Ohio has furnished to Iowa many of her valuable and prominent citizens, among whom Dr. L. J. Leech is numbered. He is now following his profession in West Branch, where he is accorded a large practice, and he is also connected with the financial interests of the community as vice president of the Citizens Savings Bank. A man of strong and determined character, he accomplishes what he undertakes, and the community profits in a large measure from his labors and activities.
He was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, August 3, 1846. His parents were Thomas and Ellen (Stratton) Leech, the former a native of York county, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Salem, Columbiana county, Ohio. Both came of old Quaker stock and the Leech’s were of German descent. John Leech, the great-great-grandfather of the Doctor, came to America in 1726. He was a shoemaker by trade and followed that pursuit in Philadelphia. His son, John Leech, was born in 1759 and became the father of William Leech, who was born in Pennsylvania and removed to Ohio, where he died in1864. He was the father of Thomas Leech, who was married in Salem, Ohio, to Miss Ellen Stratton, her death occurring in1850, and Thomas Leech afterward married again. In 1855 he came to Cedar county, Iowa, and spent his last days at the home of his son, Dr. Leech, passing away in 1898, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He had followed farming throughout his entire life. By his first marriage he had five children: John, a retired farmer, now living in West Branch; Charles, who makes his home at Riverside, California; Deborah J., the wife of Charles E. Smith of West Branch; L. J., of this review; and Ross, who is the editor of the West Branch Times. John, Charles and L. J. Leech and a stepbrother, Jesse James, were all soldiers of the Union army in the Civil war, serving in the same regiment, and all lived to return home.
Dr. Leech spent the first years of his life in the state of his nativity and then accompanied his father to Cedar county, Iowa, the family home being established near Downey in Springdale township. Dr. Leech has continuously resided the county to the present time andaided in the work of the home farm until the time of his enlistment for active service in the Civil war. It was on the 15th of January, 1864, that he joined Company B, Second Iowa Cavalry, with which he served until the close of hostilities, taking part in all the engagements of the regiment. He was honorably discharged October 9, 1865, in Alabama, and with a creditable military record returned home.
In order to further promote his education, which up to that time had been acquired in the public schools, he entered the academic department of the State University. Later he resumed farming but after a few years he determined to take up the practice of medicine as his life work and to this end entered the medical department of the State University, from which he was graduated in March, 1882. He then began practicing at West Branch, where he has since remained, and a liberal patronage has been accorded him. He was one of the organizers of the Citizens Savings Bank at West Branch and since its inception has been its vice president. He was formerly the owner of a good farm, which he bought in the early days at twenty dollars per acre and which he sold in 1909 for one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre. His attention, however, has chiefly been given to the practice of medicine, and in this way he has won substantial success and rendered valuable service to his patrons. He is now a member of the County Medical Society, of the Iowa State Medical Society, the Union Medical Society of Cedar Rapids and the National Medical Association, and through the interchange of thought and experience among the members of those organizations he keeps in touch with the advancement of the medical profession. Dr. Leech served as a member of the board of county pension examiners for eight years during the administrations of President McKinley and Roosevelt.
On the 15th of August, 1868, Dr. Leech was married to Miss Ruth A. Whitacre, who was born in Morrow county, Ohio, and came to Iowa with her parents in1864. She was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Aquilla Whitacre. She died in 1887, leaving two sons, Oliver J., who died when thirty-four years of age, and Albert M., living in West Branch. Dr. Leech was again married in 1893, his second union being with Miss Lydia Thomas, a native of Belmont county, Ohio , who came to Iowa in 1890.
Dr. Leech is well known through his fraternal relations. He is the commander of Nolan Morrison Post, No. 249, Grand Army of the Republic, of West Branch, and has filled the office for twelve years. He belongs to Wapsinonoc Lodge, No. 381, A. F. & A. M., at West Branch, and to the Royal Arch chapter at West Liberty. He has likewise been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church for a quarter of a century and has guided his life in accordance with its teachings. His political support has ever been given to the republican party, and he is recognized as one of its leaders in Cedar county. For twenty years he has served as a member of the city council and has been the advocate of many improvements which have been instituted during that time. He served for three consecutive terms in the state legislature from Cedar county as a member of the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth and Thirty-first general assemblies. His political record is a credit and honor to the district which has honored him, and his political course has at all times been one of signal service and usefulness, being characterized by unfaltering devotion to the public good and actuated by a spirit of fidelity to all that works for practical progress and improvement.
