Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1899-09-25
A NOTED CHARACTER
he WAS 4 DOCTOR. WHO MISTER
iousLY DISAPPEARED IN 1893
On. j. C. Leonard After Many Years
OF Travel and Adventure In the
[ Far West Has Gone, NO One Knows

DR.. ]. c. Leonard is missing. Some
say that he has left his bleaching
bones on the mountain-side. as he
himself predicted; some say, Doc
Leonard? Not much Cant kill him
90 easily" All agree that DR.. Leonard
is the strangest combination of dentist,
tramp, paleontologist and queer char
acter that ever befrienced a great uni
yersity.
DIR. Leonard first made himself
known to the University of Michigan
by inquiring casually of Harrison
Soule, its treasurer. through a letter,
whether the college had any use for
relics and specimens in its museums.
Now, the University of Michigan is a
great and valuable institution or
learning-one of the greatest in the
country. but II has not millions OF
endowment. like Yale and Harvard.
Major Soule has no money to waste
on specimens he hasn't seen. and he
so replied. in more diplomatic phrase,
OF course. The university has no
Next Major Soule received postal
card couched in rather less diplomatic
phrase than his own. thus
Then go to the devil Ill par 1t my
self My rope is nearly run, and some
day I'll turn up missing. and a few
years later few bleached bones will
be found among the crags up in the
mountains. | want to be remembered
somewhere on Gods green earth. so
kindly accept my gifts. and some day,
old cub. perhaps We'll meet. J. e.
Leonard"
Pretty soon Major Soule began to re-
ceive things. expenses paid, huge
900 pound cinnamon bear, stuffed, the
largest ever killed; an antelope, and
rare mining specimens. The collection
grew constantly. 1t now fills two cases
in the museum and is considered very
valuable. There are Indian relics,
shields, axes, bows and arrows, blan-
kets. tepees and minerals OF every sort
known in the West.
Most pathetic of all is a lockless gun
AN old Mississippi rifle with ham
mered barrel four feet Tonga relic of
the saddest tragedy of the plains. the
massacre OF Lamoile Creek. 1t was the
gun belonging to the young fellow
Who was butchered by the Indians.
His sweetheart had stabbed herself to
the heart under a wagon not far away,
and he, wounded fatally, hid himself
to die in the bushes. first wrenching oil
the locks and sights of his rifle that
the Indians might not use it, says the
Chicago Times-Herald. The gun was
found many years later by DIR. Leon
ard and sent to the museum.
DR.. Leonard and Treasurer Soule
have never met, but they have struck
up quite a friendship by correspon-
dence. Sometimes DR.. Leonard does a
trip as a dentist, presumably to re-
plenish his funds. On one such trip
he wrote TO Major Soule:
Il travel along with two mules, a
cart, my dog. a gun, and my tooth pull
ers. all alone. | manage to stay in
each town long enough to pull a couple
OF barrels of teeth and dicker for some
new specimens for the collection, and
then move on"
At another time he wrote to Major
Soule for his portrait. On receiving
1t he returned his own, with a letter
as follows: You look about the same
kind OF sardine as | am. | send a
picture of my friend" The last time
DR.. Leonard was heard from was in
the fall OF 1898. He was starting up
on an expedition through the desert
regions of Arizona to investigate the
remains of cliff jewellers there and in
Did Mexico. He has never been heard
from since.