My Genealogy Hound

James W. Leach is a native of Alabama, and is a first-class farmer. His parents, Ambrose H. and Martha P. (Lotter) Leach, were natives of Alabama, and five years after our subject’s birth, which occurred September 4, 1823, they removed to St. Clair County, Ill. In 1855 they left their farm in that county, and the father spent the rest of his life as a merchant in Van Buren County, Iowa. He died in 1865, and the mother survived him but one decade. The St. Clair County schools furnished our subject his education, and he remained at home until his marriage, at the age of twenty-two. He remained on a farm in that county until he began saw milling in Jefferson County, Iowa, at the same time that his father went there. He spent about a year at that, and a similar time in the hotel business, at Bonaparte, before he came to Clark County. He has been living on his present estate since 1880, and his 170 acres of fine land lie partly in Union and partly in Jackson Townships. He was married, December 24, 1846, to Elizabeth, a daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Stucky) Anderson. She was born in St. Clair County, Ill., in December, 1828. Their children are Lyman H., Sylvanus M., Augustus E., Samuel A., James N., Leonora, Martha and Linnie B. Our subject has been a justice for several years, and is a stanch Democrat, who first voted for Polk. He has served also as president of the county township board, under the township organization.