James Harvey Leach

"Grandpa Leach {James Harvey Leach} was born in Louisiana I think. Do not know what year. He died in Erath County, Texas when mama {Ida Louise Leach McDermett} was a little girl. He taught school there. Made his own books and books for the pupils. Wrote with a quill made ink of Polk berries and such things. Sewed {them} by hand. Mama went to school to him and he was the only teacher she ever had. Was about 9 years old when he died. {She was born 2/9/1855 and died 9/11/1916}. Grandma Leach was

Augusta Penn........Mama was their first child and she was born in Illinois .......They had three children Ida Louise, James H. and another boy {John Leach}. He died while a young man. Before mama was married, Grandma Leach died at our house at the Peak in about 1885 or 1886 was buried at Cottonwood. When I (Dorothy McDermett) was a girl about 12 or 13 papa and I were in Erath Co and Uncle Alf Davis took us to grand pa's grave. It was out in a pasture under a tree. There were two graves there and one was his. No marker except a big rock at the head and foot of each grave. Uncle Alf didn't know which one was Grandpa Leach's."

{Notes in brackets were added by Marian Sue Byrd}