DELAVAN LEVANT LEONARD (1834-1917)

PAPERS, 1834-1912

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BIOGRAPHY

Delavan Levant Leonard (1834-1917), next to the youngest of fourteen children of Thomas (1783-1863) and Betsey Peck (1792-1860) was born on a farm in Pendleton, Niagara County, New York. He attended district school until the age of fifteen, and then, having decided upon the ministry as a calling, spent three years in the Lockport Union School, graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, in 1859, and from Union Seminary in 1862. After a year of further study in New York he was ordained to the Congregational ministry, and on May 6, 1864, was married to Mary Louise Raymond (1838-1902).

His eighteen years of continuous service to the pastorate were served in New Preston, Connecticut, 1863-65; Darlington, Wisconsin, 1865-70; Normal, Illinois, 1870-74; Hannibal, Missouri, 1874-75; and Northfield, Minnesota, 1875-81. He was a charter member of the Minnesota Congregational Club and one of the first editors of the Minnesota Congregationalist. In 1881 he assumed the duty of Superintendent of Home Missions for Utah, Idaho, Montana, and western Wyoming, with headquarters in Salt Lake City. His studies of the Mormon culture led to frequent articles in such religious papers as The Advance, Congregationalist, Independent, and Outlook, and in others like the Nation and The Boston Advertiser.

With two older sons attending Oberlin College he decided to move the family to Ohio. In 1885 his wife and younger children moved to Oberlin, and were joined by him in the spring of 1887. For four years, from 1888 to 1892, he was pastor of the Congregationalist church in Bellevue, Ohio. After serving Bellevue, he returned to Oberlin to spend the remainder of his life. He took on numerous responsibilities, secretary of the Ohio Church History Society, 1893-1902; acting secretary of the Ohio Home Missionary Society, 1895-96; chairman of the Ohio Church and Ministerial Supply Bureau, 1899-1906, and associate editor of the Missionary Review of the World from 1891 until 1917. Later in life he devoted most of his attention to writing. His first book, One Hundred Years of Missions, was published in 1895 and subsequently revised and reprinted in 1903 and 1913. Interest in Oberlin College and its history led to the publication of The Story of Oberlin in 1898. In 1904 he prepared a History of Carleton College, which conferred upon him the Doctor of Divinity degree in 1895.

From 1908 until his death he lived with his daughters Ella L. (1873-1934, Academy 1892-96) and Kate Bowne (1875-1931, Ph.B, 1898) until his death in 1917.

Further Information

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