Fourth Generation

193. Austin LEONARD was born on 4 March 1749 in Springfield, Hampden Co., MA.²¹ He died in 1823 at the age of 74 in St Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec, Canada. Or was he born 15 Mar 1753? Intentions to marry 10 Jul 1774.

Here is a letter that may explain in part why Austin Leonard left Springfield, MA, to go to the wilds of Pennsylvania. It is interesting commentary on the political climate of the times as well. Source of letter: manuscript left by Beulah Leonard MacCall, daughter of Maurice Leonard, Sr., at Morris Township Library in Morristown, NJ, in the 1930's.

The following letter was sent to a printer, withthe following notice -- "Mr. Graves, by inserting the above you will oblige one of your customers, N.B. If this meets with your approbation, please to correct all mistakes." signed Mr. Theodore Leonard (son of Austin towhom this is written), Mr. Cooper Leonard, Mr. Roger Leonard, Mr. Timothy Leonard.

To Captain Austin Leonard of West Springfield, Mass.

Sir:

I am induced in this public manner, to call on you for an explanation of your view and conduct as it respects the part you have taken in the political concerns of Massachusetts. I shall always maintain it as a sound principle as well in politics as ethics, that a friend is not to be hated for a little fault. I hope your sentiments are congenial with mine in that respect, but to come direct to the object of this letter.

In the first place, I wish to be informed what were your reasons for advocating the federal party at the late election for Governor. Undoubtedly you have reasons, perhaps more of a more weighty nature that I apprehend. I do not wish to know the ostensible cause, but the true one. If thre is no absurdity in your system and doctrine you will experience no reluctance in publishing to the world the causes of your conversion, that we poor Democrats may come to the light also.

Paul was warmly attached to the federal part of his age and country, a zealous partizenfor the nobility, the clergy, the steady habis of the Jewish Nation, but after his conversion, he made a frank and generous confession. I hope, sire, you will do the same. You have, to the best of my knowledge, been a man of an amiable character as it respects your fellow man. Your republicanbretheren placed much confidence in your abilities and preserverence, as a republican, that (I?) remain unseduced, appalled and unconquered, andestablishweak minds in the faith. We conceived you to be aman that truly appreciated the blessings as have so universally experienced as a Nation since the principles of our beloved Chief (Washington) have been in operation. We conceived you to be a man that admired with sincere veneration, the administration who has combined national glory with the happiness of the people, who has not "Diected the energies of the government to the destruction, but to the multiplication of the human race."

The associations of patriots and statesmen who are now in complete triumph in the affections of the people we suppose you to be in perfect harmony with. You,sir, in the wisdome,in the virtue of the people which I dare believe no person of information will deny. It isnot a case that will be admitted in evidence in the present case, who is the best man, Wm. Sullivan or Wm. Strong; with a doubt they both have imperfections, like other men. Mr. Strong has done his party all the services in his power, but republicans think he might have done less for his party and more for his country. Mr. Sullivan is the man you, in years past, believed to be a person suitable for the first office in the state. He had your foice and I believe your vote. If he had not, I will acknowledge frankly you are not the man the people of West Springfield imagined. However sincere you are in your opinion, it isnot for me to say, but I will assert without hesitation that I believe you have either done to your own conscience, or have been deceived by federal lawyers, or that when you acted with republicans you were as hyprocrite. To conclude that you acted contrary to the feeling of your own heart would be ungenerous. To avow that you have been decieved is to represent your case in the most favorable manner the mystery of your case admits of. To accuse you of hypocricy would be an unpardonable affront and indelicate in the extreme. You have in times past invited your federal neighbors to your house in order to instruct them in the doctrines of the new school; and been an instrument in bringing a great number of federalists out of the abscurity and labyrinth of federalism, into the glorious liberty and principles of '75. While Massachusetts was struggling yet progressing in a work worthy herself, with a generosity becoming the republican citizens of so respectable and so enlightened a portion of our country.

While the affections of the people were kindling in the common blaze, and giving immortal vigor to the exertions of the people, you sir, were found in the scale of the priests, of the lawyers, of the banking companies, of the privileged orders of the State. Consequently you deserted the cause of the people, the cause of virtue, and are at hostility with the republicans who are no more;as well as your contemporaries who are united by truth, virtue, reason a Democratical chain the federalists never will break until the Lord forsakes us.

As you are a military man, and were actually a soldier in the Revolutionary War, I will ask yu a military question. If you had directeda ilitary expedition and compelled the enemy, in a variety of actions, to retreat in confusion and disgrace, and they had actually entrenched themselves in hostile array in a small for, ultimately to obstruct the glory of the campaign, and the last desparate hope of the enemy: I say, what would you think of that soldier, who would desert you at that moment?

Feeding Hills (no date, no signature)

(It is believed that his letter was the cause of Austin's leaving Mass. with his son, Abel, and his distant cousin Ezekiel, and migrating to Penna.)

Here is another excerpt about their adventures in the Pennsylvania wilds:

"At the opening of this century Springfield township was a wild and uninhabited waste, with no other human marks than those made by passing Indians. In June, 1803, Austin and Ezekiel Leonard started from West Springfield, Mass., under the auspices of the Susquehanna Company, to make a home in northern Pennsylvania, and they journeyed till they came to Sugar creek, near East Troy, where they stopped with Nathaniel Allen, and began. prospecting for a thousand acres of level land but they were soon discouraged, and made up their minds to return. But just then they met a man who claimed to know all the country well, and under his guidance they went up the stream to where it emptied into Sugar creek. He deceived them, by leading them around and around, into the belief that they were on the " 1000 acres of level land" -near where are the Isaac Doane and Paul Furman farms, and these they concluded to locate and make their homes, and they returned to Esq. Allen's and arranged with him to clear some of the land and build cabins for their families. for whom they set out for, to Massachusetts, to bring them to Pennsylvania.

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP

Ezekiel Leonard, who served in the American army and was with Gen. Ethan Allen in his attack upon Fort Ticonderoga, was a native of Springfield, Mass. The advent of the Leonards into Springfield (PA) is thus described by a member of the family:

"In June, 1803, Ezekiel Leonard and Austin Leonard of Springfield, Massachusetts, having been interviewed by Michael Thorp, land agent, came to this locality to establish a new home. At Troy, they met Joseph Barber, a hunter and surveyor. Barber took them into the valley at the western slope of Mt. Pisgah and assisted them in selecting a tract of 1000 acres which they purchased. They arranged .with Nathaniel Allen, living at East Troy, to build them two log houses and have ready for occupancy by the 1st of November. The Leonards arrived with their families at that time, the houses had not been constructed and they moved into a vacant house of Mr. Allen. The two Leonards built a hut by the side of a large hemlock log, where they lived during the working days of the week until the summer of 1804.

During the winter they felled the timber on about forty acres. They burned their fallow in May, and planted corn among the logs, using handspikes for corn planters. They then built two log houses, cut a road up Leonard creek to their habitations and moved their families, arriving June 3, 1804, and being compelled to cross the creek thirteen times. They had a wonderful crop of corn, estimated at forty
bushels per acre. The news of their great harvest of corn brought additional settlers from Massachusetts."

Ezekiel Leonard died, 1843, aged eighty-three years. By his wife Rhoda he had children: Abi (Mrs. Abel Leonard), Laura (Mrs. Joel Calkins), Ezekiel, Nathaniel, Lyman, Eber, Frederick, Albert and Alfred. Austin Leonard, a relative of Ezekiel, was also a soldier of the Revolution. He died, 1826, aged seventy-three years. His children were Austin, Abel, Asaph U., Deborah (Mrs. Joseph Grace, Jr.) and Theodore. The valley where the Leonards settled was long known as "Leonard Hollow" and in recent years as Leona. The Leonards and Harknesses had no knowledge of each other until the spring of 1805. Mr. Harkness's cattle having strayed away, he followed them by their tracks through the woods, coming to the opening made by the Leonards. The cabins of these families were about four miles apart.

Austin Leonard, born March 15, 1753 at Springfield, Mass., also said to have been a faithful soldier of the Revolution and a relative of Ezekiel, accompanied the latter to Springfield in 1803. He had married Nancy ____ and spent his remaining days in Springfield, where he died, 1826. They had four sons and a daughter: Austin, who was a physician, never came to the county. He located in Canada and died there. Abel settled in Springfield, where in 1812, he married Abigail Leonard, being the first wedding in the township.

Asaph U. married and settled in Springfield. He was a noted hunter and successful bear trapper. He was father of the late Sylvester Leonard who died April 16, 1905, aged 92 years. Deborah married Joseph Grace, Jr., and was the mother of Ambrose, James U., Maria (Mrs. David Brooks) and Betsy (Mrs. Chauncy Brooks). Theodore learned the printer's trade, married and for a time edited a paper in Boston. He came to Springfield a few years after his father and in 1814 was engaged upon the Bradford Gazette. He was a man of fine intelligence and splendid information. In 1827 he was chosen county commissioner. He was father of the late Lafayette Leonard."

Here is a letter from Austin Leonard to his son, Theodore, at West Springfield, MA.

Springfield, Penna., August 1, 1808

Theodore, I have nothing worth notice as news. We are in health. Our grain is exceeding good, we have as much as 500 bushels of English grain and our Indian corn is very promising. Mr. Cooper Leonard will give you more information than I can write at present.

The longer I live in this country, the more I am attached to it. I want to have you see the country before you move your family into it, if ever you do. I believe that you will make a better living in this country than you can ever in that where you now live. This country is growing very fast, the people grow with the growth of the country. It is my wish, if God permits, to see every child of mine in a situation to live, before I die. Study your own interests and your own feelings. Betsy, I am informed is not willing to go to the woods, but it is my belief that she would feel herself more on a level with her fellow creatures here than there. Johnathan Melvin's observation was that he had rather be the head of a mouse than the tail of a rat. I feel myself on a level with my fellow man, no better, no worse. Eleven o'clock at night, I take a little whiskey and begin again.

As to the sale of the land in West Springfield, I am not cncerned about it, for land in that part of the world, and this, is going higher before it will go lower. Land in this part will not be bought for a song a few years hence. You have not the least idea of the rapid settlement of this country. This town, in two years, will raise a larger company of soldiers than Feeding Hills can, and I believe they can at the present time.

I was to wright to Mr. Sevil Leonard a letter by his request - you inform him that I will take care of his land, that he will suffer no inconvenience if he doth not return until next Spring, give my respects to him. You said something about a letter in July, I have not received it. We expect this week to finish cutting the wheat if the weather is good. Mr. Norman is in this town and expects to take his departure tomorrow. I have not had any time to travel round with Mr. Norman to show him our country which I would wish to have done. I do not boast of our country as being the handsomest county that ever I saw, but the best land that ever I saw, but the best land that ever I travelled on, there is no crop of any kind but what it will produce.

Apple trees grow most rapidly here, the seeds that we brought here and planted are grown to the length of 10 or 12 feet and fit to set in an orchard. This is the second time that I have ended my letter.

T.L. I begin a third time if my candle hold out. If you and Betsey cannot be pleased in coming into this country I never would wish to have you come if it doth not agree with your feelings. For my part I would be glad if my children were within a few miles of each other that they might help each other if need be. I have nothing more to say concerning this matter.

Austin Leonard

Austin LEONARD and Ann Nancy UPHAM were married in July 1774 in West Springfield, Hampden Co., MA. Ann Nancy UPHAM, daughter of Edward UPHAM and Sarah LEONARD, was born about 1750 in West Springfield, Hampden Co., MA.

Austin LEONARD and Ann Nancy UPHAM had the following children: