The Leonard Family

(From the Tuesday, March 12, 1940 edition of the Canton Commercial Advertiser, page two)

 

TOMMIE LEONARD, MEMBER OF FAMOUS BASEBALL TEAM, NOW 93

 

William Thomas Leonard of Norwood celebrated his ninety-third birthday Thursday. It is interesting that Mr. Leonard is still active and is president of the Norwood Creamery and is believed to be the oldest executive in the State of New York. He seldom misses a day at his office.

 

Mr. Leonard has had a long and interesting life. He was born in Norwood of an old and well known family of the section, his father, Edwin Leonard, being a North Country pioneer. He was born on his father's farm, educated in the local school, was a musician and taught music in the vicinity. In early life he joined his father in conducting a creamery.

 

In early youth he was shortstop on the famous St. Lawrence Baseball Club and with Canton and other county players with that club won the baseball tournament at Burlington, Vt., winning the famous silver trophy, the Silver Bat and Ball, which was for many years exhibited in the Dezell store on Main Street. Within recent years Mrs. Fannie M. Dezell presented this valuable trophy, which has inscribed on it the games participated in by many teams, the St. Lawrence Baseball Club, the Unions of Canton, the Pastimes of Ogdensburg, the old Canton Stars, the Potsdams, the Red Stockings, the Haymakers, and several other teams, to the Museum at St. Lawrence University.

 

In succeeding years whenever Tommie Leonard came to Canton he met old time baseball men and talked of those games sixty to seventy years ago. The Bat and Ball was won at Burlington in 1867. Mr. Leonard married the daughter of the Rev. Mr. Hall, one of the old time Methodist ministers of the St. Lawrence Conference. Mrs. Leonard, now dead, was a sister of Mrs. D. W. Sherwin of Canton, and the families visited back and forth for years. The Rev. Mr. Hall died at Canton several years ago, at the time making his home with the Sherwins.

 

From the Tuesday, July 23, 1940 Canton Advertiser:

 

Golf at 93!

 

Item in Norwood News:

 

Mr. Edward P. Leonard of Boston spent the past week with his father, W.T. Leonard, and brother, W.W. Leonard. The father, W. T. Leonard, who was 93 years old last March, accompanied the boys to the Potsdam Country Club golf course on two different days during the week and played five holes of golf each day. Mr. Leonard is very fond of games and has a fine roque court at his residence on West Prospect Street. He also enjoys checkers and Chinese checkers, and table games.

Tommie Leonard playing golf at 93-And that isn't the first we have heard of Tommie Leonard of Norwood. Tommie Leonard is the last surviving member of the famous old St. Lawrence Club that won the Silver Bat and Ball at Burlington in 1867. The trophy was within recent years presented to the Museum at the Men's Residence, St. Lawrence University, by Mrs. Fannie M. Dezell.

There is more or less of history and romance woven into the story of the Bat and Ball as it came down through the years to finally repose in a museum-The Bat and Ball has engraved thereon the names of every game in which it was the prize, the dates and the contending teams. It is covered with this engraving on every part of its exterior surface. Following each game the engraving was done, so the record is complete.

Tommie Leonard without doubt played in later games when St. Lawrence County teams contended for its possession. The old Unions of Canton, made up only of Canton players, played for this, possessed it as a gift from the St. Lawrence Club-To put it truly, it was a gift by the St. Lawrence Club to the clubs of St. Lawrence County.

On Friday, Oct. 6, 1871, the Unions and the Pastimes of Ogdensburg contended for the Bat and Ball. There is at least one man now living that played in that game, if the writer is not mistaken, Dr. Grosvernor S. Farmer of Watertown, now past ninety years, then a resident of Canton. Others who played on the Unions in that game included Leslie W. Russell of Canton, later County Judge of St. Lawrence County, member of Congress and Justice of the Supreme Court; John Stocker Miller, later distinguished attorney and chief counsel for the Standard Oil Company; Charles C. Caldwell, later twice sheriff of St. Lawrence County.

It is all an interesting story and W. Thomas Leonard of Norwood can tell it as he recalls it, and undoubtedly Dr. Farmer of Watertown, who has a memory for men and events, will likewise be able to recall it.

 

 

Edward P. Leonard

 

Edward P. Leonard, Norwood Native, Dies In Shrewsbury, Mass.

 

(died July 18, 1944)

 

The death of Edward P. Leonard, at the age of 71 at Shrewsbury, Mass., of a heart attack on July 18, recalls interesting stories of the Leonard family, an old Norwood family. Mr. Leonard was born in Norwood, son of W. Thomas Leonard. This is the same "Tommy", now far up in his nineties, who played in the famous old St. Lawrence team that won the Silver Bat and Ball nearly eighty years ago. The Bat and Ball, long in possession of Mrs. R. B. Dezell, whose husband as promoter and manager of the Star baseball team of Canton finally won the Bat and Ball in the eighties, and it came into the Dezell possession until it was presented to Richard C. Ellsworth by Mrs. Dezell for the University museum several years ago. There it may be seen today, covered with inscriptions of the games in which it figured dating back to 1868. Judge Leslie W. Russell played on the team that won the Bat and Ball at a tournament at Burlington, Vt., and brought it back to St. Lawrence County where it has remained, though not always at Canton. Tommy Leonard a few years ago came to Canton and tried to prevail upon Mrs. Dezell to give him the Bat and Ball, as he was the last surviving member of the original St. Lawrence team that won it so long ago. She would not do it and it is now safely preserved for all time, it is hoped. Edward P. Leonard who has just passed was a graduate of Oberlin College and was for thirty-five years a salesman for the American Optical Company of Boston. Mr. Leonard was a cousin of Mrs. Ida Sherwin Rice of Canton, at this time.

 

 

(The W. T. ("Tommy") Leonard, referred to in this article as the father of Edward, is the "W. T. Leonard" as he was commonly referred to around Norwood, and died the same year this article appeared).

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