Nathan J. Leisure

Mr. and Mrs. Nathan J. Leisure

    A successful career has been that of Nathan J. Leisure. Many things constitute success, and it is not alone in his material possessions, ample though they are, that the success of Mr. Leisure is measured. When just entering manhood he went away to the war, was fighting for the Union three years and came out with the rank of Lieutenant. He then began a farming career in Grant County, and with the help of a noble wife accumulated the rewards of to industry and good management, until he ranks as one of the largest land owners and most substantial men of the county. At the same time he has discharge the obligations of citizenship, and dealt squarely with all men, so there are none to begrudge him his well won prosperity.

    Nathan J. Leisure, whose home is on Section Thirty-three of Green Township, being proprietor of what is known throughout this part of the county as Sugar Gove Stock Farm, was born in Rush County, Indiana, February 18, 1841. His parents were George W. and Lucinda (Myers) Leisure. The parents were born near Staunton, Virginia, moved out to Kentucky, and later to Rush County, Indiana, where the father entered land, from the government and both he and grandfather Leisure lived there until their death. The grandfather was a very popular citizen and had hosts of friends, where he lived. the father was a good business man, and a public speaker of local reputation, but divided his activities and interests in such a way that he never prospered greatly financially. He was Democratic in politics and one of the active workers. There were fourteen children in the family, twelve of whom lived to have families of their own.

    Nathan J. Leisure was reared on a farm, and assisted his father. His father was a stock buyer and shipper, and the son thus became well versed in all the details of handling stock. While growing up in Rush County, he attended the district schools, and was twenty years old when the first events of the great war between the states occurred. he enlisted in Company H under Captain Dyke, in the Fifty-second Indiana Infantry, in 1861, and was with his company and regiment for one year. Illness then compelled him to return home, and he received an honorable discharge at Indianapolis. Then in the fall of 1863, having been restored to health he again enlisted, and assisted in the raising of a company known as Company M of the Ninth Indiana Cavalry. He continued with that command until after the close of the war, and was mustered out at Vicksburg on September 20, 1865. In the course of his second service he was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. At Sulphur Springs, he was wounded in the right leg, and came out of the war a veteran who had seen much arduous service in behalf of the Union.

    On his return to Rush County he spent only two weeks there and then moved to Grant County, where he bought eighty acres of land and started out to make a living on somewhat of a humble scale. Since then he has prospered year in and year out until he is the owner of about two thousand acres of land in this State. He has a section of land in Pulaski County, Indiana. At the present time he is farming seven hundred acres of land in Grant County, and all of this property represents the accumulations of his own thrift and industry, though like many successful men he owes and give credit to his wife for her encouragement and practical assistance.

    On September 23, 1866, Mr. Leisure was united in marriage to Miss Sarah J. Moore, who was born in Rush County, Indiana, and who died July 21, 1895. She was the mother of ten children, six of whom are still living, as follows:

• George W. Leisure, a farmer in Tipton County.

• B. F. Leisure, a farmer in Madison County.

• J. O. Leisure, a farmer in Green Township.

• B. H. Leisure, whose farm is in Tipton County.

• Gertrude A., wife of John A. Peterson.

• O. E. Leisure, who lives at home with his father.

• They also raised a girl, Sarah King, now Mrs. Charles Reel, of Point Isabel.

    Mrs. Leisure, the mother of this family, was born on the farm in Rush County, Indiana, September, 1846, and when a girl attended the district schools. Her father died when she was a child, and her early life was not altogether one of luxury. She developed many fine traits of character, and gave liberally of the riches of her heart and practical assets to her husband and children, who will always revere her memory. Her death made a great gap in the family life, and was also widely regretted among the friends and acquaintances who had esteemed her during her many years of residence in Grant County.

    Mr. Leisure is a member and liberal supporter of the Christian Church. In politics he is a Democrat and has served two terms as township trustee of Green Township. He is a man of broad interests both in business and civic affairs. He is a stock holder and one of the directors of the Elwood State Bank, and is is the second larges stockholder in the State Bank at Fairmount, is a stock holder in the Curtisville Tile and Brick Works, a stock holder in a fertilizer plant at Indianapolis, and also a stock holder in the Franklin, Madison County Bank.

Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 1312-13.