vegetable garden, as a means of providing food for
the family. When times became better she gar-
nished the house with rainbow-colored flowers and
lilac hedges near the driveway to the house.
Charles continued to cultivate the land, built a
barn to house the four horses and nearly thirty
dairy cattle, made a coop for the chickens, and
constructed  a large building  for the farm
machinery and equipment. (See photo of Leaf
Homestead ie. Main Creek). They all worked
together and when Charles went to Chicago,
Sopdhie managed the homestead. The children
hee with the chores of milking, haying, and
gathering eggs. In 1913, the last child, Ethel, was
born into the Leaf family. (See Leaf Family
Photo). A few years later, Charles built her a large
playhouse. Ethel enjoyed this playhouse very
much. Many times, Frank Biller's children, Zelda
and Gladys, would come down to play with Ethel,
then Sophie would bring out the cookie jar and the
girls would go home happy.
The children grew older. Otis went into the Ar-
my. Lillian and Elsie went to Chicago for work.
Walter, Clarence, and Ethel remained on the
farm. The two boys built a log cabin and played
there with their neighboring friends, the Stoker
boys. All the boys would spend the summers swim-
ming in Main Creek and winters skating on Ed-
ming's dam, a mile away and also on Main Creek.
By 1928, only Walter and Ethel remained on the
farm. Otis had returned to Rusk County and pur-
chased his own farm. In 1936, Sophie died. Shortly
afterward, Charles sold the homestead and moved
to Chicago to spend his later years with his
children. Charles passed away on June 20, 1955 at
the age of 89 years old. Submitted by: Clarence R.
Leaf and Carol Ann Leaf Ph.D.
CLARENCE RICHARD LEAF
On April 3, 1908, I was born one mile north of
Tony, Wisconsin in a log cabin built by my father,
Charles E. Leaf. I have often told my wife, Ann
and daughter, Carol Ann that I was born in a log
cabin just like Abraham Lincoln. But, since the log
cabin had been torn down many years ago, I had
no proof. Last summer, Jerry Geier told me that he
remembered that his mother once had a picture of
that log cabin. The next day, Mrs. Geier brought
me the yellow-edged photo on which she had writ-

Log Cabin Built by Charles Leaf in 1899.

ten in jest, "Lincoln's Log Cabin."
Later we moved to the homestead in Glen Flora,
Town of True. I was the youngest of five children.
At the age of three I was at home with my mother,
Sophie, while my brothers (Otis and Walter) and
sisters (Lillian and Elsie) were at school. One day
my mother was churning butter in a large barrel.
She went outside to fetch some cold water from the
well to pour onto the churned butter and left me
alone in the kitchen. While she was gone, I decided
to help her and give the butter a few more churns.
As I reached for the handle, I accidentally tipped
over the barrel and it went smashing to the floor!
When my mother returned, she found the butter
all over the floor and knew who was the culprit.
My school days began in 1914. Early in the
morning, I would walk with my brothers and
sisters to what is now LEAF ROAD where Felix
Johnson would meet us in a covered wagon drawn
by a pair of mules. We would ride to the Glen
Flora School with our friends the Stoker boys, Ed-
mings, and Johnsons. In the wintertime we rode in
218

a mule-drawn covered sleigh and Felix put a
kerosene heater inside the sleigh to keep us warm.
After school and on Saturdays we all had chores to
do around the farm. I milked the cows, cleaned the
barn, and climbed into the hayloft to pull down
hay to feed the cows and horses. When my father
was away in Chicago working as a bricklayer, we
had to comb the pasture picking up sticks and
brush. We would pile all we collected and burn it.
Sundays, my mother would get us all ready and we
walked together to the Glen Flora Lutheran
Church for services and Sunday school. Walking
became a regular part of my life, especially in 1917
when the school had no more money for transpor-
tation. From then until I was graduated from the
eighth grade I walked the mile and a half to and
from school. And, when the snow was real deep, I
would ski to school!
One cold day in December (I was about eleven
years old) my brother Walter and I had my
parents' permission to join the Stoker boys and ice
skate on Main Creek, which ran through our
homestead. Quickly we built a fire on the bank, put
on our skates, and then darted back and forth on
the ice. Portions of the creek were open and the
water was about six feet deep. We were all skating
and having fun when suddenly I realized I was
skating on thin ice. Crack! Splash! I landed into
the icy water up to my shoulders. I grabbed for the
edges of ice surrounding me ... it splintered and
broke. Luckily my brother latched onto my
coatsleeves and pulled me out. I spent the rest of
the time drying my clothes by the fire because I
knew if I went home all wet that it would be a long
time before I would be allowed to go skating again.
The next summer Sam Campbell was in need of
potato pickers. I asked him if he could use me. He
agreed. The whole day was spent picking potatoes
and filling many bushel baskets. When I finished,
Sam handed me a silver dollar. Boy, was I thrilled!
This was the first dollar I ever earned.
In June I had to pick raspberries. My sister
Ethel was too young to help me and my brother
Walter had to work with my father. So, alone and
empty pails in my hands, I trudged two miles to the
farms of John Erickson and Andrew Volberg who
permitted me to pick from the raspberry bushes
behind their farms. I picked berries from dawn till
dusk. By the time I finished, my mother had
cleaned enough berries to can 200 quarts and make
fifty quarts of jam. We had more raspberries that
year than ever before or ever since!
Another time my brother Otis got me a job hay-
ing and although the other boys were much older
than me, I was able to lift as much hay and earn as
much money. When I was thirteen I worked for
Mrs. Behm a recent widow with a forty acre farm
to maintain. I would clean the barn, fork hay, and
feed the animals for her.
I was in high school at Glen Flora when Mr.
Stoker showed me how he raised honeybees. This
type of work intrigued me and Mr. Stoker gave me
a swarm to get started. I built wooden hives and
placed them on the bank of the creek. After two
summers I had fifteen swarms. Then, one day in
August, we had a heavy rainstorm. The creek
flooded two to four feet over the banks and my
beehives floated away. I jumped into the water and
swam after them hoping to catch them before they
got into the main current. I managed to retrieve all
the hives, but lost all my bees. This ended my ex-
perience with bees.
Glen Flora had only a two-year high school.
When I completed the second year, I started at In-
gram High School which was four miles away. Leif
Overby also attended Ingram. Leif would pick me
up on his motorcycle and we rode to school
together. However, I was not pleased with the
school or the teachers and quit. I then went to
Hawkins to work in a box factory (1924-1925). I
earned twenty-five cents an hour and paid a dollar
and fifty cents a day for room and board. Every
Friday, after work, I walked the nine miles to my
home in Glen Flora and walked back to Hawkins
on Sunday. That Spring I went home and worked
in the pea vinery to save enough money to attend
Ladysmith High School. In the Fall of 1925 1 mov-
ed to Ladysmith. I enjoyed going to Ladysmith
High School. As I reached my last year, my funds

had diminished. Fortunately, I secured a part-time
job with the Gerard Hotel. It was my responsibility
to meet the trains and assist hotel guests with their
baggage. I stayed with my classmates, joined the
Hi Y, participated in the class play and basketball
and was graduated from Ladysmith High School
in 1927.
After graduation, I went to Eau Claire, Wiscon-
sin and worked in a tire factory. This was much
harder work than farming and the wages were low.
My sisters, Lillian and Elsie, and brother Otis were
working in Chicago; they invited me to join them.
In the Fall of 1927 I went to Chicago and lived
with Otis. I got a job working in a meat packing
plant. At night I attended Northwestern Universi-
ty and took courses in business. My sister Elsie was
married to Jim Casey, who was in the meat pack-
ing industry. Jim helped me get a job as a book-
keeper for a meat packing firm, Pfaelzer Brothers.
I worked for them for thirty-eight years and
became the controller and general office manager

Clarence Leaf
of sixty-eight employees.
On June 27, 1936 I married Ann Wilson. Ann
worked as a telephone operator for the Bell
System. Then on April 29, 1943 we had our only
child, Carol Ann. In 1950 we made our home in
LaGrange, Illinois where I suffered a heart attack
in 1959. Our summers were spent at our other
home in Delavan, Wisconsin. In 1967 we moved to
Ventura, California. Our daughter was then
teaching on Catalina Island. An unsuccessful ven-
ture brought us all back to Illinois in 1968. I
returned to the meat packing business, Ann went
back to her job as a telephone operator for the
railroad, and Carol Ann taught at Joliet Junior
College and worked on a Master's degree. Since
1975 we have been retired and living in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. Ethel retired in 1976 and
joined us in our home until her death in June,
1982. Carol Ann completed a doctorate of
philosophy from the University of Utah in 1974.
Sie holds a patent for a physical fitness game and
has written a college textbook (published in
Spanish also) on physical education and sports.
She currently lives in Martin, Tennessee where she
holds an administrative post at the University of
Tennessee at Martin.
Over the years, I would return home to Rusk
County to visit as often as possible. Some of these
visits were to celebrate joyous occasions such as my
Fiftieth high school reunion with Ladysmith
classmates. Other times, the trips were sad with
the passing of a beloved family member. But, the
sadness was always lifted when seeing and talking
with my dear friends and kind neighbors of years
ago. Submitted by Clarence Richard Leaf
DON AND MAXINE
LEATHERMAN FAMILY
Our life together began on a cold December
30th, 1948. We were married in the old Hope
Lutheran Church in Ladysmith.
Maxine was teaching in Ridgeland, WI and I
was just starting in the life insurance business. We
moved back to our hometown of Bruce in 1949,