Manuscript Group 119, Leddel Family (Mendham, NJ) Records, 1785-1878

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Manuscript Group 119,
Leddel Family (Mendham, NJ)

Records, 1785-1878, 3.5
linear feet / 26 volumes

Call Number: MG 119 + box and
folder number

• Summary

• Biographical
  Note

• Provenance
  Note

• Scope
  and Content Note

• Related
  Collections

• Box /
  Folder List

Summary:

Account books and receipts of Dr. William
Leddel (1747-1827); daybooks, a memorandum book, and letters of Dr. John W.
Leddel (ca. 1784-1865); and account books, daybooks, and a check book of Samuel
W. Leddel (1810-1875), who owned a general store and grist mill in Mendham, New
Jersey.  Also contains a daybook and account book from Samuel W. Leddel’s
estate.

Donated, in part, by Margaret L. Ramsden,
1981.

Biographical
Note:

William Leddel, Jr., the son of William
Leddel, a French naval surgeon who settled in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, was
born in 1747. Upon his father’s death in 1766, William Jr. moved to Mendham,
New Jersey and apprenticed himself to Dr. Ebenezer Blachy. He established
himself as a physician and practiced in Mendham for the remainder of his life.

Leddel was also active in military
matters, serving as a lieutenant in the Morris County Troop of Light Horse
during the Revolution. He participated in the Battles of Connecticut Farms and
Springfield and in the retreat of George Washington from New York. He also used
his medical skills to tend to Washington’s troops during their stay in
Morristown in the winter of 1779-1780. Later, he was a major in the forces that
put down the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 and served as a captain of Cavalry during
the War of 1812. He served two terms as Morris County’s sheriff from 1783-1785
and tried small cases before the Justices of the Peace.

In addition, sometime prior to the
American Revolution, William Leddel probably either acquired or built a sawmill
in southern Mendham on the upper branch of the Passaic River in Jockey Hollow.
This mill was replaced by a larger sawmill, woodturning mill, and gristmill,
known as Leddel Mill; and seems to have remained in the family for a number of
generations.

William Leddel married Phebe Wick, the
daughter of Henry Wick, and they settled at Washington Corner on a part of the
Wick tract in Mendham. It was here that they raised their five children: Eliza,
Tempe, Henry (d.1799), Mary, and John (ca.1784-1865). Dr. William Leddel died in
Mendham on August 9, 1827 at the age of eighty.

John W. Leddel, the son of Phebe and
William Leddel, was born in Mendham around 1784. He studied medicine under his
father’s guidance and started practicing in his hometown at the age of
eighteen. Like his father, he practiced medicine in Mendham throughout his
lifetime. In 1805 he married Jemima Wills (d.1865), the daughter of Samuel
Wills, and together they had six children. Dr. John W. Leddel died on April 15,
1865 at the age of eighty-one.

Samuel Wills Leddel, the second son of
Jemima and John W. Leddel, was born in 1810. He graduated from Union College in
1831 and although he studied medicine, he seems to have run a general store and
gristmill in Mendham. On September 3, 1849, he married Emma Louisa Halsey
(1817-1891), with whom he had three children: Alexander, Sarah Tempe (b.1855),
and Samuel Frederick (1857-1891). He died in 1875.

Sources:

Hopler, Martha G., Edward W. Rossler,
Wallace G. West. The Mendhams (Mayor’s Tercentary Committee: Brookside,
NJ, 1964), pgs. 25, 107, 111, 138.

McGregor, R.W. David. History of
Freemasonry in New Jersey 1787-1937, pgs. 77-78.

Wickes, Stephen. History of Medicine in
New Jersey and of its Medical Men (Martin R. Dennis & Co.: Newark, NJ,
1879), pgs. 312-314.

Provenance
Note:

The Leddel Family Records consist of
numerous record books from a variety of sources. The Dr. William Leddel and Dr.
John W. Leddel record books were donated by Margaret L. Ramsden in 1981. A
number of the Samuel W. Leddel record books were removed from Manuscript Group
153, John Ralston Records. It is unclear whether these volumes were originally
or mistakenly placed in MG 153, but at some point they were removed and placed
with other Samuel W. Leddel volumes. The source of the remainder of the volumes
is unknown.

Scope
and Content Note:

The records consist of the account books
and daybooks of Dr. William Leddel, Dr. John W. Leddel, and Samuel W. Leddel.
The record books date from 1785-1878 and track the practices of both doctors and
of Samuel W. Leddel’s general store and gristmill. The volumes have been
organized into three series, one for each man, and then arranged by record type
and date.

Series I – Dr. William Leddel (1747-1827)

This series contains two account books of
Dr. William Leddel, dating from 1785-1819 and 1788-1826 respectively. The books
track the doctor’s medical visits and contain customer accounts with date,
reason for visit, prescription, and payment entries. This series also contains a
number of loose bills and receipts.

Series II – Dr. John W. Leddel
(ca.1784-1865)

This series contains four daybooks used by
Dr. John W. Leddel dating from 1800-1833. These volumes trace the doctor’s
daily practice with chronological entries of person visited, reason for visit,
prescription, and price. This series also contains a memorandum book and a
series of nine letters to the lawyer Elias Van Arsdale, concerning a lawsuit
over the estate of Leddel’s father-in-law, Samuel Wills.

Series III – Samuel W. Leddel (1810-1875)

The final series contains the account
books and daybooks of Samuel W. Leddel which track the business in his Mendham
general store and gristmill. Entries include customer, date, item purchased, and
price, and are arranged either chronologically in the daybooks, or under
customer name in the account books. Most of the accounts are indexed.

Items sold at the general store include
molasses, sugar, calico, shoes, muslin, blasting powder, oats, mittens, and
tobacco, while the gristmill entries are for sacks or bags of wheat, feed, oats,
or meal. A number of the volumes contain the names and probable handwriting of
Sarah L. Leddel and Morgan W. Leddel, probably close family members of Samuel
who worked at the store and mill. Finally, this series also contains one account
book/daybook dating from 1875-1876 tracking the daily expenses of Samuel W.
Leddel’s family and estate.

Related
Collections:

Manuscript Group 129,
William Leddel (1747-1827) Papers

Manuscript Group 562,
M. M. Leddell (fl.
1875-1879) Account book

Box / Folder
List:

Processed by Kim Charlton, July 2000 as part of the “Farm to City”
project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.

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