My Grandpa and Grandma Leach
By Dorene Leach Goin
They came from Missouri, My Grandma and Grandpa Leach. Grandma was born in Ava Missouri and ended up there in her last years where she rests with her husband and sister Rena in the Brushy Knob Cemetery. (We took pictures of the graves this summer (2011) when we went there.) She always missed Missouri and actually pined away for her home all those years in Minnesota. . .
My grandpa, Don Christopher Leach was born in Macomb, Illinois September 27, 1894. He was the son of John Hull Leach (born in Macomb, Illinois) and Matilda Katheleen Zander Leach (born in Germany). He moved with his parents to Ava, MissourI when he was 9 years old.
This picture of Grandlpa was taken in Missouri
When he was 19 he took a trip up to Minnesota to check our property under the Homestead Act. He walked the 20 miles from Baudette south through the bogs to look at the 160 acres(a quarter section) which he later filed papers to receive the property under the Homestead Act. Grandpa then traveled back to Ava, Missouri and got Grandma and they headed for Minnesota to start a life together. Uncle John has the papers he filed still to this day – he paid $66 on June 19, 1915 to file.
He then headed for Ida Grove, Iowa and and got married on June 22, 1915. They went back to Missouri and prepared to leave for Minnesota where they spent the next 49 years farming and raising a family. They were fine upstanding members of the community and in fact donated land for the first schoolhouse on their property. It was called “The Leach School”.
I remember my grandpa praying deeply on his knees in Sunday School. Heartfelt prayers sent from a man who had learned that true reliance on God was the answer. He was a quiet mannered and loving grandpa and a very hard worker. He said little but when he did, you had better listen because it was well thought out and true.
There was one other thing he may have done better than pray, though. That is play the banjo. He ordered a five string banjo from the Sears and Robuck catalog and paid $6.50 and took lessons from a correspondence book. He played beautifully and I danced many nights under the Aladdin lamp to his music. He played ”Irish Washerwoman” and I knew it was my turn to dance the “Mexican Hat Dance”. I don’t k now it it was done right or not, but I did know that I was the only one in the family of five kids that could do it and I felt special for that. Sense I was the middle child feeling special was not a normal feeling for me so I took full advantage of those times! Grandma would sit in her chair by the lamp and listen and watch.
Grandpa had two horses, Whisper and Rex. Large work horses they were, and very gentle yet strong. Uncle John tells me that he bought them as wild horses from Montana and trained them himself. Uncle John says he was a almost a “horse whisper” of a sorts without the name. I remember going out east of their home to cut wood with Grandpa. I loved riding on the sleigh wagon for the wood. We worked with him and at lunch we ate toasted grilled cheese sandwiches over the open campfire. It was such a great experience!
We loved going to Grandpa and Grandma’s. I remember many time we sat with her and watched out the window across the yard to the pump looking for fairies. Grandma would describe those fairies to the tee and Kathy claims she saw them too, but I never saw them and just pretended I did.
Leach was born March 28, 1893
to Stephen S. Foster and Mahala J McIntosh Foster.
This is a picture of Steven, Mahala, Cora, Pearl and Clay taken around 1895
Mahala died when Grandma was 12 years old unexpectedly and Grandma often told us about that. We found the obituary when we were in Ava and she told her husband, Steven she was going to do the chores and then rest because she thought she may have company. Then when she was done, she said, “Pearlie, you are going to have to fix something to eat because I feel worse than I ever had. “ She went and laid down and died. I cried for my Great Grandma and family when I read this.
This is a picture of Pearl and Cora with their Grandpa James McIntosh. Grandma must have been two?
(Anyway, I touched up and put the date of 1895 on the picture myself.)
We found the graves of James and Nancy McIntosh and Mahala in the Shilo Cemetery in Ava, Missouri also during our 2011 trip.
Grandpa and Grandma had five children. Lena, Ray, Jack, John and Philip.
Lena died unexpectedly when she was nineteen and pregnant and her husband, Leroy Ellis died October 15, 1945 about 9 years later.
Grandma never got over this and I believe she thought Lena would come back right up until the day she herself died in August, 1968. In fact Grandma told her niece, Ila Davis that she had a visit from Lena in the night shortly before she died and she told Grandma that she would see her soon. And she did, I am sure.
My grandma was a wonderful woman of strength and durability. She raised flowers, a full garden, had the backbone of a pioneer woman and was up to any task.
One time when my sister, Esther almost cut her thumb off, Grandma sewed it on. Here it was flopping back after Esther jumped off a wagon with a coffee can in her hand, and Grandma said, “You be quiet now, we have some work to do. “ and she got the needle and thread and sewed it on starting from the inside. The nerves and tendons all work fine to this day.
I love my Grandma and miss her especially after visiting her hometown this past summer.
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