For any of you who might be interested in bamboo rods and their history.
Francis: “A corner of the Leonard rod making shop in Central Valley. The bearded figure in the right background is H. L. Leonard. Hiram Hawes is second from left, and E. F. Payne is third from left.”
Garner: “Leonard employees, prior to 1890. In 1956 Cora Leonard identified the men, from far left to far right, as William Gordon, Hiram Hawes (looking off to the left), E. W. Edwards, Ed Payne in top hat, Harry Burr, H. L. Leonard with the white beard, possibly George Varney with the dark beard, Henry Greene in foreground and Freeman Norton on the extreme right.”
Quite a group of rod makers. From this photo Hawes, Edwards and Payne went on to build rods on their own. There are probably people here that know more than I do about cane rods. I just wanted to share a pretty cool photo.
Doug J.