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Professor Joseph Leidy and the Hadrosaurus Foulkii

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Professor Joseph Leidy and the Hadrosaurus Foulkii PROFESSOR JOSEPH LEIDY AND THE HADROSAURUS FOULKII “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Dr. Joseph Leidy HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOSEPH LEIDY PROFESSOR JOSEPH LEIDY 1823 September 9, Tuesday: Joseph Leidy was born in Philadelphia as the son of a hatter at Third street above Vine, Philip Leidy, with Catherine Mellick Leidy, who would 20 months later die while giving birth to his brother Thomas Leidy. In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal of events since the previous Sunday: 1st day 7th of 9 M / Aunt Patty is living this Morning & so was not to be expected to survive the Day she lays very still, & notices nothing about her. I staid from [—ing] in the forenoon, to be there in case of a change Henry Gould staid in the Afternoon & I went to Meeting & she died about an hour after the Meeting broke, very easily & quietly, thus ending a life of more than 86 Years I have no doubt in peace with God & all men [few] Women having lived more exemlary lives tho’ she was always poor, yet she exerted herself to get to meetings & was particularly careful to attend those in the middle of the week, & devoted much time to the Service of Society, under various appointments for about 20 Years in the Station of an Overseer, in which appointment she was carefully zealous in supporting the Discipline, & the various testimonys which our Society bares to the world, in plainness of dress & address & in moderation & temperance in all things - such was her concern on these accounts that she often labourd with those young in years with acceptance, & such was her easy mode of address & care to abide in the life that she seldom gave offence to those with whom she had to labour tho’ circumstances often lead to close & plain dealing, but had easy access & good place with most of the members of this preparative Meeting untill confined at home by Age & infermity. She however got out & attended Meetings, occasionaly till within three Years of her Death, - during her illness which was attended with much pain she manifested much christian patience, which considering her mind was previously much impair’d from age & infirmity is remarkable. - In her younger days she Possessed an uncommonly clear understanding, which however was much concealed from the world, from geat natural diffidence, from which circumstance her usefulness in life was not so conspicuous as it might have been however a strong desire faithfully to discharge every religious & social duty, often brought her forward both in Meetings for discipline & among her friends social circles. On Third Day 9th of the M Her remains were decently interd in Friends burying ground near the Meeting House where her father Mother & Grandfather Benjamin Stanton were buried, after a quiet sold opportunitry at the house - wherein a short testimony was born by Father Rodman RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX PROFESSOR JOSEPH LEIDY DR. JOSEPH LEIDY 1825 May 28, Saturday: Catherine Mellick Leidy died while giving birth to 20-month-old Joseph Leidy’s brother Thomas Leidy. William Henry Brisbane got married with his 1st cousin Glorianna Lawton (July 15, 1805-February 17, 1878). The union would produce Anna Cornelia Brisbane in 1827, Bentley Hasell Brisbane in 1829, Robert Willingham Brisbane in 1831, Benjamin Themosticles Lawton Dion Brisbane in 1834, William Henry Brisbane in 1838, Ph(o)ebe Adeline Brisbane in 1841, Mary Julia Brisbane in 1843 or 1844, John Edward Brisbane in 1847 (not all these would survive childhood). The husband would be attending preparatory school in New Haven, Connecticut and then in 1826/1827 the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy in Norwich, Vermont (I have no information as to whether the bride would accompany the bridegroom during this sojourn in the north). NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Dr. Joseph Leidy “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOSEPH LEIDY PROFESSOR JOSEPH LEIDY 1826 May 25, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 25th of 5 M / Our Moy [Monthly] Meeting this day held in Town was Silent & to me a low time. — The buisness conducted in the last was pretty well resulted, but great want of life on my part. — — we had several of our friend to dine with us Vizt B Freeborn, Z Chase G Dennis Asa Sherman - & Eleanor & Ann Lawton.— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS The Reverend Waldo Emerson’s 23d birthday. The widower Philip Leidy remarried with Christiana Taliana, a cousin of his deceased wife Catherine Mellick Leidy. The Rensselaer school’s Erie Canal expedition left Troy aboard the LaFayette left Buffalo for the return trip. Professor Amos Eaton and the expedition crossed the mouth of “Tonnewanta” (Tonawanda) Creek, and spent the night at Lockport, New York. Giacomo Meyerbeer got married with his cousin Minna Mosson in Berlin. They immediately departed for Paris, where he would work on a new opera. Cospaia was divided between Tuscany and the Papal States. Per the journal of Albert Gallatin’s son James as recorded in THE DIARY OF JAMES GALLATIN: I am torn both ways. I know I could be of the greatest use to father. It is impossible to take our child at his age across the ocean, as the discomforts, particularly where food is concerned, are so great. Josephine is quite willing for me to go, in fact urges me to do so. I will leave the matter entirely in father’s hands. HDT WHAT? INDEX PROFESSOR JOSEPH LEIDY DR. JOSEPH LEIDY After her 2d appearance in Chepachet, Rhode Island Little Bett, The Learned Elephant was being walked out of town when she was executed by a broadside of gunfire from shooters concealed in a grist mill on the Chepachet River. Her keeper had made the mistake of bragging to the yokels that her tough hide was impenetrable to bullets. Her hide would be shipped to the Boston Museum and would wind up being exhibited by Phineas Taylor Barnum at the American Museum in New-York. Four years later, seven of the local residents would be found responsible for this incident at the bridge and be required to pay $1,500 in damages to Hackaliah Bailey, an ancestor of the Bailey of Barnum & Bailey Circus — and two of them would get expelled from the local chapter of the Masonic Order. HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOSEPH LEIDY PROFESSOR JOSEPH LEIDY 1833 Joseph Leidy, at the age of about 10, was sent to the Classical Academy, a private day-school conducted by the Reverend William Mann, Methodist, to study English and read Latin (Historia Sacra, Viri Romie, and Virgil) – presumably Greek as well. There were then three schools in the vicinity. Mr. Collom and Mr. Livensetter charging $3 a quarter per scholar and the Reverend Mann $12. During this period a Mrs. Burris, a widow of color, was taking in laundry for her support while her son Cyrus Burris earned money by serving the runner for Joseph’s father’s hat shop — for delivering a hat to the home of a purchaser, he would be paid 6 or 12 cents depending on the distance. The boys of these schools, divided by the economic standing of their families, fought when they met in the street, so the Leidys engaged Cyrus Burris to accompany Joseph to school and when botanizing, and the two boys became buddies despite their color difference. Joseph became intrigued by minerals and plants when an itinerant lecturer from the “Universal Lyceum” was allowed to discourse at the school and show specimens. The rates for board and tuition at the Yearly Meeting School in Providence had been cut down from $100 per year per scholar to $50, but due to increasing expenses were raised in this year to $60 for Quakers (plus, for non-Friends, a surcharge). Wanting money for general purposes, the Rhode Island state government dipped into its handy school fund — a forced loan. The Orthodox Friends of Pennsylvania created a “school for advanced learning,” known now as Haverford College. This institution was for males and offered an education based upon Latin, Greek, science, ancient history, and literature. QUAKER EDUCATION NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Dr. Joseph Leidy HDT WHAT? INDEX PROFESSOR JOSEPH LEIDY DR. JOSEPH LEIDY 1839 End of July: The schooling of Joseph Leidy at the Classical Academy in Philadelphia was completed, as he approached the age of 16. The question needed to be answered, in what way would he train to earn his living? His father Philip Leidy supposed that, with his aptitude for draughting and drawing, he might train to be a sign painter, but young Joseph, who had passed many leisure hours in the wholesale drug store of his cousin Napoleon B. Leidy, M.D., preferred to apprentice himself to an apothecary. After several months of this, his stepmother prevailed on his father, to allow him to study medicine. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Dr. Joseph Leidy HDT WHAT? INDEX DR. JOSEPH LEIDY PROFESSOR JOSEPH LEIDY 1840 Fall: Thomas Cole finished the “Voyage of Life” series of paintings depicting life as a journey which had been commissioned by Sam Ward, a banker of New-York, in 1839. (Fortunately, Mr. Ward had been forced to leave all his money behind when he had gone down the final rapids of his life — so it would be possible to recompense the artist.) When Joseph Leidy became a pupil of Dr.
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