The Valley of Heart's Delight
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S. F. LEIB
Bio- Pen Pictures 93
SURNAMES: ALLEN,

S. F. LEIB came to this country in 1869, settling in San Jose.  Mr. Leib was born in Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1848, his father, Joseph Leib, having removed thither from Pennsylvania, with his parents in 1806, when but seven years of age.  At this very early date  in the history of Ohio the Indians had but recently held almost unlimited possessions, and an old Indian trail ran through the Leib farm.

Joseph Leib's wife was Clarissa Allen, a native of Ohio, her father having come there from Vermont  at a very early date.   Here in Fairfield county they lived their entire married lives, and here they died--Jopseph Leib in 1880 , his wife in 1863.   There were born to them three sons: L.H. Leib, who was killed at Bolivar, Tennessee, in 1862, while leading his company into action; Joseph Leib, now living in Illinois, and S. F., the subject of this sketch.

Mr. Leib, with his brothers , attended the public schools of their native section until he commenced the study of law at Ann Arbor, Michigan, from which institution he graduated in 1869.  He relived the monotony of school life, however, by enlisting in Company E. 159 Ohio Infantry, in the spring of 1864, at the age of sixteen, but was mustered out of service the same year.

Since coming to California Mr. Leib has ben not only a successful practitioner of the law, but fortunate in business ventures, and his lovely home on the beautiful Alameda is remarked by everyone who passes it.  Here, after the business day is ended, he is received by wife and children into that true home peace and enjoyment which is worth the heaviest toil to win' and here he expects to make his future home.  Beside his city home, Mr. Leib owns one hundred and ten acres in the Capertino [sic] district, eight miles from San Jose, on the Stevens Creek road, which he has all planted in French prune trees, seventy acres of which are in full bearing.  Mr. Leib varies the routine of  law practice by experimental horticulture, in the success of which he finds much pleasure.  He handles all his own prunes- drying them in the sun- and has already established for them a wide reputation on account of the thorough manner in which they drying and packing processes are accomplished.

Mr. Leib is a member of John A. Diz Post, No. 42, San Jose. G. A. R.

Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H.S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888. p. 93
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben
S. F. LEIB
Bio- Sawyers
SURNAMES:  ALLEN, CAMPBELL, GRISSIM, ARMSTRONG, WRIGHTS,
For more than a half century associated with the jurisprudence of Santa Clara County, Judge S. F. Leib forcibly impressed his personal and professional worth upon the community.  A native of Fairfield County, Ohio, he was be in the year 1848, his parents, Joseph and Clarissa (Allen) Leib, being natives of the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively.
S. F. Leib received his preliminary education in the public schools of Ohio; later at a private academy before entering the University of Michigan, where he was graduated in 1869, receiving his degree of  L.L. B.  In the spring of 1864, at the age of sixteen he enlisted in Company E, One Hundred Fifty-ninth Volunteers Ohio Infantry, serving in the last year of the war.  He is now a member of the John Diz Post No. 42. G. A. R.  In 1869 he removed to San Jose, where he entered the law firm of Moore and Laine, and later D. M. Delmas entered the firm.  This partnership was dissolved in 1879.  During the years of 1903, Mr. Leib was appointed Judge of the Superior Court  of Santa Clara county, but resigned before the end of the year to resume his private practice.  For years he has served as vice-president of the First National Bank of San Jose; also as director and attorney for the bank. The attainments of this fine and noble early settler are such as to enroll him for all time with the history builders of the beautiful Santa Clara Valley.
His marriage December 15, 1874, united him with Miss Lida Campbell Grissim, and to them have been born five children; Lida C., the wife of Chas. D. Armstrong of Omaha; Elan, the wife of Professor H. W. Wrights; Fran A., manager of one of the Leib orchardist; Roy C., attorney at law and partner of Mr. Leib; Earl, a resident of Los Angeles.  Mr and Mrs. Leib also have four grandchildren. Politically Mr. Leib is a stalwart supporter of the Republican party; religiously he was born and reared a Methodist.  He occupies an enviable position in the community in which he lives, as a man who serves wisely and well as a jurist, and commands the highest esteem of those with whom he has bee associated.  Aside from his legal practice, Mr. Leib is extensively interest in orchard property.
Transcribed cferoben, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 316




FRANK A. LEIB
Bio- Sawyers
SURNAMES: CAMPBELL,  SANDILANDS, BENNETT,  GREET, BOYD

A notable prize-winner at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, of whom Santa Clarans are naturally very proud, is Frank A. Leib, the rancher at Lundy's Road, four miles northeast of San Jose, part owner of one of the largest walnut groves, in private possession, in the United States. He was born at San Jose on August 4, 1880, the son of Judge S. F. Leib, [bio above ]who came to California in early days from Ohio, and married Miss Lida Campbell Grissim, a native of Georgetown, Ky.

Frank A. Leib was sent to the grammar school in San Jose, and then attended the Washburn Preparatory School leading up to Stanford, from which he was graduated with the class of '02. He next took a post-graduate course of two years at Stanford, and in 1904 he was admitted to the bar, and he practiced law. until 1905. In that year he took up the scientific, fascinating pursuit of orcharding, and now he supervises one of the Leib walnut groves of 100 acres, located at the northerly extreme end of Lundy Road. There he has twenty varieties of walnuts, and he reserves one acre which he devotes to experimental work in the effort to create new varieties. He uses the Royal Black Walnut and the Paradox Black Walnut trees as basic stock for grafting, and he experiments with every variety of walnut, wild and tame. At the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, Mr. Leib took eight first prizes with walnuts grown upon the Leib ranches, demonstrating anew that Santa Clara County walnuts are the finest in the world. Mr. Leib is also interested in the culture of bees, and has about 150 hives in his apiary. He raises the bees for commercial purposes, and ships them in small packages to honey-producing parts of the state.

At Victoria, B. C., Mr. Leib was married on August 4, 1908, to Miss Mary Sandilands Bennett, a native of Toronto and of Scotch-Welsh parentage. Her father was Col. C. C. Bennett, who served with the British forces during the Boer War, and with the Canadian forces in the late World War from 1914 through the duration of hostilities; her mother before her marriage was Miss Florence Greet, and the famous English tragedian, Ben Greet, is an uncle of Mrs. Leib. Five children were born to Colonel and Mrs: Bennett: the eldest is Charles C. Bennett, who is at Cranbrook, B. C.; Maj. Richard A. G. Bennett is at Edmonton, Alberta; Mary, the wife of our subject, was the third in order of birth; Maj. Arthur Patrick Bennett is at Vernon, B. C.; Kate, the wife of Lieutenant Boyd, lives at Camp Grant, Rockford, Ill. Mrs. Leib's two brothers served in the late World War as majors, and they also received the Military Cross, while her father received the Military Cross and also the British D. S. 0. One brother was severely gassed, and her father received a compound fracture of the arm, which, fortunately, has not prevented his remaining in the Canadian Army as the aide to the general commanding at Victoria. Mary Bennett was thirteen years old when her father removed to Pacific Grove, near Monterey, and there she was educated at the grammar and high schools. ' Four children have come to'gladden the household of Mr. and Mrs. Leib: Samuel Franklin, Charles Bennett, Mary Sandilands and Lida Campbell. Mr. and Mrs. Leib are both Republicans, and Mrs. Leib is a member of the National League of Women's Service, Department of Santa Clara.

While at the university Mr. Leib was captain of the Stanford tennis team, and a member of the Varsity Glee Club, the Class Club, the Phi Delta Phi, Zeta Phi, Sigma Sigma and T. M. E. class fraternities. Word has just been received from Stanford University that their nine-year-old daughter, Mary Sandilands Leib, has been adjudged one of the thousand brightest pupils in California. It is a matter of greatest interest and encouragement to students of eugenics as well as advocates of "back to the land" movement, to know that Mr. and Mrs. Leib are both college bred, each comes from distinguished families, and that they are rearing their children in the environment of the free and open of country life, and that their children are all exceptionally large, strong and bright, so much so, as to be officially noticed for these enviable qualities of strength and efficiency. 

Transcribed cferoben, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 726 
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Santa Clara County- The Valley of Heart's Delight