The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-09-29
A NOTED CHARACTER
HE WAS A DOCTOR. WHO MISTER.
loUSLY DISAPPEARED IN 1898

DIR. j. c. Leonard After Many Years
of Travel and Adventure I'm the
Far West Has Gone, no One Knows
Where.
DIR. J. 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! Can't kill him
SO easily" All agree that DR.. Leonard
is the strangest combination of dentist.
tramp, paleontologist and queer char
acter that ever befriended a great uni
yersity.
DIR. Leonard first made himself
known to the University of MICHIGAN
by inquiring casually of Harrison
Soule. its treasurer, through letter.
whether the college had any use for
relics and specimens in its museums.
Now, the University of Michigan is
great and valuab BILE institution of
learning-one of the greatest in the
country. but it 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
fund. he said, to pay for such articles.
Next Major Soule received a postal
card couched in rather less diplomatic
phrase than his own. thus:
So you can't pay the expense, Ell?
Then 20 to the devil, I'll pay it 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. G.
Leonard"
Pretty soon Major Soule began to re-
celve things, expenses paid. a huge
g0O-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 relies.
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 rife with ham
mered barrel four feet Tonga relic OF
the saddest tragedy of the plains. the
massacre of Lamoile Creek II was the
gun belonging to the young fellow
who was butehered 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 off
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 DR.. 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
re wrote to Major Soule:
Il travel along with two mules, a
cart, my dog, 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
Lew specimens for the collection, and
hen move on.
At another time he wrote to Major
Soule for his portrait. On receiving
il he returned his own, with a letter
as follows: You look about the same
kind of a sardine as | am. | send a
picture of my friend" The last time
DR.. Leonard was heard from was in
The fall of 1895 He was starting up
on an expedition through the desert
regions of Arizona to investigate tho
remains of cliff dwellers there and in
old Mexico. He las never been heard
.nm since