Business records of L.V. Aspril and Son blacksmithing and machinery shop

Leonard Jr. followed in his father's footsteps as a blacksmith and maker of agricultural implements; later, he became a carriage and wagon maker. He married Lydia Williams in 1879. They had several children, including David Clarence Aspril, who married Ethel Mailly (see Col. 37 at this repository). Leonard Jr. died in 1934.



Leonard V. Aspril and his family resided in Odessa, Delaware. (During the time when the earliest of these records were created, the area was known as Cantwell's Bridge.) Leonard, first alone and then with his namesake son, operated a blacksmithing business. They did a lot of repair work on farm implements, some on the local sloops that carried so much of the agricultural bounty of the region to market, shoed horses, and did other general smith work.

Leonard Vandegrift Aspril, Sr. was born in 1820, the son of John Aspril (1788-1867) and Ann Vandegrift (1800-1886). Leonard married Mary McMurphy, by whom he had four sons, including Leonard V. Aspril, Jr., born in 1850 (some genealogy web sites indicate an unknown second wife was the mother of this son). Leonard Sr. served in the Civil War in Co. K of the 5th Delaware Infantry. He died on May 1, 1911. In the 1900 and 1910 censuses, he was living with his son Leonard Jr. In the 1900 census, both father and son were listed as making machinery and agricultural implements.

Leonard Jr. followed in his father’s footsteps as a blacksmith and maker of agricultural implements; later, he became a carriage and wagon maker. He married Lydia Williams in 1879. They had several children, including David Clarence Aspril, who married Ethel Mailly (see Col. 37 at this repository). Leonard Jr. died in 1934. In the 1910 and 1920 censuses, he was listed as a maker of carriages and wagons; in the 1930 census, he was listed as retired.