There are more pictures of Lillis and Leigh and their family here. There is also more information about their two children, nine grandchildren and great grandchildren and their families on that page.
Leigh Jack McLain was Henry and Mary Helena’s second son. He was born in 1900. He died very young in 1939.
Leigh McLain went to Leicester, NY in 1914-1915 when he was a teenager to stay with his Elliot grandparents.
Leigh took a lot of pictures when he was younger. Here is a selection of some of them.
Brief History of Leigh’s life
Leigh was born in Michigan in 1900 in Tecumseh, Michigan. Leigh graduated from Tecumseh High School in 1918 and was drafted into the Army for WWI. He never went to Europe to fight (fortunately). He studied chemical engineering at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburg for a few years but never graduated and he come back home to Michigan and farming. He married Lillis Albertine Howard in 1925. It seems like they were sweethearts from High School. Leigh and Lillis ran a farm and dairy business in Kalamazoo and they had two children, Howard Albert (b. 1926) and Marjorie Jeanette (b. 1929).
Leigh at Carnegie Tech
Leigh McLain went to Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, PA in 1918. He joined the Army and as Carnegie had a military training camp during the First World War, was in the military before he started his classes. Fortunately for him he was never deployed but he was involved in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic where he worked in a lab/took care of patients, social distanced and lived in a tent. His letters are home about the pandemic are here.
Marriage to Lillis Albertine Howard
Lillis Albertine Howard was also born in 1900, and lived close to the McLain’s. Her father, Albert Orlando Howard owned a chicken farm and also had a camera so has scads of pictures from the turn of the century.
Leigh and Lillis were married in 1925. Their wedding picture is below is below (labelled by Lillis). Leigh and Lillis are 6th and 5th from the right, respectively. Elliot is behind Lillis and Mrs and Mr Howard are to Lillis’ right. To Leigh’s left is Raynor or maybe Stuart and then Henry and Mary Helena McLain.
Leigh and family on the farm
Leigh was a farmer and rented farmland, according to the 1930 census, much closer to Tecumseh than his father or his uncle Fulton (Fulton McLain III), probably near A.O. Howard, Lillis’ father’s poultry farm. Lillis father’s farm is shown in the land map below just outside of Tecumseh where Mr Howard owned 65.81 acres in 1916.
IThe census records Leigh is listed as the farmer while Lillis was ‘keeping house’ – but more likely they worked the farm together. The picture below shows Lillis and Leigh on a John Deere tractor harvesting hay. Howard is also on the tractor with his dad.
Howard and Marjorie
Howard Albert and Marjorie Jeanette were Lillis and Leigh’s children. Howard married Verna Bradley (b. 1934) in 1964 and Marjorie Jeanette married Charles Arnade in 1948. They had 2 children and 7 children, respectively. More pictures of Leigh, Lillis, Howard, Marjorie and their families are found on Leigh McLain’s family page.
Lillis McLain
Lillis Albertine Howard McLain was only 38 years old when Leigh died. She left with a farm that was in debt and two children under the age of 14 – Howard was 2 days away from his 13th birthday and Marjorie was only 9. As a result, she had to leave her children with the neighbors while she went back to graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She graduated with a Masters in Education in 1942. Howard always had fond memories of working on the neighbor’s farm. He said they were glad to have food and that the farmer neighbor they worked for was the smartest man he ever met.
Here are some picture of Lillis over the years.
Henry's boys 