In 1883, he married Jeannette Gaar,[2] a relative of Harry Miller, general superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

[5] The company expanded to comprise over 28 mills in Elwood.William McKinley passed a tin tariff, in part to protect their business.

[8] Additionally, he was the director of the Audit Co. of New York, Elwood, St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway, Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad, United States Mortgage and Trust Co., Anderson and Lapelle Railroad Company, Nassau Gas, Heat and Power Co., Nassau Light and Power Co., and the Windsor Trust Co.[9][2] The Liberty ship SS William B. Leeds was named after him.

[10][11][12][13] Leeds was an avid yachtsman, and had membership in the New York, the Seawanhaka Corinthian, Brooklyn, Larchmont, and American Yacht Clubs.

The United States filed suit, and for several years, as the case was litigated, the "Leeds pearls were the most famous jewels in America.

"[17] On August 16, 1883, Leeds married his first wife, Jeanette Irene Gaar, in Wayne, Indiana.

[1] Bates Jr. was the original "poor little rich boy", a name the press coined for him before it was applied to William Randolph Hearst.

Nonie and Leeds's son, William Jr., later married one of Prince Christopher's nieces, Princess Xenia Georgievna of Russia.