Elge W. Leach
One of the most competent and trusted young business men of Grant County is Elge W. Leach, Cashier of the Farmers State Bank at Matthews. Mr. Leach has the entire executive management of this well known and substantial institution, and it is largely owing to his genial personality as cashier and his careful and systematic conduct of the bank's affairs that the resources and business of the bank have been steadily mounting in importance since he first became connected with the business. As a man who has gained success and has gone considerable distance on the way to prosperity, Mr. Leach attributes his good fortune largely to the influence and counsel of his good wife, who for some time assisted him in the bank, and is not only an excellent housewife, but is thoroughly competent as an accountant and business woman.
Mr. Leach was appointed Assistant Cashier of the Farmers State Bank in March, 1909, and the following year was promoted to his present position, since which time he has had all the executive duties to perform. The Farmers State Bank of Matthews was established in 1907, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. In March, 1909, an entire new management took charge, and since that date its prosperity has been steadily increasing, but along natural and healthy lines. The personnel of the executive management is as follows: A. D. Mittank, President; George Fred Slater, Vice President; E. W. Leach, Cashier; and C. J. Jones, Assistant Cashier. The Farmers State Bank is a county, township and town depository; its total resources in February, 1913, were reported as about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and its relation to the prosperity of this thriving farming community is well indicated by the fact that in its vaults and on its books are accounts with depositors aggregating in the total nearly one hundred thousand dollars.
Elge W. Leach was born in Fairmount Township, August 3, 1879. He was reared and educated in the public schools, graduated from the Fairmount Academy in the Class of 1901, and the following three years were spent as a teacher. AT the same time his services were employed in an office, and he also did farm work. With this varied experience and equipment, he was well prepared for his present vocation. Mr. Leach's grandfather was Esom Leach, born in Virginia, reared in Franklin County, Indiana, and after his marriage there to Lucinda Corn, came to Grant county and acquired a large tract of land, comprising more than five hundred acres, partly by purchase and partly by entry from the government. The rest of his years were spent in residence at this estate in Grant county, and his career was one of special prosperity. He died when past seventy years of age, and is widow survived him ten or twelve years, and was a very old woman when taken away. They were both communicants of the Primitive Baptist Church. Their family comprised thirteen children in all, and eight sons and two daughters are still living. Of these children, John B. Leach, father of the Matthews banker, was born in Fairmount Township, March 4, 1854, and has lived in this vicinity ever since, making his home on a farm there at the present time. He was united in marriage to Miss Hester Richards in Jefferson Township. She is a daughter of Jacob and Susan (Gillespie) Richards. The Richards family has been identified with Grant County for all the years since early settlement, and both Mrs. Leach's parents died here when old people. Jacob Richards was an early Minister of the Primitive Baptist Church at Matthews, the church usually being known as the harmony Church, and he lived and labored for many years in the cause of religion, spending much of his time in traveling and riding about the country horseback, covering the large territory and carrying the Gospel to many isolated communities during the early days. Mrs. Hester Leach was born in Jefferson Township in 1857, and still is smart and active and has been a good mother to her children. These children of John B. Leach and wife were:
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Elge W.
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Jacob E., a farmer in Fairmount Township, who married Blanch Duling, and has three children, Lloyd, Carl and Helen.
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Minnie is the wife of Ernest O. Crecraft, living in Fowlerton, and their children are John A. and Dora Lee.
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Fern is the wife of Nacy Wood, living in Fowlerton, and they have no children.
Mr. Elge W. Leach was united in marriage, in Jefferson Township, to Miss Sarah Anderson. Mrs. Leach, who was born in Jefferson Township July 22, 1882, also graduated from the Fairmount Academy with the Class of 1901, the same class with her husband, and is an intelligent and cultured woman whose presence in Matthews society is one of secure advantage and esteem. Her parents were Augustus and Elizabeth (Dean) Anderson, who for many yeas were farmer residents of Jefferson Township. Her father died there in May, 1910, and the widow lives on the old farmstead, being about fifty-five years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which Mrs. Leach is also associated. Mr. Leach is a Democrat in politics.
Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 951-52.