Gilbert, Frank T.  "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and
Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon."
Portland, OR: Print & Lithographing House of A.  G.  Walling, 1882.  p. a32.
 
LEONARD RATTLEMILLER

   is a native of Bavaria.  His father lived at the city of Ausbach, in that
country, where he was a merchant anti near which he owned a farm.  Leonard was
born there February 10, 1819, and at the age of 25 left his native land and
sailed for America.  For about two years he remained at Baltimore, Maryland,
after which he took an extended tour through the Northern and Southern States,
arriving in New Orleans in the fall of 1846.  In 1852 he reached the Pacific
coast, and for the next ten years sought the "golden fleece" in the gulches and
canons of the Sierras.  Few mining camps were left unvisited by this traveler
between the Stanislaus river in San Joaquin county, and the south line of
Oregon.  In 1862 he reached Washington Territory, anti the same year the mines
in Idaho, where he remained eight years.  He then came to Walla Walla, and
settled down upon the farm where he now lives to enjoy a reasonable competence.
   He has left him from those years of wandering, besides the gold wrested
from where nature had deposited it, a memory of strange adventures and singular
escapes from imminent peril, where death had looked him in the face and then
passed on.  He had married in 1849, and lost his wife by death in 1852, leaving
him with one child named John, In December, 1858, he was again married, this
time to Miss Barbara Klein, the lady that is now his wife.  His farm consists of
160 acres of land, all fenced, all under cultivation ; situated three and a half
miles southwest of Walla Walla city.  The improvements can be seen by reference
to view of his home in this work.

* * * *

Submitted to the WA.  Bios Project in February 2007 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.