Thursday, March 30, 2017

Thomas C. Leech (1826- 1894)

Thomas C. Leech, age 29,  married Miss Amanda B. Conner, age 19,  on 15 November 1855 in Livingston County, Kentucky. [1]  Prior to their marriage, Thomas had been living in John C. McGraw's hotel in Smithland. He listed his occupation in 1850 as a merchant. [2] The first child born to Thomas and Amanda was Henry, who died at the age of six months. In 1859, their second child, John, was born. In all, the couple had nine children, but only five were living when the parents died.




Henry
Son of
T.C. & A.B. Leech
Born
April 1, 1857
Died Oct. 25, 1857

 Henry was buried in Smithland Cemetery, Livingston County. His tombstone was photographed 5 February 2017.   Little Henry Leech's birth record lists his parents as Thos. C. Leech and Amanda B. Conner.[3]

A wonderful obituary for Thomas C. Leech appeared in the Crittenden County newspaper as well as in the Paducah News.[4]

"Mr. T.C. Leech, one of the leading citizens of Paducah, died Tuesday of last week of pneumonia.

"Thomas C. Leech, sr., was born near Smithland in Livingston county ... September 12, 1826. He was the second of nine children. His father was James Crawford Leech, one of the pioneers of Livingston county, who emigrated from Virginia. His mother, Miss Linda Glen, was [a] daughter of Col. Glen, a prominent citizen and first settler of Caldwell, now Lyon county. On November 15, 1855, Mr. Leech was married to Miss Amanda Conner, of Greenup county, Ky. The couple had nine children - four sons and three daughters, of whom five survive, besides he grief stricken widow. They are Mrs. Irene Cox, T.C. Leech jr, Will C. Leech, Louis Leech and Miss Mattie Leech, all of this city.  A brother, Mr. Wm. V. Leech, a leading citizen of Cape Girardeau, Mo., who has been at his residence for several days, and Mrs. Capt. Joseph H. Fowler his sister, are the only other living members of his immediate family.

"For 27 years Mr. Leech was in business in Smithland. Hereby fair dealing he amassed a considerable fortune. In 1882 he removed to Paducah and embarked in various financial enterprises, in all of which he was successful. At the time of his death he was President of the Paducah Banking company and was interested in other thriving corporations. He died comparatively wealthy, and every penny of his fortune was the result of hard work and honest labor."

Thomas C. Leech was buried at Oak Grove Cemetery, Paducah, as was his wife, Amanda, who was born 17 August 1835 and died 10 May 1895.[5]




[1] Joyce McCandless Woodyard. Livingston County, Kentucky Marriage Records Including Marriages of Freedmen Vol. II, Aug 1839-Dec 1871, (Evansville, IN: Evansville Bindery, 1994), 91.
[2] 1850 Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky census, Ancestry.com, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA, accessed 23 March 2017.
[3] Kentucky, Birth Records 1847-1911, Ancestry.com, accessed 15 February 2017.
[4] "Thomas C. Leech Dead," Crittenden Press, 3 January 1895, p. 3.
[5] Oak Grove online database of burials, http://www.paducahky.gov/oak-grove-cemetery#burial, accessed 16 February 2017.

Published 30 March  2017, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog,  http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

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