Whispers of the Heart

My Nana, Joanna Pruitt Leonard, my mother’s mother, died when I was nine. I have no memories of her that I can remember. She became senile during the last years of her life and she lived in a rest home. We lived 300 miles away when she died. Joanna was born in the morning on 19 February 1881 in Princeton, Indiana at her grandfather Elisha Jones house. (Her grandmother Susan was a midwife.)

Entry in Elisha Jones’s Journal about his granddaughter Joanna Pruitt’s birth.

Joanna’s father, Joseph Pruitt, had died the previous July 1880 in Owensville, Indiana and her mother Emma had then moved back to Princeton, Indiana with Joanna and her older sister Helen. According to Helen, Emma was a very independent woman, as was her mother Susan, and Emma didn’t live with her parents very long. In January 1882 she took her two young daughters, Helen and Joanna, and moved to Kansas to live with her brother Alfred Jones and learn the millinery trade so she could support herself and her two daughters. While in Kansas Emma met James Howey and he finally convinced her to marry him in 1886.

Joanna Pruitt, April 1883, 2 years old, probably in Kansas

In 1887 James and Emma and the two girls moved to San Bernardino, California where James worked as a bricklayer for the rest of his life until he died in 1918.

Helen (Nellie) and Joanna Pruitt, September 1888

Joanna attended school in San Bernardino and had an active social life while she was in high school. The local newspaper mentions her several times attending various events and singing at a few of them.

Joanna Pruitt, August 1896, 15 years old

December 24, 1898, San Bernardino County Sun Newspaper Joanna was 17.

January 1, 1899, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper, Joanna was 17.

After graduating from San Bernardino High School Joanna took the examination for teachers and became a teacher.

January 5, 1900, Daily Times Index newspaper

Joanna was appointed to be a teacher at Oro Grande School and she moved to Oro Grande to teach.

August 11, 1900, Daily Times Index newspaper

Joanna continued to participate in social events in San Bernardino from time to time.

May 12, 1901, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

July 7, 1901, Queen’s Court, Joanna Pruitt, bottom row, second from right

By 1902 Joanna was teaching 2nd and 3rd grade at Mt. Vernon School.

September 4, 1902, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

In 1903 Joanna was granted a year’s leave from teaching to attend college at Berkeley University.

May 12, 1904, Daily Times Index newspaper

in 1904 Joanna was granted an additional leave of absence from teaching to go back to Berkeley for another year.

June 2, 1904, Daily Times Index newspaper

As she did in San Bernardino Joanna took part in social activities while at Berkeley as well.

April 12, 1905, Oakland Tribune newspaper

Joanna didn’t return to Berkeley for a third year and in 1906 she returned to teaching in San Bernardino at Fourth Street School and participating in local social events.

September 6, 1906, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

March 29. 1906, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

A family keepsake from Joanna, her Saturday Reading Club, a precursor to today’s Book Clubs.

Joanna apparently loved to travel and the newspaper is full of descriptions of her travel throughout California and also to New Mexico to visit relatives in the early 1900’s.

During this time Joanna lived with her mother and step-father at 802 Fifth Street in San Bernardino. She continued to teach at Fourth Street School during the 1908-1909 school year.

Joanna on the porch at the Fifth Street house about 1909.

In early 1909 Joanna was planning to move to the Philippines to live with her sister Helen and Helen’s husband and teach. But something happened and she decided to stay in San Bernardino and marry Willis E. Leonard. Willis was 46 and he had 5 children, his oldest child, daughter Florence, was only 5 years younger than Joanna who was 28. His wife Henrietta had died in November 1908. Willis and Joanna were married December 27, 1909 in Joanna’s home on Fifth Street in San Bernardino.

December 28, 1909 San Bernardino Sun newspaper

After the wedding Joanna and Willis left on a 6 week wedding trip by train across the country and back. While on their wedding trip Joanna collected sterling souvenir spoons from several cities that they visited.

Five sterling souvenir spoons that Joanna collected on their wedding trip in 1909 from some of the cities that they visited.

January 26, 1910, The San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

April 19, 1910 United States Census, Willis, Joanna and son Frank are at the bottom of the page, the rest of the family is on the next page

The rest of Willis’s family is at the top of the page, daughters Edith, Margaret, and Dorothy. Daughter Florence was already married and daughter Helen had died young. There was also a servant living in the house in 1910.

Willis Leonard had owned a small department store in San Bernardino, and then one in El Paso, Texas. He then returned to San Bernardino with his family in 1900 and opened another store. Later he sold the store and became manager of the Insurance, Loan, and Land Company. He was involved in a very successful real estate business in San Bernardino for a few decades until the Depression hit and he lost much of his real estate wealth.

May 24, 1910, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

January 1, 1913, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

Over the years Joanna was very active in San Bernardino’s social life and a member of various clubs.

April 25, 1913, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

Leonard Home, 427 Magnolia Avenue in San Bernardino, built in 1915 by Willis E. Leonard. Elisabeth Leonard Gardner was born in this house in 1916. (This house still stands and was completely renovated and then sold in 2022.)

Probably 1918, Joanna with daughters Elisabeth and Lois

16 January 1920, United States Census, Willis and family near the bottom of the page, by now 2 other children have joined the family, Lois and Elisabeth.

Leonard Family about 1924, Joanna back row 2nd from right, daughter Elisabeth in front of her

April 3, 1930, United States Census, Willis and Joanna Leonard with their daughters Lois and Elisabeth and Joanna’s mother Emma Howey.

When the Depression hit Willis Leonard lost much of his real estate wealth. They sold the Magnolia house and bought a smaller house on Pershing Avenue in San Bernardino.

June 1937, Pershing House, 3233 Pershing Avenue, San Bernardino

April 5, 1940. By the 1940 United States Census Willis and Joanna were living alone in their house on Pershing Avenue in San Bernardino.

Willis and Joanna in front of the Pershing Avenue house

Leonard Family, Christmas Day 1937, Joanna back row left

Willis Leonard died October 14, 1944 at home of a heart attack. Daughter Elisabeth was there and remembered that because of war time it took the doctor quite a while to get there but Willis had died instantly.

October 15, 1944, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

October 18, 1944, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

Joanna continued to live in San Bernardino after Willis died until she became senile and was moved to a rest home in Pasadena where she died in 1960.

November 8, 1946, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

July 25, 1954 San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

August 13, 1960, San Bernardino County Sun newspaper

This is a photo of my Great-Great-Grandmother on my father’s paternal side, Amanda Peoples Gardner. It is a tintype, a kind of photography that was introduced in the United States in 1856 and was popular until about 1867. This was probably taken in the late 1860’s or early 1870’s when Amanda was in her thirties. Amanda had a short life and the small paper trail she left behind provides more questions than answers about her.

Amanda Peoples was born 8 July 1838 in Jefferson County, Ohio, the daughter of Robert and Anna (Palmer) Peoples. By the 1850 Census (see above) the family was living in Rome Township, Athens County, Ohio. Amanda was 12 and attending school, the second youngest of 9 children. There is no indication of any physical or mental problem listed for her in the far right column where it would be posted.

Amanda married James Monroe Gardner 15 December 1859, in Meigs County, Ohio after her family moved there from Athens County. She was 21.

Meigs County, Ohio Marriages, Volume 2, page 342.

In July 1860 James and Amanda were living in Lebanon Township, Meigs County, next to James’s Aunt Frances (Gardner) Smith and her family. James was a successful farmer with land and personal property worth $1200. Their first child, William Sidney Gardner (my Great-Grandfather), was born in January 1861 at Guthrie Mills, in Orange Township, Meigs County. Their second child, Lucinda Haddasa Gardner, was born in Bowling Green, in Warren County, Kentucky in June 1864. James’s aunt Lucinda (Gardner) Bolla was living with her family in Bowling Green in 1860 and her husband William Henry Bolla started working for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad before 1865. James and Amanda may have been visiting them at that time or James may have been traveling while Amanda stayed with them. Although James started as a farmer, he ultimately became a bridge builder for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad which meant he must have traveled quite a bit working on the Railroad. The L & N Railroad was finished in 1859 with 187 miles of track in use and by 1861 the Railroad had 269 miles of track. James’s uncle by marriage, Henry Bolla, may have helped him obtain the Railroad position. James and Amanda’s third child, James Clinton, was born in Ohio in February 1867 but he died about a month later in March 1867. He was buried in the Keno Cemetery in Meigs County, where Amanda’s mother was buried and later, her father as well. This was undoubtedly a very difficult time for Amanda with the death of a child and her husband gone much of the time and apparently she was suffering from some kind of mental illness.

On 2 August 1867 John Q. Adams who had been married to Amanda’s sister until she died in July 1867 brought Amanda into Court after the Court sent him a warrant ordering him to do so. One wonders where James was at this point although with his work he must have traveled quite a bit. Family stories say that he kept the railroad tracks working during the Civil War and was captured more than once and then released when they found out what his work involved. The Court declared Amanda insane and said it was of less than 2 years duration. The Court determined that she was a legal resident of Chester Township and was not dangerous. A doctor was ordered to file his certificate as medical witness and his records and the records of the Court were to be sent to the Superintendent of the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum.

On the 14th of September in 1867 on motion made by __________ Gardner the Court said that he was a suitable person appointed to take Amanda to the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum and he was ordered to do so “with all convenient speed”. It is not known whether this was James or another Gardner. By the summer of 1868 Amanda must have been back home again because their fourth child, son Harry was born in Louisville in early May 1869.

The 1869 Louisville City Directory shows the family living at 335 13th Street and James is a bridge builder for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.

As shown above in the 1870 Census, the family was living in Louisville and doing very well. James was a bridge builder and had $6,000 worth of real estate. Amanda is apparently well and at home. The next page of the Census shows a cook and Ella Peoples, aged 15 living with the family. Ella was probably a niece of Amanda’s. In 1871 Amanda lost another child when son Edwin was born in Louisville in February 1871 and died in June of that year. Daughter Mary Eliza was born in March 1872 in Louisville but by the time son Robert was born in September 1874 the family was living in Dover, Lee County, Iowa. James bought land there in 1875. The last child John was born there in February 1877.

In the 1880 Census taken on June 3rd in Franklin Township, Lee County, Iowa, Amanda is listed as “In Insane Hospital” suffering from “Mania” So she must have been sent away again.

James and Amanda’s children including my Great-Grandfather, William Sidney Gardner, on the back left. Photo taken about 1885.

Amanda Gardner died 7 March 1884 at the age of 45 and was buried in the Clay Grove Cemetery in Lee County, Iowa near the farm where her family lived. Her tombstone is next to her husband and her father-in-law and mother-in-law. They all died within a few years of each other.

Her obituary said her “mind has not been just right for the last 16 years” but she died at home with her family. James apparently was out of state when she died and he remarried one month later. One has to wonder about those circumstances. James died two years later and his will stated that the younger children were to stay with their step-mother but the older children soon bought out their step-mother and she apparently left. James’s will also stated that the children were not to be under the control of Amanda’s two maiden sisters so there must have been some ill will there as well. These two sisters stayed close to family members and moved to Nebraska where William and his family later relocated.

This obituary written by Amanda’s sister a few months after her death said that “She was troubled with weakness of mind for some years and was an inmate of Mt. Pleasant Asylum. This was caused by opposition to her religious faith.” What that all means is impossible to determine now and one can only wonder about the other events of her short life.

My Nana, Joanna Pruitt Leonard, and her Interesting Life

Amanda Peoples Gardner and the paper trail she left behind that defined her