San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES I. LEACH
In connection with the agricultural
interests of San Joaquin County the name of Leach is a familiar one, for both
father and son, Charles I. Leach, have long been identified with this industry. He was born in Walworth County, Wisconsin, in
the village of Eagleville, August 18, 1852, a son of Charles Isaac and Martha
J. (Tupper) Leach, natives of Vermont and Wisconsin, respectively. In 1853 Charles I. Leach, Sr., crossed the
plains with an ox-team to join his brother, James B. Leach, who had come west a
few years previous and had settled in Rogue River Valley, Oregon. Learning of his brother’s intentions to come
west, he sent a courier with the message for Charles I. not to come to Oregon,
as the Indians were liable to cause trouble, and also instructing him to turn
south and come on to California. The
following fall the terrible Rogue River massacre occurred when every white
settler was killed. Mr. Leach came on to
California and settled on the Calaveras River at a place known as the Leach and
Frost bridge on the Upper Sacramento Road; this was a stage coach station,
where drivers changed horses en route to Sacramento. James B. Leach had acquired 400 acres of
land, which was afterwards purchased by Charles I., Sr., and this he farmed for
many years. In 1868 he disposed of this
ranch and bought the Chinatown property in Stockton. For many years he was president of the San
Joaquin Valley Bank in Stockton and although many opportunities came for him to
hold public office he never accepted them, but preferred to live quietly. Charles I. is the only living child of this
pioneer couple. James N. died in 1916,
Helen died at the age of one year, John died at the age of a year and a half
and Frank lived to be seven years old.
The father lived to be eighty-two while the mother was sixty years old
when she passed away.
Charles I Leach attended the Live
Oaks, Davis and Fairchild district schools and finished his education at the
Washington school in Stockton. He began
to earn his own money when he was sixteen years old, but remained with his
parents until he was twenty-five years old.
His marriage occurred in June, 1877, in Stockton, which united him with
Miss Fannie Hamilton, a native of Canada, a daughter of James and Jane
Hamilton. Her father was a stonecutter
and contractor in Canada where he passed away.
After his demise the family came to Stockton. After his marriage, Mr. Leach removed to
Portland, Oregon, and conducted a flour mill for fourteen years, then sold out
and returned to Stockton and later moved to the ranch which was left him by his
father; 100 acres of this ranch was later sold, the balance of 155 acres being
devoted to the raising of grapes, alfalfa and grain and it is irrigated from
the Stockton-Mokelumne ditch. Ten years
ago a new house replaced the old one built so many years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Leach were the parents of two
children: Cornelia E. died in 1920, and
Charles Frank is on the home place.
While living in Oregon Mr. Leach was a member of the Knights of Pythias,
and in politics he is a Republican.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
471. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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