Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/433

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LESLIE


LESQUEREUX


LESLIE, Miriam Florence, (Frank Leslie), publisher, was born in New Orleans, La., and was descended from a French-Creole family. She received a broad education including all the ac- complishments with many solid and useful attain- ments, and at an early age was married to the Hon. E. G. Squier, and accompanied him imme- diately after marriage to Peru, where he was U.S. commissioner, 1863-65. She early evinced literary ability and while her husband was editor of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, she be- came editor of Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine and Lady's Journal. She was married, July 13, 1871, to Frank Leslie, and during his lifetime learned all the details of the publishing business in which she assisted him. After the death of Mr. Leslie, she continued the editorial management under the assignee, till that office was dissolved. She adopted the name of Frank Leslie by legal pro- cess, in June, 1881, and afterward personally managed the entire business, discharging debts amounting to 8300,000, and placing the concern on a paying basis. The business was incorporated as the Frank Leslie Publishing House in 1898, and she was president and chief owner and man- ager. She travelled in Europe extensively during the summer of each year until 1899, when she again took up the editorship of Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly and discontinued it in 1901, re- turning to France. She contributed to maga- zines and is the author of From Gotham to the Golden Gate ; Itza ; Are We all Deceivers ? A Social Mirage ; Rents in our Robes ; and other books,

LESLIE, Preston Hopkins, governor of Ken- tucky, was born in Clinton county, Ky., March 2, 1819 ; son of Vachael H. and Sallie (Hopkins) LesUe, and grandson of Vachael Leslie, and of

Dennis Hopkins, sol- diers in the American Revolution. He was educated in the old- field schools and the academy at Colum- bia, Ky., and worked as a common laborer until 1835 when he became a clerk first in a store and then in the county clerk's of- fice. He studied law under Rice Maxey -o^" ■;" / y j^- ^°*^ practised in ^u3^n^'/%^<^^^^^^^ Monroe county, Ky., 1840-42, and in Jack- son county, 1842-53. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1844-46 ; state senator, 1851-55, and from Barren county, 1867-71, serving as speaker of the senate, 1869-71. On the resigna-


tion of Governor Stevenson, Feb. 13, 1871, to take his seat in the U,S. senate. Speaker Leslie became ex officio governor of Kentucky and was inaugurated for the balance of Senator Stevenson's term. He was elected governor as his own successor Aug. 7, 1871, his term expiring September, 1875, He practised law in Glasgow, Barren county, 1875-81 : was judge of the circuit court, 1881-87 ; governor of Montana Territory, 1887-89, and U.S. attorney for the district of Montana, 1894-98. In 1898 he resumed the practice of law in Helena, Mont.

LESQUEREUX, Leo, paleontologist, was born in Fleurier, Switzerland, Nov, 18, 1806 : of Hugue- not parents. While a student at the Academj' of Neuchatel, he formed a friendship with Arnold Guyot, with whom he studied natural science, and in 1827 he went to Eisenach to study German. He mar- ried in 1829 the daughter of General Von Wolff skel. He was principal of a col- lege at La Chaux de Fonds, 1829-34, when deafness compelled him to take up watch- engraving and watch- spring making to sup- port his family. Dur- ing his leisure mo- ments he collected mosses and speci- mens of fossil plants, specimens were published and favorably no- ticed by Louis Agassiz, who was then professor of natural sciences at the Academy of Neuchatel. In 1844 Lesquereux won a gold medal from the canton of Neuchatel for an essay on the prepara- tion and use of peat for fuel which was accepted by scientists and still continues an authority on the subject. He was made dii-ector of operations to utilize the peat-bogs of that canton, and after- ward went through northern Europe on similar work under the patronage of the King of Prussia. The revolutionary council of Geneva deprived him of government employment, and with his wife and five children he immigrated to America in 1848, where he was welcomed to the home of Louis Agassiz, who gave him employment in arranging the botanical portion of his collections from Lake Superior, He removed to Columbus, Ohio, in December, 1848 and studied in the laboratory of William S. Sullivant. In 1849 at Mr. Sullivant's suggestion he travelled througli the southern mountains and collected botanical specimens, which resulted in the work Musci Boreali Americani, quorum specimina Exsiccati


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His memoirs on these