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- . Among the oldest families of the county are the Leonards, after whom the village of Leonardville is named, and at the present time there are about 200 people of that name residing in that vicinity. they are a kindly, god-fearing race, and have almost without exception secured wealth, and fame as wide as the State, as successful farmers.
Lying about a mile back from the coast is the farm of Richard A. Leonard. Here he lives with his wife and family. One of the member of his family was a daughter named Delia F., a young lady of twenty-three years, brown-haired, with dark-gray eyes, and of medium height. She was a modest, unassuming girl, a devoted member of the Baptist church, and one who found her chiefest pleasures in the home circle and the society of the village and church circles.
In the fall of the year it has been the custom from time immemorial for the good people of Middletown to make up parties to go to Sandy Hook beach fro the purpose of having an outing and gathering the red and purplish beach plums for winter preserves. On Saturday one of these parties was organized to the number of twenty, and of the party were Mrs. R. A. Leonard and her daughter Delia. With happy hearts and well-filled lunch baskets the party took the 10:45 a.m. boat for the railroad pier at the Hook.
Miss Leonard had been in ill health for a number of years and was under the professional care of Dr. Hammond, of New York. A few days previous she had received a bottle of medicine from her physician with instructions to take ten drops of the liquid in two teaspoonfuls of water. Before starting on the trip Miss Leonard took an empty medicine bottle and put in it a teaspoonful of the medicine, and then filled it with water. When the time for starting arrived she took with her what she supposed was the medicine with water, but through an inadvertence she picked up the bottle of undiluted medicine.
When the party arrived at the pier they started across the beach to the ocean side, about a mile away, for the purpose of having dinner, when they would afterward fill their baskets with plums and return home by the five o'clock boat. After the party had eaten their dinner, Miss Leonard took a dose of medicine. She immediately commenced to feel bad, and told her mother that the medicine seemed to affect her differently from that which she had been in the habit of taking. Mrs. Leonard asked to see the bottle, and to her horror discovered that the bottle contained the undiluted medicine.
One or two of the party immediately ran to the ocean edge and brought back sea water, which the young lady drank, in hopes that it would make her vomit and thus get the poison out of her system. This remedy failed, and Miss Leonard was seized with spasms. In the third spasm she died, within two hours after taking the fatal dose.
In the meantime messengers had been dispatched to the telegraph station at the Hook to telegraph for the attendance of physicians from Seabright and Atlantic Highlands. The Seabright physicians were all away from home, but at Atlantic Highlands Dr. Geo. D. Fay was found, and he immediately proceeded to the beach, but before he arrived Miss Leonard had passed away.
It was a sad cortege that retraced their steps across the sands in order to take the boat for home, bearing with them the lifeless body of their friend and companion. The body was taken to the home at Leonardville - the home which had been departed from in the morning with smiles, and good-byes, and well wishes for a pleasant day on the beach--the home upon which had so suddenly fallen the shadow of the Angel of Death.
The funeral was held at the house on Tuesday afternoon, the Rev. J. J. Baker, of Marlboro, formerly pastor of the Navesink Baptist church, conducting the services. The interment was made in Fairview Cemetery.
Ref: Red Bank Register, published Wed., Sept. 23, 1885.
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1862 - 1885 (23 years)