Ludwig Derr
Lewisburg, Union County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Founder of Lewisburg, 1785. Lived here in a log house incorporated in the present structure. Nearby, he operated a trading post and a grist and saw mill. Derr died in Nov. 1785.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Ludwig Derr laid out Lewisburg in 1785, in the first years of the new republic, choosing a spot along the Susquehanna's West Branch where a trading post and a grist and saw mill could anchor a settlement. His log house still survives, folded into the walls of a later structure on this site. Derr died the same year he founded the town, but the community he planned took root and grew.
Why it matters
It marks the founding of a Susquehanna Valley town by a frontier miller-entrepreneur, capturing how mills and trade drew Americans westward after the Revolution.
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Related people
- · Ludwig Derr
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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