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THE LEPPO-NEAL REUNION

A History of the Families and the Marriage Relations 

The history of family reunions is generally the recording of facts, of dates and births and present location and prosperity of the offspring, but the history of the Leppo-Neal families is so interwoven with the history of Richland county as to make it of more than local interest.

John Leppo, the first one of that name ever known in this vicinity and the original tree of all this offspring, was born in Maryland in 1782, his father having emigrated from Germany. He was married in the state of his birth and to that union was born in the order named, Elizabeth, married to William Hammot, Samuel, Sarah, John, Jacob, David, James, Mary, married to John Neal and Will Leppo.

John Leppo and this family emigrated from Maryland to Ohio, coming in wagons in 1833. Several of the children had married, but followed the next year. He located on the farm now owned by William Leppo, near Spring Mills, which is known as the old homestead, and of which William is now at the age of 80 years the only living direct descendant.

This father and family of married children settled on farms in the vicinity of Spring Mills and prospered, clearing the primeval forests and operating sawmills until over sixteen hundred acres of land, mostly adjoining, was owned by the family. They also assisted in constructing the old Mansfield and Sandusky railroad, the first railroad west of the Alleghenies, which was afterwards merged with the Baltimore and Ohio. Horses were first used to haul the cars to Sandusky.

John Leppo, the second son, and the present living brother William, will be remembered by many old residents of Mansfield, as among the founders and large stockholders in the old Dickson bank, afterwards merged into the Citizens’ National Bank.

The Neal connection with the Leppo family comes through the marriage of Mary Leppo to John Neal in 1835 and the marriage twelve years later of Barbara Neal to James Leppo.

The second reunion of this family held at Casino park last Thursday brought together 102 relatives, among them many who had never met before and 50 others, including great-great grandchildren, were counted who were not present.

Among those from a distance were: Joseph Wirt and wife, of Crawford county; Mr. Hamilton and wife, of Galion; Mrs. Ella Weirick and daughter, and Mrs. J. P. Bowman and daughter, of Loudonville.

 There has been one death in the connection since the last reunion, that of Mrs. J. W. Leppo, of Shelby, past 60 years of age.

                                                 REUBEN HESS, Historian

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Friday, November 13, 2009