Charles Thomas Leonhardt is secretary-treasurer and manager of the Knoxville Cotton Mills and is one of this city's foremost citizens. He was born on his father's farm, some four miles northeast of Clinton, Anderson county, on the 6th of January, 1862, a son of Charles and Fannie (Defoor) Leonhardt. The father was born in 1822 in Saxony and came to the United States alone, in 1849, locating in New York city, where he remained for some two years. Being a millwright by trade he subsequently went south, building grist and flour mills as well as sawmills throughout Georgia and Alabama and other states in the south. In 1858 he located on Hinds Creek in Anderson county, because of the splendid water power afforded at that point, and built a flour mill and a sawmill, both of which are still standing. Mr. Leonhardt conducted those enterprises until 1884, when he disposed of them at a substantial profit. He then moved to Knoxville and lived retired from active business life until his demise in 1913. He was one of the prominent men of his day and his death was sincerely mourned by his family and many friends throughout the state. Mrs. Leonhardt died in 1918. She [p.506] was born in DeKalb county, Georgia, a daughter of Martin Defoor, a farmer and a native of Georgia, who operated a ferry near Atlanta and Bolton for many years.
In the acquirement of his early education Charles Thomas Leonhardt attended the public schools of Anderson county and subsequently enrolled in the East Tennessee Wesleyan University, now Grant University. Upon the completion of his preliminary education he became a student at the University of Tennessee, and then for a short time he was a student in Eastman's Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York. After putting his textbooks aside he was employed in New York and Washington, D. C., in an installment house, continuing in that connection for two years. In 1886 he secured a position as private secretary to Colonel Charles M. McGhee at New York and served in that capacity until 1900, when he came to Knoxville and associated himself with his present company, first as secretary and treasurer. In 1917 he was made general manager and has since discharged the duties of all three offices. Aside from the Knoxville Cotton Mills, Mr. Leonhardt is a director in the Knoxville Spinning Company and vice persident and director in the Ideal Hosiery Mills at Maryville.
On the 24th of September, 1889, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Leonhardt and Miss Sydney Ledgerwood, a daughter of Colonel Washington L. Ledgerwood, a native of Union county, Tennessee, a prominent lawyer of Knoxville and an outstanding figure in political circles. He was a member of the state senate and house and was speaker of the house when the new constitution was adopted. To Mr. and Mrs. Leonhardt one son has been born: Arthur Edward, whose birth occurred on the 4th of March, 1892. He received his education in the Baker Himel School in Knoxville and later attended the University of Tennessee, Eastman's Business College and for one year was a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During the World war he was in the inspection service. He married Lucille Baker of Knoxville, in 1922.
In his political views Mr. Leonhardt is a stanch republican and although he has never sought nor desired political preferment he is a public-spirited citizen and is never too busy to give his aid in the furtherance of any movement for the benefit of the community at large. His religious faith is that of the First Presbyterian church, to the support of which he is a generous contributor. He is an active member of the Board of Commerce, the Rotary Club and the Business Men's Club. Socially he is identified with the Cherokee Country Club. For recreation Mr. Leonhardt turns to the great outdoors and he is particularly fond of motoring.
Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 2 -- transcribed by, Amanda Jowers
