History of Homœopathy
Biographies
Presented by Sylvain Cazalet
EONARD, WILLIAM HUNTINGDON, M. D., of Minneapolis, Hennepin county, Minn., was born December 2d, 1826, in Mansfield,
Tolland county, Conn. His father, Dexter M. Leonard, was the son of a noted physician who practiced extensively in Ashford, Conn., and vicinity. His
ancestors, James and Henry Leonard, emigrated to Massachusetts from England in 1652, and erected the first forge in America. The Leonards, as shown by
papers in their possession, are lineal descendants of Edward III., and claim to belong to the same line of ancestry, through the Barony of Dacre, as
George Washington. Dr. Leonard was reared to agricultural occupations, and enjoyed the advantages of winter schooling, while the summers were devoted to
labor on his father’s farm. To this was added the benefit of a course at a select school, which was followed, in 1843, by teaching. He continued thus
employed for six years, devoting his leisure time to self-improvement. Inheriting a taste for medical studies and pursuits from his grandfather, he
entered the office of Orin Mitter, M. D., of Chaplin, Conn., where he prepared himself for attendance upon lectures at the University of New York. The
winters of 1850-’51, were passed at this college, from which he entered the Medical Institution of Fall College, where he graduated in 1853.Locating in Orangeville, Wyoming county, N. Y., he commenced the practice of medicine, which he
continued for two years, when he removed to Minneapolis. Here he practiced in the old school four years. Educated in the allopathic system, and imbibing
from his infancy veneration for its theories, which the successful career of his grandfather had instilled into the minds of all his family, it was no
easy matter to turn his attention to homœopathy, with a view to its adoption.This, however, he did, after a thorough though perhaps not impartial, investigation of its merits.
Becoming convinced of its superior claims, he commenced the practice of it in 1860. Three years later, he entered the army, at first as assistant
surgeon, finally as surgeon of the 5th Regiment Minnesota Volunteers Infantry Veterans, which post he filled for three years.Dr. Leonard has been a most zealous advocate of the cause of homœopathy in Minnesota, and did much
toward organizing the Homœopathic State Institute, of which he has been President. His intelligent professional course has tended much toward elevating
the status of homœopathy. His abilities have met a proper recognition in the community, and given him a position second to none of his professional
brethren in that part of the country. The discharge of ever increasing duties has given him but little time for scientific study, yet he does not
altogether neglect it.Dr. Leonard was married October 11th, 1853, to Miss Jane Preston, of Eastford, Conn. He has two
children, a son and a daughter. At present, Dr. Leonard is President of the Hahnemann Medical Society of Hennepin County, Minn. He is also one of the
directors of the Minnesota Academy of Science. An interesting work to the medical profession may soon be expected from his pen.Source : Cleave’s Biographical Cyclopædia of Homœopathic Physicians and Surgeons By
Egbert Cleave
WILLIAM HUNTINGTON LEONARD
, Minneapolis, Minnesota, was born in Mansfield,
Connecticut, December 2, 1825, son of Dexter Al. and Electa (Owen) Leonard, and grandson of Dr. Recompense Leonard, a prominent physician of Ashford,
Connecticut. He attended district schools at Chalin, Connecticut, and select schools in Eastford, Connecticut, and in Massachusetts, after which he
taught in district schools six years. His medical preceptor was Dr. Orin Witter of Chaplin, Connecticut. He attended the University of New York,
1850-51, and was graduated M. D. from the medical institution of Yale College in 1853. He practiced in Orangeville, New York, 1853-55, and since the
latter year in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He adopted homœopathy in 1858, and in the fiftieth year of his practice of medicine the Minneapolis physicians
presented him with a loving cup. He was influential in organizing the first homœopathic college in Minneapolis, which was afterward merged into the
present College of Homœopathic Medicine and Surgery of the University of Minnesota. He is on the consulting staff of the City Hospital and the original
Homœopathic Hospital. He served, 1862-65, as first assistant surgeon and afterward surgeon of the 5th Minn. Vols. ; was organizer and three times
president of the Minnesota State Homœopathic Institute ; member of the Minnesota state board of health, 1874-95 ; ex-director and charter
member of the Minnesota Academy of Science ; ex-president of the Hahnemann Medical Society of Hennepin county ; several years a member of the
commission of insanity ; ex-member of the American Institute of Homœopathy ; senior member and one of the organizers of the International
Hahnemannian Association ; a senior and one of the organizers of the Minnesota State Homœopathic Institute. Dr. Leonard also was an organizer,
1872, of the Minneapolis Homœopathic Medical Society, and several terms its president, and is a member of the Masonic order. He married (first) October
11, 1853, Jane Augusta Preston, who died July 27, 1885, and left two children : William Edwin Leonard, M. D., practicing with his father, and
Gertrude J. Leonard. Dr. Leonard married (second) October 11, 1886, Josephine C. Kehoe, daughter of Dr. John Adams Wakeman, late of Centralia, Illinois.Source : History of Homœopathy by William Harvey King