Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/396

 LE CONTE

LEDYARD

LE CONTE, William, lawyer, was born March 20, 1738 ; son of Pierre and Valeria (Eatton) Le Conte ; grandson of Guillaume Le Conte, the first ancestor in America. He was a lawyer by profession, but removed with his brother, John Eatton Le Conte, to Georgia, wliere they carried on a profitable lumber business with tlie West Indies. He settled at " Sans Souci," on the Ogeecliee river, about sixteen miles south of Sa- vannah, Ga., and took an active part in the Rev- olutionary war. He was appointed a member of the first Council of Safety for the province of Georgia, June 22, 1775, and a member of the Provincial congress which met at Savannah, Jul}^ 4, 1775, where he rejiresented the parish of St. Philip or Great Ogeechee. As a member of the council of safety, on Aug. 8, 1775, he signed a letter addressed to Governor Sir James Wright, and his name appears on the " black list," which was sent to England by the royal governor of Georgia, with the annexed title of "rebel coun- cilor." He died without issue in Savannah, Ga., Nov. 4, 1788.

LE DUC, William Gates, agriculturist, was born in Wilkesville, Ohio, March 29, 1823 ; second son of Henry Savary and Polly (Stowell) Le Due ; grandson of Henri and Lucj' (Sumner) Due ; great-grandson of Capt. John and Elizabetli

(Reynolds) Sumner ; greats-grandson of William and Hannah (Clark) Sumner;

greats-grandson of Hezekiah and Abigail (Bidwell) Sumner; great*-grandson of William Sumner, freeman, 1G78 ; great-- grandson of William and Elizabetli (Clem- ent) Sumner ; great-- grandson of William

-. ^^c^ Sumner, who came

to New England from Bicester, England, in 1636, and settled in Dor- chester, Mass. Henri Due was a native of ' Lyons, France. William Gates Le Due was graduated from Kenyon college, A.B., 1848, A.M., 1851 ; was admitted to the bar in 1850, and practised at St. Paul, Minn. He was a pioneer promoter of immigration to Minnesota Terri- tory, obtained the first charter for a railroad there, and organized the Wabash Bridge com- pany which built the first bridge over the Mis- sissippi river. He removed to Hastings, Minn., in 1858, and engaged in milling spring wheat and in shipping the flour, an industry that developed into the leading business of the territory and

state. In 1862 he entered the army as assistant quartermaster of volunteers, with rank of cap- tain, and was promoted lieutenant-colonel and assistant quartermaster, serving with the Army of the Potomac till after the Gettysburg cam- paign, when he went with General Hooker"s command to the relief of Rosecrans in Tennessee. Being placed in charge of Bridgeport, he organ- ized a base of supplies, built a steamboat and navigated with barges loaded with rations to Kelly's ferry, within reach of the starving troops at Chattanooga. He also suj^plied General Hook- er's command, which had gone forward to clear the way and protect the transportation ; went with General Sherman's army to Atlanta, and was chief quartermaster of General Thomas in repelling Hood's campaign. He was brevetted brigadier-general of U.S. volunteers in 1865. He returned to his farm at Hastings, Minn., and took an active interest in building railroads in that section. He was U.S. commissioner of ag- riculture, 1877-81, and organized what became the bureau of animal industry and the division of forestry in the department of agriculture. As commissioner of agriculture he also estab- lished a tea farm at Summerville, S.C., and encouraged the manufacture of sugar from sor- ghum cane and beets. On retiring from this ofilce in 1881 he returned to his home at Hast- ings. He was married, March 25, 1851, to Mary Elizabeth, only daughter of Prof. G. P. Bronson, of Mount Vernon, Ohio. He was elected a mem- ber of the National Agricultural society of France, Dec. 7, 1881, the only other Americans at that time so honored being George Washing- ton, Thomas Jeff"erson and Benjamin Thompson (Count de Rumford). He is the author of : Hie Little Steamboat that Opened the Crael-er Line in " Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," Vol. HI., p. 676, and of A Model State, a brief compi- lation of the constitution and laws of Minnesota. LEDYARD, William, soldier, was born in Groton, Conn., in 1750. He was in command of the state troops defending Fort Griswold and Fort Trumbull in 1781 against the advance of Arnold, and he had hastily gathered 157 of his militia in Fort Griswold when it was surrounded by nearly 800 trained British soldiers under Lieu- tenant-Colonel Eyre. In the assault Colonel Ej^re was mortally wounded. Major Montgomery, second in command, killed, and Major Brown- field, third in command, who effected the en- trance to the fort, partially disabled, forty-eiglit of his men having been killed by the fire of Col- onel Ledj'ard's militia. To save the lives of his neighbors and friends, who formed his little force, after twelve of tiieir number had been killed or wounded, Colonel Ledyard ordered them to lay down their arms and he handed his sword