Bio: Dibble, Leonard (1881)
Contact: Janet Schwarze
Email: Posted4u@Charter.net

---Source: 1881 History of Northern Wisconsin, pg. 223.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF LEONARD DIBBLE

LEONARD DIBBLE, P.O. Chippewa Falls, came to this place from Mason City, Iowa, Dec. 6, 1868, where he had resided since the year 1856. When he went to Mason City it was very new, and that Winter was one of the coldest ever experienced. Many froze to death in that section and many narrowly escaped starvation from the want of nearly inaccessible supplies. Mr. Dibble owned a famous span of sorrel horses which he had purchased of Mr. Kuy Earl, of Eldridge, N. Y., and driven through to Iowa, and it was the only team to be found that would face any of the storms and haul supplies over the trackless prairie from Dubuque. Their house was of the most primitive kind and offered but a feeble protection against the rigors of that terrible Winter. They were not able to keep a fire much of the time on account of the snow that melted through the "shake" roof. Most of the time since coming to Wisconsin, Mr. Dibble has been extensively engaged in lumbering, while he and his wife, Elizabeth A. Dibble, own a large amount of farming lands. He spent a part of the season in the Black Hills in 1870, hoping to benefit his shattered health, but with indifferent success. Has one child living, William Leonard, born Jan. 1, 1870. They buried seven children in Mason City, Iowa.