Brick Making, A History
by Florence L. Kroes (1966)
Edward Leonard
his story
William Leonard
his story
C. Leon Leonard
his story
Delton Brickyard Photos
circa 1914
Maps of Leonard Brickyards
a recreation
Leonard Family Photos
circa 1920

LFBH Home

History of William Leonard (b. 1856, d. 1937)

William Leonard was born June 6, 1856 on the Vandenburg Farm in East Cooper. When his mother died, he worked for room and board and went to school winters in Comstock. At the age of 16, he went to Elk Rapids with his brother, Thomas, where they made brick for a Mr. Follet. The following year his older brother, Edward, joined him and Thomas, making brick there in 1873-1874. The next summer, 1875, he spent making brick with his father in Kendall. In 1876, he made brick with his brother Thomas in Cassopolis. Thomas died there in 1886. From 1877-1880 William went back to Kendall and made brick with his father. In 1881 he spent a summer making brick with Wyers Brothers in South Haven, with a trip to Chicago in the fall. He could have made brick there but did not want to join a union. After that he went to Otsego and made brick for Hall and Richards for three or four years, staying until 1883, and burning the last kiln of 22 arches during the week of the Alpena storm.

William Leonard

William came to the brickyard on the Harris Farm, five miles west of Kalamazoo on the Kalamazoo-South Haven Railway in the fall of 1883, batching it with his partner Ed Scott, during the winter and cutting wood. They rented the yard for three years from John Harris for $400. The first kiln of brick went into the old Lovell Street School. William bought Ed Scott's interest after about one and a half years and bought the yard from Mr. Harris at the end of the third year for $700 or $900.

On February 20, 1888, William married Harriet Jane Smith, whose family owned a farm located next to the brickyard property on what is now called HG Avenue (at that time it was called Brownell Rd.). Florence, Leon and Mabel were born in the old house in the orchard, and George and Lois were born in the green house further east on the Harris Farm.

The Harris Farm brickyard was sold to the Zeeland Brick Company (owned by Nellie Adolph's father) in the fall of 1900. William then bought the old Dewaters Farm three miles south of Alamo and on the Alamo/Oshtemo Townline Road one-half mile west of Liberty Street School. The Liberty Street Cemetery was on that farm which was located on the corner of what is now 6th Street and G Avenue.

About 1904 he bought 60 acres in Almena Swamp, north of Pollers Field Road where Campbell Spring Brook crosses the road. The Dewaters Farm was sold to Eugene Brown in the spring of 1908 and William bought the Delton Brickyard, moving there in April.

William made brick there until late summer of 1917, when his sons Leon and George went into the Army during WWI. When his sons came home in 1919, they, along with J.D. Murdock and E.A. Barton, bought the brickyard from William. William then bought the Chase-Polly home located at 117 Thomas Street in Delton. Harriet died there in 1934 and William died there in 1937. William and Harriet's daughter Lois, and husband, Loyal Kellogg Flower, owned the house until Lois died in 1985. At that time ownership passed to Harriet Jane Kroes Olsen, great-grandaughter of William and Harriet, who lived in this house with her family until 2005, when the house was sold and is no longer in the family.