Menu Items

 

9. Watson Leach (Married Sarah Catherine Kenney (10) in 1872 and after he was widowed, he married Edith Wood)

Born: 11 March 1844 of Harvey Leach (17) & Ann Mariah Dunham (18).

 

Died: 25 April 1907, buried Bloomfield Cemetery, Morrow County, Ohio

 

[His sibling was: Dorothy Almedia Leach Born: 29 July 1846 . Died: 8 Sept. 1852, buried Bloomfield Cemetery, Morrow County, Ohio.]

 

Miscellaneous: Watson would have been 17 years old when the Civil War began.

He grew up living next door to Sarah Catherine Kenney #10, a girl he would later marry. His father, Harvey Leach #17 lived next door to her father, Albert Gillespie Kenney #19. Click on the 1866 map below:

Sometime before 1875, Watson purchased 50 acres of land adjacent to and on the east side of his father's property. Click on the map below:

He later purchased 100 acres and then took over 50 acres from his father. He must have sold the 50 acres (shown in the 1875 map) prior to 1908, as is shown on the map below. Also, by 1908, he must have sold the northern-most 10 acres of what had been his father's land. The map shows that Watson's northern property on the Delaware County/Morrow County border is adjacent to his brother-in-law, Alexander Kenney's property. Click on the 1908 maps below:

By overlaying the 1908 map on a modern map (1998)of Delaware and Morrow Counties, Watson's property can be located. Susan Leach Snyder and her husband located the probable location of Watson's more southern acreage (land once owned by his father) on 20 August 2006. Directions to this location from Columbus, Ohio are as follows: Drive North from Columbus on I-71 to Rt. 36. Turn right toward Sunbury. In Sunbury, turn left at the first traffic light (Rt. 61.) Turn right at SR 656. Proceed to Peerless Rd. (It is on the Delaware County/Morrow County line.) Turn right on Peerless. At Trimmer, turn right. Proceed past Beechtree on your left. Watson's land is about another 1/2 mile on the left. He owned 40 acres in this location in 1908.

To locate his 100 acres near the Morrow County, drive back to Peerless, and turn left. Peerless becomes Olmstead when it crosses SR 656. The NW corner of Watson's property is near the intersection of Olmstead and Porter Central. A private street on the East side of Porter-Central called "Kenney Road" goes through the area probably once owned by Watson.

 

 

 

Below: The 10 acres that Watson took over from his father and later sold is thought to be just South of Beechtree on the East side of Trimmer.

 

 

 

Left: Harvey's additional 40 acres, taken over by Watson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below: This property is believed to have been the 100 acres owned by Watson Leach along the Delaware/Morrow County line. Picture 1 is facing East toward the direction of a creek, perhaps "Long Run". The gravel road is a private road labeled "Kenney." Picture 2 is facing South. Picture 3 is facing Southwest toward Porter Central. At the time this picture was taken 20 August 2006, this farm was owned by Tim Nininger.

When his first wife, Sarah ("Kate") died in 1888, he was 44 years old, a farmer, and left to raise 5 children. Arthur Othello Leach (aged 12), Charles Albert Leach (5) (aged 7), Harold Dean Leach (aged 4), Homer Watson Leach (aged 2), and Belva Lockwood Leach (aged 4 months). A sixth child, Estella Leach had died in 1886 at the age of 8, killed by the kick of a colt. Within two years of Sarah's death, Watson had married Edith Wood and they had a child, Ralph Marion Leach, born 24 June 1890. Watson lived to be 63 years old.

Photo was taken October 19, 2003