Population Statistics
By: Marck B., Morgan G., and Robert G.
Why did people come to Ludlow?
Why did the population suddenly jump in 1820?
Why did the population suddenly drop in 1848?
Ludlow's population growth
A History of Ludlow, 1974
The population in Ludlow fluctuated between 1774 and 1974. In the beginning there was a very small number of only 200 to 300 people. The population steadily began rising until 1810, when the population suddenly jumped by about 500 people. This is because of people coming to work for Benjamin Jenks at the Springfield Manufacturing Company in Ludlow. These people mostly lived in Jenksville, which was the area by the mills near the Chicopee River. After about 25 years later, in 1835, the population was very high at 1,329, from the success of the mills. Then, in 1848, the population suddenly dropped because of the failure of the Springfield Manufacturing Company.
By 1888, the mills were owned by The Ludlow Manufacturing Company, and these new mill owners discovered that French-Canadians and Irish immigrants would work for little money and long hours. In the beginning of the 1900’s, the Poles started flooding into America and made the population jump from 3,536 to 4,948 people. Ludlow was becoming a bigger town and was encouraging immigration for more workers. In 1917, Italians started to come into America because of the many job possibilities. Another large ethnic group that came into Ludlow was the Portuguese, which brought a large number of workers with them. A couple of the first Portuguese settlers were Antonio Costa and Luiz Santos, who arrived in 1910. The Portuguese helped the population to increase a lot. All these people helped to make Ludlow grow over the years and many of them worked in the mills.