Biography
De Leon was born in Columbia, South Carolina of parents Mordecai Hendricks De Leon and Rebecca Lopez. He was the brother of newspaperman Thomas Cooper de Leon as well as another brother David Camden De Leon and three sisters, Agnes, Maria Louisa, and Adeline Mary (who married Joseph Henry Adams, of Boston). Edwin's father Mordecai De Leon, a physician, removed from Philadelphia to Columbia, South Carolina, and was mayor of that city for several years. De Leon married Ellen Mary Novlan of Rothgar, Ireland, on August 25, 1858, in Somerset, England.
(In a biography of Jefferson Davis Edwin De Leon is incorrectly identified as "Daniel De Leon". Daniel De Leon was an American socialist organizer and theoretician and the long-time leader of the Socialist Labor Party. When the Civil War began Daniel De Leon was eight years old and living on the island of Curaçao.)
De Leon graduated from South Carolina College and studied law, but soon turned to literature and politics. He became an active collaborator on the Southern Review, the Magnolia, the Southern Literary Messenger, and other periodicals. Removing to Savannah, Georgia, he took editorial charge of the Savannah Republican and made it a political factor in the state; his next charge was the Columbia, South Carolina Telegraph, a daily.
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