Leonard W. Kidd a “native Son of the Golden West,” is publisher and proprietor of the East-Side Times, published at Millville. He was born at Placerville, February 2, 1852, of good old Scotch ancestry. Archibald and Edgar Kidd, brothers, came from Scotland to America in 1810 and settled at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Archibald Kidd, his grandfather, was a civil engineer at the coal mines of Pennsylvania, and there, his father, Captain John Kidd, was born.

      Mr. Kidd, the subject of our sketch, was one of three children, himself and his sister being the only survivors; she is now Mrs. Grace E. Hussey. He was educated at Sacramento city, and when a boy worked two years in a drug store, and after this went to learn the printers’ trade in the State printing office. Was there two years from March 1866, till January, 1868, when he went to San Francisco to complete the trade, and there he served an apprenticeship on the Overland Monthly, continuing with them until February, 1874.  Next he went to Portland, Oregon, and worked in a job office. From there he went to Seattle, Washington, and worked six months; then he returned to San Francisco and worked at intervals. For a time he was foreman for the “patent outside” Newspaper Union. After this he worked for the Pacific Newspaper Union until 1882. He was then engaged, at the mission at San Francisco, in a job office and on a local paper called the Saturday Local. In November1883, he went to Millville and started his own paper, the East-Side Times, publishing the first issue November 10, 1883, and successfully continuing it since. He has purchased a residence and two other houses and his office, and is interested in a farm and in raising stock, and also in lands at Seattle, Washington.

      He was married December 24, 1872, to Miss Cora M. Pepper, a native of Sonoma County, this state, and they have two boys and a girl, Leonard L. and Grace A., born in San Francisco, and John Arthur, born at Millville. Mr. Kidd is one of the oldest native sons on the coast, and his paper is the first published on the east side of the river in Shasta County. He is president of Millville Parlor, No.165, Native Sons of the Golden West, and was one of the charter members of Pacific Parlor, No. 10, San Francisco. He is a Republican, a member of the State and County Central Committees, and in 1888 was elected Justice of the Peace in Millville, which office he now holds.

Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California The Lewis Publishing Co., 1891 Pages 811-812
Transcribed by: Bonnie Phelan