Leonard Family Legends and Legacies » Real People, Real Stories

An-n-n-d we’re back

Rick@Leonard Family Legends & Legacies — Mon, 31 May 2010 00:28:24 +0000

Hackers were giving me fits in the month of May, but I think we’ve righted the ship. Leonard Database is back on line and better than ever!
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UPDATE 6/6/10: Database is back online, but I swear to gawd, if it goes down again I’m gonna scream!

UPDATE 6/5/2010: Database is DOWN again and I simply don’t have time to mess with it. Sorry.

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Sorta.
The Leonard Database is back on line as of Sunday 5/30/2010. There may be a few bugs, but I believe we’ve improved the speed and streamlined the layout. Keep your fingers crossed that the hackers don’t break in again!

http://www.rickleonard.net/leonard-database/

Dispatch from Leonard, Iowa

Rick@Leonard Family Legends & Legacies — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:34:23 +0000

Early on in my family history research, I had the impression that my great-great-grandfather was either estranged from his birth family or completely cut off from the civilized world. That impression was based on the lack of evidence that they had communicated or visited one another.

Turns out I couldn’t have been more wrong, as demonstrated by the following letter mailed from Leonard, Iowa (the post office named in Uncle Dan’s honor) to the editor of the Adams County (Iowa) Free Press:

Leonard, Iowa
March 3rd, 1901
Mr. Editor: This will be my report of our late visit in Pennsylvania and Ohio. (Home to five of his eight siblings.)

Our first notable observation was to find it snowing in Marion County, Ohio, (home of brother James Herron Leonard) with good sleighing, and hauling logs to the sawmills was the principal occupation of all we saw at work. Timber seems at this season of the year to be the only product moving. We saw the watereim (?) logs hauled to the hoop factory, as well as the monster oaks fifty feet in length used in ship building. Our Iowa boys have no conception of their greatness. I was surprised to see how scarce timber is becoming.

It was noticeable to miss the herds of cattle as all were in barns if they had any. No straw or hay stacks; corn all cut up and in neat shocks, scarcely a corn crib to be seen, maybe they put it under the bed(?) as as they do in Pennsylvania.

Our first meal in Ohio was eaten in Bell Fountain in company with Mr. Devore’s(?) relations and consisted of buckwheat cakes, dairy butter, sugar maple ‘lasses, and the regular stuffed sausages. Ge whiz wasn’t they good. It was the first square meal we had had in forty years.

…to be continued…

Letters, pt. deux

Leonard Legends & Legacies — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:06:40 +0000

Time flies, and all that crap. And yes, I should’ve thought of a more creative title for “Letters, pt. deux.” Get over it.

When we last spoke, I promised to share a bit of what my g-g-grandfather had to say about his cabin, and the traffic that passed by the front of it. The cabin, as you might’ve guessed, is the very one pictured here, taken from the original painting (done from memory) in 1899.

I know these things, because the creation of this and the previously-mentioned painting were noted in the local newspaper:

“Uncle Dan Leonard has recently had a fine large picture (previous entry -ed.) of his Taylor county home painted which was on exhibition in the Shion drug store last Saturday and attracted much attention. Anyone who has ever partaken of Uncle Dan’s hospitality would at once recognize the beautiful home which he has builded (sic) for himself. Another smaller picture stood beside the large one. This was his first cabin erected in 1850. (actually 1856) The contrast is great.” (Duh)

-Adams County (Iowa) Free Press 14 Sept 1899

The artist’s name, BTW, was L. Berg. I’ve never seen another reference to him, but itinerant artists were commonplace in those days. If you ever run across him, please let me know. Now where was I?

Uncle Dan described his cabin, in his 1889 letter to his aunt (written ten years before the painting was done) as, “in its day the the finest residence for 12 years on a strip of land 16 miles long and 8 wide.”

Speaking of a photo he apparently enclosed, Uncle Dan drew attention to a horse on the road in front of his house… “a woe-begon moving family. Poor folks, they like hundreds of others had tryed (sic) Kansas and found it wanting and are pulling for their northern farms. Home.”

“Oh, I sometimes pity the poor slaves,” he continued, “the poor oppressed slaves that have left their eastern homes, came west to hunt a home and have been wandering those years and it seems as though they could not find any place to lay their head.” Uncle Dan wrote that note twenty-five years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

As a final, completely unrelated note of HUGE historical interest, at least to me, was one about recent events back “home” in Pennsylvania. The footnote was dated June 24th, 1889:

“Oh, what a calamity befell Johnstown and there is not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your father’s notice. Are you not of more value than many sparrows?”

Note for the non-native Pennsylvanian… On May 31, 1889, a neglect and a phenomenal storm led to a catastrophic dam failure outside of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. 2,209 people died in the ensuing flood.

Caveat emptor.

Letters from home

Leonard Legends & Legacies — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:07:08 +0000

When was the last time you sent or received a hand-written letter from a friend or relative? “Hand-written” rules out the annual word-processed Christmas “here’s my life in pastel colors” letter. “Letter” rules out the thank you note or get well card, although I can see either of those becoming an heirloom down the line.

No, I mean an honest-to-goodness, pass it around the coffee clatch letter from home? I’m ashamed to admit it’s been years. But a recently discovered letter, mailed in 1889, just might inspire me to write a few of my own. To wit…

My g-g-grandfather Uncle Dan Leonard, wrote an eight page letter to his aunt in 1889. Eight pages! To an aunt! That letter turned up in his brother’s Bible, so we know it was passed around the family long after it was sent. His brother Isaac saw fit to immortalize it in a book he knew would be kept. Perhaps best of all, it was mailed from Leonard, Iowa, a post office named for Uncle Dan and housed in a neighbor’s home just two miles to the south.

The salutation reads simply, “Dear Aunt.” Uncle Dan had three aunts, but the presumption is that he was writing to his Aunt Luzanna, who stayed in Pennsylvania with her aging mother when most of the family moved west to Ohio. He regrets that enough time has passed that it’s unlikely his aunt will ever get to visit him in his new Iowa home. So he sent pictures and rather verbose description of the property. (The pictures, apparently, have been misplaced.)

None of that would have been particularly remarkable, if not for the fact that the house he described in 1889 is still standing and occupied 120 years later. Uncle Dan commissioned a painting of the place ten years after he sent the letter. Side-by-side comparisons show how little it has actually changed.

As an extra-special treat to my family, Uncle Dan described the HUGE stone slab at the base of the front porch.

“If you look closely, you will see Mrs. Dan Leonard standing on a rock (sitting to the front and right of it in the painting) 9 inches thick, 8′ long and about 4′ wide, the largest stone in South Western Iowa and on said rock is inscribed as follows: Daniel and Jane Leonard 1856 (the year Dan and Jane settled in that very spot).”

That rock appears to be granite, and it’s still in place. It’s been a source of great curiosity in my family. My parents and I often wondered if there might be a time capsule of some sort underneath. We’ve offered, more than once, to pay the current owner for the stone and whatever may lie underneath, but to date, no deal. Below is a little closer look.

The letter goes on to describe a picture of the original log cabin that “was the finest residence for twelve years on a stretch of land 16 miles long and eight miles wide.” That picture was also a commissioned painting, drawn from the pioneer couple’s own memories.

This post is getting a tad long, so I’ll save more on that painting for next week. That, and Uncle Dan’s description of the poor souls passing along the trail in front of his house, dragging their meager possessions back from failed settlement attempts to the south and west in Kansas.

Your assignment, between now and next week… Go write a letter!

With a trembling heart…

Leonard Legends & Legacies — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:26:08 +0000

In my earliest days of researching my family history, I tried to put myself in my ancestors’ shoes. I wondered what it was like to pack up as many earthly belongings as would fit and LEAVE my family and friends, with a very real possibility I might never see them again.

Worse yet, I wondered what it would be like, given the lack of telephones or even telegraph, to send or receive a long delayed notice that a family member had died. Now I know. Ann Frankenburger Nicklas, granddaughter of our common benefactor Jennie Leonard Hutchinson, recently provided us with just such a letter.

William and Mary (Van Ort) Leonard migrated from Washington County, PA. to Marion County, Ohio in 1855. Two of their sons remained behind, four more, and one daughter, moved even farther west. On September 30, 1868, typhoid fever took the life of William’s bride of forty-four years. Four days later, William mailed the following letter to eldest son Edmund. I added punctuation to make it more readable, but the spelling and form (one continuous paragraph) are original.

Marion Co., Ohio Oct. 4th 68
Dear Children it is with A tremling hart and hand I atempt to write A fue words to you, you must excuse me for all mis takes for this is A hard task for me to write. On the 30th day of September five minutes before the Clock struck four in the afternoon your kind Mother departed this life. She is gone. She is no more. She had her sences to the last. She said all was well, all was well, all was right and that she was not afrade to die. She was Confined to hur bed 16 days. about all that time she suffered beyond all human magination. I think if thare ever was A sincere effort to save life it was hurs. thare was three doctors to see hur. One attended every day but hur time had cum. She is no more. It was tifoid fevour she had. She was buried in the grave yard at Waldo in a nice dry place. we took hur to the Church that she helped to build whare her furnel was preached. thare was a large atendence. She was buryed in the most desant maner. now then, A fue words and I will close. just let me say to you that I feel if all is lost and I am left alone. I have made up my mind to make a sale and brake up hous keeping and work my way what little time I have to stay the best way I can. I have rented my little farm to John Stryn, Mary Jane’s (his daughter’s) man. they have two brothers and two sisters near hear that you have almost forgoten. if Sary (Edmund’s wife Sarah) cant cum try and cum your self if you can on Oct the 8th. all well today that is left of us. Mary Jane with us that week. our little jerman gurl is with us yet. now then Edmund and Sary I want your advice. what du we sel. Sel all about the house that your mother and I have worked so long for or not. please tel me what you think is best for I hardley know my one (own) mind. you must excuse me for not writing sooner. this is the first letter I have wrote, pleas to ansure (answer) this soon as in cums to hand. from your old father but cant say Mother.

The letter speaks for itself and certainly doesn’t need any interpretation from me. Now imagine having to write that same letter at least four more times.

I’ll post scans of the letter, when I get some spare time, under William’s database profile.

Next week (I hope), the story of the discovery of not one, not two, but THREE historically significant family Bibles… one of them more than two HUNDRED years old!