Personal History by Paul Bert (Jack) Leonard, April, 1994

I was born of wonderful parents, Leopold and Zoe Ellen Powell Leonard, April 18, 1925, in the coal camp of Peerless, Utah. I was the eighth child of nine -- seven boys and two girls. As I started my earthly journey, I must say, it was something to think about!

About My Name

My first name and birth certificate read Ervin Bye Leonard. Then my parents had a change of heart and were given another birth certificate a short time later that read Paul Bert Leonard. Down the road a few short years, I came to be known as Jackie Leonard, so this gave me a few aliases to work with so, to end this, my social security registration reads Jackie Paul Leonard. How did I get the name "Jackie"? I was a child who did not like to stay home and help with the many chores that Mother had for us. This one Saturday, at an early age, I had taken off to go to the movie at the Star Theatre. At this time, Jackie Coogan was a popular star. Well, I was only five or six years old and, coming home over the railroad tracks on Carbon Avenue after all day at the movies, with my bib overalls and one strap undone, a shoe missing, I looked like a neglected child. The family was out looking for me. When they saw me walking down the street, they said I looked just like Jackie Coogan and so the name stuck. Some called me "Jack in the Box". I was rather small for my age and, when I was supposed to enter the first grade, they thought I was too small, so mother said: "Jackie, wait 'till you're seven years old. From then on, I decided to be as big as other kids and took the next path and that was to be the best I could be.

THE ETHNIC NEIGHBORHOOD

I was raised in a very pleasant ethnic neighborhood. The French families, the Italian and Greek families had a strong influence in my life. We all looked forward to Greek Easter, with the roasting of two or three lambs in their back yard, eating Greek cheese, pastries and the main course -- Greek dancing, music and their colorful dress. These years, with the variety of families in our neighborhood had a strong influence on me to appreciate all people and enjoy their life styles.

GROWING UP IN PRICE

Playing roughneck basketball by Uncle Abe's corral was very close to mayhem. During the summer of the late 1930's, a few of us would take a small herd of cows from the Pitts family. We would get ten cents a day to take them south of town for the day and herd them back at evening for milking. I tried my hand at thinning sugar beets between Price and Wellington. It paid ten cents a row. I am sure the rows were one half mile long and, after a few days, I decided this was not for me. I would sooner be home helping there. When growing up, I shined shoes with Rex, Don, Reid and Eben Powell, my cousins. It was a time when the depression had not quite ended. Rex Powell made me a shoe shine box, so I could be with them. We would shine shoes on Main Street and go into the Greek coffee houses. Shoe shines were ten cents. After making many rounds and earning enough for a Saturday matinee ticket of five cents, we would go to the Utah Cafe and order a large hamburger for ten cents, with a bowl of soup for ten cents and have enough left over for candy at the movie. At that time, there were Flash Gordon serials plus others that made you want to go each week. There were the original "Our Gang" comedies, Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, etc..

History of Clair and Blanche Leonard Written By Clair Leonard 1987

Born January 25, 1911 in Price, Carbon County, Utah. Educated at Price Jr. High and Carbon High School. Married to Blanche Ellison on December 9, 1929 at Castle Dale, Utah. Latter married in the Salt Lake Temple December 9/11, 1940.

Some of my early memories was when I was two or three years old I swallowed a peanut shell and was choking on it. I had turned black and blue from not being able to get my breath when my grandmother Sarah Jane Powell came into the house. She grabbed me by the heels of my feet, turned me upside down and gave me some quick slaps on the back. I coughed up the shell. I later developed pneumonia. When I was just a bit younger I received a scar over my right eat from a pan of hot grease. Mother was in bed ready to give birth to Evelyn, and dad's brother Fred and his wife Jessie had fixed a good meal for us. My brother Lee, however, decided he wanted fried eggs. Just as he started over to the table with the eggs, doctor Piske knocked on the door. I jumped up from the table to see who it was, and ran into Lee and the hot pan of grease. Another accident I remember was when we had been cleaning up the yard and was burning the trash. Someone picked up an old piece of garden hose that had been burning, whirled it around in the air, and I caught all the hot melted rubber on my face, hands etc.

Between the ages of four and five we were on a trip out to Uncle Lots in Altonah. We were traveling by wagon from Price to Altonah when I became very sick. At the time they thought it was typhoid fever, and said they almost lost me. Years later around the year 1937 when I was living on 7th South in Salt Lake with my wife Blanche and our two children, Norma and Jimmie, I had to have my appendix out. The doctor at the L.D.S. Hospital asked my mother if I had ever had an attack before. He said my appendix had ruptured at one time, healed over, and had grown to my back and other parts of my body. He said that I was lucky to be alive. Mother told the doctor of my early supposed typhoid fever sickness on our way to uncle Lots in Altoniah, Utah by wagon, and how it had taken us over a week to get there. The doctor said that this must have been when my appendix ruptured and that I was lucky to have survived.

Another experience was when Mother was washing clothes and someone came to the front door. When she went to answer the door I had to see how the wringer worked. I hit the leaver and my right hand got caught and went through the ringer. My hollering brought my mother on the run and she hit the pressure leaver that stopped the rollers and opened up the rollers. I don't remember going to the doctors, but my hand had been split wide open and looked like a hand full of hamburger.

History and Memoirs by Evelyn Leonard Bjornn, July, 1994

The children have been asking me to write my life history. Every time I try to interest them in our ancestors, they laugh and tell me they are more interested in my life's story than in someone's who has been dead a hundred years. I have promised to do that, if they will accept the fact that none of us is perfect, even a great-grandmother. Some of the history may not be exactly as they wish it were.

The art of writing is certainly not one of my natural talents, but maybe as I record some events each day, I will, with practice, be able to express my thoughts more clearly.

At the time I started writing this history I was seventy-nine years old! Where has the time gone? The years have passed so quickly! When I think of all the wonderful events and experiences that have transpired in my life, I am so grateful my many blessings, and I hope that I can record them in such a way that my children will derive something worthwhile from them, add their histories to it, and pass them all on to their children.

I was born in Price, Utah on May 28, 1913, the fifth child of Leopold (Leo) and Zoe Ellen Powell Leonard. When I was born, Enid Russell's mother was heard to say, "That Zoe has really hit the jackpot with this baby! She has the most beautiful child - lots of black hair and big, brown eyes!"

We lived at 276 South Carbon Avenue, in a beautiful, two-story, white-frame home, trimmed in green. The house was surrounded by a white picket fence enclosing our yard which had a large lot for the children to play and romp in. My parents were blessed with nine children, seven boys and two girls. We never had a dull moment around the house because we had an older sister and brothers to tease. We had time for swimming in the local swimming hole, and our house was always filled with company.

Baby sitters observed that my parents reared a family who knew how to do things. We all knew how to clean the house and make crafts. Home was always a place where there was plenty of food, and where guests never went hungry. Many fond memories of those childhood days linger in my heart.

Personal Memories of Max Leonard by Robert Leonard

Written by Robert P. Leonard, Son of Clair Leonard and Blanche Ellison, Grandson of Leopold and Zoe Ellen (Powell) Leonard, and Nephew to Max Leonard.
November 15, 2003

The earliest thing I remember about Max was that he had polio at an early age.  It was something that none of us wanted to get but Max was the unfortunate one.   I remember how there was no cure at the time we were growing up and they did not know how to treat it for sure.  I remember the ‘Iron Lung’ that kids would have to go into for hours or days at a time.  This was the so called cure for polio but it did not.  The doctors didn’t know that exercise and heat would be the best things to save the legs and body from the deterioration effects.  A women Doctor or nurse was the first to prove this and she had to convince others of the correct treatment in the early days.  Max did not get the treatment he needed and lost most of the control of his leg.  I don’t know if it is correct to mention all of this but it was a very tough thing for Max and his parents to deal with at the time.

Max did not let the polio hold him back.  Max must have known that the use of his mind was going to be his biggest asset for the rest of his life and profession.  Max graduated from Carbon High and then went on to the University of Utah where he obtained his degree.  He must have been a teacher after he graduated, at Carbon High School.  He taught Geri (Cima) Turnbull and others at the High School.

Max taught several years at the High School and then must have applied to the Government Civil Service for a job and got a position as an Educator.  The government as I recall sent him, eventually, to England in the early 1950’s.  This would have been not to long after World War II.   I remember him going to England and the next thing I remember was that he was married to an English girl (Jean Morley).  I was told by my father Clair (brother to Max) that Max was doing well and was advancing in his work as an educator.  Next thing I remember, Max was transferred to Germany and took his family to live in Wiesbaden, Germany.  I had no idea where that was until later.

The Leonards of Lynn: A Case Study of the Integration of Outsiders Into a Puritan Community

This research paper was written by Tod Shacklett for a history class in June 1997.

Popular mythology conjures up images of Puritan New England as a pious, homogenous, agrarian community, a "Citty upon a Hill" intended to inspire the English homeland to turn to Puritan ways. (1) However, Puritan New England was more than a collection of small, agrarian communities. The harbors of New England supported shipping and fishing industries, and abundant timber and ore supplies inspired the Puritans of North America to pursue a colonial version of the English iron industry. These new American Ironworks required skilled labor; it was not possible simply to take the offspring of Puritan farmers and merchants and turn them into iron workers. The experienced, skilled laborers needed were mostly recruited from England and, generally, were not Puritans. Stephen Innes describes these iron workers as having "had a long, and apparently well-earned, reputation for stout-hearted truculence and profane living." (2) How, then, did these most un-Puritan individuals function in Puritan Society?

Essex County Court records concerning the Leonards, a family of immigrant iron workers, will be examined as a case study of the social integration of outsiders into a typical Puritan community. The Leonards do seem to epitomize the "truculent and profane" iron workers that Innes describes. The court cases involving the various Leonard family members often seem to be of a different, darker character than other, perhaps more typical, cases. While most Puritan lawsuits involved boundary lines and bad language, the Leonards were brought before the court charged with arson and highway robbery. As skilled and thus valued iron workers, the Leonard family was tolerated for pragmatic reasons. But the level of toleration shown by the community seemed to go beyond mere pragmatism. Even though the Leonard family was never fully integrated into the Puritan community, they were none the less accepted as members of that community.

The Puritans of New England were not renowned for their willingness to accept outsiders into their communities. According to The book of the general lauus and libertyes concerning the inhabitants of the Massachusets, individuals, and whole towns, were statutorily prohibited from allowing any stranger to reside within the jurisdiction for more than three weeks without permission from a magistrate. (3) As an illustration, in May 1663 John Emery was charged with harboring Quakers, and "also was presented on suspicion of breaking the law in entertaining Mr Greenland four months." (4) A cursory reading of the Essex court records reveals that Greenland was a doctor who was singularly unsuccessful in controlling his carnal lust. A more detailed recitation of his exploits is unnecessary here, but as a stranger to the community, Greenland's behavior made him undesirable to that community, and the community had an interest in, and took action toward, securing his removal. In fact, six citizens even went so far as to file an additional suit against Emery, "[f]or breach of a town order of Newbery, in entertaining Mr. Greenland to the great prejudice of the town." (5) But why would a community that refused to tolerate an amorous physician extend toleration to a family of rude, profane iron workers? The answer may lie in some combination of the Leonards' relationship to the church and the relative scarcity of the iron working skills that they possessed.

History of Jemima Wimmer Powell, Utah Pioneer

The most part of this history is material supplied by a Great grand-daughter Mary Powell Blackburn, which was taken from an old record book in 1930 by Mary who found it at the home of Charles Wimmer, now deceased.

Other information from a family group sheet submitted by Jay Prince, and a few personal memories of a Grandson, Samuel Powell. This history written for Mary Blackburn— by Nora Lund D.U.P. historian 1970.

Born - 14th March, 1814 - Lisbon, New Castle, Henry Co. Indiana.

Died - 13th Dec. 1893— At her son Robert's ranch-near Price, Carbon County, Utah

Buried in Salem, Utah County, Utah.

Married - James Powell

Information furnished and history filed by Mary Powell Blackburn - Granite Park Camp, South Center Salt Lake County

(My Great Grandmother) Jemima Wimmer Powell was born 14 March, 1814 in Lisbon, New Castle, Henry County, Indiana. She was number 5 in a family of 11 children, born to Peter and Elizabeth Shirley Wimmer. The group sheet lists her brothers and sisters as Robert, born in Penn., all the rest who were born in Indiana were as follows: John P, Jacob, Polly, Susannah, Peter Martha, Elisabeth, Ellen and William. Only four out of this large family grew maturity and married, these were Robert, John and Susannah and of course Jemima. We have no death dates recorded for the other members of the family with the exception of Susannah, who married Simeon J. Comfort, no doubt in Hancock County, Ill. She was just 22 years old when she died, 2 April, 1840.

Jemima was taught the rudiments of home making by her mother, so was well prepared to take on the  responsibilities of a home of her own when she married James Powell in 1334 in Indiana. She was 20 years old and he was 25, having been born 13 Oct. 1309 in North Carolina. He was the son of Abraham and Elizabeth Powell.

Jemima's parents, Peter and Elizabeth Wimmer became converted and were baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were thoroughly convinced of the truths of the gospel, and felt they were making the right choice, but just being members of this unpopular religion meant trouble, and they had plenty. Jemima and James didn’t join the church then.

The History of Emmett and Madge Leonard and Their 64 Years Together

By Madge Leonard

Emmett was born in Price, Utah, on April 22, 1907, to Zoe Ellen and Leo Leonard. He was the second of nine children. They lived in Peerless, Utah, a coal mining town and the children were bused to school in Price, Utah, about 25 miles away.

I was born in Orangeville, Utah, August 12, 1908 to Annie and John Irving Jewkes. l was the second of five children. My father and mother moved to Wattis, Utah, a mining town where Dad worked in the coal mines mining coal. I finished high school in Wattis. The family then moved back to Orangeville and I stayed there and worked in an ice cream and candy store and also went to beauty school.

During that time Emmett's parents moved back to Price while he remained in the mining camps and worked in the coal mines. Leo, Emmett's father, had a ten-piece orchestra. Emmett and his brothers, Lee and Clair all played in it. Emmett played the saxophone. They were called "The Night Hawks." They played for dances all over Utah and other states for 10 - 15 years. That's where I first met Emmett, I was sixteen and he was seventeen. They were playing for a dance in Helper, Utah. My friends and I were there having a good time. The music was great. I looked up and saw Emmett and thought he was a tall, good-Iooking guy, so I winked at him. When the dance was over he came over to talk to me and to my surprise he was short, but still good—looking. (I was never going to marry a short guy.)

We went together for a while, but on one date we had to go to a dance and he called and cancelled saying he had to work. It just happened that Birdie, Emmett's sister, came and asked if I was going to the dance. I said, "No." She insisted, saying. “If you get a date, you take me. And if I get one, I'll take you."

Birdie got a date and he had a friend, which made it nice for me. Surprise, there at the dance was Emmett dancing with a new girlfriend. Well, that was enough of that two-timing guy, I thought. Needless to say, we started going together again two months later and on October 27, 1927, we got married in Orangeville, Utah.