Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904,
pp 708-713 (book miss-numbered, no pages 709 & 710) [Lyon]

     SIMEON NORVEL LEONARD, deceased, was born in Lydna,
Gloucestershire, England, in the year 1801.  He obtained a liberal
education, both literary and scientific.  In his youth he entered
the English navy and served for a period of three years, rising to
the rank of commanding lieutenant.  He was an ardent student and
lover of the sciences, and, his father being an iron manufacturer,
he turned his attention to this line of industry.  He also had a
paternal uncle who was an iron manufacturer and the founder of the
town of Leonardville, South Wales, where he became very prominent in
connection with the iron industry, dying a millionaire.  The
business pursuits of his father and uncle, together with his won
scientific and industrial bent of mind, led Simeon N. Leonard into
the field of the iron industry.
     Two of his brothers, Reuben and Samuel, had left their native
land to seek their fortunes in America, and in 1825 he followed them
to this country.  His brother, Reuben, had located at Bear Creek,
Pennsylvania, and, having purchased farm lands, was engaged in
agricultural pursuits.  He became a large landowner and a very
successful farmer.  The other brother, Samuel, had turned his
attention to the iron industry, and when Simeon N. Leonard came to
the United States he soon afterward constructed and placed in
operation a rolling mill for his brother Samuel at Pipetown,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  This enterprise was known as the Pipetown
Rolling Mills, and was the first rolling mill operated west of the
Allegheny mountains.
     Subsequently Mr. Leonard, discontinuing his efforts in the
interest of his brother, built for himself and others a rolling mill
at Covington, Kentucky, but this did not prove a profitable venture,
and he later went to Nashville, Tennessee, where for other parties
he built another rolling mill, which was under his management for
several years, and which he subsequently, in 1842, removed to a
point on the Cumberland river about ten miles above Eddyville.  He
continued to manage and superintend the mill for its owners until
his death, which occurred in 1854.  The mill proved a financial
success, and in it was manufactured the famous Hillman boiler iron,
a superior of which had not been known, and which was a source of
enormous wealth to its producers.  The mill was operated at his
point on the Cumberland river for years, and after passing to other
ownership was removed to the city of Louisville, where railroad
facilities for shipping might be secured.
     It has been observed that Mr. Leonard was of a scientific turn
of mind, and he always continued his scientific researches,
investigations and experiments.  While operating the rolling mill on
the banks of the Cumberland he experimented much in the manufacture
of iron.  Steel was then manufactured by a process that rendered it
too expensive for use other than for edged tools.  Mr. Leonard,
however, discovered a process of manufacturing steel which is
identical with the process known as the Bessemer.  Having
demonstrated to his won satisfaction that his process was practical
and that it would revolutionize the iron industry throughout the
world, and, being anxious to accomplish the good which he knew would
follow the use of his discovery, he did not withhold from others the
results of his investigations.  If patenting his process occurred to
him, he was too unselfish to have secured letters patent.  In his
youth he and Henry Bessemer were schoolmates and friends in his
native land, and to Mr. Bessemer he wrote a detailed account of his
discovery and accompanied his letter with drafts and plans which
gave to Mr. Bessemer such information as to enable him to give the
process a practical test.  Having demonstrated the excellence of the
process, Mr. Bessemer at once took out letters patent in Great
Britain and filed a caveat in the United States, thereby not only
depriving Mr. Leonard of securing a patent, if he so desired, but
also depriving him of the honor of being the originator of the
process which has given to the world the now famous Bessemer steel.
     To Mr. Kelly, of Eddyville, Kentucky, also an iron
manufacturer, Mr. Leonard also communicated detailed information
about his discovery, and Mr. Kelly at once made effort to secure a
patent of the process, but found that Mr. Bessemer was in advance of
him.  To the genius of Mr. Leonard, however, was rightfully due the
credit of discovering the process for manufacturing a steel that has
revolutionized the iron industry.  It is apparent that to accomplish
this was his sole ambition.  He died not long after making his
discovery, not living even to enjoy witnessing the great results
which followed his work.
     At Nashville, Tennessee, Mr. Leonard had married Miss Frances
Knott, a native of North Carolina and a descendant of Huguenot
stock.  She survived him about nine years, her death occurring in
1863.  He had five children by that marriage and three children by a
former marriage.

Leonard Bessemer Kelly Knott
=
England PA TN NC

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/lyon/leonard.sn.txt