Thomas Leiper

Thomas Leiper (15 December 1745 – 6 July 1825) was a Scottish American merchant and local politician who served in the American Revolutionary War. He was the first American to construct a permanent working railway by creating a short span on his property in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Born in Strathaven, Lanark, Scotland, Leiper was educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh, and emigrated to Maryland in 1763. In 1765 Leiper moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and opened a business storing and exporting tobacco. When the American Revolution began, the leading tobacco house in the community was interdicted and legally prevented from trading. Leiper seized the opportunity and expanded his business, soon becoming the principal tobacco agent in Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States.

Some years later Leiper built several large mills for the processing of tobacco and snuff in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. In 1780 he bought and operated quarries in the neighborhood of his mills, and provided stones for bridge and building construction. Granite from the Leiper quarry was cut for Philadelphia curbstones and door steps, and was used for buildings on the Swarthmore College campus, homes in Swarthmore, and the Leiper Presbyterian Church. Leiper built and rented out a Philadelphia home for the use of his friend Thomas Jefferson when Jefferson served as George Washington's Secretary of State. Leiper’s enterprises generated a large fortune, which enabled him to personally contribute to the improvement of Philadelphia and the Delaware County area, known as "Avondale," near his country residence.

Leiper was a staunch Democrat, and served actively as chairman of Democratic town meetings. At one meeting, he was the first to nominate General Andrew Jackson for the presidency. He was a presidential elector, director of the banks of Pennsylvania and the United States, commissioner for the defense of the city in the War of 1812, and a member, and ultimately president, of the common council of the city of Philadelphia. Leiper died in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on July 6, 1825.

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