Leroy Powell, who has been superintendent of delivery in the postoffice at Topeka for eighteen years and is a prominent member of the civil service, was born in Campbell county, Kentucky, July 3, 1865, and has been a resident of Kansas since 1869, when he was brought to Topeka by his widowed mother. He is a son of Joseph and Louisa Powell, natives of Kentucky. After the death of Joseph Powell in 1869, his widow and her son accompanied her parents—Thomas and Hannah Howard—to Topeka, and there, in the same year (1869), she died, leaving her four-year-old son to the care of his grandparents. In their home he was reared, and he received his education in the public schools of his adopted city. His first venture in the business world was as mercantile clerk, and for seven years he held a position in a grocery store. On June 1, 1888, he began his service at the Topeka postoffice as a letter carrier and has been in the employ of the postoffice continuously since that date—a period of twenty-three years—a competent and popular official. In 1893 he was promoted to the position of superintendent of delivery and for eighteen years has served in this capacity. Under his able management the free delivery service of Topeka has become one of the best organized and most efficient of any city of its size in the country. He has been the secretary of the civil service examining board for the past sixteen years and has honorably discharged the duties of both these offices in a highly satisfactory manner to the government authorities, and he enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. He is president of the local branch, No. 52, of the National Association of Supervisory Postoffice Employes. Mr. Powell was married Jan. 2, 1906, to Miss Mary Judith Hagan. Mrs. Powell is a native of Monroe county Missouri, and the daughter of a former lawyer, Basil Hagan, of Pottawatomie county, Kansas.