Charles Leon Leonard (1889-1956)

Charles Leon Leonard was born December 27, 1889 in Oshtemo Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan on the Harris Farm on the Kalamazoo-South Haven Railway, five miles NW of Kalamazoo. The family moved to the new house, forty rods east of the old brick house, when Leon was about four. Leon and Florence went to Grand Prairie School from September, 1895 to November, 1900. Then the family moved to the Dewaters Farm on the south townline of Alamo Township. They attended the Liberty Street School from fifth grade through ninth grade, June 1904. Leon and Florence drove a buggy to Alamo High School, graduating from twelfth grade in 1906.

Leon stayed home one year and then went to Celery City Commercial College, finishing Commercial (bookkeeping) Course in 1908. In April, 1908 the family moved to Delton, Michigan when William bought the brickyard there. Leon worked in the brickyard until the summer of 1917, spending fall and winter terms of 1912-1913, 1913-1914, and 1915-1916 at Western State Normal School.

Leon entered the Reserve Officer's Training Camp at Fort Sheridan on August 27, 1917, getting a discharge on November 27, 1917. He remained home until January when he went to Battle Creek, working for W.K. Kellogg Company in the factory until a fuel shortage forced a shutdown. Then he spent about five months as a bookkeeper in the accounting department of Postum Cereal Company, remaining until a draft call, May 13, 1918. He passed through Columbia Barracks, Ohio; Camp MacArthur, Waco, Texas to Camp Merritt, New Jersey, then aboard the George Washington, August 18,1918, reaching Brest Harbor, France, August 27, 1918. He trained for about four weeks at Sommerville La Bas, north of Dijon-up to five km. north of Toul, about October 10th into the Paveuelle Forest and at Theacourt on November 11, 1918. Back to Brest in June, landing at Newportnews, VA, on June 21, 1919. He was discharged at Camp Custer on June 28, 1919.

Leon helped organize Leonard Brothers and Company, buying the brickyard with his brother George from their father, and helping to run the brickyard more or less until the spring of 1924, spending the winter of 1921-1922 in Texas.

He married Eloyse Amanda Rogers, August 29, 1923. Barbara was born December 15, 1925, Betty July 18,1929, Aleathe September 20, 1932 and William December 8, 1933.

He bought the grocery stock in 1924 and bought the grocery building in 1930. In the fall of 1932 he built a brick home on Orchard Street in Delton, moving in in 1933. Leon died in 1956 at Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan at sixty-six. Eloyse died in 1997 at age 98.

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