Franklin E. Leonard

THE GROTON AVERY CLAN, Vol. II, by Elroy McKendree Avery and Catherine Hitchcock (Tilden) Avery, Cleveland, 1912. p. 1133

FRANK E. LEONARD. Since the time of early settlement in western Michigan, Grand Rapids has known and been influenced by no one family to a greater extent in its general business development than that of Leonard. Two generations of the name have alike been distinguished for remarkable business talents, enterprise and large public spirit, and two of the foremost commercial establishments of the city at the present time are the result of the Leonard family's executive abilities and enterprise. The H. Leonard & Sons mercantile house has a continuous business history of sixty years, and was founded by the father of its present proprietors. More important in the value of its output as one of the largest manufacturing concerns of Grand Rapids is the Grand Rapids Refrigerator Company, the largest of its kind in the world, and with a payroll amounting to about seven thousand dollars every week. This company is the product

of the business originality and talent of the second generation of the Leonard family, and Frank E. Leonard is vice-president, his associate being Charles H. Leonard, and the entire stock of the company is owned within their families.

Heman Leonard, a son of Jonathan Leonard and a grandson of Silas Leonard, was born April 30, 1812, in Parma, New York, and was one of the very early settlers in western Michigan and actively interested in all that related to his community, where he was esteemed as a man of integrity and sound business judgment by all who knew him. He lived to see Grand Rapids change from an Indian trading post to a modern city, and while his business relations were of increasing importance he also held several minor offices in the early days of the village and the later city.

At the age of twenty-one Heman Leonard went to Canada, spent two years there employed in the carpenter's trade, in farming and in other work, and became a resident of Michigan in 1836. After about a year spent on a farm near Adrian, he moved to Sturgis, and in 1842 came to Grand Rapids. In the early days of that village he was known as the proprietor of the Eagle hotel for some time, but in 1844 engaged in the grocery trade at 31 Monroe street. His stock of goods also included crockery, and gradually all his attention was concentrated upon that department, and the business was conducted from about 1863 as an exclusive crockery house. Heman Leonard continued in business throughout his life, and his sons, Charles H., Frank E. and Fred H. Leonard, joined in the business as they grew into manhood.

Heman Leonard's first wife was Maria Goodrich, and they were married May 7, 1841, and her death occurred June 26, 1842. On September 10, 1845, he married her sister, Jane A. Goodrich, who died December 25, 1862. His third wife was Maria P. Winslow, daughter of Dr. Winslow, a pioneer settler of Grand Rapids. They were married June 14, 1864, and she died about one year before her husband on June 15, 1883. His death occurred February 21, 1884, at his residence on the corner of Commerce and Fulton streets, on the site of the block yet owned by Charles H. and Frank E. Leonard and occupied as a wholesale store in continuation of the original establishment, started on a modest scale first as a grocery and then as a crockery store by their father fifty years ago. Heman Leonard suffered a stroke of paralysis in 1872, and never fully recovered his powers. His body now rests in the Fulton street cemetery.

Frank E. Leonard, who was born at Grand Rapids April 8, 1855, a son of Heman and Jane A. Goodrich Leonard, grew up in Grand Rapids, finished the high school course in 1871 and was soon taken into the store with his father and brother Charles, and has always been actively identified with the family business, which has prospered so many years in Grand Rapids that it is regarded as an institution as well as a private business house. The business was continued in the Monroe street store until 1900, when the retail department was closed, and the trade confined exclusively to wholesale. The company now employs six men as traveling representatives throughout the lower peninsula of Michigan, who carry the goods and the reputation of the Leonard name among retail merchants and dealers throughout this section.

While the business established by Heman Leonard seventy years ago has always been considered the chief interests of the family, it has long since been surpassed in value and importance by the manufacture of refrigerators which is now the largest concern of its kind in the world and which has been carried on from a modest beginning more than thirty years ago by the brothers, Charles and Frank E. It was in 1882 that these brothers made their first refrigerator, starting with a small shop and with modest equipment. Under their united energies has developed a business second to none of its kind in the world, and the output, from supplying a small local trade, goes in carload lots to all parts of the country. The brothers own all the stock, and the capital and surplus of the company are seven hundred thousand dollars. Some idea of the splendid success of the business is shown by the figures indicating the sales for the year 1913, which amounted to $1,100,000 for refrigerators alone, while the company also manufacture several side lines of refrigerator supplies and equipments. Mr. Frank Leonard has for fifteen years been a director of the Grand Rapids Savings Bank.

On October 12, 1881, was celebrated his marriage to Sarah E. Pierce. Her father, George R. Pierce, of Grand Rapids, is a machinist and engineer. Two children have been born to their marriage: Evelyn, born February 28, 1883; and Franklin E., born January 1, 1889. The daughter, Evelyn, was married June 7, 1905, to Noyes L. Avery, who is connected with the stock and bond department of the Michigan Trust Company, and their two children are named Noyes L, Jr. and Elizabeth Avery. The son, Franklin, graduated from Harvard University in 1912, and is now on the road selling the goods of the Grand Rapids Refrigerator Company.

Mr. Leonard and family worship in the Fountain Street Baptist church, of which he has been a trustee for twenty years, is a Republican in politics, is affiliated with York Lodge of Masons, and has membership in the Kent Country Club, the Peninsular Club and the Plainfield Country Club.

-- "History of Michigan," by Charles Moore, published 1915 by The Lewis Publishing Co.