whipped that blundering idiot. He yelled and swung his arms and fairly hopped up and down in a rage. But it was too late. The flag of all the Russians, the flag that Peter the Great had sent to Alaska was down, and for good and all. They didn’t get a second try.

When the captain stopped calling orders we heard a different sound, and at ‘attention’ or not — couldn’t help turning my eyes to that Russian Princess. When the flag fell she had given a little cry, and now she stood there rigid, her eyes wide open but tears raining down. The Princess began to sob then, and she turned about and faced the ocean so that she couldn’t see the soldiers take the torn flag off the bayonets.

And before they ran up the Stars and Stripes the Princess left the crowd and walked slowly all by herself straight up to the front door of the castle. The door was opened and she stepped inside, sorrowful and proud. The guns of the Russian battery spoke then, leading the salute just as the American colors took the breeze. We U.S. soldiers felt both proud and sorry too. Proud because our nation now owned a fine new land, and sorry because we thought we had seen the last of that lovely weeping Russian Princess.”

“Jay Sweeney (left), portraying Army Maj. Gen. Lovell Rousseau, and Ron Conklin, portraying Russian Commissioner Alexi Peschouroff, reenact the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States at Castle Hill, Sitka, Alaska, during the Oct. 18, 2017.” (image source: *Wikipedia Commons*)

“There was a moment of quiet before Captain Pestchouroff approached our Commissioner to speak. In those seconds there was another salute, one without a sound. Just a little white flutter of a lady’s handkerchief flying for a second in the breeze, and a beautiful face in that far-off window… It seemed as if the young Princess had said,

‘You win, Americans, I lose. But I’m saying to the old flag, and to the old days in Alaska, my own good-bye.’”

The exchange of flags was meant to symbolize mutual respect and a peaceful transfer of power. Instead, it was a fiasco. The insult of the Russian flag’s desecration literally flew in the faces of the Russians assembled. The Princess simply expressed how many of them already felt. As Edward Ludecke wrote in the Alaska-Yukon Magazine:

“The Russians in Sitka all seemed as though they had attended the funeral of the Czar; and went about the streets in a dejected manner... It hardly seemed as though the transfer was a preordained issue of consequences, for, in the first place the Russian flag refused to be lowered and then the elements combined to keep the Americans from landing. These two omens have always been looked upon by the superstitious as prognostications of ill for the country.”

It would not be the end of controversies surrounding the flag raising. Decades later, Edward Ludecke would find himself embroiled in a controversy around which flag was actually raised that day.

An advertisement from the Alaska Sentinel in 1903: “Edward Ludecke, General Repair of Boots and Shoes. All work left with me will be Promptly and Satisfactorily Done. Shop in Cagle building, next door to Sinclair’s store, Wrangell, Alaska.”

Civilian Life

Edward Ludecke’s profile in The Pathfinder reported that he continued his Army service in Sitka until he was discharged in 1869. An 1870 census of Sitka by the Army identified Edward Ludecke 36 years old, living with two other men, and working as one of several bakers in Sitka. The Army report noted, “The bakery is in good condition, and the bread usually of excellent quality.”

In 1872, prospectors found gold up the Stikine River in the Cassiar district. Edward Ludecke gave up baking, left Sitka, and went up the Stikine River to join the Cassiar Gold Rush. After several years of gold mining, he resettled to mouth of the Stikine River, at Fort Wrangel. The January 21, 1899 Stickeen River Journal described one of his first jobs: earning $5 for each steamship he helped land at the town’s only wharf. The paper described one occasion:

“He slept during the day and watched with aching eye-balls, peering into the gloom and crouching from the storm during the night… He had gripped the line and was everlastingly struggling with it, the tide on the run out and the wind off shore, nobody to give a helping hand.

‘Hang on to that line,’ shouted the captain from the bridge.

‘All right,’ shouted Ludecke.

Did he go overboard? He did. Did he let go the line? He did not.”

In Wrangell, people called him “Lu.” Well into his senior years, he worked a variety of jobs requiring manual labor. He operated a store on Front Street advertising shoe and boot repair. He built and fixed many of Wrangell’s first plank boardwalks. When the Wrangell waterfront burned down in March 1906, the fire destroyed Ludecke’s shoe shop, but he assisted in rebuilding his business and the town.

He found work digging graves in Wrangell. After the wreck of the Star of Bengal in 1908, survivor Patrick Loftus testified that Edward Ludecke received the contract from the Alaska Packers Association to bury the remains of the drowned cannery workers on Coronation Island. Ludecke’s time as a grave digger, and his longevity in Wrangell, made him an expert on many of the graves around the town. It was a knowledge that would come in useful towards the end of his life.

*The grounds of the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition in Seattle, Washington. This would later become the campus of the University of Washington. (image source:* *Wikipedia Commons*)

False Flags

In 1906, the same year Wrangell burned down, Edward Ludecke became embroiled in a controversy that recalled his earliest days in Alaska.

Seattle’s civic leaders began 1906 by announcing the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, an extravagant spectacle designed to cement Seattle as the rightful jumping-off point to Alaska and its vast wealth of natural resources. Seattle merchants struck it rich outfitting gold-miners during the Klondike Gold Rush, and they craved another chance to strike again.

In order to heighten the moment, the organizers announced plans to fly the very first American flag ever raised in Alaska above the parade grounds, courtesy of Edward Ludecke. The September 22, 1906 Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote:

“Reposing in a safety-deposit vault in the bank of Dexter Horton & Co., in this city, is a flag with a history...

This flag was raised at Fort Wrangel, Alaska, by Edward Leudecke, who is still living at Wrangell. The raising took place in the summer of 1867 on the arrival of the first company of American soldiers sent there to receive Alaska from Russia... The old emblem came into the possession of Mr. Leudecke, who is very proud of it—so much so that he has retained it ever since and to its safe-keeping had it sent here last year to rest in a safe deposit vault...

He turned the flag over to G.E. Rodman, a Wrangell attorney, to send to Seattle. It had been hoped by Mr. Leudecke and Mr. Rodman to sell the flag to the Alaska Club as a historical souvenir, but no agreement was reached and the flag has since lain in the vault...”

There were many factual errors in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer story, including the place of the first raising (Fort Wrangel was not established in 1867) and the spelling of Ludecke’s name. An anonymous reader named “Historicus” wrote to Boston Alaska magazine, describing Seattle Post-Intelligencer article as “a great mistake” and claiming to have met with ex-soldier John McKinnon who helped raise the flag:

“McKinnon went fully into the matter of his having had charge of the flag as color-bearer. He had carried the flag ashore from the vessel on which he was stationed, and when the flag was lowered at sundown it was his charge to see that it was properly dried and folded, which he did, and then gave it to General Rousseau. Rousseau on his departure took the flag in a tin box and transmitted it to Washington with his report. This flag has been in the custody of the State Department ever since.”

Despite the controversy, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition pushed on with its plan to fly Ludecke’s flag. The February 15, 1907 Evansville Journal reported:

“When the American flag is hoisted to the topmost tower of the Alaska building at the completed Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition at Seattle on opening day, June 1st, 1909, and the great ten million dollar world’s fair is declared open by the president of the United States, no ordinary banner will be used. In fact the flag whose stars and stripes first cast a shadow over the massive and beautiful buildings by Lake Washington will be the original American flag that was hoisted first over the district of Alaska when the empire was purchased by the United States...

They proceeded by the inside channel first to Wrangel. At that point there were living a few Americans engaged in pioneer work. One of these was Edward Leudecke. When the troops touched at that point, heard for the first time of the American purchase. Although the country was not then formally taken over by the United States, he ran to the flagpole there and hoisted the American flag, and there it flew for many months... Leudecke however clung carefully to his flag and in 1905 turned the banner over to G.E. Rodman, an attorney at Wrangel, who sent it on to its present destination for safe keeping.”

In fact, over the years, multiple people had claimed to possess the original American flag flown over Sitka at the transfer ceremony with Russia.

According to the Douglas Island News of July 17, 1907, a man named Dwight A. Hurlburt claimed to have been a member of the 2nd Artillery and “took pains to follow the course of this flag after it had served its usefulness… The flag is not, as he says, in the possession of the government at this present time.”
The Nome Daily Nugget of August 1, 1907 reported that F.E. Frobese, a former museum curator in Sitka, claimed the flag was secured inside the collection of the museum in Sitka.
The Washington Post of June 18, 1894 reported that Joseph I. Keefer claimed to have discovered the flag in the basement of the U.S. State Department. (See Chris Allan in 2019’s collection The Big Wild Soul of Terrance Cole.)
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer of June 5, 1896 reported that an elderly woman named Caroline Hall received the flag from her fiancé who received it from an officer who was present at the flag raising. (See Chris Allan in 2019’s collection The Big Wild Soul of Terrance Cole.)

Just like the stories published about Edward Ludecke, each of these claims were easily disprovable historical inaccuracies, as well. The only consistent, confirmed story of the first American flag flown in Alaska was the one told by the American General Lovell Rosseau, who personally returned the flag to William H. Seward at the State Department in Washington, D.C.

The true facts of Edward Ludecke’s flag came to light when he sued the Dexter Horton Bank to get his flag back. The August 3, 1907 Oregonian reported:

“Ludecke says he was a member of the United States Army detachment sent to Alaska in 1867 to take over the district. He swears that with his own hands he raised the first American flag over Sitka on October 19, 1867. Later he says he found seven flags, among them the original emblems, selling at auction in Sitka, and he bought them for $9. What Ludecke says was the first American flag in Alaska was deposited with F.E. Bronson, Collector of Customs at Wrangel, and Rodman is said to have procured it from the Collector and tried to sell it to the Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition for $2500, later depositing it in the bank.”

In the lawsuit, Edward Ludecke was not represented by Wrangell attorney G.E. Rodman, but rather the firm of Roberts & Hulbert. Ludecke’s attorney John W. Roberts told the August 3, 1907 Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

“From the affidavits in my possession, it appears that the plaintiff in the case bought the flag, together with six others, from the United States government, at a condemnation sale of government goods at Sitka, Alaska, about 1874, and afterwards left it in the charge of Revenue Collector F.E. Bronson of Wrangell. It was the first United States flag raised by authority if our government in the territory of Alaska, on October 19, 1867. Some time ago, George E. Rodman, of Wrangell procured the flag from Bronson, the latter having the impression that it was Ludecke’s desire that he should have it. Rodman brought it to Seattle and offered it to the A.-Y.-P. management for $2,500, depositing it meanwhile with Dexter Horton & Co. Mr. Ludecke is desirous that the flag be placed on exhibition at the big fair and will loan it for that purpose when he gets possession of it, without charge.”

The common denominator across all the false claims about Edward Ludecke was Wrangell attorney G.E. Rodman. Unbeknownst to Edward Ludecke, Rodman got the flag from F.E. Bronson, took it to Seattle, and attempted to sell it to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific organizers for $2,500 (over $80,000 today). Unable to get his payout immediately, Rodman went across the street to the Dexter Horton Bank and deposited the flag while he waited. Rodman was unfamiliar with the details of Edward Ludecke’s life story, which explains the fictitious biography of Edward Ludecke shared in the Seattle newspapers. Rodman was a lawyer, but he did not represent Edward Ludecke.

Today, as in the past, the Alaska Club (center) sits directly across 3rd Avenue from the Dexter Horton building (behind) in downtown Seattle, Washington. The Alaska Club is now called the Arctic Club Hotel, and the Dexter Horton building is a multi-purpose office building. (image source: *Wikipedia Commons*)

Edward Ludecke acquired the flag by honest means. When he purchased it, he may well have been told that it was indeed the same flag he saw fly above Sitka that fateful day in October 1867. But unlike G.E. Rodman, Edward Ludecke was not looking to cash in on the flag. As the August 12, 1908 Daily Record-Miner reported, “Mr. Ludecke is willing that the exposition management have the use of the flag free of charge, but he does not wish to have the title to it questioned.”

The story took another unexpected twist in August 1907 when a Seattle deputy sheriff arrived at the Dexter Horton Bank with papers to retrieve the flag for Ludecke, but the bank denied having possession of the flag at all.

The flag may have been recovered, because one year later, Alaskan newspapers reported that Edward Ludecke was willing to make it available for a grand celebration in Juneau, dubbed the ‘87 Pioneers Ball, which would recreate the American flag raising in Sitka featuring performers on stage in Russian and American uniforms, a singing of the Star Spangled Banner, and Edward Ludecke in attendance.

Sitka Pioneer Home

By 1913, Edward Ludecke was 78 years old and had lived over half his life in Alaska and nearly 40 years in Wrangell. That year, Alaska’s Territorial Legislature established the Pioneer Home in Sitka, a place for Alaska’s generation of aging settlers to live out their golden years. On October 21, 1913, Edward Ludecke left Wrangell to move into the Pioneer Home. An article in the June 1, 1963 Anchorage Daily Times reported that Edward Ludecke was the first guest to move in.

It was a full-circle moment for Edward Ludecke, as the Pioneer Home stood a short distance from the site of the flag raising ceremony. A missive on AlaskaWeb.org notes that Edward Ludecke “was a favorite of small boys as he whittled toys of wood and made them whistles of bamboo or eagle's claws.”

Edward Ludecke came back to the place where his Alaskan odyssey began, but his heart was always in Wrangell.

*The Redmen Cemetery in Wrangell, circa 1930s.*

Strike the Colors

Edward Ludecke passed on May 29, 1920 in the Pioneer Home in Sitka at the age of 84. The June 3, 1920 Wrangell Sentinel wrote:

“Mayor J.G. Grant on Friday of last week received a cablegram announcing the death of Edward Ludecke at the Pioneers’ Home at Sitka. The message stated that Mr. Ludecke had expressed a wish to be buried in Wrangell. Mayor Grant at once cabled the authorities at the Pioneers’ Home to send the remains to Wrangell.”

Edward Ludecke’s funeral was held in Wrangell’s Redmen’s Hall on Sunday June 6, 1920 and concluded with a graveside service in the Redmen’s Cemetery (now called Wrangell Memorial Cemetery). His profile in The Pathfinder said,

“With his request in mind, the loyal citizens of Wrangell, following his death, had the body brought from Sitka to Wrangell and it was interred with those of his old friends who had gone before; in a beautiful spot overlooking the meeting place of the bright blue waters of the Pacific with those of the turgid Stikine.

Edward Ludecke was beloved by all who knew him; his friends were legion, and in their hearts there will ever remain a fond memory of their departed friend and companion. He was a true pioneer, one who took part in the raising of the Stars and Stripes over this great Northern Empire of ours.”

The January 21, 1921 Cordova Daily Times reported that “a monument to be erected over the grave of Edward Ludecke… arrived recently at Wrangell. The handsome stone was paid for by popular subscription. Ludecke died in the Pioneers’ Home but asked that he be buried at Wrangell.” Stamped on his headstone was his claim to fame:

EDWARD LUDECKE
1835 – 1920
Member of U.S.A. Color Guard
Raised the Stars and Stripes at
Sitka, Alaska 1867
Upon transfer of Terr. from Russia

*Edward Ludecke. (image credit: Alaska State Library, Winter & Pond Photo Collection, P 87-2393)*

Final Salute

Shortly before he died, Edward Ludecke made one last contribution to Wrangell.

In May 1919, Wrangell prepared to observe the first Memorial Day since the end of World War I. The planning committee announced that Edward Ludecke would serve as “marshal of the day” and raised money on his behalf to pay for his transportation from Sitka. According to the Wrangell Sentinel of May 29, 1919, his presence was more than to honor him — it was to honor others:

“His visit here at this time is in response to an invitation from the Memorial Day committee, who desired his presence not only as an old soldier and friend, but because he would be able to identify the unmarked graves of several soldiers who are buried in the local cemetery.”

During his many years in Wrangell, Edward Ludecke had seen much life, and just as much death. He had been around during the heady days of the 1870s, when the U.S. Army occupied Fort Wrangel. He was familiar with the burial sites of several soldiers—and one sailor—buried in Wrangell in the since forgotten “Soldier’s Cemetery.” As an old veteran, Edward Ludecke cared deeply about this cause. In May 1907, as Seattle newspapers published articles about Edward Ludecke and his famous flag, he was in Wrangell decorating soldiers’ graves and bearing the Stars and Stripes in observance of Memorial Day.

For ten days, Edward Ludecke helped identify the burial places of veterans around the town. As soon as he left, the Memorial Day committee rushed off a letter to Alaska’s delegate in Congress requesting headstones to adorn the graves of the unknown soldiers:

“All sources of information have been drained in the effort to ascertain names and branches of service of the deceased, and we feel the details, meagre though they may be found, are all that are now or will become available. Under such conditions we feel that ‘Unknown’ headstones should mark certain of these graves as they do in large eastern cemeteries. May we not ask that you use your best endeavors to have the proper department of the Government manufacture, engrave and forward headstones with bases which will permanently mark the graves of the Soldier and Sailor dead of Wrangell.”

Edward Ludecke would not live to see these headstones. His death came one year later, just days before Memorial Day 1920. The town of Wrangell carried on the work and relocated remains into the new Redmen’s Cemetery in anticipation of headstones from the government.

One year after his death, the May 5, 1921 Wrangell Sentinel reported on the success of the project:

“It will be remembered that in 1919 the citizens of Wrangell by liberal subscription made it possible for the Memorial Day Committee to send for the late Edward Ludecke… to visit Wrangell and designate the resting places of men who had served with the colors in Army and Navy, his personal knowledge, through many years service as grave digger, being of great value. Armed with the best information then available, this committee applied to Delegate Wickersham for headstones to mark the graves...

Quartermaster General H.L. Rogers states that instructions will be given for the shipment of eight headstones which will be inscribed ‘Unknown U.S. Soldier’ and one headstone bearing the inscription ‘Unknown U.S. Sailor’... This action is taken in view of the circumstances outlined in the letters inclosed by you which indicate plainly how the identity of ex-soldiers buried in Alaska might be lost, and statement of responsible citizens that the decedents were ex-soldiers.’ ”

*Edward Ludecke provided insights that led to the establishment of these headstones of military veterans in the Wrangell Memorial Cemetery. (image credit: Alice Rooney)*

One of Edward Ludecke’s final acts was to help the community of Wrangell identify the graves of the fallen soldiers so that they might be marked forever. It was a fitting act for one whose life was defined by his military service and love of Wrangell.

During his final trip to Wrangell in 1919, Edward Ludecke told the Wrangell Sentinel:

“You have some of the best people in Alaska in Wrangell. I lived along them a long time and I am sure you could not find better people anywhere. The only thing that ever worries me now is being unable to work. As long as I am working I am perfectly contented.”