Archive for August, 2008

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I promised no more than one post a month, but this is, as they say, “breaking news!”

Many of you are familiar with our good friend and fellow researcher Allan, who recently packed up and moved to Washington County, PA. for the sole purpose of being closer to our collective roots. Well,  it’s been less than a month and he’s already hit genealogical paydirt… at the site of the legendary Leonard two-story log cabin!

We were always a little uncertain as to whether Jennie Leonard Hutchinson’s directions, written in the 1930s, were accurate. Roads have been reconfigured, the landscape has changed, and the directions didn’t seem like the most direct route to the site. But Allan put boots on the ground, so to speak, and drove right to it! The site is right where Jennie said it would be, on the outskirts of Ellsworth.

But that’s not the best part… the best part is… the cabin was still standing and occupied until 1996! We thought it was destroyed in the 1940s. The cabin burned down 12 years ago and there’s nothing left but an over-grown foundation, but current owner thinks the neighbors just might have some pictures of the interior!

Allen talked to the current landowner, showed him the picture you see here, confirmed that he had the right site, and drank from the Leonard spring that continues to supply water to the site today. It was too overgrown to get decent pictures of the foundation, so Allan’s going to go back this winter, when the vegetation dies back.

For those of you new to the Leonard party, this is the cabin Caleb Leonard, Jr. built and occuied in the late 1790s. Caleb outlived his son Daniel by three years and died in that cabin, attended by his grandson William, at the ripe old age of 95!  William and wife Mary, along with Caleb’s great-grandchildren Edmund, Isaac, Daniel and the rest would’ve spent their last years as a family unit in the same cabin.

Most of William’s family migrated to Ohio in 1855, but his sister Luzanna stayed behind, moving in with grandmother Lucretia (Caleb’s widow) and remaining at her side until she died in 1873… at age 96!

I get excited over the simplest things. But here’s a thought… if you’ve already calculated what it’ll take to support yourself in retirement… you might want to take a look at the longevity built into your genes… and think about building a log cabin. 

Cheers!
Rick

“Do you recognize this man?” was a rhetorical question last month. Sorta. I certainly didn’t expect a new “cousin” to come out of nowhere with boxes of old family photos!

But that’s what happened. Who knew?

To the best of our knowledge, that’s Isaac Leonard… the very man I was trying to locate… over there on the left! (Go ahead. Mouse-over the picture to see larger versions of the front and back.) But there’s more! Pictures of long-lost Joseph Leonard, who married an Indian maiden and dropped out of white society… his brother William… and the two-story Leonard log cabin where they all grew up!

All of these photos will appear here in the coming days/weeks, but I’ve got to tell you where and how these photos were found!

Our newest cousin was taking care of a relative’s affairs after a death in the family. As part of those duties, he was cleaning out a shed in the back yard of a south Florida home. In the shed, he found a cabinet and in that cabinet were two boxes. In the boxes… dozens of photos and some old letters! I don’t know about you, but this is my genealogical fantasy!

He knows exactly who owned the photos and how they were most likely handed down through the generations. Hint: They are descendants of the only Edmund Leonard on the books, thus no confusion about the sixteen gazillion Williams, Isaacs, and Lots. And best of all, most of the photographs are labeled. My ancestors should’ve been so considerate.

Now. Consider this. Those photos and letters have survived, some of them for a century-and-a-half, despite a few decades’ exposure to south Florida humidity, rodents, bugs, and last but not least… hurricanes. Shouldn’t we all be digging around in sheds and basements and attics… before it’s too late?

Just a thought. Who knew?!

Cheers!
Rick