Leander W. Emerson was born in 1850 in Indiana, the son of Sylvester and Emily King Emerson. Sylvester died in 1867 while in service Leander Emerson in the Civil War. His mother remarried in 1867 to Robert McLean. Leander had two sisters, Clara Emerson Sinotte and Nettie Emerson McLean, and a half sister, Flora Mabelle Loney. The family moved from Indiana to LeRoy, Dodge County, Wisconsin in 1854. Leander married Matilda McLain. Three of their four children were born in Wisconsin: Edith Emerson Babcock, 1873; Nettie Emerson McPhail, 1875; and Sylvester (Vet) Emerson, 1877. Edna Emerson McPhail (1833) and Robert (1885) were born after the family moved to a Leander Emerson Family farm north of Little Cedar in Mitchell County, Iowa, in 1878. In the earlier days, the only transportation available was the horse and carriage, so the families married neighbors. Three of the Emerson children married three of the McPhail children; therefore, their children were double cousins. Leander's five children received their education at a little country schoolhouse known as the Smith School located two miles Emerson Family Home east of Little Cedar and a half mile south of their family farm house. Robert was the youngest in the family; he married the school teacher, Pearl Bucknam, in 1907, and continued to live on the home farm; his parents moved into Little Cedar. Robert and Pearl had two daughters; Vivian (Mrs. Alan Dushane), Osage; and Zola (Mrs. Ralph Mullenbach), Stacyville. They lived on the farm until 1962 when they rented their Mrs. L. Emerson farm and moved into Little Cedar. In 1968 they sold the farm (it had been in the family for 90 years) to Ingemar Pearson. Three of Leander Emerson's grandchildren are living today; Myra (Mrs. Oscar Johnson:, Vivian (Mrs. Alan DuShane) and Zola (Mrs. Ralph Mullenbach). Myra has one daughter, Della (Mrs. Russell Sprung) who had one son, Alan, and two daughters: Cheryle (Mrs. Gary Pearson) has a daughter Ingbritt; and Marilyn (Mrs. Robert Waldschmidt) whose children are Shannon, Russell, Nathan and Rachel. Vivian (Mrs. Alan DuShane) has one son Neal. Neal married Joyce Smalley and they Vivian & Zola Emerson reside in Fort Collins, Colorado. Zola (Mrs. Ralph Mullenback) has three children: Verlyn is married to Sue Theobald and the father of two children, Cory and Kelly; Curtis married Sandy McAnally and their children are" Kristie, Troy and Danielle; both families live in Stacyville, Iowa. Cheryl married Richard Wohlgamuth and they live in Mesa, Arizona. Leander and Matilda Emerson both died in 1917 at their home in Little Cedar, Iowa. They are buried in the Liberty Township Cemetery, east of Little Cedar. By Vivian DuShane, Mitchell County History, 1889 NOTES: According to the Liberty Township, Mitchell County, 1900 Federal Census, the wife, Matilda, was born in Pennsylvania about 1849.