To this day, as rustic rubes and monster aficionados scour the woods off the Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway for a bat-winged creature, I can’t help but wonder how Daniel Leeds and his sons would take in the absurd scene. New Jersey saw the opportunity to capitalize on the legend - building it, profitting from it, creating a cartoonish Jersey Devil. The first major hoax coming from an article in the The Philadelphia Post in 1909 - schools were closed and mass hysteria spread throughout New Jersey and Philadelphia. References to the Jersey Devil do not appear in newspapers or other printed media until the 20th Century. Quaker in-fighting, almanac wars, Daniel and Titan Leeds were all but forgotten leaving behind a nebulous notion of a terrifying creature in the Pine Barrens. And let’s not forget about that family crest with creepy winged dragon things, Wyverns, on it.įrom all of this, over the passage of time, the Jersey Devil was born. Then, his son Titan stood (lay?) accused by Benjamin Franklin of being a ghost, a haunting-nostril-possessing spectre. After all, it was his pagan almanac that started it all! The Quakers were in no hurry to give their former fellow religionist, my 8th/9th great-grandfather, Daniel Leeds - whom they labeled as evil and Satan’s harbinger - an easy time in circles of gossip. RECAP and SUMMATION: During the pre-Revolutionary period, my Leeds ancestors from whom I descend in multiple lines, who called the Pine Barrens home, soured their relationship with the Quaker majority. It is interesting to point out that the traditionally acknowledged time period (mid-1730s) for the “birth” of the Jersey Devil coincides with the death of Titan Leeds. The 1740 edition of Poor Richard’s portrayed a late-night visit from the Ghost of Titan Leeds, who entered Poor Richard Saunder’s brain via his left nostril and penned the following message: “I did actually die at that moment,” Leeds’ confessed, “precisely at the hour you mentioned, with a variation of 5 minutes, 53 sec.” Franklin’s witty performance, although, did not. Franklin’s decision to commence and stir this farce of a feud did indeed boost his sales. This crucial advantage allowed Franklin to read Leeds’ attacks and respond to them in Poor Richard’s Almanack before Leeds’ publication even went to press, further pouring fuel on the fire but also captivating much of the colonies’ reading public. In this war of the almanacs, Franklin had quite an advantage: He owned and operated the printing house that churned out Titan Leeds’ - his main competitor’s - almanac. He added that there was no doubt Leeds had died, for it was “plain to everyone that reads his last two almanacks, no man living would or could write such stuff.” This war of words continued for years. The very much alive Titan Leeds responded about Franklin/Poor Richard in his 1734 almanac as a “false Predictor,” “conceited Scribbler,” “Fool,” and last but not least, “Lyar.” Poor Richard was stunned by these rude rebuttals, such name calling! With a wearied tone, in his next almanac, he responded: “Having received much abuse from the Ghost of Titan Leeds, who pretends to still be living, and to write Almanacks in spight of me and my Predictions, I cannot help but saying, that tho’ I take it patiently, I take it unkindly.” Not only did Benjamin Franklin, the young printing upstart and future founding father, predict the established almanac rival’s date of death, Octoat 3:29PM - but also the exact moment “at the very instant of the conjunction of the Sun and Mercury.” Titan Leeds did not die on Octo…. IN THE DECEMBER 1732 edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, Benjamin Franklin penned the following advertisement: “Just published for 1733: Poor Richard: An Almanack containing the lunations, eclipses, planets motions and aspects, weather … prediction of the death of his friend Mr.

The leeds devil 9th and arch museum