Leichliter, C. H.

LEICHLITER, PARTCH, GRIMES

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/22/2006 at 21:45:20

LEICHLITER, C.H.

C.H. Leichliter, long prominent in the editorial field of Lyon County, and especially in Rock Rapids, where he is well known as a man of brains, character and sterling worth, was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1876, where he attended the local high school, finishing his school days with a course at the Baptist College in Des Moines, Iowa. When he was sixteen he was engaged in teaching, which he did successfully for two years, when he became attached to the World-Herald, a paper of which William Jennings Bryan was editor in chief. It was a semi-weekly publication at the time of his first nomination for the presidency. Here Mr. Leichliter began as office boy when thirteen years old, but quit it to continue school. When he again became associated with it, it was as a business manager, a position he held for two years. He acted as reporter for a year and a half, when he was called upon to run a county newspaper at Peterson, Clay County. For four years he was editor of the Republican and Leader, of Larchwood, Lyon County. His next position was editor and business manager of the Rock Rapids Review. Later he entered the serivce of the Chicago Chronicle.

Mr. Leichliter was married April 25, 1900, to Miss Lorena, a daughter of E.H. Partch, a successful dealer in livestock and grain, who came to Lyon County some twenty years ago, and is now leading a retired life. Mr. and Mrs. Leichliter have one child, Anna Lorena, who was born May 26, 1901. He belongs to the blue lodge and chapter of the Masonic fraternity.

F.A. Leichliter, the father of C.H., was born in Pennsylvania in 1822, and for many years has been an active clergyman of the Congregational Church, and notwithstanding his advanced years, is still a popular and interesting minister. His father, Jacob, the grandfather of our subject, was also born in Pennsylvania, near Brandywine. The Leichliter family history in the new world begins with the story of three brothers who left Germany in the seventeenth century, and made settlement in the colonies, one in New England, one in Virginia, and one in Pennsylvania, from whom the Rock Rapids editor descends.

Christina Grimes, the mother of C.H. Leichliter, is a daughter of Henry Grimes, who was a farmer and a native of Pennsylvania. He is still living in Missouri, where he owns a fruit farm, and is now retired. He was a soldier and was wounded several times. The Grimes are of German extraction.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson