So Leonardville Was Born

A Grandson's Story

 

(Webmaster's Note) - This letter was written by Lambert N. Erpelding in 1982 and appeared in the Leonardville Centennial book "City of the Plains, a Story of Leonardville." The letter was written to Phyllis Swanson, who compiled and wrote the Centennial book.

Lambert N. Erpelding was a grandson of  Lambert Erpelding.  (see the "Noteworthy Leonardvillains" section of this website for more information) He was born in Leonardville in 1893 and his family ran the Erpelding general store, established in 1881, until 1908, when the family moved to Idaho. He died in 1999 at the age of 106 and at the time of his death was the oldest living veteran of World War I in Idaho.

 

So Leonardville Was Born


My grandfather was the head inventor for the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago for forty years until 1884. He retired that year and moved to Leonardville and the property (land) that he had purchased from the railroad offerings. He had sent his three sons, Frank, George, and John, out to improve the land several years before he retired to Leonardville.

Frank, the oldest, was my father. He and my uncles conceived the idea of a town site, and induced the railroad company to place a station on it, giving the Railway Company every other lot in the town site. So Leonardville was born.

Then my father and brothers built the store building and went into the general store business, and they built the big house for Grandfather and Grandmother to retire in. A daughter and the three sons lived with them.

Andrew William Newman, building contractor, his wife, Johannes, and their family came to Leonardville from western Kansas, where he had been sent to build railroad stations for the Rock Island Railroad during the late 1870's, Hays, Hill City, and others. Then they came to Leonardville in 1882, where he built the larger share of the earliest homes and buildings, including the Erpelding house and store. Both he and George Erpelding served on the first city council. A.W. Newman had been a Union soldier in the Civil War for four years and fought in the battle of Gettysburg as a cannoneer. He came from Sweden with a brother, Sol, both orphans, in the early 1850's.

(Webmaster's Note:  Lambert's mother was Hattie Newman, a daughter of A.W. and Johannes Newman.  Fred and Bill were brothers of Hattie.)

Uncle Fred Newman, their son, was born in Chicago in 1872. He died in Randolph, Kansas in 1947, and operated the only drug store there for over fifty years.

Uncle Bill (W.H.) Newman was an early telegraph operator at Leonardville's L.K.&W. railroad station. Later he became a pharmacist and owner of a drug store which burned in January, 1909. He rebuilt in a different location the same year. As a boy I used to go due south of town with my little wagon and burlap bag to pick black walnuts. In fact, we brought some of those walnuts to Idaho (Wendall) in January, 1909, one got buried there and became a large tree.

One thing more about the first Erpelding family in Leonardville. When grandfather and grandmother and daughter, Millie, joined the three sons in Leonardville from Chicago in 1885 they all lived together in the big home. When grandfather died there in 1890 they all stayed on for awhile. Finally daughter Millie married Ellis Ludwick and moved to Belleville where he was in the lumber business (1889), then Frank, my father, married Hattie Newman, and the group continued living together for several years. In the mid-nineties grandmother and sons, George and John, moved back to Chicago and into the original home there, the sons going into business. So my father stayed on and took over their interests -- land, business, and the home in which we five were born.

There was also a pond there in which we swam in hot weather and on which we skated in the winter. Fond memories!

I remember the Creamery we operated in connection with the general store. Cream was picked up from the farmers by horse and wagon, and farmers usually traded it out in the store. A Mr. Johnson was the buttermaker -- there were so many Swedish Johnsons in Leonardville they were tagged thus: Creamery Johnson, Shoemaker Johnson, Section-foreman Johnson, Blacksmith Johnson, Peg-leg Johnson, etc.

We had two cows at home that I learned to milk when eight years old. I had to take them to Ford's pasture just east of town, then go bring them back in the evening. I passed Grandmother Newman's going and coming and stopped to see her. I also saw a lot of Warren and Clyde Ford then.

We have not been able to come up with an interior picture of the store building. When we left Leonardville at the end of 1908 it had no electricity or running water in homes or stores. Uncle Bill Newman equipped his new store with his own Delco system which, I believe, was Leonardville's first electricity.

There were only a few cars in the town when we left. Dr. Henderson and Sol Thompson had red Jacksons. Dr. Gafford had a 1906 Ford Runabout, and the editor had a runabout that steered with a stick, but I don't remember its name.

My first auto ride was in Dr. Henderson's car. His son, Everett, and I took it for a spin about a mile east of town, killed the engine on a slight hill, and I had to crank the Jackson by hand on the running board side. Also had a ride into the country with Dr. Gafford, got stuck in a mud puddle and had a farmer and team pull us out.

Sol Thompson tried to sell my father his Jackson to take our family of seven to Idaho. With no roads (just trails) those days, and in mid-winter, you can imagine what a time we would have had.

The first trip back to Leonardville was in 1940 when our daughter, Doris, graduated from Colorado Women's College in Denver. Again in 1941 we drove to Chicago so dad and his brother George could have a belated visit. We stopped by Topeka, Waterville, and Randolph to visit relatives, then to Leonardville to re-visit some old familiar places and friends. While there my father and your grandfather Sikes had a nice visit and strolled about the town while I showed my wife and daughter my old fishing hole on Walnut Creek, and other places that I still have fond memories of.

About the Erpelding - Loofbourrow squabble - as it occurred before 1894 we children don't remember hearing about it or any politics in Leonardville. My dad voted for Republican Teddy Roosevelt, and Taft, later.

My oldest sister, Hazel is living in Wendall, Idaho. Marguerite is in Meridian, Idaho, twelve miles from us, and Mildred, the youngest, is living in South Pasadena, Ca. My brother Frank died in 1963 at age sixty-one. All of the sisters have been widows for fourteen to thirty one years. Lois and I have been happily married for sixty-three years.

Lambert N. Erpelding


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Grandson Lambert N. Erpelding
(age 12 in 1905)




Lambert
(World War I)


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Lambert N. Erpelding

 1893-1999
 

Lambert Newman Erpelding, 106, of Boise, Idaho, died Thursday, November 11, 1999, at the Idaho State Veterans Home.

Lambert was born August 13, 1893, at Leonardville, Kansas. The family moved to Wendell, Idaho, in 1909, where Lambert worked with his father in a mercantile store. On July 7, 1918, he was married to Lois L. Dunn at Shoshone, Idaho.

In 1925 he and his father purchased a mercantile store in Shoshone. While living in Shoshone, he served as president of the Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the school board and also was commander of the Shoshone American Legion Post.

In 1943 he moved to Long Beach, California, to be personnel manager of Walker Department Store. They came back to Boise in 1963.

Lambert was a member of the First United Methodist Church, a member of Post #151 American Legion in Boise, was a charter member and life member of American Legion Post #41, Wendell and was a past commander of the Veterans of WWI.

During World War I, he served in the Army with the 8th Division Company F, 67th Infantry. At the time of his death, he was reportedly the oldest living Idaho veteran of WWI.


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