Seeking Great Grandfather Ludwig Herring

David here.

This is a story about Ludwig Herring, my Fifth Great Grandfather.

Ludwig Høring/Herring was born June 27, 1734 somewhere in Europe and died February 16, 1788 in West Brunswick, Berks County, Pennsylvania.  He married Christina Braunschweig about 1755 and fathered 10 children. He is believed to have arrived in Philadelphia on September 30, 1754 aboard the ship Neptune. The ship arrived from Rotterdam carrying "Inhabitants from Darmstadt and Zeibrucken - 4 Roman Catholics." He is listed as "Ludwich Haring" and as "Ludewig (H) Herring."  While apparently originally a Huguenot (a German Catholic), Ludwig became a Lutheran.  His first eight children were baptized in New Hanover Lutheran Church, where he served as a Deacon.  He was a cordwainer, farmer, miller, sawyer -- and, later in life, an innkeeper.  Besides the eight children baptized in New Hanover, Ludwig and Christina had two more, Peter and Henry, baptized in present Schuylkill County according to the records of Zion "Red" Church there.

Here is a photo of the Red Church today:

His inn, the "Brunswick Tavern", a large stone house, still stands on the east side of Highway 61 in upper Deer Lake village, a borough in Schuylkill County, north of Reading, Pennsylvania.

Here is a photo of the tavern today --

-- and this is the sign that is said to have marked the tavern until recently:

Credit, "The Spiked Trail," https://thespikedtrail.wordpress.com/2020/04/21/brunswick-tavern-southern-schuylkill-county/ (April 21, 2020) (available May 7, 2020).

Deer Lake Borough was formed in the 1920's; during Ludwig's life, the community may have been known as Bohandy, and for some time was part of Brunswick Township, which was formed in 1801.  Interestingly, Ludwig's wife Christina's maiden name, Braunschweig, is the Germanic form of "Brunswick," which became the name of the local township and may have also been the name of Christina's home town in Germany.

Ludwig operated the tavern until after the Revolutionary War was over, and when he died his son, Ludwig II, took it over and ran it until about 1800. Both father and son served in Washington's army during the Revolutionary War.

His son, Ludwig II, was the father of George Herring, who in turn fathered George Washington Herring.  Julia Anna Herring was the daughter of George Washington and in turn the mother of my maternal grandfather, Leroy Clement Harris.  This makes the original Ludwig Herring my great-great-great-great-great grandfather -- my ancestor 7 generations back.

Ludwig was buried in the Zion (Red Church) Cemetery in Deer Lake, across Highway 61 from the church:

Here is a view of the cemetery, which is still used for local burials --

-- and here is a photo of Ludwig's gravestone:

Credit, "The Spiked Trail," https://thespikedtrail.wordpress.com/2020/04/21/brunswick-tavern-southern-schuylkill-county/ (April 21, 2020) (available May 7, 2020).

In 1981, my Grandpa Harris, on a trip across the country from Oregon, where he was then living, visited the Reading, Pennsylvania area and paid a visit to Deer Lake, where he found the old Brunswick Tavern.  He reported by letter in 1984 to my sister Elizabeth that the tavern, then apparently an old stone farmhouse, was, "an old two-story stone building...in a fair state of preservation...."  Its state of preservation doesn't look so fair today.  It needs lots of love.

The other day, as we were researching places to access the Appalachian Trail for hiking, I recalled some of the above facts and pulled out my genealogy files to research the details on Ludwig Herring.  It turned out that Deer Lake is only about 35 miles from our campground and only about 4 miles from today's hike.  Of course, it was necessary to make a pilgrimage to Deer Lake to see what we could find about 5th Great Grandfather Ludwig Herring!  We dropped by Deer Lake today, after our hike on the Appalachian Trail (see our separate blog entry on that hike), and we were able to find the landmarks in the photos above.  We're sure there are more facts to be uncovered about Ludwig and his tavern, but the research that will uncover those facts will have to wait for another day.

In the meantime, for those of you who have read this far, here is a TRIVIA BONUS:  While we were driving around Deer Lake, we learned that Muhammad Ali's training camp was also located in Deer Lake and still stands today, complete with an indoor boxing ring.