Eighth Generation

410. John Henry LEONARD⁸⁸ was born on 5 June 1862 in Providence, RI.⁸⁹ He died on 3 December 1920 at the age of 58 in Rhode Island.⁹⁰ He was buried at Lot#622, also known as Section 3, Lot 2, in North Burial Ground, Bristol, R.I.. In the 1880 Census, he is listed as a telegraph clerk, 18, living with Charles W. Cross family (his sister's family) at 23 East Street, which was his father's place (father died in 1879). Another record has him living with his mother, Ann E., occupation telegraph clerk. According to the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations marriage certificate, he was 19 and Mary was 17 when they married, first marriage for both. H. A. Stephens, Pastor, Congregational Church, performed the ceremony. He is listed as a clerk on the marriage certificate. He is listed as John Henry Leonard, and she is listed as Mary Eunice Eddy. His parents are listed as John H. Leonard and Annie Peabody. Her parents are listed as Charles D. Eddy and Sarah Bennett. In the 1885 State census, he is listed as a freight clerk at the railroad station in Bristol.

Occupation listed as clerk on birth certificate of his son, Walter B. Leonard. He was listed as age 25 years on Walter's birth certificate. The certificate is for births registered in Bristol for the year ending December 31st, 1887. Birth was registered in March 1888. Family was listed in the 1884 Bristol Directory as living at 155 Wood St. John was listed as working at the rubber works. He wasn't listed in the 1887 Directory. In 1888 he was listed as a carpenter boarding at "Church, corner Hope." The family was listed as living at 703 North Broadway, East Providence in the 1900 Census, wife Mary, sons John H., Walter, and Charles. He was listed as a "laborer - furniture" by occupation. John H. Jr. was listed as a stenographer, Charles as an apprentice at a drug store, and Walter was still in school. He lived at C.C. Kenyon's house at Juniper, corner 8th, in East Providence in the 1890 City Directory, In 1892 he lived at 6 Warren, corner Purchase. In 1896 he lived at 19 Anthony; in 1898 and 1902, 685 N. Broadway. By the next available directory, 1913, he was no longer listed in East Providence; and his son was boarding in Providence and working on Warren St., East Providence. In the 1910 Census, he was living on 204 Power Street in Providence with his sister, Maria F. (Leonard) Waldron and Walter B. (the first) and Fanny Leonard and the James Griffin family. Another sister, Elizabeth (Lizzie) M. Willis) was living at 202 Power St. with her husband and her son from an earlier marriage, Fred Cross. John is listed as a foreman, home furnishings. In the 1915 state census, he is listed as a shipping clerk for dry goods boarding at 219 Union Ave. in Providence. In the 1920 Census, he is listed as boarding at 6 Lincoln Avenue, Cranston, working as a shipper for a furniture company. There he is listed as widowed, although Mary was still alive.

Obituary in Providence Journal: "Funeral services for John H. Leonard, a former resident of this town but more recently of Providence, were held yersterday at 2 o'clock at the undertaking parlours of James H. Williams & Co., 4 Walnut Street, East Providence. Rev. Royal W. Brown of the Haven Methodist Church officiated. The bearers were John and Charles Leonard, Frederick Cross, and James Leonard. Burial was at the North Cemetery in Bristol. Mr. Leonard was in his 55th year. He was born in Providence, the son of John and Anne Peabody Leonard. For a number of years, he lived in East Providence. He was a shipping clerk in the furniture department of The Outlet Company (R.I.'s largest department store at that time - took up a whole city block on Westminister St. in Providence) for many years and was connected with that firm at the time of his death. He leaves 3 sons." (He died December 3rd; funeral was December 5th). Find-a-grave lists him as buried in Providence and also in Bristol.

Death in Rhode Island AC/VR December 3, 1920, book 27, page 99. Listed John H. and Ann E. as parents, as well as his birth date. He died of chronic nephritis, systolic mitral murmurs, and regurgitation arteriosclerosis according to his death certificate. His occupation was shipping clerk. He was listed as divorced and living at 183 Althea Street, Providence.

John H. Leonard is buried in #622 Old North Burial Ground, Bristol, a plot shared with his father and mother, his brother Walter B, and several brothers and sisters who died as children. His wife, Mary Healey, his son John H. Leonard, Jr., his son's wife Lillian Horsfield, and his grandson Arthur H. are in burial plot #979 in Old North Burial Ground, Bristol, NNE of #979 about 100 yards.

At some point between the 1900 Census and 1906, he and Mary Eddy were divorced, but a record of the divorce has not yet been found. Mary married James Thomas Healey on 31 December 1906 and died 28 September 1907.

Just a note: There were three John H. Leonards in Rhode Island in the late 1800's -- John H. who married Frances Luther August 22, 1871, was one, and the second was married to Almira Worthington. There were no Leonards listed in the 1876 Bristol City Directory. There was no son named Martin Leonard, sometimes associated with the family by some genealogists. Martin, who died ca. 1918, was the son of Irish parents John and Mary Leonard.

John Henry LEONARD and Mary Eunice EDDY were married on 28 August 1881 in Bristol, RI.⁹¹ Mary Eunice EDDY, daughter of Charles Dyer EDDY and Sarah Martin BENNETT, was born on 8 March 1864 in Bristol, RI.⁹² She died on 16 September 1947 at the age of 83 in Cranston, Providence Co., RI. She was buried in Lot #979, North Burial Ground, Bristol, RI. In the 1880 Census, she was living with her parents and two sisters in District 67, Bristol. She was working at the rubber works.

She bought Burial Lot No. 979 in North Burial Ground, Bristol, on October 7, 1907. She is listed as Mary E. Healey as of that date. I have an envelope addressed to her at 88 Ford Street, Providence, R.I. (1907?). Her marriage to John H. Leonard August 28, 1881, in Bristol, R.I. verified in R.I. AC/VR. I have not found evidence of their divorce.

She did definitely marry James Thomas Healey on 31 December 1906 in Attleboro, MA.

The 1920 Census lists Charles Leonard and his wife Ada, 24 as living with his mother, Mary E. Healey, age 55, and a boarder, Charles E. Weeks, 55. Charles E. Weeks was a prominent mason. In the 1930 Census, she is listed as living at 144 Laurens Street in Cranston, with Charles E. Weeks, 67, lodging there. The address is listed in the Cranston City Directory as 144 Laurens Street. My grandfather, Walter, used to refer to his mother's "star boarder," and that must have been Weeks. Weeks was a prominent Mason, and as a boy, I was given several of his medals. Weeks was from CT. Neither were employed in 1930 according to the 1930 Census. Weeks lived in the basement. My uncle Owen Leonard has complained about living in the unheated attic of this house about that time, when his father lost his job at American Emery and the family had to rent out their home at 148 Grace Street to others.

The Providence City Directory lists her as living at 35 Woodmont, Providence, in 1923, 205 Roger Williams in Providence in 1929, 144 Laurens in 1939, and 148 Grace Street in 1941. I don't remember her living at 148 Grace Street in the many times I visited there between 1938 and 1946.

She lived with her son, Walter B. Leonard, in the unheated sun room at 148 Grace Street during the last years of her life (1946-47), perhaps because it was on the first floor and didn't require walking upstairs. I remember her as a sweet old lady who talked about her youth in Bristol and liked "wine berries," which we had growing in our yard in Little Compton and (as I later discovered) grow wild along the roadsides in Bristol.

Her grave stone reads: LEONARD, 1882 John H. 1938 (her son), 1906 Arthur H. 1956 (her grandson), 1864 Mary E. Healey (no death date), 1901 Lillian R. Horsfeld 1991 (her grandson's wife)." Lillian was Arthur Leonard's wife.

Her obituary listed a sister, Grace Dyer Eddy Siegel, of Bristol, R.I. She was survived by her son, Walter Bradford Leonard, seven grandchildren (5 by John, 2 by Walter), and several great grandchildren. Date of her death is uncertain; neither Cranston, where she died, nor RI State Archives have a record of her death.

She is listed in the Eddy Genealogy, # 6429. A Eunice C. Dyer, 1833 to December 10, 1910, is also buried in BR001 - North Burial Ground, Bristol. Eunice G. Dyer was Mary Eunice Eddy's grandmother.

John Henry LEONARD and Mary Eunice EDDY had the following children: