LEECH, William

   General Notes:

During William's 88 year life time the new nation had grown from three million to thirty five million. William grew up on theLeech family homestead, located on Stony Run in the northwest corner of Warrington Township, York County, Pa. The homestead was established by his grandfather in the 1740's and then inheited by his father.William and his three brothers and six sisters were all birth-right Friends. The Quaker heritage ran deep in the Leech family, and seven of the eight grandparents and earlier their forefathers. William corted a young woman by the name of Jane Garretson, and in the spring of 1800 she accepted his proposal of marriage. Jane the daughter of Cornelius and Margaret (Atkinson) Garretson, grew up on a farm located on the south bank of the Conewago Creek (now Conewago) Township. They established their own household inWarrington Township, it appears they rented in leiu of buying land as there are no land deeds.By early 1816, five of the seven surviving children of William and Jane had moved west. And the sixth, Susanna Hoopes, would do the same before 1817. The records of the Warring Monthly Meeting suggest that William and Jane also request a certificate of removal to move westward.. The following is from that record: Wm Leech request a Certificate for himself and his wife and children to the Middleton Monthly Meetings state of Ohio. Jn Wickersham and Z.Underwood are appointed to join a likeCom[mittee] of Womens Friends to prepare one for them if nothing to hinder and produce it to the next meeting. Although his name is mentioned several more times during this meeting gives the impression that he had strong and active role in the Friends Meetings. The certificate was approved and they arived in Columbiana Co. three months later, their certificate was recorded in the Middleton Monthly Meeting on 6-10-1816,William was thirty-nine years old. They were now about 200 miles from their old and new homes, but the distance was probably more due to the road conditions of the time.William and Jane settled on a 170.15 acre farm, NE quarter of Section 13 of Middleton Township, Columbiana Co., Ohio the farms eastern boundary was the Pennsylvania state line.They worshiped at the Carmel Meeting House, a log structure constructed in 1810.William would be a respected member there during it's entire existence, in 1854, when it was layed down due to dwindling membership. The remaining members transferred to the Middleton Meeting. In 1821, due to complications of child birth Jane died, leaving William a widower with a baby and seven other children ages five to eighteen, still living at home. He would then marry a woman named Phebe (Mercer) Hollingsworth. Her children to her previous marriage (minors at the time of the marriage) would now become part of the Leech family .William's Will signed by his mark on October 5th, 1864 was less than three months prior to his death. His estate was to be divided into nine equal shares for his seven surviving children and the decendants of his two deceased children. All previous payments were to be concidered gifts and not taken into acountin the ditribution of the estate. An inventory of the estate, taken on February 1, 1865 by Baltzer Brown, William Hostetterand Joseph Straughn, proved a value of roughly $5000.00, Included in this amount was a $500.00 United States Bond, nearly all the remaining were notes held against various individuals.In summary William and Jane (Garretson) Leech had two sons and seven daughters. The first eight of their children were born in Warrington Township, York Co., Pa., the last child born in Middleton Township, Colunbiana Co. Ohio. All nine children lived to maturity and married. Six daughters married while in their teens--three of which were only 16 or 17 years old. Five of their daughters were disowed by the Carmel Monthly Meeting for marrying out of unity, and they took no actions to regain their memberships in the Society of Friends. Both sons removed to Iowa and the Leech name disappeared from the Colubiana Co.when William died in 1865. The names and birth dates of many of their grandchildren (59) are contained in the records of theCarmel Monthly Meeting.


Marriage 1 Jane GARRETSON b: 20 MAR 1781 in York Co. Pa.
Married: 14 MAY 1800 in York Co. Meeting House
Children
Rebecca LEECH b: 4 JUN 1801
Phebe LEECH b: 1 MAR 1803
Margaret LEECH b: 8 DEC 1804
Cornelius LEECH b: 9 FEB 1807
Hannah LEECH b: 11 MAR 1809
Sarah LEECH b: 14 DEC 1810
Maria LEECH b: 27 JUL 1813
Thomas LEECH b: 28 JUL 1815
Jane LEECH b: 1 MAR 1821

Marriage 2 Phebe (Mercer) HOLLINGSWORTH b: 18 MAY 1774
Married: 13 OCT 1823 in Middleton Meeting House Columbiana Co. , Ohio