Leander Jefferson Whitaker was born on January 15th, 1844 in Nauvoo, Illinois to James Whitaker and Nancy Woodland Whitaker. At this time the Mormons were being persecuted and driven away by angry mobs, and Leander was born on the banks of the Mississippi River where his family was camped. On Jan. 23rd he was blessed by the Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith, who was murdered by the mob months later.

In 1852 his family left Nauvoo and traveled with the Capt. William Snow wagon train company to the Great Salt Lake Valley,and then settled in Willard, Utah. He and his brothers made many trips up to the Cache Valley to sell the products produced on their farm, and on one of those trips he met Ann Eliza Mitchell, whose family had settled in Richmond, Utah. Ann and her mother Rebecca had survived the explosion of the Steamship Saluda as they traveled up the Missouri River on their way to Utah to join the Mormons. Leander took Ann back to his family farm in Willard, where they were married.

In the spring of 1865 Leander and a company of young men left for California. Six weeks later they reached San Bernadino, which had been settled by Mormons in 1851. They spent some time there, and then traveled to San Francisco. After a short stay they went to Hangman's Town (now Placerville) in the Sierra foothills, where each one of them claimed a stake. Leander then returned to Utah, crossing the harsh desert to reach his wife in Willard. He tried to convince his wife to return to California with him, but Ann Eliza had suffered enough on her first journey to Utah and she refused.

In 1866 Leander and six family members, including his father James Whitaker and his two uncles William and Henry Woodland, journeyed to Marsh Valley, Idaho, were each staked out land along Marsh Creek. Leander and his father James stayed a year, and then sold their stake to their cousin Henry Wakely and returned to Utah, where Leander farmed with his family in Willard and in the Cache Valley.


After the death of his father James, Leander returned to Marsh Valley, Idaho in 1894 with his family and lived there until his death.