VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
1041
is with the Baptist church. He is a Free
Mason, having gone through all degrees to
and including the "Shrine."
He was married on March 2~, i8go, in Rockingham county, to Emma Cathrine Keister, who was born in Pendleton county, West Virginia, on November 25, 1870, daughter of Martin and Elizabeth Keister. Their children are Nina Coleman Leedy, who is a graduate of the Woman's College of Richmond. \'irginia; Thelma Hudson Leedy, now in the high school ; John Robert Leedy and Lillian Dare Leedy, the next two, are also in the high school ; Rolfe Miller Leedy and Beverley Berrey Leedy, the younger children, have not yet entered school.
Colonel Leedy's reading takes a wide range. He delights in Washington Irving, Dickens, "The World's Best Oratory" (by Brewer), "The World's Best Classics (by Lodge), the Roxburgh Classics, Jefferson's Papers and Writings, the Messages of the Presidents, Gibbon's "Rome," Henderson's "Life of Stonewall Jackson," and above all the Bible. This by no means exhausts his reading, but it gives an idea of the diver- sity of his tastes, though it is quite evident from this list that governmental questions appeal strongly to him.
To those not familiar with the valley of Virginia it would be a surprise to travel there, and to see to what extent the German blood is in evidence. Colonel Leedy's pa- ternal grandmother was Eve Brower, daughter of Daniel Brower, of Augusta county. His maternal grandmother was Margaret Harnsberger, a daughter of Con- rad Harnsberger. She was a great-grand- daughter of Robert Harnsberger and of Adam Mueller, both of whom were asso- ciated in the transactions with Jacob Stover — Adam Mueller being the first settler in that section.
Colonel Leedy has a very interesting heirloom in his possession in the shape of an old family clock which is eight feet high and still running. The lettering has be- come quite indistinct from great age, but when he was a boy he made out the in- scription upon it to be "Elisha Burk" (the maker's name) "York Town" (meaning York, Pennsylvania). The date was either 1785, 1765, or 1735. Some twenty years ago Colonel Leedy had it repaired, and the clock-maker, in enameling the face over
VIR— 66
made is read "Elijah Birk, I73S-" He knows
that the name of the maker is wrong, and he
believes that the date is wrong, and that
1785 is correct, which looks more reasori-
able. It is a very interesting relic of the old
times and shows the quality of the work
done by our forefathers.
Colonel Leedy has strong convictions on governmental questions. He classes himself as a Democrat. He believes that represen- tative democracy is the best form of gov- ernment, and in so far as we have wandered away frow that, in his judgment, it is ne- cessary for us to retrace out steps. As he sees it, we have set up false standards, and we must educate our people to that degree of intelligence that they will be willing to dethrone these fallacious ideas, and must more and more impress upon our people the honorable character of all honest work. In governmental affairs, he thinks that dis- criminatory laws have made us cowards in the conduct of government, and that to be fearless and crush every tendency to anarchy a government must be just.
His ideas about the practice of law are so very commendable that he could prob- ably get a unanimous vote on the part of the laymen of the country in support of them, and this brief sketch can be concluded in no better words than his own, in this connec- tion, when he says : "I believe we have out- grown the distinction between law and equity practice, and further that the judges should prescribe a uniform practice and procedure for all jurisdictions which should be enacted into law in each state and by the United States."
Coat-of-arms, Leedy (Holland) : D'azur a la fasce d'or. Cimier: un vol, aux armes de I'ecu. — Rietstap Armorial General. Azure, a fesse or. Crest: Arms of the es- cutcheon winged.
St. George Brooke Tucker. St. George Brooke Tucker, a rising young business man of New York City, was born October I. 1875, in Dallas, Texas, son of Charles Frederick and Mary Sydnor (Jones) Tucker, natives respectively of New York and Texas. His grandfather. Alpheus Leander Tucker, was born near the beginning of the nineteenth century, in Utica, New York, and in 1849 removed to Franklin, Louisi- ana, where he engaged in the practice of law. Most of his life was thus spent there.
