Hatch,

I posted your question over on the Flymph Forum, where "Big Jim" Leisenring has god-like status. I thought surely someone there could provide some info. Here is the reply:

I, too, was curious last year when I discovered the posting with photographs about a Leonard rod owned by E. B. Leisenring. Unfortunately I couldn't find any link between the two fishermen other than their name.

The Leisenrings came over during the Colonial era, so there were numerous branches to the family. I did some genealogical research into the branch of the family that James E. Leisenring was born into, and believe that he was only a very distant relative of the E. B. Leisenring line. E.B. Leisenring was a very prominent and wealthy man, far outside the social circles that Jim Leisenring's family would have socialized in. There is a book about the wealthy Leisenring coal magnates:
In the Kingdom of Coal: An American Family and the Rock That Changed the World
By Dan Rottenberg

And here is a link to a Google Books extract from the first pages of that book.
https://books.google.com/books?id=BZhFA ... ia&f=false

Jim Leisenring did work in the intertwined coal, rail, and steel industries, first as a blacksmith, then as a machinist, but that was through his uncle James Marsteller on his mother's side.



You can look here for the actual posting:

https://flymphforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=8563

If I understand correctly, the guy who supplied the info is the son of Vernon S. "Pete" Hidy!

Thanks- Ken