Michael Leib


Michael Leib was an American physician, politician, scientist, inventor, statesman, and philosopher from Pennsylvania. He served Pennsylvania in both houses of the state legislature and represented Pennsylvania in both the U.S. House and the United States Senate.

Biography

Leib was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to George and Dorothea Leib. He studied and practiced medicine in Philadelphia, receiving commission as a surgeon in the Philadelphia Militia in 1780 and serving during the American Revolutionary War. Following the war, Leib returned to Philadelphia and continued the practice of medicine.
He was elected as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and served from 1795 to 1798. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 2nd congressional district and served from 1799 to 1803. He continued in the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania's 1st congressional district from 1803 to 1806. He resigned to return to the Pennsylvania House.
In 1807, he was elected Brigadier-General of the Second Brigade of the Philadelphia Militia.
Leib was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the United States Senate by the state legislature in December 1808. Leib was elected to the term beginning on March 4, 1809, but assumed office on January 9, 1809, following the resignation of Samuel Maclay.
In 1809, he was a member of the committee that formed the "Whig Society of Pennsylvania".
He served as a U.S. Senator until February 14, 1814, when he resigned to become postmaster of Philadelphia. He later returned to the Pennsylvania House for a third time, from 1817 until 1818 and served as a Pennsylvania State Senator for the 1st district from 1818 until 1821. He became prothonotary of the United States district court in Philadelphia in November 1822 and served in that role until his death on December 8, 1822.
He was interred at St. John's Lutheran Churchyard in Philadelphia. In 1924, he was reinterred to the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia when the church and burial ground were demolished during the construction of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
He was greatly influenced and mentored by Benjamin Franklin.