H.C. LELAND, of Section 27, Garner Township, has been a resident of Iowa since 1873. He was born in Yorkshire, England, June 10, 1844, the son of B.F. and Lydia Dickens) Leland, both natives of Nashville, Tennessee. H.C. was a child of three years when his parents came to the United States, and settled at Ottawa, LaSalle County, Illinois, where they remained one year. They then removed to Lowell, Dodge County, Wisconsin, where they remained until our subject was sixteen years of age. The father was a farmer by occupation and H.C. Leland was therefore reared on farm. At the time of the civil war he enlisted in the Eleventh Infantry, Wisconsin Volunteers, under Colonel Charles Harris and Captain James Long. He was under fire at Cotton Plant, Arkansas, and the battles of Grand Gulf and Port Gibson; in the latter battle he was shot through he lungs, and was confined in the field hospital two weeks; was then removed to the Government Hospital, and then to the general hospital at Madison, Wisconsin. He served three years and one month.

After recovering sufficient for labor he returned to New York, where he was employed as engineer in a mill, and also as railroad fireman and engineer. He afterward located in Chicago, in the stockyards, where he was engaged as engineer in a packinghouse, and later was promoted to foreman, remaining five years. In 1873 he came to Hamburg, Iowa, and August 3, 1881, he went to Omaha, Nebraska, and later to Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Politically Mr. Leland is a Republican; he is a member of the Masonic Order, Jerusalem Lodge, No. 253, at Hamburg, Iowa. He was married in Chicago, Illinois, in April 1872, to Miss Jennie Bonney, a native of Chelsea, Massachusetts.