JAMES ALFRED ERNEST LESLIE
ROSE ELLA WARD
1875--1946
1881--1952

James A. E. Leslie was born June 30, 1875 in Rotherham, England, to Alfred H. and Sarah Williams Leslie. His father, a musician, traveled about the country. After his father's death, James, his mother and his youngest brother came to the United States and lived at his grandparent's boarding house in Sandy, Utah, until his mother remarried. James attended school and worked at the Mingo Smelter in Sandy before taking scientific courses at Franklin Academy in Franklin, Nebraska, and Salt Lake College.

On March 7, 1899, he married Rose Ella Ward, daughter of Brigham Claude and Rose Ellen Hatch Ward. During the nine years they lived in Sandy, they had four children:
Alfred b. Jan 12, 1900 d. Sept. 23, 1986 m. Hatetna Clark
James b. June 21, 1902 d. Nov. 25 1961 m. Helen Clark
Raymond b. May 8, 1905 d. Oct. 6, 1992 m. Dorothy Jenkins
Rose b. Dec. 23, 1907 d. April 29, 1998 m. 1st William Nobbs;
2nd Edmund Reese

In May of 1908, James preceded the rest of the family coming to Kennett to work as Chief Chemist for Mammoth Copper Mining Company. The family joined him in November of that year and in the next ten years, they had three more children:
Roland b. July 8, 1910 d. Feb. 25, 1962 m. Dorothy Couey
Wayne b. May 3, 1914 d. March 12, 1989 m. Marie Aberg
Florence b. Sept. 11, 1919 - m. John Lonnberg

In 1926 James went to work in Wabuska, Nevada, for three years and had a difficult time finding another permanent job because of the depression. He finally started his own assay office at their home on Eureka Way doing assays for local miners. They moved to a mining claim near Shasta during WWII. Their last few years were back in Redding; their daughter Florence cared for James in his final illness. James, a member of the Knights of Pythias and IOOF Lodge, died March 30, 1946.

Though she worked hard at home and later as a paid housecleaner, Ella found time to hike and play with her children and learned to swim, which she loved, when she was in her forties. She was in her fifties when she swam across the Sacramento River and back near Diestlehorst Bridge. Her last six years, Ella lived in a house her son-in-law, John Lonnberg had built next door to him and Florence. Ella died April 18, 1952.

Source: Shasta Historical Society Nov. 1998

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