California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


DENNIS A. LEONARD. A practical agriculturist, and a man of more than ordinary executive 
and business ability, D. A. Leonard, manager for Miller & Lux, of the Dos Palos division, 
holds a position of eminence among the leading farmers of Fresno county. In the management 
of the one hundred thousand acres of land under his control, he exercises great skill and excellent 
judgment, and by his systematic and scientific methods of procedure has wrought wondrous 
improvements. A son of John Leonard, he was born July 18,1860, in Utica, Oneida county, N. Y. 

Settling when a young man in Utica, N. Y., John Leonard helped build the Erie canal, and 
afterward assisted in the construction of some of the first railroads of the state, at that time 
using the old strap rail. On retiring from that occupation, he bought land in Deerfield, Oneida 
county, N. Y., and is still living on the farm which he cleared and improved, being now a 
venerable man of more than ninety years, and one of the most respected and honored citizens 
of the town. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Allen, is now eighty years of age, and her 
mother lived past the century mark. Of the fifteen children born of their marriage nine grew 
to years of maturity, and eight are living, four of them being residents of the Pacific coast. 

Removing with his parents from Utica, N. Y., to Deerfield, when a boy, D. A. Leonard worked 
as chore boy on the home farm, completing his education in the district schools. Beginning the 
battle of life for himself at the age of sixteen years, he worked for a while in Vermont, at the 
end of a year returning to New York. Engaging then in railroad work, he ran first as brakeman, 
and later as conductor, on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, running from Utica 
to Binghamton. Resigning his position as conductor in 1881, Mr. Leonard came to Kern county, 
Cal., and as an employe of Carr & Haggin had charge for four years of the heads of the canals 
on the Zamjora. Locating in Bakersfield in 1885, he opened a livery stable, and was there engaged 
in business for six years. In 1892 Mr. Leonard assumed the management of the Dos Palos division, 
and has since continued in the employ of Miller & Lux. He is a man of great energy and perseverance, 
and has effected marked improvements on this immense ranch since becoming its manager, and is 
now extensively engaged in raising grain, alfalfa and stock. Fifty thousand acres are under irrigation. 
In Bakersfield, Cal., Mr. Leonard married Maria Sanger, who was born in Alvarado, Cal., where her
father, Gustof Sanger, now a resident of Inyo county, was a pioneer settler. Politically Mr. Leonard 
is a zealous supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and while living in Kern county 
served for several years as deputy sheriff. Fraternally he is a member of Los Banos Lodge. F. & A. M. ; 
of Fresno Chapter, R. A. M. ; of Fresno Commandery, K. T. ; of Los Banos Chapter, O. E. S., and of the 
Knights of Pythias of Bakersfield.