Vol. 5 No. 1, January 2008
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The Name Game
The famous Leeds family was first following the Indians
Atlantic City was originally settled by a single family—the illustrious Leeds clan. Though today there are few signs of this enterprising bunch, the city might not be what it is today without several generations of Leeds promotion and perseverance.
The first residents of Absecon Island, the Lenni-Lenape Indians, only dwelled on the island seasonally, coming “down the shore” in the summer to enjoy the cool ocean breezes and gather shellfish and other seaside treats.
Absentee landlords had owned parcels on Absecon Island since 1695, but it wasn’t until 1783 that anyone actually lived there full-time. In that year, Jeremiah Leeds moved his family to a log cabin he had built himself.
Leeds was a descendant of Daniel Leeds, who had come to America from England in 1678 and published a notable almanac; Benjamin Franklin later recognized it as the first such publication south of New York. After his death, his sons continued publishing the work, and his family spread throughout Gloucester, Burlington and Atlantic counties.
Twenty-nine-year-old Jeremiah had fought for the Continental Army as a lieutenant in the Gloucester County Militia. His wife, Judith Steelman, was a granddaughter of one of Absecon Island’s first land-owners, and undoubtedly was familiar with the area. So, when the young family decided to move away from Leeds Point on the mainland, it wasn’t a completely new environment.
The cabin stood approximately at the intersection of Arkansas and Arctic Avenues, and after building it Leeds immediately set to work, planting grain crops in adjacent fields. With a healthy supply of wild game found on the island, Leeds and his family didn’t have to worry about going hungry.
Leeds continued buying land until he owned more than 1,000 acres of prime beachfront real estate. He wasn’t interested in subdividing it, though, and took pains to keep others from moving in. He did let mainland residents graze their cattle on his grasslands, and eventually rented a plot of land to be used for a salt-making operation.
Jeremiah had a large family. He had six children with Judith (the eldest, James, might be the influence behind Pomona’s Jimmy Leeds Road), and after she died he married Millicent Steelman Ingersoll, a 24-year-old widow who was a relative of Judith. The 62-year-old Jeremiah fathered four more children with Millicent after their 1816 marriage.
When Jeremiah died in 1838, his widow Millicent remained on the island, running a tavern and inn called Aunt Millie’s Boarding House. Business was slow but began to pick up in 1852, when Dr. Jonathan Pitney (the only island resident who was not a Leeds) and Philadelphia engineer Richard Osborne interested the Camden and Atlantic Company in buying much of the Leeds’ land and developing a seaside resort, linked to Philadelphia by rail.
But the Leeds family was not done with Absecon Island, and would play an influential role in the settlement that Osborne named Atlantic City. Chalkley Leeds, the oldest surviving son of Jeremiah and Millicent, became the city’s first mayor in 1854, a year after incorporation, and served until 1857. His mayoral campaign was a very personal affair: there were only 21 registered voters, many of them members of the extended Leeds clan.
Chalkley owned a large farm that encompassed a large swatch of the Inlet—it stretched from what is today Massachusetts Avenue to the Inlet between Baltic and Atlantic avenues. With a large number of cows and chickens, Leeds was a major dairy supplier to the earliest cottages and boarding houses in the developing resort.
The mayor’s younger brother Robert was the town’s first postmaster (then the most high-profile federal position in the area). Chalkley lived long enough to march in a parade commemorating the city’s Golden Jubilee in 1904, a full half-century after his swearing-in.
Though the family’s power would wane as the new hotels and amusement piers grew, the Leeds name is one that should not be forgotten. Without Jeremiah Leeds’ pioneering spirit or Millicent’s hospitality, it is possible that Atlantic City might never have been.
