Leon Price Hadden is one of the vital and progressive business men in the city of Grand Rapids, where he has had leadership in the upbuilding of the large and important brokerage and distributing business conducted under the corporate title of L. P. Hadden & Company. He is president and general manager of this corporation, which controls a substantial business in the distributing of the products of the California Packing Corporation, the Southern Cotton Oil Trading Company, the Alaska Packers Association, the American Peanut Corporation, the Brookman Manufacturing Company and the A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company. The headquarters of the company are at 7 Ionia avenue, south. Mr. Hadden was born at Otsego, Allegan County, Michigan, November 28, 1886, and is a son of John J. and Elizabeth Victoria (Price) Hadden, the former of whom was born at Penn Yan, New York, and the latter at Augusta, Kalamazoo county, Michigan, she being now a resident of the city of Detroit. John J. Hadden came to Michigan in 1854, and in 1893 he established his residence in Grand Rapids, where he passed the remainder of his life and where, as a skilled artisan in the manufacturing of furniture, he was for a number of years in the employ of the Nelson-Matter Company. Leon P. Hadden was a lad of about seven years at the time of the family removal to Grand Rapids, and the discipline that he here received in the public schools was eventually supplemented by his taking a commercial course through the medium of university extension work. In 1905 Mr. Hadden found employment in the Amos Musselman wholesale grocery establishment, and in this connection he gained valuable experience, through association with the work in various departments, from that of shipping until he became a traveling salesman for the house. This experience led him to an appreciation of the advantages to be gained by establishing a brokerage and distributing agency for the handling of the products of large packing concerns, and this he initiated his independent activities as manufacturers’ agent, the result being his organization of the L. P. Hadden Company, which controls a substantial business throughout western Michigan, a territory normally tributary to Grand Rapids as the leading distributing center. At the time when peanut butter began to gain recognition as a valuable food product Mr. Hadden organized the Bel-Car-Mo Nut Butter Company, his careful research and investigation having led him to believe that Grand Rapids could be made a most eligible point for the manufacturing and distributing of peanut butter. It was in 1910 that he organized the above mentioned company for this purpose, and the success of the enterprise has fully justified his faith and confidence. The output of the Bel-Car-Mo Nut Butter Company is now distributed through Michigan and other states through the medium of the L. P. Hadden Company. It is a record of splendid initiative and executive ability that has been made by Mr. Hadden, and he has standing as one of the progressive business men of the younger generation in Grand Rapids. He is a member of the Peninsular Club, is a Republican in politics, is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, including the Mystic Shrine. His wife has membership in Westminster Presbyterian church in their home city. February 15, 1915, Mr. Hadden was united in marriage with Miss Caroline Isabelle Hurt, of Grand Rapids, she being a daughter of Frank Joseph Hurt, who was born in Prague, Austria, and whose wife was born in Pilsen, Austria. Mr. and Mrs. Hadden have one child, John Francis. Mr. Hadden finds both profit and definite enjoyment in his close application to business, and he is essentially one of the world’s productive workers.