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Hon. Millard F. LeRoy
did much to develop the business and industrial possibilities of
Delaware county and was one of the county's most prominent and
valued citizens. He was president of the First National Bank, a
prime mover in the organization of the Manchester & Oneida Railway
Company, was for two years mayor of Manchester and served as state
representative. His death, which occurred on the 21st of February,
1914, was a great loss to Delaware county, as men who have the
initiative and the courage that are necessary for a leader are few,
but these qualities he possessed to a high degree.
Mr. LeRoy was born in Manchester, Dearborn county, Indiana, on the
16th of January, 1850, but during his early childhood the family
removed to Morris, Illinois, and there the greater part of his youth
was spent. In 1869 he was graduated from Moore's Hill College at
Moore's Hill, Indiana, with the degree of Bachelor of Science. His
mother had died in 1860 and his father came to this county, where
Millard F. LeRoy came after his graduation from college. He then
entered the law department of the Iowa State University at Iowa City
and was graduated there from in June, 1870. Although he was under
age, he opened a law office in Manchester and practiced alone until
the fall of 1873, when he formed a partnership with the late Charles E.
Bronson, the firm later admitting the Hon. E. M. Carr. |
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Mr. LeRoy remained in practice for several years and then became connected with
the banking business, assuming the management of a private bank operated by his
father-in-law, the late Allen R. Loomis. Upon the organization of the First National Bank, in 1890, Mr. LeRoy was
elected cashier and upon the death of Mr. Loomis, a few years later, succeeded
to the presidency of the institution. He was connected with many of the local
business concerns and was one of the most prominent figures in financial circles
of this part of Iowa. He was one of the organizers of the Manchester & Oneida
Railway Company, and his business acumen and executive ability were of great
service to that corporation. Although his business interests made heavy demands
upon his time, he was always ready to do his part in the management of public
affairs and was for two years mayor of the city, his administration being
without doubt the most progressive and beneficial the city has ever enjoyed. He
was also for many years a member of the school board and in 1912 he was elected
representative from the county, his record as a public official being a most
creditable one. For some time he was a member of the executive committee of the
Fraternal Union of America, an insurance company with headquarters at Denver.
Mr. LeRoy was married on the 2d of June, 1874, to Miss
Jennie P. Loomis, and they became the parents of three children: Dora M., Alma
M. and Allen R. Mr. LeRoy had long been identified
with the business, social and educational interests of Manchester and his demise
was sincerely mourned by a host of friends. Fraternally he belonged to a number
of orders, in all of which he stood high. He belonged to both the York and
Scottish Rite Masons and was a past eminent commander of Nazareth Commandery, No. 33, Knights
Templar. He was also affiliated with the Hyperion
Lodge, No. 186, K. P., and with the Odd Fellows, in which society he was a
leader in Iowa, having been honored by the post of commander of the Patriarchs
Militant, the highest position in the gift of the order. All who knew him
conceded him to be a man of unusual ability and also of great public spirit and
unswerving integrity, and no resident of the county was held in higher esteem.
At the
time of his death the Manchester Press contained many tributes from friends and
associates to his high personal worth. Among those who attested to his splendid
character were United States Senator Albert B. Cummins, Governor George W.
Clark, Congressman Maurice Connolly, Senator E. C. Perkins, Major E. M. Carr and
Captain J. F. Merry. In the same issue of the Manchester Press there appeared
the following:
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"A review of the life of Mr. LeRoy in this
community, brief as it must necessarily be and as he would have it, is a review
of the progress and up building of the community
during the forty years of his residence in it. This is true because every effort
to improve Manchester, to make it a better town to live in, to promote its
material and moral interests, to advance the growth and extension of its
business facilities and to help it outgrow the rawness and crudity of the
crossroads village every such effort found him either a leader or an
unhesitating contributor. To his energy and liberality and enthusiastic loyalty
to his home city, Manchester owes more than can be measured in a stickfull of type or rewarded by the gratitude of
those in position to know the facts. His sympathy and his influence and his
means were at the instant disposal of any project which promised to benefit
Manchester, and when enlisted in furtherance, of it his own business interests
became secondary. In the various positions of trust imposed upon him, lie made
ungrudging sacrifice of his leisure and allowed no demand, however urgent, to
encroach upon duties to which he had pleaded fidelity.
In this
respect his example was singular, and in a day when the holding of minor offices
is a preferment rather than a trust it was rare and exceedingly praiseworthy. In
a personal sense, the death of Mr. LeRoy removes a
man who was truly a friend to him who needed friends, an unquestioning helper of
the unfortunate or distressed, who gave unsparingly and without the expectation
of return.
A record of his unseen kindnesses would tell the story of renewed courage and
hope to many a man who came to him in the hour of need and found not merely
temporary aid but lasting friendship."
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