| Home Surname List Name Index Sources Email Us | Sixth Generation232. Thomas LEONARD58 was born on 5 September 1815 in Middletown, NJ.60 He died on 9 May 1897 at the age of 81 in Leonardville, Middletown, NJ. In the 1850 Census, Thomas was a well-to-do merchant (value, $8000) living with his family in Middletown. His stepmother was living with them. In the 1880 Census, Thomas was a merchant and farmer. His wife's mother, Patience Hopping, was living with them, as was Thomas' aunt Elizabeth, 86. He lived in the same house in Leonardville where he was born for almost 82 years. He was the youngest member ever received by the Middletown Baptist Church in 1830. He was later one of the organizers of the Second Middletown (Navesink) Bamptish Church about 1852. He later became a member of the Atlantic Highlands Baptist Church when it was organized. He was a supporter of the temperance cause. He began life as a produce salesman in New York. About 1849, he purchased the store and business of his father, later operated by Thomas' son Edward. He bought his father's homestead farm and later added several additional farms to it, becoming most of the land on which Atlantic Highlands is now located. He helped found the Bay View Transportation Company, which maintained a steamboat line between Atlantic Highlands and New York. He also was instrumental in extended the NJ Southern Railroad to Atlantic Highlands. (From Thomas H. Leonard, From Indian Trail to Electric Rail, 1928.) Thomas LEONARD and Mary Ann HOPPING were married on 5 February 1840 in Monmouth Co., NJ. Mary Ann HOPPING was born about 1813 in NJ. Thomas LEONARD and Mary Ann HOPPING had the following children:
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