Guide to the Leddel Family (Mendham, NJ) Records 1785-1878 MG 119

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Descriptive Summary

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Restrictions

Access Points

Related Material

Administrative Information

Bibliography

Container List

Documents

MG 119

© 2006 All rights reserved.

The New Jersey Historical Society, Publisher

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

Finding aid encoded by Julia Telonidis. January 2006. Production of the EAD 2002 version of this finding aid was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Finding aid written
in English.

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.

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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. The records contain documents with alternate spellings of the name Leddel, including Leddell and Leddle.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions on this collection.

Photocopying of materials is limited and no materials may be photocopied without permission from library staff.

Use Restrictions

Researchers wishing to publish, reproduce, or reprint materials from this collection must obtain permission.

The New Jersey Historical Society complies with the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code), which governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials.

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Related Material

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

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

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as: Manuscript Group 119, Leddel Family (Mendham, NJ)

Records, The New Jersey Historical Society.

Acquisition Information

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

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Bibliography

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.

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Container List

Daybook and Account book (1 volume)

Account book (store)

Account book (mill)

Account book Ledger C (store)

Daybook (store)

Daybook (store)

Daybook (store)

Daybook (store)

Daybook (store)

Daybook (mill)

Daybook (mill)

Daybook (mill)

Daybook (mill and store)

Daybook (mill)

Daybook (mill)