Version 6.01

11 February 2025

David March © 2014

Leonard G Calder was born on 8 September 1870 in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee, USA to Lewis B Calder (1828-1911) & Emily (Emma) Leonard (1848-1897). His given names were Leonard Charles Wentworth but he was always known as Leonard G Calder.

Leonard G. Calder was reared and educated in Bathgate and Neche, North Dakota. In 1891 he went to work for the Canadian Pacific Railroad as fireman and later became an engineer. In 1903 he came to Saskatoon and was engineer of a passenger train out of Saskatoon until 1905, when he resigned his position with the railroad, and entered political circles, becoming organizer for Hon. W. C. Sutherland, Speaker of the House, and he also organized the district for Federal Members George E. McCraney, M. P., and W. E. Knowles, M. P. In 1906 he was elected alderman by acclamation, his first public office. In 1907 he was appointed sheriff of the Judicial District and has since satisfactorily filled this office. He was a member of the Saskatoon Police Commission in 1910 and it was largely through his influence that the local police were uniformed. For three years he has been vice president of the International Sheriffs Association, is president of the Saskatoon Fair Association, and is a director of the Commercial Life Insurance Company, with headquarters in Edmonton. He owns four farms in this district.

 From Saskatchewan and its People

Leonard G Calder married Florence Lilian McKitrick on 29 July 1903 in Petrolia, Ontario. Florence was born on 24 July 1879 in Petrolia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada to Thomas McKitrick (1838-1905) & Jane Ann (Jennie) Carter (1847-1918). Florence grew up in Petrolia until her marriage.

Leonard & Florence had two daughters, Dorothy Eleanor (1900-1986) & Margaret Lillian who was born on 8 August 1907 in Saskatoon. Both daughters were stenographers in Saskatoon during the 1920’s. Dorothy met her future husband Gustav N “Gus” Geiszler in Saskatoon whilst he was a teacher at the University of Saskatchewan. She travelled to North Dakota in 1930 for her marriage. Gus Geiszler was an important agronomist in North Dakota for over 20 years.

Margaret worked as a stenographer for O’Regan & Ross, Barristers in 1928-29. Sometime before 1957, Margaret married Archibald Poucher Mechin (1896-1975), an accountant who had two children by his first marriage, Barbara & Robert Lee (1925-2012). Margaret & Archibald lived in York and Toronto until Archibald’s death in 1975. Margaret subsequently married Winslow Benson, a retired barrister. Margaret died aged 99 on 13 August 2006 in Toronto.

Their family tree can be found on Ancestry under the title 3rd Ave Calder Tree.

 CALDER FAMILY