Meeker County MN Archives Biographies.....Greenleaf, William H. December 7, 1834 - 
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HON. WILLIAM H. GREENLEAF, a prominent lumber dealer of the village of Litchfield,
is one of the early pioneers of Meeker county who has risen to prominence through
his own unaided efforts. He is a native of Allegheny, now Livingston county, New
York, born December 7, 1834, and is the son of William and Elmira (Sanford)
Greenleaf, natives of the Empire State and Vermont, respectively. The Greenleaf
family is of respectable antiquity in this country, the chain of ancestry having
been traced back as follows: William Greenleaf, the father of our subject, was the
son of Tilly Greenleaf and was born December 23, 1797. Tilly was the son of Israel
Greenleaf, and born March 25, 1770. Israel was born March 28, 1732, and was the son
of Dr. Daniel Greenleaf, who was born November 7, 1702, died July, 1795, and was the
son of Rev. Daniel Greenleaf. The latter was the son of Stephen Greenleaf, Jr., and
was born February 10, 1680, and died August 26, 1763, his father's birth having
taken place August 15, 1652, and his death October 13, 1743. Stephen Greenleaf, Sr.,
was born in 1630, and was the son of Edmund Greenleaf, and died December I, 1690.
His father, Edmund, was born in the parish of Brixham, Devonshire, England, about
1600, and came with his family in 1635 to this country and settled at Newbury, in
the colony of Massachusetts Bay. He was the lineal descendant of an old French
Huguenot family, who left their home in La Belle France on account of religious
persecutions early in the sixteenth century, the name Greenleaf being a literal
translation of their French name, Fuillevert.

The subject of this personal memoir, William H., when he was but eight years of age,
removed with his parents to Jefferson county, Wisconsin, which in that year, 1S43,
was but a new country, where his father settled upon a farm. When he had attained
the age of seventeen, William H. commenced attending school at the Fort Atkinson
Academy, his yarlier education having been derived from the common schools, and
remained at that institution some two vears, after which he acquired a knowledge of
civil engineering. In 1856, during the Kansas troubles, he made a trip to that
territory with a company raised by Prof. Daniels, for the assistance of the Free
Soilers. He returned to Wisconsin where, in 1857, he was engaged as surveyor on the
Wisconsin Central railroad. In the spring of 1853 he came to Meeker county and
located upon section 30, Ellsworth township, where he put up a saw mill and improved
the water power. He also took up a homestead on section 25, in Greenleaf township,
which township was named in his honor. A history of his business operations while in
the village of Greenleaf is given in detail elsewhere in this volume. While a
resident of that place he was a wakened at four o'clock on the morning of August 18,
1862, and told the dreadful tidings of murder and rapine that heralded the terrible
massacre of that eventful year, and as soon as possible took his wife and
ten-months-old child to St. Paul for security, and then returned to help make a
stand against the red fiends who were depopulating the border. He stopped at
Hutchinson, where he went through the experience of border warfare with the people
of that village and remained that fall. He then went to Minneapolis, where he made
his home until March, 1864, and then returned to this county, where he has lived
ever since. In the spring of 1872 he removed to Litchfield, and put up some of the
first buildings in that town. In 1871 he entered into the general merchandise
business in that “burg" in which he continued until 1876. In 1874 he was appointed
receiver of the United States Land office at this place and continued in that
office, having been reappointed in 1878, until 1879, when he resigned. In 1878 he
purchased the lumber yard of M. J. Flynn, and in 1880 that of H. B. Brown, and
consolidated the two, thus establishing his present business. In 1882 the present
firm was formed by the admission of his son, Charles A., to a full partnership.

In the fall of 1879 Mr. Greenleaf was elected by the people of this district to
represent them in the State Legislature, and served continuously for three sessions
in that capacity. In 1882 he was sent to the State Senate and for four years was a
member of that august body, looking sharply after the interests of his constituents.
He was united in marriage September 27, 1859, with Miss Cordelia J. DeLong, the
daughter of Hiram and Maria DeLong, the latter a niece of the celebrated
revolutionary general, Ethan Allen. Her father is still living at Greenleaf village
at the ripe old age of eighty-nine years. The result of this marriage has been four
children - Charles A., of whom a sketch is given elsewhere; Jessie A., now Mrs. H.
S. Branham; and twins, Frankie and Fred, deceased.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
ALBUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF Meeker County, Minnesota,
CHICAGO: Alden Ogle & Company, 1888.


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