Maj. A. W. Leech Biography


	This biography appears on pages 544-545 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				MAJOR A. W. LEECH. 

	Major A. W. Leech is superintendent and special disbursing agent 
of the Yankton Indian reservation. He has about eighteen hundred and 
thirty Indians under him and in the past three years improvements 
amounting to a half million dollars have been made under his 
supervision. He is very enthusiastic in his work and gives it his 
undivided attention and his best thought. A native of Ohio, he was born 
January 6, 1865, a son of Robert J. and Matilda F. (Hurley) Leech. The 
father, who was by trade a carpenter, has passed to his reward. 

	Major A. W. Leech attended the public schools in his boyhood and 
was later a student in the Kansas Normal College at Fort Scott, Kansas, 
from which he was graduated, on the completion of a special science 
course. He then engaged in school work and in October, 1900, entered 
the Indian service as a day-school teacher on the Rosebud reservation. 
He continued to hold that position until September, 1903, when he went 
to Oklahoma as assistant superintendent. Later he was for three years 
day-school inspector and on the 1st of February, 1912, he assumed 
charge of the Yankton reservation as superintendent and special 
disbursing agent. The Indians under his care number about eighteen 
hundred and thirty and since he has had charge of the reservation they 
have made unusually rapid progress in civilization. They engage chiefly 
in farming and the acreage under cultivation has increased quite 
materially in the last three years. The water difficulty has been 
solved and many good wells have been drilled, including a number of 
artesian wells. The houses in which the Indians live are of a better 
type than heretofore and show marked advancement in comfort and 
sanitation. At the government board school there are about one hundred 
children, who are receiving both a scholastic and an industrial 
education. During the three years that Major Leech has been in control 
of the reservation a great deal of farm equipment has been secured and 
other improvements have been made, the total expenditure reaching the 
half million mark. He understands the Indians well, which largely 
accounts for his success as superintendent, and another factor therein 
is his love for his work, to which he devotes himself unsparingly. 

	Major Leech was married on the 19th of August, 1886, to Miss Mary 
B. Holstein, a daughter of Fred Holstein, of Fort Scott, Kansas. To 
this union have been born five children: Nada B., now Mrs. L. R. 
Divilbiss, of Kansas City; Charles A., of Chicago; Harry R., of 
Greenwood, South Dakota; Marie J., the wife of W. B. McCown, of 
Darlington, Oklahoma; and Ora A., at home. There are also three 
grandchildren.

	Major Leech is affiliated with the Presbyterian church and his 
wife belongs to the Christian church. Fraternally he is a thirty-second 
degree Mason and he is also identified with the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. All who have come into contact with his work recognize its 
value and respect and esteem him for his ability and his sincere 
interest in the advancement of the Indians under his charge. He has 
also gained and retained the sincere friendship and warm regard of many 
as he possesses those qualities of mind and heart that are associated 
with the highest type of manhood.