Leach, Lyman O.
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MILITARY SERVICE Age: 27, credited to Newbury, VT Unit(s): 3rd VT INF Service: enl 6/1/61, m/i 7/16/61, PVT, Co. C, 3rd VT INF, reen 12/21/63, pr CPL, pr SGT 6/22/65, wdd, Wilderness, 5/5/64, m/o 7/11/65 See Legend for expansion of abbreviations VITALSBirth: 05/10/1834, Fairfield, VT Death: 07/12/1919 Burial: Beech Grove Cemetery, Muncie, IN Marker/Plot: Not recorded Gravestone photographer: DSON1492/Findagrave Findagrave Memorial #: 77189907 MORE INFORMATION Alias?: None noted Pension?: Yes, 12/8/1865; widow Arabella, 8/7/1919, IN Portrait?: Unknown College?: Not Found Veterans Home?: Not Found (If there are state digraphs above, this soldier spent some time in a state or national soldiers' home in that state after the war) Remarks: Brother of Edgar and Lucius DESCENDANTS 2nd Great Granduncle of Daniel Beffa, Waterford, WI (Are you a descendant, but not listed? Register today) |
BURIAL: Copyright notice  Beech Grove Cemetery, Muncie, IN Check the cemetery for location/directions and other veterans who may be buried there. |
Lyman O. Leach
LYMAN O. LEACH, a survivor of the Civil war and past commander of Williams Post No. 78. G.A.R, was born May 10 1834, at Fairfield, Franklin Co., Vt., son of John and Elizabeth (Prouty) Leach, and has been a resident of Muncie, Ind., since 1888.
The Leach family came from England in 1726, and settled in Connecticut. John Leach the grandfather of Lyman O. Leach was born in Connecticut and was married in Vermont. He then settled on new land which he bought from the Government, located on Otter Creek, and there he developed a farm. His children were: Brush, Hiram, John, Patty (who died unmarried), Ranna, and another daughter who married a Newton. John Leach lived to the age of eighty-four years, and died on his farm in 1844. He lived on a large tract of land, some 640 acres, on which he built a two-story house and became a man of comfortable circumstances and an honorable citizen.
John Leach (2), son of John, was born in Connecticut, and he received a common school education and learned the trade of millwright. He received 100 acres of the home farm from his father. In Vermont he married Elizabeth Prouty, born in 1807, in that State, daughter of a soldier of the War of 1812, who died in the service. After marriage John Leach followed his trade and continued to live on his farm. Late in life he gave up his former occupation and worked at the cooper's trade. He was a man of skill in both crafts, and was industrious, temperate and exemplary. In politics he was a Democrat. In religion he was a Methodist. He died at St. Albans, Vt., in 1857. John and Elizabeth Leach had children: Lyman O., Edgar D., Hannah L., James, Lucius W., and John C. Three of his sons, Edgar D., Lucius W. and Lyman O., were all soldiers in the Civil war. Edgar served four months in the same regiment with our subject, and was then shot in the hand, closing his usefulness as a soldier. Lucius served three years in the 9t Vt. V.I., and died three years later from troubles incurred in the army.
Lyman O. Leach received a fair common school education, and worked on the farm until he was twenty-seven years of age. He enlisted early in the Civil war, on June 1, 1861, entering company C, 3rd Vt. V.I., as a private and on July 16th following was mustered into the United States service. He faithfully performed a soldiers duties through the successive three years, and re-enlisted Dec. 21, 1863, in the field. In 1862 he was promoted to be corporal, and in 1865 to be sergeant, and he was honorably discharged at Hall's Hill, near Winchester, Va., July 11, 1865. He has participated in the following battles: Lewinsville, Va; Lee's Mills, Va., April 16, 1862; Williamsburg, May 5, 1862; Golding's Farm. June 26 1862; Savage Station, June 30-July 2, 1862; Crampton Gap, Sept. 16, 1862; Antietam, Md., Sept. 17, 1862; Fredericksburg, Va, Dec. 13, 1862; Marye's Heights, May 3, 1863; Salem Heights, May 4, 1863; Fredericksburg, June 5, 1863; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 3, 1863; Funkstown, Md., July 10, 1863; Rappahannock, Nov, 7, 1863; and the battle of the Wilderness which lasted from May 5 to May 10, 1864. At the battle of the Wilderness, Mr. Leach was shot in the right thigh and the seriousness of his wound kept him in a hospital from May until the last of September. He was sent to Fort Washington and was transferred ten days later to Baltimore, where he remained until fall, and then rejoined his command which was then in the Shenandoah Valley. The above does not enumerate all of the battles in which Mr. Leach took part, numerous though they were. Some of the later ones were; Cedar Creek, Oct. 19, 1864; Petersburg, March 25-27, 1865; second battle of Petersburg, April 26, and Salem Creek in April 1865. He then took part in the great march through the Carolinas to Danville, Va., and then onto Washington, D.C., to the Grand Review, one of the most notable gatherings held in the Capitol City.
After the war Mr. Leach returned to Vermont, and settled for three years on a farm near the Vermont Central Railroad and served as engineer on the road for twelve years. After his marriage he was located at St. Albans for three years, and then went to Tonawanda, N.Y., remaining two years, and in 1875 located in Michigan, where he accepted a position as engineer on the Canada Southern Railroad, remaining there until 1881. That year he moved to Fort Wayne, Ind., where he worked as a carpenter until 188, when he settled at Muncie. Here for the past twelve years he has been pattern maker for the American Steel Company, and is considered a very skilled workman.
On Aug. 22, 1869, at Bakersville, Vt., Mr. Leach was married to Arabella King, born in Enosburg, Vt., April 10, 1849, Daughter of Peter and Louisa (Pale) King. Peter King was born at Richfield, Vt., son of Edward and Margaret King. The King family is of French descent and among the early pioneers of Montreal. The name was originally LeRoi, meaning "the king," and was thus Americanized. Peter King was a stone-mason by trade. In the province of Quebec he bought a small property and died thereon aged sixty-four years, his wife surviving ten years. Their children were: Louis, Henry, Lucy, Celesta, Arabella, and Abbie.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Leach were: Gilbert, born Aug. 29, 1873, in New York, who married Cora M. Davenport, and they reside in Indiana Harbor, where he is a baggage master at the Lake Shore & Michigan station; and Ella May, born Oct. 31, 1876, at Trenton, Mich., who married John Herbert, an iron worker, and has one child, Velma E., Mr. Leach's only grandchild. Mr. and Mrs. Leach are members of the Baptist Church. In politics he is a Democrat. In 1882 he joined the G.A.R. post at Fort Wayne, Ind., and is now a member of Williams Post No. 78, of Muncie of which he is past commander. His is an unaffiliated Mason, having joined a Vermont lodge, and he belongs to the Knights of the Golden Eagle.
Commemorative Biographical Record of Prominent and Representative Men of Indianapolis and Vicinity, (Chicago, J.H Beers & Co., 1908), pp. 290-291.
Contributed by Daniel Beffa, Waterford, WI, 2nd-great-ggrandson of Edgar D. Leach, who is mentioned in the biography.