Leo P. Leonard was born October 28, 1882 in Kamas, Utah, the
youngest of five children of George Bradford Leonard and Julia Hillock. He
married Zoe Ellen Powell of Price, Utah in 1904. He died March 1963 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This is not a short biography of my father because I have
not been able to collect sufficient data on his long and eventful life to do it
justice. What I have recorded here are a few of my most vivid memories and
anecdotes and some reflections about his impact on my life over a period of
approximately 37 years from 1926, when I was slightly over three years of age
until March 1963 when he died.
One of my first recollections of my father was meeting him
after work as he came off the Peerless Mine tipple, walking with him to the
miner’s bathhouse where he bathed before going home and sitting on one of the
benches used by miners to undress while he removed the coal dust and sweat from
his body with the other miners working that shift. The odor of sweaty bodies
mingled with steam and soap are still clearly etched in my memory. It seemed,
however, that no amount of soap and water completely removed the coal dust that
collected on my father’s and the miner’s eyelashes and eyebrows, and around the
fingernails. This contrast of white faces against dark eyebrows and eyelashes
made a distinct impression on a three year old; Our walk home from the bath
house was always enjoyable because dad would hoist me up on his shoulders and I
could sit there and ask him all kinds of questions about his job as a Tipple Foreman
and Weigh Boss, which he always patiently answered.
