Leo arrived in America while still an infant and travelled overland to western Kansas where his family settled by early 1870.

While he lived most of his adult life in Kansas, during the 1890s he went on a cattle drive to Yuma Colorado with his brother-in-life. For the last 10 years of his life he was paralyzed from the waist down, perhaps from Polio.

While not entirely unexpected the death Wednesday morning of Leo Sonnenberg came as a great shock to the people of Gaylord. He had been suffering for a number of days with what seemed to be influenza, and his feeble physical condition made it impossible for him to throw off the effects of the malady.

Leo Sonnenberg was born in Greenheim, Germany on April 12, 1868, and died at his home in Gaylord on November 6, 1918, aged 50 years, five months and 25 days. He came to America with his parents when six months-old and settled in Smith County, where he resided until his death. He was united in marriage to Emma Neidemeyer in 1891, to which union two boys were born, Ernest of Alta Vista and Erwin of the Naval Training School. His wife died at the birth of the younger son. A year later he was united in marriage to Miss Anna Dolloff and to this union three children were born, Milo, Ruby and Ruth, all living at home.