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Lewis Leonard

Lewis Leonard

Male 1791 -

 

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For about at least three years - and possibly longer, I tried to reconnect with a Bill Abrams (AKA "Streamer), a very well known fly rod maker. According to the book, Casting A Spell, hanging in Bill's rod-making shop is a lithograph of Lewis Leonard and his wife, Hannah Blood. They were born in the late 1700s and are the parents of Hiram Lewis Leonard, "the father of the modern fly rod." I believed they were also my Great-Great-Great Grandparents. Some time ago, after I originally tracked him down, Bill promised to send me a copy of that lithograph saying, "I'm all over it." Then his computer blew up and he lost my contact information, I changed email addresses and cell phone numbers, etc., and I never got the pictures.


On and off over the intervening years, I kept trying to contact him. He wasn't responding to emails to the address on his website. I eventually enlarged the search to include his wife as I knew he was married to a Susan from a passage in Casting A Spell. In the book it also said that Susan Abrams was an actress. My searches didn't yield any contact information, I.e.: email address, phone number, street address, etc.


About two months ago, I searched for "bill abrams" + "susan abrams" and ended up on a website of a community theatre in Connecticut: theatreworks.us. It's a great site. You should visit it. This morning I thought, "To Hell with it. I'm going to contact the theatre and see if they can help me get a hold of Susan." A long time ago I learned that, if you really want a man to do something and he ain't, get a hold of his wife. I sent the following email to the theatre's contact address:


"Good Morning,

 

My name is Tom Sparrow. I am the current Vice-President of The Players Guild of 

Dearborn (Michigan), a community theatre founded in 1927. Several months ago I 

was trying to contact Bill Abrams of Warren, Connecticut about a private matter. 

I searched for Bill and his wife, Susan. I'm guessing the Susan who acts with

your group is Bill's wife. One of the hits let me to your website and I looked  

at the PAST SHOWS pages. I was impressed. So impressed, that I 

implemented a similar feature for our website. They say, "Imitation is the 

sincerest form of flattery." Well, you're being imitated. You can see our pages 

at playersguildofdearborn.org. Click ABOUT US in the top menu and then choose 

Past Shows.

 

We don't have all of our photos up yet, but we're getting there. We also don't 

have a database driving the site for cross-referencing players and show, but 

someday we'll imitate that, too.

 

I am asking you to please forward this to Susan. She can decide whether or not 

she wants to contact me.

 

Hey, thanks in advance. 

 

Congratulation on a great website.

 

Break a leg!"


Somebody at theatre works opened it and forwarded it to Susan who is currently acting in New York. She sent it to Bill. He sent me the following:


Hi Tom -

I have been forwarded this email.

Are you the gentleman looking for photos of Lewis Leonard & wife? I have lost your information with the data on my last computer. I tried the number listed on the email and the number isn’t in service.

Please call me at 860 387-3152, if you do not reach me I will call you back. – Streamer


After trying to call him and getting sent to voice mail, which required a password, I sent him this:


Hi, Streamer ...

 

Yep. That's me.

 

I been trying to contact you ever since we exchanged emails a number of years ago. I believe that Lewis Leonard and his wife, Hannah Blood, are my Great-Great-Great Grandparents. I would love a photograph or a copy of that picture. For the last several years I have been emailing you at streamr@optonline.net without ever hearing anything back.

 

I began to search all of the "people finding" sites and, one day, I searched for both you and Susan and got a hit on the theatreworks site. I thought, what the Hell, maybe I can get to Streamer through his wife. So I sent the email you got today.

 

I have put up pages on The Players Guild of Dearborn site that are similar to those of theatre works. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

 

I tried to call you just a minute ago. It went to voice mail and asked me to enter a password. Damn, you're hard to get ahold of.

 

I'll keep trying.

 

Jeeez. There really is a Streamer.

 

Best Regards,


He sent back the following:


The condition isn’t great on these old lithos but this is better than the shots I had.

Glad you tracked me down-

Cheers!

Streamer


Attached in this, and the next two emails, were pictures of Lewis Leonard, the father of Hiram Lewis Leonard, the "Father of the Modern Bamboo Rod," and his wife, Hannah Blood. I also believe that they are the parents of Nancy Leonard who married Charles Washburn who was the father of Lura Ann Washburn who was the mother of Frank Lewis Blair who was the father of Maude Blair Sparrow who was the mother of me.


Sometimes, if you stick to it, you have a little success in life.


Onward and Upward.







File namelewisleonard2.jpg
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Dimensions406 x 541
Linked toLewis Leonard

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