The eldest brother was born July 7, 1824, and, like the other members of the family, has spent his entire life in his native state. When twenty years of age he went to Mauch Chunk, this state, where he engaged as a clerk in the mercantile establishment of his uncle, John Leisenring, with whom he remained for a time. In the fall of 1854 he went to Luzerne County, and engaged as head clerk and paymaster in the coalmines of Sharpe, Leisenring & Co., who were the founders of Eckley, and gave employment in their mines to about four hundred men. Reuben Leisenring remained with them for about eighteen years, but in 1878 he removed to Harleigh, the same county, where he is at present living, and engaged as head clerk and paymaster in the coalmines of W. S. Kemmerey & Co. This brother of our subject is very prominent in that place, and has been Postmaster of Harleigh for a number of years. He has been identified with the Republican Party since its organization, and religiously is a member of the Lutheran Church. He has been an eyewitness of the marvelous development of this county, especially in the coalfields, and remembers the time when the site of Eckley was a vast wilderness. He has taken a deep interest in matters of improvement in his township, and has earned all his possessions by his own exertions, having always been energetic and industrious.