Edwin Leigh

Edwin Leigh (1815–1890) was an American educationalist who invented Pronouncing Orthography to improve literacy and elocution in American children in the late 19th century. The new orthography was widely adopted in the United States, with most basal reading schemes publishing versions for use with phonetic teaching methods. Education journals, governing bodies of public schools and teacher surveys reported that children learned to read 6–12 months faster with improved elocution, spelling and logical thinking in subjects like arithmetic. Leigh won the Medal of Progress at the Vienna Exposition of 1873 for his invention of Pronouncing Orthography.

As well as pedagogy, Leigh had an eclectic set of interests throughout his life and contributed to progress in fields such as theology, the philosophy of science, medicine and the abolition of slavery.

Early life

On September 10, 1815, Leigh was born in South Berwick, Maine, in the United States. He was the son of Major Thomas Leigh and Nancy Leigh née Baker. His father was a veteran of the War of 1812 and owned and operated the Saw Mills at Quamphegan Landing, which became known as Leigh's Mills. Edwin Leigh had five siblings and was related to the wealthy Chadbourne family through his paternal grandmother, Martha Leigh; the Chadbourne family founded Berwick College, which Edwin Leigh would later attend.

Personal life

On April 10, 1839, Edwin Leigh married Susan Scollay of Ashburnham, Massachusetts, and they had nine children, with three dying early and five recorded:

Anna Eliza "Lizzie" Slattery née Leigh (1842–1915) Elizabeth Wyman née Leigh (1851–1889) Edward Baker Leigh (1853–1932) George Leonard Leigh (1855–1901) Herbert Leigh (1861–1927)

Notably, Leigh initially experimented with teaching literacy using an interim orthography by teaching his eldest daughter Anna to read using Fonotypy in 1946 when she was 4 – 5 years old. This early experience persuaded Leigh of the need for a straightforward teaching orthography, which he invented after two decades of development, called Pronouncing Orthography.

Leigh would eventually retire to Stoneleigh Ranch, in Kerr County, Texas, owned by his son, Edward Baker Leigh, where he died on April 9, 1890.

Education

Leigh was a school pupil at the Berwick Academy preparatory school in Berwick, Maine, founded by his Chadbourne relatives. He subsequently studied at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, between 1832 and 1835, when he graduated. Apart from the school of medicine, Bowdoin College had a single general course of study for their degree, including the study of classics, history, mathematics, grammar, rhetoric etc. Later Leigh would go on to study theology and medicine.

Theology

Edwin Leigh initially had the zeal to become a Christian missionary, so after graduating from Bowdoin, he entered Andover Theological Seminary where he graduated in 1838–39. He obtained an appointment from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to proselytise in Asia Minor. Unfortunately, his wife's health forced Leigh to change his mind and seek a position within the priesthood instead. After acting as "stated supply" in the congregations of Kennebunk, Maine (1839–1840) and Winchendon, Massachusetts (1841–1842), he was eventually ordained pastor over a Congregational church in Woonsocket (Smithfield), Rhode Island on August 2, 1843. Still, Leigh became dissatisfied after attaining his desired position, so the following year, he requested to be dismissed, which was granted on May 22, 1844.

Leigh spent nearly a decade studying theology and practising in the priesthood. Later in his life, he would use these ecclesiastical foundations to transliterate the gospels according to Luke and Mark into Pronouncing Orthography so they could be used to teach both literacy and Christianity.

Leigh's most important theological work was to come later when in 1881, he published The Sinai and Comparative New Testament, an English translation of Codex Sinaiticus with an in-line comparison to the King James Version of the Bible, the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Alexandrinus. Although, at heart, it was a simple re-arrangement of the Constantin von Tischendorf Testament, Leigh's document allowed theologians to easily compare three of the great uncial codices and the authorised version of the bible. During this time, Leigh published a controversial paper on the philosophy of medical science, considered with special reference to Dr Elisha Bartlett's "Essay on the Philosophy of Medical Science". Although this essay won the Boylston Prize, it was criticised.

After graduating from Harvard in 1850, Leigh remained and took a position as an assistant to Professor Louis Agassiz, lecturing students in natural history (1850–1851).

Leigh then used his newly acquired knowledge to practise medicine as a physician in Somerville, Massachusetts and Townsend, Massachusetts between 1851 and 1854 before again becoming dissatisfied and reverting to his true vocation of teaching.

Teaching

Between 1844 and 1846, Leigh spent two years employed as a teacher in Bristol, Rhode Island⠀in the gap between leaving the clergy and starting to study medicine. After quitting his medical career in 1854, Leigh returned to teaching by moving to St. Louis, Missouri, where he took up a post as a teacher of natural history in the High School and the Principle of its Evening School. Leigh also became associated with a department in the city's University and produced several key reports, such as the Bird's eye view of Slavery in Missouri'' (1862), which was published amid the American Civil War and provided the demographic view to enable the emancipation of slavery in Missouri. 1850 - Respiration subservient to Nutrition (Thesis) (pp. 20) 1863 - Bird's eye view of slavery in Missouri (pp. 3) 1881 - The Sinai and Comparative New Testament (pp. 153)