Bio of LEACH, Colonel George E. (b.1876), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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Vol II, pg 226-229
COLONEL GEORGE E. LEACH
A distinguished military record is that of Colonel George E. Leach, who in his
overseas service in the World war was associated with various divisions and on
active duty on various battle fronts. In days of peace he has made for himself a
most creditable position in insurance circles in Minneapolis and at the present
writing he is in a position of political leadership inasmuch as he is filling
the office of mayor of the city, to which place he was called by a most
substantial vote indicative of the high regard entertained for him as a man and
a recognition of his public-spirited citizenship. Colonel Leach was born in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, July 14, 1876, and is a son of William B. and Mary H.
(Hammond) Leach, the former a native of Vermont, while the latter was born in
Michigan. In the year 1852 the father came to Minnesota and settled at Hastings.
During the Civil war he became adjutant of the First Minnesota Volunteer
Infantry and was the second man in the United States to enlist when President
Lincoln called for troops to crush out rebellion in the south. He served with
the army of the Potomac through all of its various campaigns and through his
loyalty, valor and skill in military tactics he won promotion to the rank of
major. He was twice cited for bravery during the progress of the war. His life
was devoted to the professions of civil engineering, the practice of law and to
the insurance business. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, in which he
completed his civil engineering course and throughout his life he displayed
marked determination, indefatigable energy and most creditable ambition. He
walked from Milwaukee to Baraboo, Wisconsin, at a period when there were no
railroads in that section of the country. He was "snowed in" at Faribault,
Minnesota, and the necessity of providing for his own support led him to at once
seek employment. He soon obtained a job as office boy and while thus employed he
devoted his evening hours to the study of law in the office and under the
direction of Bachelor & Buckham, well known attorneys of that place. Thus he
qualified for law practice and in the spring of 1853 opened an office in
Hastings. In various ways he was connected with the upbuilding and development
of the west and following his removal to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he there engaged in
the milling business for about twenty years. He was very prominent in public
affairs in that locality and served as the first mayor of the city. His last
days were spent in Minneapolis, where he passed away on the 5th of December,
1905. His widow survives and makes her home in this city.
Their son, Colonel George E. Leach, was educated in the public schools of
Minneapolis and in the University of Minnesota, which he attended for a year.
When twenty-three years of age he engaged in the fire insurance business and for
two decades was a representative of the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Company. In
this connection he developed a business of substantial proportions, making for
himself a creditable place in insurance circles.
Through much of his life Colonel Leach has manifested a keen interest in
military affairs and on the 15th of April, 1905, when about twenty-nine years of
age, he enlisted as a private in the First Minnesota Field Artillery, after
which he held all the intermediate grades until he became colonel of the One
Hundred and Fifty-first Field Artillery, which is the regiment which he joined
in the beginning, although reorganized under its present name. He remains its
colonel and it was with this regiment that he went to the Mexican border in
1916, there winning promotion to the colonelcy. In February, 1917, he returned
to Minneapolis but was called again to active service about two weeks later when
President Wilson decided to organize the Rainbow Division for service in France.
This was the first field artillery selected from the National Guard for overseas
service. Colonel Leach went through the School of Fire (the United States
artillery school) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he received a certificate. He
sailed for France on the 18th of October, 1917, and was in five major
engagements of the war, serving not only with the Rainbow Division but also with
the First Division, the Second Division and the Marines, the Fourth Division,
the Twenty-sixth Division, the Thirty-second Division, the Seventy-seventh
Division and with the Fourth French army. He was also with the Army of
Occupation in Germany and was in the front line opposite Sedan, France, when the
armistice was signed. He received the Distinguished Service Cross at Pexonne,
France, was" three times given the Croix de Guerre and also received the Legion
de Honneur from the president of France for distinguished bravery on the battle
field. After his return to America he was awarded the Distinguished Service
Medal, which was presented to him by General John Pershing. He was once wounded
by a shell fragment and on one occasion was gassed but was not off duty for an
hour during his entire service. In June, 1919, he returned to Minneapolis and
was mustered out at Camp Dodge, after which he was sent to Fort Sill in command
of the Fourteenth Field Artillery. He resigned from the army July 14, 1919, to
reorganize his old regiment in the National Guard, which was the first field
artillery in the National Guard to receive federal recognition after the war and
of this he is still the colonel.
With his return to civil life Mr. Leach reentered the insurance field as
superintendent of agencies of Minneapolis for the Fire & Marine Insurance
Company and from this organization he has received a leave of absence, enabling
him to serve his city as its chief executive. In June, 1921, he was elected
mayor of Minneapolis and is now acting in that capacity to the entire
satisfaction of the general public. He governs as he fought, with directness,
sureness of aim and determination to reach his objective. He was accorded the
largest vote given any mayor ever elected in Minneapolis and he at once set to
work to bring about the needed reforms and to introduce needed improvements. He
has built up the best police force in the country, of which fact he may well
feel proud and many reformatory measures have been initiated, his course at all
times demonstrating to the public that he is maintaining the highest standards
of civic virtue and of civic pride.
On the 9th of October, 1903, Colonel Leach was married to Miss Ella Pearl Van
Vorous of Minneapolis, and their social position is indeed enviable. Colonel
Leach is a thirty-second degree Mason and member of Zuhrah Temple of the Mystic
Shrine and in club circles he is prominently known, belonging to the Minneapolis
Athletic Club, the Lafayette Club, the Automobile Club and the Reserve Officers
Club. There have been no esoteric phases in his life and no spectacular
chapters. His record chronicles a steady progression of one who has been the
master of his own fate, who has realized that opportunity is universal, not
local, and in whose career every day has marked off a full-faithed attempt to
know more, to grow more and to do more.