Hoosier Kin

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Daniel Leeds (1651-1720) & Japheth Leeds (1682-1748)

Kathryn Hirons Kesterson

Family Legend/Folklore

My website may be titled Hoosier Kin — an homage to five generations of my paternal line in Indiana — however, through my maternal line, my roots are profoundly dug into, planted deeply in southern New Jersey’s Atlantic Coast, too. This post was originally prompted and inspired by professional genealogist Amy Johnson Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompt FAMILY LEGEND in 2021, but again in 2024, FAMILY LORE. Here I share a legend that is the definition of New Jersey folklore: The Jersey Devil.

But, are those connections the makings of such a fantastical tale? The story has multiple variations, but all follow the formula of what I presented above:

Mother Leeds — stormy night — crying out in frustration, cursing the birth of her 13th child — beastly creature — a legend was born!

Or, was it? Over the centuries, the story of the Jersey Devil has become entangled in myths, and the variations have almost completely obscured the actual events that birthed the legend.

Publishing his first almanac in 1687, Daniel Leeds made significant contributions to the otherwise dry genre by addressing the reader personally, providing news of religious and community groups, fairs, courts, accounts and anecdotes as well as verse scattered throughout his almanacs. Leeds' fellow Quakers deemed these almanacs as too pagan because he used terms like “March,” referring to the Roman god of war, instead of the month’s ordinal number in plain language. Even though Daniel Leeds made public apology for some elements in the almanacs, the almanacs were censored and destroyed by the local Quaker community. Labeled as evil and Satan’s harbinger, Leeds abandoned the Quakers, firmly resolute to continue writing.

Also at this time, Daniel Leeds surveyed and acquired land in the Great Egg Harbor area on the Atlantic Coast, allowing him to distance himself from the Quaker community, eventually handing the land down to his sons as a family seat, Leeds Point: the area most associated with the Jersey Devil legend.

IN THE DECEMBER 1732 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, Benjamin Franklin penned the following advertisement:

Enter, BEN FRANKLIN…

“Just published for 1733: Poor Richard: An Almanack containing the lunations, eclipses, planets motions and aspects, weather … [and the] prediction of the death of his friend Mr. Titan Leeds.”

Not only did Benjamin Franklin, the young printing upstart and future founding father, predict the established almanac rival’s date of death, October 17, 1733 at 3:29PM — but also the exact moment “at the very instant of the conjunction of the Sun and Mercury.” Titan Leeds did not die on October 17, 1733 …. nor was he amused with Franklin’s prank.

The very much alive Titan Leeds responded about Franklin/Poor Richard in his 1734 almanac as a “false Predictor,” “conceited Scribbler,” “Fool,” and last but not least, “Lyar.” Poor Richard was stunned by these rude rebuttals, such name calling! With a wearied tone, in his next almanac, he responded:

“Having received much abuse from the Ghost of Titan Leeds, who pretends to still be living, and to write Almanacks in spight of me and my Predictions, I cannot help but saying, that tho’ I take it patiently, I take it unkindly.”

He added that there was no doubt Leeds had died, for it was “plain to everyone that reads his last two almanacks, no man living would or could write such stuff.” This war of words continued for years.

In this war of the almanacs, Franklin had quite an advantage: He owned and operated the printing house that churned out Titan Leeds’ — his main competitor’s — almanac. This crucial advantage allowed Franklin to read Leeds’ attacks and respond to them in Poor Richard’s Almanack before Leeds’ publication even went to press, further pouring fuel on the fire but also captivating much of the colonies’ reading public. Franklin’s decision to commence and stir this farce of a feud did indeed boost his sales.

Titan Leeds actually did die in 1738. Franklin’s witty performance, although, did not. The 1740 edition of Poor Richard’s portrayed a late-night visit from the Ghost of Titan Leeds, who entered Poor Richard Saunder’s brain via his left nostril and penned the following message:

“I did actually die at that moment,” Leeds’ [Ghost] confessed, “precisely at the hour you mentioned, with a variation of 5 minutes, 53 sec.”

It is interesting to point out that the traditionally acknowledged time period (mid-1730s) for the “birth” of the Jersey Devil coincides with the death of Titan Leeds.

RECAP and SUMMATION: During the pre-Revolutionary period, my Leeds ancestors from whom I descend in multiple lines called the Pine Barrens home, soured their relationship with the Quaker majority.  The Quakers were in no hurry to give their former fellow religionist, my 8th/9th great-grandfather, Daniel Leeds — whom they labeled as evil and Satan’s harbinger — an easy time in circles of gossip. After all, they’d be the first to point out it was his pagan almanac that started it all!

Further, his son Titan stood (or should I say lay?) accused by Benjamin Franklin of being a ghost, a haunting, nostril-possessing specter.  And let’s not forget about that crudely drawn family crest that he put on the almanac with Wyverns (small winged dragons) on it. Oh, how clever Ben Franklin was to take full advantage of the situation; to promote his new Poor Richard almanac by taunting his top competitor in such a ridiculous way. And, of course, everything Titan did in response played right into Franklin’s ploy.

From all of this, over the passage of time, the Jersey [Leeds] Devil was born. Quaker in-fighting, almanac wars, Daniel and Titan Leeds were all but forgotten leaving behind a nebulous notion of a terrifying creature in the Pine Barrens. References to the Jersey Devil do not appear in newspapers or other printed media until the 20th Century. The first major hoax coming from an article in the The Philadelphia Post in 1909 — schools were closed and mass hysteria spread throughout New Jersey and Philadelphia. New Jersey saw the opportunity to capitalize on the legend — building it, profiting from it, creating a cartoonish Jersey Devil.

To this day, as rustic rubes and monster aficionados scour the woods off the Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway for a bat-winged creature, I can’t help but wonder how Daniel Leeds and his sons would take in the absurd scene.

Lastly, if you’ve made it to this point in this lengthy post (thank you!), you may be asking: WHAT ABOUT JAPHETH AND DEBORA LEEDS, your 7th/8th great-grandparents? Why are they ascribed to the legend as the parents of the Jersey Devil, instead of Titan? It’s a bit of convoluted reasoning, but is simple: reason being that Japheth and Debora had 12 known children (his brother Titan did not) setting up the scenario for an unwanted 13th child, in the right time frame of the mid-1730s, also as a son of the much maligned Daniel Leeds, living in the those foreboding Pine Barrens. Nothing more, nothing less.

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