Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/696

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

Jefferson Monroe Levy. Jefferson Mon- roe Levy, author, lawyer, and legislator, was born in New York, and is the son of Captain Jonas Philip Levy and Fanny Mitchell, his wife. The family is traced from 1660 in New York. Jonas Philip Levy was distinguished in the Mexican war, commanding the ship, America, and com- manded the fort at Vera Cruz after its cap- ture. He died in 1886. Fanny (Mitchell) Levy was born in New York in 1828, and died in 1890, the daughter of Abraham and Esther (Alien) Mitchell.

The Hon. Jefferson Monroe Levy inher- ited from his uncle, Commodore Uriah P. Levy, United States navy, and now owns, the home of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, Virginia, which has been in the Levy fam- ily since the death of Thomas Jelierson. Uriah Phillips Levy, the uncle of Jefferson Monroe Levy, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1792, and died in New York City, March 22, 1862. He entered the United States navy in 1812, and was an of- ficer of the brig Argus, which, escaping the blockade, took out William H. Crawford as minister to France and destroyed in the English channel twenty-one vessels, one of which had a cargo worth six hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. On the cap- ture of the Argus he was made prisoner and retained for two years. He became lieu- tenant, March 5, 1817, commander, Febru- ary 9, 1837, and captain, March 29, 1844. His last cruise was made as flag officer of the Mediterranean fleet, ending at the out- break of the Civil war. He was active in the movement to abolish flogging in the navy. Fie became the owner of "Monti- cello," the house of Thomas Jefferson, of whom he was an ardent admirer, and this vast estate, with his stock, dwellings, pic- tures, etc., was confiscated during the Civil war by the Confederates in consequence of Levy's sympathies with the national govern- ment. He published a "Manual of Internal Rules and Regulations for Men-of-war." The Levys arc an old colonial family, kin- dred forms of the name being Leavy, Levey and Dunlevy.

Jefferson Monroe Levy studied law under the late Clarkson N. Potter, and was ad- mitted to the bar in New York City, where he engaged in practice. He agitated for and caused the reform of surrogate's practice in the county of New York. He organized the

Democratic Club of New York, represented the thirteenth district of New York in the fifty-sixth congress during the term from 1899 to 1901, and was leader of the Gold Democrats in that congress. He aided in defeating the Nicaraguan Canal scheme by making a speech in the house of represen- tatives which was used as a text for oppo- sition to the Nicaraguan Canal and after- wards for the purchase of the Panama Canal. Mr. Levy has made other notable speeches in the house ; one on investigation of the secretary of the treasury on repeal of the war tax, and a bill for fixing and defining the rank of officers in the revenue service. He ottered resolutions tor repayment of money expended by the United States gov- ernment in behalf of Cuba; a bill to provide for international notes, and the Levy Loan- Shark bill. He is one of the original authors and advocates of the present reserve bank- ing law. Mr. Levy is a member of the Sons of the Revolution and the Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution. Among clubs he belongs to the Manhattan, Democratic, New York Yacht, Meadow Creek Country, Sandown Park and Keswick Hunt, of Virginia. Mr. Levy has been in law practice in New York City since 1873, and represented the thir- teenth district of New York in the sixty- second congress, and the fourteenth district in the sixty-third congress. He is unmar- ried. He has a brother, Louis Napoleon Levy, born in New York City, married Lily Wolf, of New York, and has four daughters.

Robert Franklin Leedy. In the first thirty years of the eighteenth century there came to America something like fifty thou- sand Germans, probably thirty thousand of these settling in eastern Pennsylvania.

The valley of Virginia was then unknown country. The Germans, always good judges of land, continually prospected in advance of settlement, and in 1722 one of these Penn- sylvania Germans rode through what is now the valley of Virginia. In the meantime, a young man had come from Germany by the name of .Adam Mueller (now Miller). This Adam Mueller is said to have been born in Schreisheim, Germany, about 1700. With his young wife and an unmarried sister, he came to Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, probably about 1725. Looking around for a choice bit of ground on which to settle, he heard of a location in Virginia between the

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