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
-. <i/.e<j£>^^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
