William Michael Leddy

COULTER, DANIEL, LEDDY

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/29/2011 at 09:40:59

Source Unknown

Son of Patrick F. Leddy and Letitia Coulter. Husband of Eliza Daniel. William Michael Leddy was born in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio to Patrick Leddy and Letitia Coulter, on December 6, 1842. William's parents were born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States during the horrible years of the potato famine. William's father Patrick came to the United States first and worked to save enough money to bring the rest of the family over from Ireland. Patrick was a stone mason by trade, and had moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, drawn by news of work by other Irish immigrants. William was the first child of Patrick to be born in the United States.

At a young age, William's family moved to Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky. In 1855 they had moved west to Center Township, Madison County, Iowa. William worked as a farm laborer until about 1862 when William and his brothers, John and Alexander, had decided to try their luck in the newly formed Nebraska Territory. The oral family tradition was that the brothers moved west to avoid the Civil War, but it is more likely that they were seeking opportunities for land in the newly formed territory of Nebraska.

While working as farm laborers in Nebraska, the brothers hatched an idea to make money freighting corn and other items west to the gold fields of Colorado. The brothers purchased wagons and oxen and ran their business out of Nebraska City, Nebraska. The freighters regularly moved goods from Nebraska City to Fort Kearney, Nebraska and then on to Denver, Colorado, following the Overland Trail. On one freight run in August of 1864, near what is now Lexington, Nebraska, they came upon the site of the Plum Creek Massacre, finding the still smoldering wagons and the 13 dead men, women, and children who were killed by Cheyenne Indians. The Cheyenne had been raiding wagon trails in search of cattle to feed their families. By this time the white settlers had already begun to decimate the great herds of bison that roamed the Great Plains. On August 8, 1864, the Cheyenne had attacked some freighters trying to obtain their oxen and cattle. The freighters fended off the attack. Later that morning a large group of 100 Cheyenne warriors attacked a small wagon train of pioneers who were headed west. The pioneers tried to outrun the Cheyenne at Plum Creek, but their attempt was in vain. Thirteen men, women and children were massacred, and one woman and a boy were captured. When William, his brothers, and some other freighters came upon the site of the massacre, it caused great fear among the men. At night the men grazed the oxen and cattle. They reported that the Cheyenne Indians lay in wait, shooting arrows at their oxen and cattle, hoping to kill them for the meat. Every so often one of the cattle would jump and the men soon realized what was happening. The men fled back to camp in fear for their lives, leaving their cattle and oxen behind. The next morning they found their cattle off in some hills to the north and were able to recover what was left of the herd. One of William's oxen had been shot in the hip with an arrow. When William tried to pull the arrow out, the shaft broke off, leaving the arrow head in the oxen's hip. The arrow head eventually worked its way out and the family still has the arrow head to this day.

When the brothers had made enough money and had grown weary of freighting, they returned to eastern Nebraska and Iowa. William's brother John homesteaded 200 acres in eastern Nebraska, near South Bend in Cass County. John had married Elizabeth Bennett and had a couple of young children. One of the children became very ill and died. Elizabeth was inconsolable over the death of the child. When the child died she became mentally unstable and John felt it was best to leave Nebraska and move back to Iowa to be close to family that could help care for Elizabeth and the surviving child. John sold his homestead to his father Patrick in 1879.

Meanwhile, William had married Eliza Daniel on May 10, 1873 in Madison County, Iowa. William farmed land owned by his father Patrick, who had by then accumulated quite a bit of land. Patrick decided to mortgage the farm in Cass County, Nebraska to 2 men who eventually defaulted on the mortgage. Patrick filed a petition in court and the land was sold back to Patrick at a sheriff's auction in 1885. Patrick died 2 weeks later. When the deed was finally issued, the land became the property of his legal heirs. When Patrick's estate was settled, William and his wife Eliza decided to take the land in Cass County, Nebraska, and moved back west in 1886. William and his wife "shared" their farm with a small group of Pawnee Indians who lived in earth lodges in a pasture to the east of their home. Their son, William James Leddy, recalled his mother Eliza trading with the Pawnee women and he enjoyed playing with the Pawnee children. Eventually the Pawnee tribe was pushed south to Oklahoma, along with other Native American tribes.

William and Eliza remained on their farm in South Bend until their deaths. William's wish was to be buried in Atlantic, Cass County, Iowa near his parents. The family had his body shipped back to Iowa at great expense. William's son, William James Leddy, later decided that William should be buried next to his wife in the Ashland Cemetery in Saunders County, Nebraska, and had his father's remains exhumed and moved back to Nebraska. William James Leddy later recalled that he was forever haunted by that experience.