A History of Leo Pold and Zoe Ellen (Powell) Leonard

Written By Clair Leonard in 1987 

What I remember about my parents:

Although I had many a licking and grabbed by the hair of the head when I tried to get away from my mother, it was because I did not do what I was told to do at the time. Playing came first with me, as it does with all kids, and when a woman has a baby every two years her strength and nerves are not in the best shape.

Dad was more easy going, and was a good provider, but mother was the money manager. When I was a teenager and would have a run in with my mother, I would go up and stay with my grandmother Powell. My mother was the 8th child of Sarah Jane and John Powell, born December 6, 1887. She met Leo P.  Leonard at Sunnyside. Utah while working at her sister Florence's Boarding house. They were married June 17, 1904 and had nine children - seven boys, and two girls.

Mother was quite high strung and could get quite hysterical, and would become a screaming female when something unexpected would happen. A good example of this behavior is one that I will never forget. We were out in Carbon Co. in 1919 when a cloud burst happened. It rained so hard that Price River was flooding over its banks and the fire truck came down past our house at 2 a.m. with siren and fire bell blasting, and a string of cars behind.

Mother started screaming, "What's happening". Dad went out and down to the river to find out what had happened. It seems that a young couple had been parked to close to the river bank which had caved in and took them and their car into the river. I don't know if they ever did find them. As Dad talked with people. They were all afraid the Scofield dam was going to break. The next morning they put a train of cars together, loaded the cars down with men, scrapers and horses, and sent them up to the dam to save the dam. Clark and I both tried to get on but they kicked us off.

Memories, Anecdotes, and Reflections on my Father Leo P. Leonard

Recorded April 25, 1991 by Max G. Leonard, seventh child of Leo P. Leonard.

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.