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 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!

Leonard Family Legends and Legacies » Iowa

Dispatch from Leonard, Iowa

Letters from home