Edward
Minor Leitch, one of the prominent citizens of Sacramento, is a native of
Putnam County, New York, born April 27, 1835. His father, George Leitch, was a
native of Scotland, who, when a child accompanied his parents to America, locating
in New York State. The mother of the subject, whose maiden name was Sarah
Jenkinson, was born in England, and also came to this country when a child.
George Leitch was a tin and copper smith by trade, and he carried on business
in these lines in New York city previous to 1836. He then removed his family to
Elkhart County, Indiana, when that country was very new and wild, the wild
grass being as high as a man’s head all about them in their new location. A log
cabin was built and there the family lived, George Leitch tilled the land, and
also gave his attention to the education of his children. He, however, died
within a year and a half after reaching Indiana. His wife, remaining a widow,
continued to live on the old homestead until her death, which occurred in 1874.
E. M. Leitch was one of a family of thirteen children, of whom he was the
twelfth in order of age. He was reared there to the age of nineteen years, and
learned the moulder’s trade in Jackson & Wiley’s foundry, Detroit,
Michigan. In 1858 he went to New York, and took passage there on the steamer
Star of the West, for Chagres, on his way to California. On the Pacific side he
took the steamer Golden Gate, and landed at San Francisco July 14, 1858. He had
four brothers in the mountains of Sierra County, and his first move was to make
a visit to them. After that he came to Sacramento and entered the employ of the
Sacramento Valley Railroad as brakesman, in which capacity he served for some
time, then as baggage-master, and again as conductor, his entire period of
employment on the road being thirteen years. He then voluntarily resigned his
position with the railroad, having bought out the business of his brother, who
had one truck and two horses engaged in the transfer business. Mr. Leitch has
by sobriety and industry gradually worked up a large business from that small
beginning, and now employs seventeen horses in his business, while six or seven
men are constantly engaged; this has been accomplished by strict attention to
business, and by scrupulous fairness and honesty in all business transactions.
Mr. Leitch was married December 27, 1868, to Miss Olive A. Annis, a native of
Camden, Maine by the way is a loving wife and a devoted mother., and daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Annis. When she was yet a babe her mother died, and in
1866 her father came with his family to California. He died in Sacramento in
1884. Mr. and Mrs. Leitch have had seven children, all boys, of whom one ¯
William Thomson ¯ is deceased, having been drowned in Sacramento River on the 29th
of July, 1886, at the age of twelve years and ten months. Those living are:
George Thomas, Edward Everett, Samuel Walter, Albert Edgar, James A. Garfield,
and T. Dewitt Talmage. Mr. Leitch, who
had always been a Republican, was one of the pioneers in this prohibition
movement in Sacramento, and has been at the front in all the work of the party.
At one election, on the prohibition ticket, he received 638 votes for chief of
police. He afterward made the race for sheriff, and in 1888 for supervisor of the
second district. Mr. and Mrs. Leitch
are members of the Sixth Street Methodist Church, and Mr. Leitch is one of the
trustees and also a member of the Law and Order League. He is also an active
member of the Y. M. C. A., and was sent as a delegate to the Sunday rest-day
convention. In fact, in anything pertaining to charity and humanity he is
always found at the front.
Transcribed
by: Marla Fitzsimmons
An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California.
By Hon. Win. J. Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 294-295.
© 2004 Marla Fitzsimmons.