Joseph T. Leonard Joseph T. Leonard, a successful business man of Elkader, Iowa, was born in New York City May 17, 1870. He is the son of John and Sarah (Holan) Leonard, both natives of the Emerald Isle, the former of County Dublin, born in 1831, and the latter of County Meath, born in 1836. John Leonard came to America with his parents Richard and Julia (Dunn) Leonard in 1842, where they located in Fall River, Massachusetts, remaining until 1855: they then went to Clayton county, Iowa, where the father engaged in farming until his death in 1858, his wife dying two years later. When John Leonard, the father of our subject, was seventeen years of age, he started out to make his own place in the world by learning the machinists' trade, after which he went to New York City and was in the employ of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, working in the shops of that concern for twenty-five years. In 1875 he turned his back on city life, and came west to a farm in Clayton county, Iowa, engaging in agriculture until his death. He and his wife were the parents of ten children: William H., who died December, 1915; Richard, who resides on a farm near Elkader; Alice, married to A. Ballbright; Sarah, the wife of Louis Meder, of Oklahoma: Charles, of Fargo, North Dakota; Joseph, with whom this sketch deals particularly; and Fred, a farmer of Clayton county. Joseph assisted in the management of his father's farm of five hundred acres until he was thirty-one years old, but after his marriage, at this time, he bought a farm of one hundred acres for himself, conducting a creamery business in connection with it. This grew so rapidly and to such large proportions that he was obliged to go to Elkader, where he could obtain better facilities for the handling of his cream. His business now amounts to the gratifying sum of three thousand two hundred dollars a year, and is conducted under the name of Crown Brand Creamery. During the course of a year they handle two hundred and thirty-seven thousand six hundred and fifty-eight pounds of cream, fifty-five thousand nine hundred and sixty pounds of poultry, and forty-three thousand seven hundred and forty-seven dozen eggs. He also 'conducts a large ice cream business, shipping over five thousand gallons a year, and his reputation as an ice cream manufacturer is such that he has received a splendid offer from one of Iowa's colleges as instructor, which offer, on account of his large business affairs, he was forced to decline. Mr. Leonard is an open-minded man in his political convictions and therefore belongs to the Independent party. He was married February 6, 1901, to Anna Walker, a daughter of Henry Walker and Mary Ellen (Kiefer) Walker, both of whom are old and highly respected residents of Mederville and who have both both been connected with the early history of Clayton county. Mr. and Mrs. Leonard are the proud parents of two children, Florence, 13 years, and Clarence, 7 years of age.. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page 250-251 |