Information from Marriage Certificate:
James Van-Renselaer LeClair and Jessie Ethel Fish were married onOctober 24, 1894 at 12 noon at the Protestant Episcopal Church by HenrySheridan (rector, from Duluth Minnesota). Witnesses were Algeroy F.LeClair (father) and Helen A. White. James occupation is listed asLumberman with a residence in West Superior, Wisconsin. Parent's namesare Algeroy LeClair & Jenett Folsom and Titus G. Fish & Rosamond Packard.He was born in Colden, New York, Jessie in Superior, Wisconsin.
James V. LeClair purchased 160 acres of land in Wisconsin in 1902from the US Government for $400. The Cash Entry #6406 was recorded forSection 32, 45 North 8 West in Volume 27, Page 141 on July 3, 1902. Theland purchased was covered with a growth of timber stated to be worthabout $500.00. His witnesses were A.R. Mills, B. Van Vlek, E.A. LeClair(his older brother), and H. W. Gilbert. At this time he home was 1809Winter Street, West Superior, Douglas Co., Wisconsin. He listed hisoccupation as Lumberman. As of April 3, 1901 he listed his age as 39, andbirthplace as New York.
According to the US Census of 1910, taken on April 23, the LeClairfamily was residing in Lewiston, Idaho. James was 48 and Jessie 37, andthey had been married for 15 years. They had four sons: Fred F. 13, TitusJ. 10, James V. 7 and Philip (this was actually Robert) 10 months. Thethree older boys were born in Wisconsin attending school and could readand write. The youngest was born in Idaho. James' occupation is listed aslumber wholesaler, and an employer. He owned his own home free and clear.It seemed to be professional neighborhood with Charles Smith, a specialagent for the Department of Justice, a lumber dealer, bank examiner,office manager and dentist. Also living with the family was the widowRosamund Fish (Jessie's mother).
Information from the Orofino newspaper in 1920-24 indicates that J.V. was highly regarded--his name was mentioned as often as one of themore famous logging and forest service pioneers. Jessie, from thoseaccounts, was also present on the scene.
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Obituary dated Tuesday March 27, 1923 (no paper name, probably ofLewiston):
J. V. LECLAIR DIES
Well-known Lumberman Succumbs After Operation
Critical for a Day
Long afflicted but Uncomplaining With Friends Who Hardly suspectedAffliction
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James V. LeClair, 701 Sixth avenue, one of Lewiston’s best knowncitizens, died at 7:20 O’clock last evening at St. Joseph’s hospital,death resulting from an empola, following an operation for piles on lastFriday. On Saturday Mr. LeClair seemed to be showing signs ofimprovement, but on Sunday his condition took a turn for the worse, andgradually reached the critical state, and yesterday the attendingphysicians held out but little hope for his recovery.
With his family, Mr. LeClair came to Lewiston about 18 years ago,first engaging himself in conducting a laundry. After this businesssuffered a total loss by fire he entered the timber business and forabout 16 years this received his constant attention. He was a man ofhighest character and lofty ideals, and one given very much to his wife,his children and his home, for wherein their happiness lay his was alsothere.
Mr. LeClair had been a sufferer from the disease that finally causedhis death for some years, but he was uncomplaining and but few outsidehis immediate family were aware that he was not at all times enjoyingperfect health. Up to last Wednesday he was at Weippe, returning toLewiston on that day owing to his not feeling well.
Only a few days ago it was announced from Weippe, where he conducteda sawmill, that a cut of 2,000,000 feet would be made this year at hismill, and in view of this he spent most of his time in the section wherehis timber interests were, and just at a time when his plans were on theverge of successful culmination, death intervened.
Mr. LeClair was 61 years old on Feb. 13, 1923. He was a native of NewYork state, but the early part of his life was spent at Black PowderFalls and Superior, Wisconsin, his marriage to Jesse Ethel Fish takingplace at Superior on October 24, 1894, with four sons survive, thesebeing Fred, Titus, James and Robert. Mr. LeClair was member of theLewiston Consistory No. 2. Knights of Templar.
Arrangements for the funeral will be known later.
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According to the death Certificate James V. LeClair died of an embolism 2days after an operation for hemorrhoids. His father is listed as AlfredLeClair (sic) with Jennette Folsom as the mother, both of New York. Hisson Fred was the informant. Occupation is listed as Lumber-Man employedat a saw mill. Burial was in Lewiston on 28 Mar 1923.

1. 2. Frederick Fish LECLAIR   b. 11 Aug 1896, Superior, Douglas, Wisconsin; d. 21 Feb 1975, Bremerton, Kitsap, Washington; bur. Malcom's Brower Wann Chapel, Lewiston, Nez Perce, Idaho.
2. 3. Titus George LECLAIR   b. 26 Aug 1899, Superior, Douglas, Wisconsin; d. 26 Mar 1968, Boca Raton, Palm Beach, Florida; bur. Mount Hope Cemetery, Chicago, Cook, Illinois.
3. 4. James Van-Renselaer LECLAIR   b. 8 Dec 1902, Superior, Douglas, Wisconsin; d. 4 Oct 1985, Richland, Benton, Washington; bur. 9 Oct 1985, Sunset Memorial Gardens, Richland, Benton, Washington.
4. 5. Robert Alexander LECLAIR   b. 10 Jun 1909, Lewiston, Nez Perce, Idaho; d. 30 May 1937, Hawaii.

Fred Fish LeClair worked as a pricing clerk for North Coast Electric.
Fred Fish LeClair died in Kitsap County in Washington, however, noprobate records were filed. He died of subarachniel hemorrhage caused byarteriosclerosis and is buried in Lewiston, Idaho.

1. 6. Frederick LECLAIR   b. 12 Apr 1922; d. 1994, Lewiston, Nez Perce, Idaho.

Titus George LeClair was born 26 August 1899 in Superior, Wisconsin,the second of four boys. His father, James Van Renselaer LeClair was bornin the town of Colden New York. His mother, Jessie Ethel Fish, was bornin Racine Wisconsin, and her ancestry included three lines going back tothe Mayflower group of 1620 (John Alden, Priscilla Mullins, and PeterBrown.
When Titus was five years old, the family moved to Lewiston, Idaho,where his father bought a large stand of timber and began loggingoperations. The business thrived, continuing until well into the 1920's.The family was not wealthy, but it was reasonable well off; they lived ina large two-story house at 701 6th Avenue in Lewiston where the four sonsattended local elementary and high schools. In 1917, after he graduatedfrom Lewiston High School, Titus entered the University of Idaho inMoscow, Idaho. The United States had entered World War I that previousApril. With many of his classmates, Titus entered the Student OfficersTraining Corps while continuing as a full-time student. He was releasedfrom the Training Corps on September 26, 1919, after the November 1918Armistice. He continued at U. of Idaho, graduating in 1921 as a member ofthe first graduating class of the Electrical Engineering Department. Thenation at that time was in an economic slump as a result of the post-wardownturn, so according to an account written by Ti, he "worked at oddjobs for a few months". However, according to an old newspaper article heattended Union College in Schenectady, New York, in 1921-2. In any event,he began work as a Test Engineer with General Electric in Schenectady,New York in February 1922.
Tutus became engaged to Alice Bessie of Moscow, Idaho, but did notgraduate. Again the records contain a discrepancy, since somehow sheworked as a librarian at U. of Idaho, while others indicate she wasAssistant Registrar there. As a coincidence on the number 26, Alice wasborn on May 26, 1899 and on May 26, 1922 she and Titus were married inSchenectady, New York. During his time with GE, Titus came to know GeorgeSteinmetz, the electrical genius who was responsible for many of thetechnical developments which led to GE's rise to eminence in the Americanelectrical equipment industry. In 1923, Titus and Alice moved to Chicago,Illinois, where he began work as a cable engineer with CommonwealthEdison Co., the public utility serving the Chicago area with electricpower.
Their first son, Richard, was born August 15, 1923, followed by Hughon November 30, 1925, and David on October 9, 1927. Alice died suddenlyon September 7, 1928, leaving Titus with three preschool sons. On March15, 1930 Titus remarried. His new bride was Amelie McGuire, and native ofVevay, Indiana, a small town on the banks of the Ohio River. She was agraduate in English from the University of Indiana. While hook on thetask of raising three sons and managing the household, Titus continuedhis career with Commonwealth Edison. On July 13, 1938 Amelie officiallyadopted Richard, Hugh, and David as her sons.
In addition the his regular engineering work, Titus began work onwhat were to be several inventions widely used in the electric powerindustry, thus emulating Thomas A. Edison, the father of the electricpower industry. Titus had met Edison in earlier years. In 1933 Titus soldhis patent for bus bars to American Brass, a subsidiary of AnacondaCopper. Bus bars a special conductors for carrying extremely largecurrents, and Ti's invention reduced the amount of copper required inthese devices. The sale of this patent was enough to build a large,two-story brick house (also with full basement and third floor dormitoryspace) at 1924 West 102nd Street, in the Beverly Hills section ofChicago. On April 24, 1934, Diane was born to Amelie and Titus, and theyall moved into the new house just six days before Christmas in 1934.
In addition to advancing his career at Commonwealth Edison, Titusplayed an active role in professional membership in the Chicago Sectionof the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, or AIEE. This societylater was expanded and renamed the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicEngineers, or IEEE. The list of Titus' professional and technicalactivities, in addition to preparation and delivery of technical papersand leadership of national committees, covers pages and is listedelsewhere. As highlights, he chaired section and national committeesrising to President of AIEE in 1950-1 and leading the successful drivefor professional registration of engineers in Illinois prior to thattime. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Engineering by his almamater, University of Idaho, in June 1951.
Titus' inventions include several patents on switching systems andautomatic data reading and recording and printing systems. The patentsare:
#1934434 Bus Construction. November 7, 1933
#2313752 Automatic Printing and Metering System March16, 1943
#2366913 Automatic Printing and Totalizing Metering SystemJune 9, 1945
#2366914 Printing Mechanism January 9, 1945
He was not only awarded these patents, but he also fought and won severalpatent infringement suits against those attempting to infringe upon thesepatents. To an extent, he was years ahead of his time, as these datagathering and recording systems were forerunners of the automated datagathering and recording systems developed in the 1960s to 1980s.
On a lighter side, he took part in non-technical activities as well.He was also a Director of the Beverly Hills University Club from 1936-9and its President from 1939-40.
After the end of World War II, when peaceful uses of atomic energywere pursued, his earlier patents and his position as Chief ElectricalEngineer in 1950-2 and Engineering Manager in 1952-4 put him in themiddle of feasibility studies on the Dresden Atomic Power Station. He wasappointed Project Sponsor of the Public Service Commonwealth Edison groupworking on the problem of providing electricity from nuclear fuel inMarch 1953. Working in cooperation with the U.S. Atomic EnergyCommission, this group prepared to specifications for the firstcommercial atomic power plant built without federal government funding.It was the largest atomic power plant of its time. The plant was firstfired up in October 1959, and was fully operational in 1960.
With successful completion of Dresden, Titus resigned fromCommonwealth Edison to became manager of nuclear power applications withGeneral Atomics, then a division of General Dynamics Corp. of San Diego,California. GD pioneered the development of the High Temperature GasCooled Reactor, which used helium gas to cool the pelletized nuclearfuel. The heated gas acted as the heat source to fire conventional steamturbines to generate electric power. Titus' work took him, oftenaccompanied by Amelie, to such locations as Japan, Australia, India, andmost of the European countries. The then standard retirement age of 65had no interest or meaning for him, and he continued to work more thatfull time well past that age.
He and Amelie moved from 610 Woodside Road in Hinsdale, Illinois andbought an home in San Diego in 1960, added a swimming pool, and shortlythereafter began building another home with pool on the ocean shore. Poolswimming was secondary, however, to ocean swimming. His usual dailyroutine, when not away on business travel, was to take a 1-2 mile swim inthe Pacific Ocean, which was not even 30 yards from his home. Often thepool was used by friends, children and grandchildren and as a backdropfor home social activities.
Titus was active in all ways right up to his death. On March 26,1968, while attending a major Southwest Electric Exchange conference inBoca Raton, Florida, he went swimming in the Atlantic Ocean in spite ofthe storm warning posted along the beach and died while swimming. Despitethe lack of water in the lungs, the death certificate state "Death bydrowning". He and Amelie had just celebrated their 38th weddinganniversary a week before and had plans to see their fifteenthgrandchild, Mark, born 4 days earlier in Denver, Colorado.
Titus had earlier taken out an insurance policy with a doubleindemnity clause naming the Episcopal Community Service of San Diego ashis beneficiary. As a result of his accidental death $125,000 wasbequeathed to this charity.
(Written by Richard and Hugh LeClair 7-30-86)
Titus LeClair appears in the Who's Who of 1954, then residing at 515North Walker Road in Hinsdale, and working at 72 West Adams Street inChicago. This biography lists the positions described in the note above.
Titus LeClair is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois asis his first wife, Alice Bessee.

James V. LeClair was a school principal. His wife Mary Rosebaugh wasa teacher. She was born 1 August 1910 in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho and died 7December 1990 in Richland, Washington. She was buried at Einan'sCrematorium there.
James LeClair died of pneumonia from Parkinson's disease. He isburied at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Richland, Washington.

Robert Alexander LeClair started at the University of Idaho in 1927,but eventually graduated from a college in Washington. He was named forAlexander Robert Mills, his father's business partner. Alexander was thebrother of Emma Mills who married Emmett Eugene LeClair.
Robert drowned in a surfing accident in Hawaii on Memorial Day, May30 1937. The trip was paid for by he mother Jessie as a graduationpresent.
The US Census for 1910 in Idaho lists this son's name as Philip, inerror. However, no birth certificate is on file in Idaho for either name