Rosa (Mack) Leonard (1830 - 1865)

Ancestors

Rosa was Ho-Chunk.

Biography

Rosa Mack was born November 14, 1830.

William M. Adams testified in 1839 that “Mr. Mack has five children, the names and ages of which according to a family Record kept in his family Bible, of which the following is an exact copy are as follows:

Rosa Mack b. Nov. 14th 1830

Mary Mack b. July 15th 1832

William Mack b. July 27th 1834

Louisa Mack b. May 6th 1836

Thomas Hartzell Mack born Feb. 9th 1838” (Waggoner, 26a)

“Concern over the education of his children forms one of the dominant themes of [Mack’s] letters. two of his daughters eventually attended the Female Seminary once it was established in Rockford. Carr wrote that while at school Mack’s daughter Louisa ‘had an untamed nature, and often would just walk home whenever the notion took her fancy’. Mack’s daughter Rose attended, and later taught at a school for the deaf in Jacksonville.” (Bishop & Campbell, 35b) Rose did not attend this school, rather it was her sister Mary who lived with Louisa in a dormitory with eleven other girls, as the 1850 census shows. Rose was a deaf mute, due to a childhood disease.

Rev. Adams says further in his 1839 deposition: "M^r Mack contributes to my support, as a Minister, and I have often been at his house. His family are interesting. His wife, who is an Indian woman, and of the Winnebago nation (it is said) appears like an amiable person; and the children are sprightly. M^r Mack has even expressed to me a due degree of anxiety for the welfare of his family and the education of his children. One of the children is deaf and dumb [Rosa], but very intelligent. Shortly after my acquaintance with M^r Mack, he expressed a wish that this child might enjoy the advantages of some institution established for the benefit of the deaf and dumb. I accordingly wrote on his behalf to the Principal of the Asylum in Hartford, Connecticut, and received a favorable answer." (Waggoner, 25b)

"She was a deaf mute and was sent to a school for the deaf in Jacksonville, Illinois for her education. There she met another student, a Mr. Leonard whom she married. They are believed to have a child who died an infant." (McMakin, 9)

Sources

• Dean McMakin, "Hononegah, A New Biography," Nuggets of History, 41, #4 (Dec., 2003): 1-11.
• Linda M. Waggoner (ed.), “Neither White Men Nor Indians: Affidavits from the Winnebago Mixed-blood Claim Commissions, Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, 1838-1839” (Roseville, Minnesota: Park Genealogical Books, 2002). Extracted from Territorial Papers of the United States, Wisconsin, 1836-1848. M236. “Special Files of the Office of Indian Affairs,” 1836-46. “Special File 161” (Roll 41). “Special File 190” (Roll 42). National Archives, Washington D.C., Documents on Microfilm, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Record Group 75).
• David Bishop and Craig G. Campbell, History of the Forest Preserves of Winneabo County, Illinois (Rockford, Illinois: Winnebago County Forest Preserve Commission, 1979).
• Locke A. Sprague, The Progenitors and Descendants of Col. Stephen Mack and Temperence Bond Mack as Related to the David Cooper and Rollin Sprague Families (Milwaukee: the Author, 1975).
• Marguerite Olds, Biography of the Mack Families (the Author, 1968).