Several manufacturing establishments which have previously existed in Leslie are now "among the things that were." A large steam grist-mill has been burned in a recent year, and other institutions have fallen from prominence. The principal manufactory now in the place is the stave-factory of A. J. Bailey & Son, located in the eastern part of the village. It was started by these parties about 1868, and they have about $25,000 invested at present, the annual products amounting to about the same. Their pay-roll amounts to $7000 - $8000 annually, an average of twenty persons being employed. A coopering establishment is also owned by the firm at Leslie, and one at Albion, Calhoun Co., the latter manufacturing about 1200 barrels a week and giving employment of fifteen men. About 2,000,000 staves are manfactured annually at their Leslie establishment, and they are proprietors also of a similar institution at Mason.

A new grist-mill was erected at the village in the summer of 1880 by the Wilcox Brothers, the lot on which it stands and $1000 in money having been given them by the town. The entire cost of the mill is over $10,000, and three, and possibly four, runs of stone will be put in.

Taken from:
"History of Ingham and Eaton Counties Michigan, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Their Prominent Men and Pioneers", by Samuel W. Durant.
Published by D. W. Ensign & Co., 1880.
Page 266 - 267