Date of Death: 16 Mar 1875 
Subject: Leonard Rich
Source: Andrew County Republican, 19 Mar 1875, p. 8

Mr. L. Rich, hotel-keeper, of Rochester, is very low with diseases of the head and bowels.  He has been afflicted about two weeks, and on one or two occasions, his life was despaired of by his attending physician.  His son was in Savannah on Monday, bearing a telegram to his brother, in Indiana, to hasten to his bedside.

Source: Andrew County Republican, 26 Mar 1875, p. 1

From Rochester.  March 24, 1875

Ed. Republican:-- One of the most solemn thoughts of human life, is the uncertainty of life and the certainty of death.  True it is, no one can make calculations for the future with any assurance that they will live to see their anticipations realized.  To-day we are in the full enjoyment of health and faculties; to-morrow the death angel has claimed us for his own. We lie in the icy embrace of death; have laid aside the robes of mortality, doned [sic] the robes of immortality, and crossed the river of death to try the mysteries of the unknown land beyond.

Leonard Rich, proprietor of the Indiana House, and one of Rochester's most public-spirited citizens, died on Tuesday, March 16th, after a severe illness of ten days' duration. His disease was of a very complicated and uncertain nature, baffling every attempt of the attending physician; and although relatives and kind friends did all in their power to prolong life, their efforts were of no avail.  It had been otherwise ordained, and the sufferer passed away as calmly and peacefully as if sleeping the calm, sweet sleep of life.

Leonard Rich was born in Genesee county, New York, in January, 1819.--  He remained in the State of New York until the year 1841, when he came West as far as Indiana, purchasing a farm near the town of Elkhart, upon which he resided until the year 1865, when he emigrated to Missouri.  He became a citizen of Rochester in April, 1865.-- Upon his arrival, he purchased the Indiana House, of which he was proprietor at the time of his death.

In the death of Leonard Rich we have lost one of our best, truest, most charitable citizens.  Large-hearted and exceedingly generous, his deeds of kindness were many; but his charity was ever without ostentation or display.-- Many a poor family, who knew not from whence would come the food to drive hunger from their door, or from whence would come the fuel to protect them from the winter's cold, will ever hold his memory sacred.  Leonard Rich has gone to his eternal rest, but he has left a name and a remembrance that will never be obliterated from the memory of the people of Rochester.

Praetor

We are informed that a son of Mr. Rich, of Rochester, some 18 or 19 years of age, lies very sick, with but little expectations of his recovery.