Lot was a very large man, 6'7" tall.
Per Jennie Leonard Hutchinson: Lot Leonard was one of the early pioneers of Greene County, PA, having migrated there about 1779 (1769?). He was born in NJ, the son of William Leonard. Lot Leonard spent his early boyhood years in New Jrsey, and there are many interesting traditions regarding his yuthful experiences there. He is said to have been an extremely active and agile boy.
Once while out in the woods in search of the horses, he head the bells and was approaching the sound when he discovered that the ringing was a decoy of a couple of Indians who had taken the bells from the horses. Both Indians fired on him, but without effect. He betook himself to flight, but found himself hemmed in by a deep ravine which it was necessary to cross in order to get away from the Indians. Arriving on a cliff of rocks some 20 feet high, he threw away his gun and made a desparate leap, landing in the brush and collection of leaves below, without injury.
The Indians were amazed at the venture and dared not follow. So he climbed up the opposite of the bank and made his escape. On the next day, he got his brother, Amos, to go with him to find the horses. Now Amos was a queer kind of genius, so reserved and reticent that it was with difficulty that an answer could be got out of him.
Having found the horses a long way from home, they were proceeding homeward, Amos in front of the horses and Lot behind them. At that day it was deemed necessary on all occasions to keep the "eyes skinned" for savages. Lot, perceiving that Amos was proceeding careless along, observed to him, "Amos, why don't you watch?" He replied, "When I travel, I have to walk."
But before the two boys got home they were attacked by a panther. When discovered by Amos, it was close to him and in the act of crouching to leap upon him, when he made such a wild and terrible scream that the animal was frightened away. The incident became the joke of the neighborhood that "Amos Leonard had made a noise in the world."
In those days it was the custom to go armed to church. A portion of the males with guns would precede, and the balance followed the women and children and thus guarded them from the attacks of Indians or wild beasts. On one occasion in the experience of Lot Leonard, the party of worshipers were actually attacked by a band of savages which, after some skirmishing, were driven off by the whites.
At the age of about 21, Lot Leonard, having married Elizabeth Hoge (who was a sister of Thomas Hoge, the father of the late John Hoge) moved to southwest PA and took up a tomahawk improvement, the tract of land known as the Caldwell Houlsworth property, on which the Houseworth mill now stands, including the Still Smith farm and other adjoining lands. This was about the year 1769. His uncle, Caleb Sr., and his family came out and settled on Pigeon Creek, Washington County (then Westmoreland County). William and Lot came in 1776.
Lot Leonard was, as we shall see, a very eccentric individual, but he was none the less enterprising and thrifty for all that. There is a tradition that the old man was riding down the creek one day with a sack of meal under him, when the Indians fired upon him, causing him to drop his meal in the stream and "light out" for the fort below. On these lands and near this mill, he settled his eldest son, William, who married Frances, the eldest duaght of William Whitlach, a neighbor of the old man's.
Old Lot Leonard was a genius in his odd way. He was a great talker and was gifted with the faculty of making rhyme. He composed many eccentric snatches of doggerel verse, of which quite a number found their way into print and had some features of genuine merit. He was radical in all his notions and carried his idea of replublican freedom to such an excess as to deny the right of either church or state to restrict by rules of government the individual's liberty to do just as he pleased.
He became a preacher and preached this peculiar doctrine. He was not attached, of course, to any sect, but harangued the people upon his own responsibility. When frequently requested to sing a song, he would compose his rhymes and sing them right along to some popular air, and oft times administer too the most scathing rebukes through the satire of his rude verses.
Lot Leonard lived the remainder of his days and died at the advanced age of 93 years, 23 days. He reared a family of nine children.
He served in the Revolutionary War. He was a captain of Indian spies and rangers, although most of his service between 1775 and 1783 seems have been as a private. He served in 1775 in the NJ militia, the 1777-80 in the PA militia. In 1780 he was injured and out of action for almost a year. He probably served in 1781, 82, and 83. He was residing in Mendham when he enlisted. DAR Patriot Index.
In his will, he left 25 cents to each of his children by his first wife and the balance of his estate to his wife. Lot Leonard had person sources.
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