Leopold did leave the ship in New York and worked for and lived with a Jewish family there. Being an illegal alien he was forced to correspond with Elisa by using the jewish family's name and address. This family agreed to send Elise money so she and the baby Barbara could come to America. She lived with and worked for the family as a housekeeper when she got to New York. Leopold was not able to be there when Elisa arrived because the immigration officials had gotten word about him and he left while she was in transit.

The family in New York knew of a family in Philadelphia that would take Leopold into their home and provide him a job. It is unsure how long he stayed in Philadelphia, but Elisa never joined him there. Elise worked for the family in New York for two years, sometime in that two years Leopold left Philadelphia and traveled to St. Louis. By this time Leopold was fluent enough in english to get a job in St. Louis on his own. He did, and sent for Elisa and Barbara to join him.

After a short period of time Barbara got pneumonia, died and was buried in St. Louis. A short time after Barbara died, Elizabeth was born followed by Otto while they were still in St. Louis.

Leopold and Elisa decided to homestead in Arkansas around Scatterville, which is near the Woodland Heights Cemetary, north of Rector. Leopold worked for a sawmill and Elisa cooked for the Rector Hotel. She also did some domestic work for the Joe Wolf family, who owned a general store and cotton gin in Rector. Leopold bought an eighty acre farm along the railroad one and one-half miles south of Rector. The farm had a log house and barn and an old sawmill. The author is not sure if they used the sawmill, but they did use some of the lumber remaining to build a barn and start a large house on the east forty acres which bordered on Hebner Road.

All of their children attended the Dixie School, which was on the old road across the railroad from the sawmill. The school was one room serving grades one through eight. Some of the Leirer children received some instruction at home. It is unsure as to how much english Leopold ever acquired, but Elisa's spoken english was not very good and other than her name she never learned to write in english. All the Leirer children started school together in the first grade and were promoted as to their skills during the year. Elizabeth had taught herself some at home and progressed very fast, but left school after two years and got married.

Elizabeth was the oldest of the children and helped rear the others while Elisa worked. The author's mother said that "Elizabeth was almost like a mother to her". It is unsure how far each of the children advanced in school, but we know that Rosa and Otto both finished the fourth grade. At that time it was thought that the forth grade was enough education to aquire a good job and support yourself.

In the late 1890's the old house and sawmill were razed and the family moved into a new two level house with six large rooms 18 foot square each. The house had a large front porch on both floors with doors opening from both floors. Inside there was a large T shaped hall down the middle. Leopold had plans of putting a large stove in the middle of the big hall to heat the entire house. His dream never came true because of his death in the early 20th century. There were chimneys put in on both sides to provide stoves to heat the house.

The family changed after the passing of Leopold, Eliza quit her domestic job and stayed home. Elizabeth married Ray Rogers and had two children, Charlotte and Clifford. Ray worked for the Cotton Belt Railroad as a pump house operator.

Otto married Rose Pruitt and had a total of seven children. Otto and Rose were very unfortunate as four of their children, Ula, Pearl, Lloyd and Carl all died of influenza at an early age. Throughout this tragedy Rose was overcome with stress and her and Otto seperated, leaving Otto with the other three young sons Floyd, Everett and Merle. Otto also worked for the Cotton Belt.

Anna married Ruben Davidson and had two daughters and a son. Garnet and Opal were very young and Finis was a mere baby when Anna died of the Fever. They lived on a neighboring farm and Ruben had to farm and raise the three children. He got some help from the Leirer and Davidson families who were nearby.

During this time that things were taking place with the Elizabeth, Otto and Anna families changes were being made to the big house for the other children Leo, Rosa and Lena. Leo married Dora Hicks and took over the farm. Changes had to be made to the house to accomodiate the families. The wall between the east portion of the hall was moved to make two 12 by eighteen foot rooms. Parts of the south porch was enclosed to make a 10 by 12 kitchen. A chimney was added between the new kitchen and the living quarters as a heating source for both families. Leo and Dora used the two east rooms for kitchen, dining and living, they used the upper east room for sleeping. Rosa and Lena used the upper north room for sleeping. Both families shared the first floor north room for their parlor.

This arrangement did not last very long for Lena married Arthur Morris and moved out. Leo took a job with the Cotton Belt Railroad and moved to another house.

Rosa married August (Gus) Poppe and moved into the east part of the house that Leo and Dora had moved from. At this time Gus took over the operation of the farm. Elisa maintained two milk cows, a pen of four hogs and shared the poultry with the Poppes. This gave Eliza cream to sell, hogs to feed the milk and sell plus her portion of rent from cotton, corn and other crops. Social Security was not heard of in those days.

Ray and Elizabeth moved to Lewisville Arkansas where Ray operated Pump houses for the railraod.

Otto married Sybil and took Floyd, Everett and Tom to East St. Louis where he worked as foreman in the Cotton Belt yards. Otto and Sybil had a family of Vernon, Gene, Wanda, Von and Barbara. Also Otto and Sybil had another son (Donald Carlyn) that lived less than a year.

Leo and Dora moved to Garland Arkansas where he worked for the Cotton Belt as section foreman. They had 4 children Oral, Clifton, Leola and Leon.

Raymond remembers his grandma Elisa as a wonderful woman who fought an up hill battle from her early days as an orphan in Switzerland to coming to this country with a baby to find her husband and raise a wonderful family in this new country. In her later years she had diabetes and the resulting poor eye site, but always welcomed any of her family at any time for a visit in her home. She was stern with her grandchildren, demanded discipline and was the authority figure when necessary, but she never turned her back on anyone. As she grew older it became harder for her to communicate with her relatives in Germany, but with help of friends she was able to keep in touch with them up until the beginning of WWII.