Mathias Peter Leonard Obituary
Mathias Peter LEONARD
THE LIBERAL
NEWS
Liberal, Missouri, Friday, September 2, 1910
Vol 1. No. 28
M. P. LEONARD DIES SUDDENLY
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Death Came Suddenly While Sitting on Porch Conversing with His Wife
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M. P. Leonard of West Liberal dropped dead Sunday
evening about 7:30 while sitting on his front porch talking with his wife.
Mrs. Leonard noticed her husband's head drop to one side, she caught him and
held him up and he breathed but a couple of times and life was extinct. A
physician was called but nothing could be done. His death was pronounced
due to heart failure.
M. P. Leonard was born in Perry county, Missouri, May
5, 1840 and
died at his home in West Liberal August 28, 1910, aged 70 years, 3
months and 23 days. He lived in Perry county until after he was
twenty-one years of age.
At the age of twenty-one Mr.Leonard enlisted in the
Union Army and served for three years and six months. at the age of twenty-five
he
married Miss Harriet Courtney, of Nashville, Ill. After their marriage
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard moved to Webster county, this state, where they
lived until 1880; then they moved to Vernon county, and after living there for
six years moved to Barton county, near Verdella, and resided there until moving
to their home in Liberal in 1897, where Mr. Leonard died.
Mr. Leonard was considered a strong, healty man until
about three
years ago when his health began to fail, his trouble apparently being a
neuralgia of the stomach and it is thought that this extended to his
heart. He had thought for sometime that the end would be sudden when it
did come and often so expressed himself to his family. He had an acute
attack of his trouble since Saturday morning and just before the end came
remarked to his wife that he did not believe he would be able to lie down to
sleep this coming winter so would have to have an easy chair fixed up.
There was no one at the house at the time excepting his wife and little
grandson, Delden Leonard.
Mr. Leonard was of a jovial disposition; he
always had a smile and
a pleasant word for everyone and he will be greatly missed by his many
friends as well as as by the members of his family. To his family he
was kind and generous and in his dealings with his fellowmen he was
straightforward and rigidly honest; he believed that man's injustice to
man was the source of much human suffering.
For forty-five years he toiled beside his wife, a
faithful
companion, and their last few years together were spent comfortably and happily.
He leaves to mourn his loss, besides his wife, six
sons, three
brothers and four sisters. His sons are, James F., of Arcadia, Kans.;
Harry Rush and Christian Lincoln, of Alberta, Canada; John William, of
Montana; Claude Clarence, of near Liberal and Guy Lawrence, of
Prosperity, Mo. His brother are James Leonard, of Joplin; John Leonard, of
Pierce City, Mo., and Joe Leonard, of Niaugua, Mo. Three of his sisters
live in Perry county and one, Mrs. Katherine Schmalhorst, near Verdella. His
sons James, Guy and Claude, his brother James and his sister, Mrs. Schmalhorst,
were present at the funeral; also a good many other relaives.
The funeral services were held at the M.E.church Monday
afternoon at 2:00 o'clock, conducted by Rev. G. R. Lawellin, of Arcadia, and
interment was made at Barton City cemetery. H. Fields, W. A. Replogle, S.
L. Durham, J. C. Hicks, J. M. Wilson and G. O. Adams acted as pall bearers.
{Also, in the same edition, in a column with news from Barton City:}
BARTON CITY
Claude Leonard and wife spent Sunday with his brother,
Jim Leonard and family, of near Arcadia. They returned home late in the
evening to find a summons to come to Liberal. Their father had died
suddenly. It was indeed a shock to them and the whole community have the
deepest sympathy for them. Almost everyone knew Mr. Leonard and had the deepest
regard for him. His body was laid to rest in Barton City cemetery on
Monday.
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{Mathias P. LEONARD was the son of Christian LEONARD and Precilla CONRAD}
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Submitted by Roberta Richards Peeples on April 22, 2003.