My Genealogy Hound

J. S. Leib, a substantial citizen of Morgan County, Mo. is the sixth of nine children born to Abraham and Elizabeth (Schuh) Leib, is the grandson of John Leib, and is the great-grandson of a Swiss gentleman, who came to this country near the last of the seventeenth century or the first of the eighteenth century. He was driven by persecution from his native country, went to Holland, and a few years later immigrated to the United States. He settled in Harrisburg, Penn. John Leib, of whom our subject has the name record, served in the commissary department under Gen. George Washington while in Pennsylvania. Abraham Leib, the father of our subject, was born in York County, Penn., and lived there until grown. He married Miss Schuh, of the same place, and both were members of the Mennonite Church, to which church they still adhere. J. S. Leib remained with his parents on the old home farm until twenty-five years of age, during which time he served, more or less, at the carpenter’s trade, at which trade he became very proficient in later years. At the above-mentioned age he married Miss Fanny M. Witmer (March, 1849), daughter of Abraham Witmer, one of the Holland-Switzerland stock, and who married Barbara Habecker, daughter of Christian Habecker, and granddaughter of Christian Habecker, Sr., who came to Pennsylvania from Switzerland in 1734, and settled in Lancaster, Penn. Later the family moved to Niagara County, N. Y., in 1811, and here Mrs. Leib was born, in 1824. After her marriage to Mr. Leib they resided here until after the war, and then moved to Moniteau County, Mo., where they remained two years on a farm. They then bought 290 acres in Morgan and Moniteau Counties, settled on a part of it, but owing to misfortune Mr. Leib was obliged to sell all but thirty acres, which is all, and more, than he is able to care for, as his children are all doing for themselves, and the old folks are comfortably fixed on the old homestead. Their children are as follows: A. W., who married Miss Maria Lehman, of Pennsylvania, is now a resident of Morgan County, resides a few miles from the old homestead, and is engaged in running a saw-mill; he is the father of five children, three sons and two daughters; Jacob, died at the age of three years; C. H., married Miss Sarah Senn, of Ohio (her parents coming from Switzerland), and now lives in Laclede County, Mo., and is a carpenter by trade; he is the father of three children, two sons and a daughter; Joseph M., married Miss Carrie Lehman, sister of his brother’s wife, is now living in Morgan County, is a steam engineer, and is the father of two children, a son and daughter. Mr. Leib is a Union man, and consequently a Republican, and his sons all vote the same ticket. He is a church man, and contributed liberally to the building of the Bethel church. He has in his house a clock which he has had in his possession twenty-three years, it having been in the family for more than 100 years. When his grandfather began keeping house he went to Yorktown and had a certain John Fisher make the clock. It was made to order, and, standing on the floor, is eight feet high; gives the second, minute, hour, day of the month, and the phases of the moon. It has run continuously for over 100 years, as his father was seventy-eight years of age when he died, twenty three years ago, and the clock was bought before he was born.