Hannah Rachal Leeds

Hannah appears to have been raised in a prominent setting in Atlantic City. Records seem to indicate that she received a substantial education and was considered to be a learned woman. Members of the immediate family were business leaders in Atlantic City near the turn of the century.

Hannah Rachal Leeds united in marriage with Edward William Shoultes (1861-1935) around the year 1887. Edward William Shoultes was born near the village of Newark Valley (Tioga County), New York in 1861. He was the second child of William Henry Shoultes (1830-1893) and Sarah S. Perry (1829-1901) and grew up in the region of Tioga County known as East Newark.

The circumstances surrounding their meeting is not known at the time of this writing. It is believed they established a farm in the village of Sellersville, Pennsylvania. When Edward's father died in 1893, the obituary mentions him as a resident of Philadelphia.

From 1901 to 1917, Edward and Hannah were residents of Atlantic City, New Jersey. William was engaged in the hardware business along with his brother-in-law, Sylvestor Leeds. It appears that the business had some success. Records indicate that they moved back to Sellersville after 1917 and remained there for the rest of their lives.

Hannah Rachael Leeds Shoultes died at Sellersville, Pennsylvania on July 1, 1933 at the age of 72 years. Respiratory problems are thought to have been the cause. She is buried in the old Atlantic City Cemetery in a Leeds plot. Edward Shoultes lived until 1935 and is buried in Sellersville, Pennsylvania.

An interesting article about the LEEDS family appears in the ATLANTIC CITY PRESS 1974 (exact date unknown) Authored by: Franklin W. Kemp

ANDREW LEEDS, SON of Jeremiah Leeds, Atlantic City's first settler, died about 1865.

Died, and was buried.

In the wrong place.

His will stated that he wished to be laid to rest in Atlantic City, which is on Absecon Island, so they built a vault on the old Leeds homestead at Arkansas and Baltic avenues.

There were no cemeteries in Atlantic City or anywhere else on Absecon Island because a gravedigger would hit salt water a few feet down.

Because of legal complications, Andrew Leeds' body was removed to Pleasantville on November 28, 1896 for reinterment, but before he was put down the coffin was stored in a blacksmith shop for a few days.

Then the lid was lifted so that curiousity-seekers could take a peek.

The skeleton had turned black.

His widow, "Aunt Ellen" was so furious that she threatened to sue the undertaker.

Who was this man's father, pioneer Jeremiah Leeds, whose family was the "point" of white European penetration into South Jersey's wilderness?

Absecon Island's first permanent settler was born 225 years ago on March 5, 1749, and as a young man he stood six feet tall and weighed 225 pounds. His family had settled in the Leeds Point area of present-day Atlantic City.

On December 8, 1776, 22 year-old Jeremiah married Miss Judith Steelman, daughter of Frederick Steelman. Nine months later, September 18, 1777, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in Captain Covernover's company of the Third Battalion of Maxwell's Brigade.

General Maxwell's Brigade was one of the fighting units of the Revolution and so the young officer saw action throughout the war years as well as sharing the sufferings of the brigade at Valley Forge and at Morristown.

When Maxwell's Brigade moved south to link up with other Continental forces to protect the coastal settlements against the British attack at Chestnut Neck, in October, 1778, the young officer was back in his baliwick.

It is agreed by most historians that Jeremiah Leeds was the first permanent settler on Absecon Island although there is some difference as to the exact date. Jeremiah's son, Chalkey, Atlantic City first mayor, was of the opinion that it was about 1783 but others say around 1800. It is known, however, that in 1805 he owned a plantation on the island laying claim to everything from the Inlet to Dry Inlet (Jackson Avenue) except 131 acres to the north end of the island called the Chamberlain Tract.

By deed of June 7, 1804, recorded in the County Clerk's Office of Atlantic County on February 27, 1854, James Steelman IV, Henry Smith and his wife Sarah, with Peter Steelman and his wife, Rachel, conveyed all the titled of the grantors in and to beach lands to Leeds. On March 6, 1805, Rueben Clark conveyed a certain parcel of land on Absecon Beach to Leeds and a third purchase was made the following July 5.

When Leeds built his first log cabin on the site of the center of Artic Avenue in front of the bus terminal, the island was covered by high wooded sand dunes, ponds, fresh water springs, meadows, and swamps. There was an abundance of all kinds of meadow birds, quail, foxes, rabbits, mink, muskrat, loggerheads, black garter and adder snakes.

In addition to raising corn and rye on his plantation, Leeds had cattle and other domestic animals wandering the island. He took his grain to a mill on the mainland by boat and sold cattle to ships that came ashore for supplies.

Leeds moved to a better house near the intersection of Massachusetts and Baltic Avenues and the original log cabin was later demolished.

A third house on the island was build by his son Andrew, in 1815. When this house and the Island House was destined for demolition by a land company headed by George A. Crawford, the building was offered to the city if another site could be obtained. It was moved to Florida Avenue and the Bay in 1902 by Crawford and made into a boat house. It is still standing there, the oldest house in Atlantic City. The late Frank Laughlin gave the author the history of this old building shortly before he died.

About 1816, Jeremiah married a second time when he was 62 years old. His 24-year-old bride was Millicent Steelman. When he died in 1838 at the age of 84, he owned 1068 1/2 acres on the island and 251 more on the mainland.

His property descended to his children: Rubanna Conover, Rachel Steelman, Andrew Leeds, Judith Leeds (later to become Judith Hackett), Chalkey Leeds and Robert B. Leeds.

Mrs. Leeds kept the old Atlantic House at Baltic and Massachusetts avenues as a tavern for oysterman and travelers. In 1853 and 1854, most of the land in the possession of the descendants of Leeds was sold to the Camden and Atlantic Land Company for $5 to $17 an acre and then it was subdivided and Atlantic City emerged.

Jeremiah Leeds was buried on the mainland. His grave can be seen alongside that of his first wife in the center of Oxford Circle in Northfield.

Andrew's widow, "Aunt Ellen" was related to George Washington, her grandmother and Washington's mother being sisters.

Little remains in the city today to honor Jeremiah Leeds. There is a small stone in front of the bus terminal to his memory but the plaza where his first farm was located does not even bear his name.

There is a little street between Ohio and Indiana avenues called Leeds Avenue.

These two memorials remind us of the island's first permanent settler, who knew the island in its full beauty so many years ago!