The Daniel Somers Lacy Family
In
New Jersey
Robert Miller has researched his Lacy roots in New Jersey and has kindly provided us with stories, pictures and some descenacy of Daniel Somers Lacy, Sr. and Sarah Leeds. We start with Robert's
Conversations with Louise (Lacy) Gilbert
From my Great-Grandparents apartment, which was on the second floor of my
parents house,
you could see the skyline of Atlantic City. It was just seven miles away,
across Lake's bay. Of course, in
those days there weren't any casinos, the big attractions were the
boardwalk, convention hall and the
Steel Pier. While it was easy enough to get to the city, I even rode my
bicycle there sometimes, much of
my time was spent in lengthy conversations about the way things were when
my Great-Grandmother
was a little girl. My Great-Grandfather had passed away when I was only
six and with two working
parents, "Nana" Gilbert found that she could be useful in
keeping on eye on me (and my sister) while at
the same time beating the loneliness. So I became the un-offical family
geneologist.
It was later on in my life that I ran into a state geneologist who had me
write down as much as I
could. He was very enthusiastic about researching my family because my
information filled in a big piece
of a puzzle he'd been working on for years. While some of the stories,
legends and tales weren't exactly
research material, they are, at least to me, amusing. I would like to
share some of these stories with you.
The Jersey Devil and the Lacy's
There is a story about a legendary "monster" that roams the
vast pine forests of New Jersey that
are known as the "Pine Barrens". This "monster" is
known by the names "Jersey Devil" or the "Leeds
Devil". Stories, accounts and sightings go back as far as the 1700's
and continue to this day.
The basic story is that a certain "Mrs. Leeds", upon giving
birth to her thirteen child, screamed
"May it be a devil!", and at that, the infant grew horns, let
out a screeching cry, and leaped out the
window, to haunt and wander the pine barrens forever.
According to "Nana", there is a connection between the Lacy's
of New Jersey and the very
same Leed's family. It seems that one of the sisters of the "devil",
a certain Sarah Leeds, was
particularly afraid of retribution of the hoofed and horned "brother"
because, knowing that there were
already to many mouths to feed in the family, she had prayed that the
child be born dead. Terrified that
this demon would somehow find out about her wish, and perhaps afraid that
it had somehow contributed
to the disaster, she refused to leave the house.
Years passed and Sarah grew into a beautiful young woman, but few knew
this fact because of
her hermit-like existance. Yet there was one young man, a Daniel Lacy,
who came to visit the area
known today as Leed's Point. In those days there were thriving iron and
glass industries on the Batsto
river, which runs nearby and Daniel was looking for work. With most of
the children gone, the Leed's
house had become a boarding house of sorts and it was there that Daniel
was sent.
Upon seeing Sarah, Daniel was at once moved by her and, after a time,
convinced her to marry
him. The problem was, she still refused to leave the area, hoping that
someday she, or one of her
offspring, would help her brother find peace.
They both are buried in Leeds Point.
The motorcycle
John Gilbert was an innovator. An inventor, mechanic and adventurer, he
enjoyed tinkering with
mechanical things. He and his young wife, Louise (Lacy) became then, with
no surprize, the first owners
of a motorcycle in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
They would sputter off down the center of Atlantic avenue, waving to
passerby, on those warm
summer days which are legenary of the area (along with the mosquitos).
On one of these happy jaunts, which was taken down the center of the
street because that's
were the trolly tracks were, Louise was on the back, holding on to John
as best she could. They hit a
bump and "whump!", Louise fell off into the street. John did
not stop. He did not realize that his
companion was no longer there. If fact, he kept right on talking, until
he reached a stop sign. He then
turned around to see Louise still sitting there in the middle of the
street. They lauged about this for many
years.
Zapped!
John Gilbert worked for a time at the new Atlantic Electric Company
generating plant, which I
believe was on Kentucky Ave. at the time. Louise would bring him his
lunch, since they lived nearby,
and have lunch with him.
It was on a fateful, stormy day that Louise arrived at the plant at the
same time a severe
thunderstorm broke out. Now John's station had a metal catwalk that ran
in front of the switch panels
and it had a metal railing that ran the length of it. John was standing
on this platform when Louise
entered the room with his lunch. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash and
a loud BANG!. The room "lit up
like a fireworks". Lightning had struck the plant and hit the metal
platform that John was standing on! He
was thrown across the room....to land half on top of Louise.
Although the effect was frightening, neither of them was hurt.
Descendants of Daniel Somers Lacy and Sarah Leeds