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


LEONARD P. ST. CLAIR. Whatever measure of success Mr. St. Clair has achieved may be 
attributed to his unaided exertions, for he was orphaned at an early age and has made his 
own way in the world ever since youth. He was born in Allegheny county, Pa., November 20, 
1831. After the death of his parents he accompanied his grandfather, Philip Covert, to Athens 
county, in the southern part of Ohio, where he aided in the cultivation of a farm in summer 
and during the winter months attended district school. In the spring of 1848, when sixteen 
years of age, he went to Iowa and secured employment as a farm hand near Burlington. Next 
he was engaged on a farm near Mount Pleasant. In the spring of 1850 he went to Burlington 
for the purpose of learning the blacksmith trade, but after he had worked in a shop there 
about a year he determined to come to California. Returning to Mount Pleasant he prepared for 
the long journey across the plains. In March of 1852 he started overland, with a party of eleven, 
having three wagons drawn by oxen. He walked most of the distance, driving one of the ox-teams. 

Upon arriving at the headwaters of the Feather river, August 1, 1852, Mr. St. Clair began pros- 
pecting and mining, but after a few weeks he left with the intention of going to the mines of 
Australia. However, upon reaching Sacramento he gave up the trip and spent the winter of 
1852-53 in Auburn and vicinity. In the spring of 1853 he engaged in mining on the Middle 
Fork of the American river, but after a short time went to Volcano, Eldorado county, where 
he engaged in the butchering business. On selling out in 1856 he bought a tannery on Otter 
creek in company with Judge Aaron Bell, but the venture did not prove successful and the follow- 
ing year he resumed the meat business. In 1859 he went to Red Dog, Nevada county, where he 
engaged in butchering for a year or more. His next location was on Dutch Flat, in Placer 
county, but he soon left there for his former location and remained at Red Dog until 1865, 
when he went back east. After two years, in 1867 he came again to California and opened a 
meat market at Dutch Flat, at the same time buying and selling cattle. 

The fall of 1887 found Mr. St. Clair a resident of Bakersfield, where he has since made his 
home. For a year after settling there he conducted a meat market. On disposing of that busi- 
ness he turned his attention to securing gas and electric lights for the city, and acted as manager 
of the Bakersfield Electric Light & Gas Company until 1902, the success of which is largely due 
to his assiduous devotion and painstaking care. In that year he sold his stock in the company and 
has since lived retired. His home, erected by himself, is a beautiful residence and stands on 
the corner of Fourteenth and H streets. Its presiding genius is his wife, formerly Mary F. Dunn, 
whom he married in 1869 and by whom he has four children : Leonard P., Jr., Everett S., 
Franklin C. and Cora May, all at home.