1S92.] ^^* [Ruscheuborger. 



The name first appears in the City Directory for 1809—" Leidy, Jacob, 

 shoemaker, 9 Summers' Court." Prior to that year the Leidys probably 

 lived either iu Bucks or Montgomery county. All of them who exchanged 

 a country for a city residence were of the class called "plain people," 

 composed of well-to-do and respectable workers' — men whose individ- 

 ual energies when united constitute the national strength and are almost 

 exclusively the progenitors, in aftermaths, of millionaires, consequently 

 of aristocratoid or "first families " and gentry, often more boastful of an- 

 cestry than of creditable achievement. The name of Philip Leidy, hatter, 

 the father of our subject, first appears in the City Directory for 1817, and 

 that of his brother, Conrad, bootmaker, in 1820. At those dates they 

 were established in business. During several years before that time they 

 resided in the city. Both volunteered in the War of 1812-15 against Great 

 Britain and served with those at Camp DuPont. The Leidys named in 

 the City Directories for 1809 and for several years thereafter were mostly 

 mechanics, makers of hats, boots, chairs, etc., and probably had been 

 apprentices and learned their trades in the city. One of their contempo- 

 raries, now an influential citizen advanced in years, remembers that "all 

 the Leidys were smart." 



Philip Leidy, who was born in Montgomery county. Pa., December 5, 

 1791, is spoken of as a powerful man whose stature was rather more than 

 six feet and in every way well proportioned. Though not conspicuous 

 for mental force he was naturally endowed with practical good sense. 

 His educational acquirements were limited ; but his industry, honesty and 

 frank deportment secured him confidence and respect wherever he was 

 known. He made and sold hats, did a good business, and had many cus- 

 tomers from the adjoining counties as well as in the city. He was a mem- 

 ber of the German Lutheran Church in New street, and with his family 

 habitually attended its services. 



Dr. Leidy said in his self-introduction, every word in a halo of grateful 

 love, my stepmother "was the only mother I have known, who was all 

 and all to me, the one to whom I owe all that I am." 



Besides being notable in the management of domestic aflairs, she pos- 

 sessed a large share of tact and of good womanly qualities. She was in- 

 tellectually the superior of the family, had literary taste, wrote verses 

 sometimes, was ambitious, and desired that her children should be well 

 educated and that her sons should study the professions. 



Through her influence Joseph, at the age of about ten years, was sent 

 to the Classical Academy, a private day-school conducted by the Rev. 

 William Mann, a Methodist clergyman. There he studied English and 

 read Latin — Historia Sacra, Viri Romie and Virgil — the principal being 

 scrupulously careful that his pupils should understand the grammar. 

 Probably he began Greek also. 



Minerals and plants interested him at an early age. Mr. ]Mann encour- 

 aged the cultivation of this taste. One day an itinerant lecturer from the 

 so-called "Universal Lyceum " visited the school, and, by permission. 



