Walt & Terri Sterneman's Family Pages

Elizabeth L. Haydock

Person Chart

Additional Names

Additional Names	Name
Other Name	Bettie

Parents

Father	Date of Birth	Mother	Date of Birth
Gideon Augustus Haydock	1803	Harriet Byron Conway	1815

Partners

Partner	Date of Birth	Children
Amzi Dodridge Leech	25 Dec 1832	Mattie Augusta Leech Thomas Crawford Leech Alma Leech Mary Leech Nancy Ann Leech Robert Sturdivant Leech Amzi Dodridge Leech Jr. William Varnell Leech

Person Events

Event Type	Date	Place	Description
Birth	26 Sep 1833	Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky
Marriage	19 Oct 1853	Smithland, Livingston County, Kentucky
Children			8
Death			Y

Notes


Taken from "Story of Great Grandmother Leech," written in 1931, probably by Nancy Ann (Bebo) Leech and named by someone else in the family. Elizabeth Haydock Leech was born in Smithland, Kentucky, September 26, 1833. Her mother, Harriet Conway, was of Irish descent, her father, Gideon Haydock, was a Quaker whose parents had come to America to escape religious persecution in England. Smithland is now counted among the forgotten towns of our country; situated at the junction of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers it was at one time the most flourishing little city in southwest Kentucky. It was the center of an agricultural activity and the county seat of Livingston County. During the winter months the prosperous farmers of the community would move their families into town in order to send their children to a subscription school. They were taught arithmetic, reading, writing, spelling, French and Latin. All through the many years of her life, Elizabeth Leech cherished a little French note written to her by a little playmate who was visiting away from Smithland. The girls were given lessons on the piano. Years after Elizabeth's fingers had grown stiff with age she would sometimes consent to play "Santa Anna's Retreat" to the great delight of her grand children. Gideon Haydock died before his five children, Elizabeth, Joe, Gus, Maria (Buntie) and Clara were grown. At about the same time a brother of Gideon's and his wife died leaving five children. Harriet Haydock took these children into her home, and the ten children were reared as brothers and sisters. She was a frail woman, delicately reared with only a farm for a livelihood, and a farm in pioneer Kentucky was a big proposition for any woman with ten small children. But her children were clothed, fed, andeducated probably better than the average children in a pioneer country. Her oldest son, Joe and the oldest nephew, Dick, later owned and operated for years, the Ohio River warehouse at Cairo. Then Dick moved to California, and Joe came to Cape Girardeau and became Mr. Houck's bookkeeper at the railway station at the foot of Goodhope street. Gus, the younger son, was in the Confederate army and was killed at Shilo and buried in the trench with hundreds of other Confederate soldiers. Clara Haydock married L. J. Albert of Cape Girardeau, and Maria became the wife of W. V. Leech who became a partner of A. D. Leech and carried on the business after the older brother's death. Harriet Haydock spent the last years of her life with her daughters, and lies at rest in the Lorimer cemetery. On another Kentucky farm near Smithland, a young widow was experiencing a life not unlike Harriet Haydock's. Linda Glenn Leech had been left, at the death of her hunband, with a farm, seven sons and a daughter. These seven sons became successful businessmen and the daughter, the wife of Captain Joe Fouler of Paducah. Sam, one of the sons was married at Princeton, Kentucky, to a sister of the late Judge Robert J. Wilson of Cape Girardeau. The Leech and Haydock families were old friends, exchanging visits and meeting frequently in town. Amzi Leech and Elizabeth Haydock were married Oct. 19th, 1853. Four years later, in 1857, they came to Cape Girardeau to live, and Amzi Leech became the owner of a general merchandise store on the corner of Main and Themis Street, the best business stand in town at the time. From what I have gathered of A. D. Leech's business methods, I suspect they more nearly resembled 20th Century methods than anything Cape Girardeau had experienced up to that time. He establisheda cotton market that brought cotton to the Cape from as far South as Arkansas, instead of to Menphis, as previously. It was not an unusual sight in season to see cotton wagons lined up next to the Leech store, down Main street, up Independence and southon Spanish for half a block or more. Mr. Frank Anderson of Commerce once told me that A. D. Leech went personally among the farmers of the lower counties and solicited their business, that he had a charming personality and numbered his friends in Southeast Missouri by the hundreds, the men held their cotton for him because they had confidence in his fair and square dealing. He had faith in the future of Cape Girardeau and gave the town his loyal support. A. D. Leech died in 1873 at the age of thirty nine. When Elizabeth Leech, a small blue eyed, golden haired mother, with a little son in arms and a daughter (Mattie) just three, looked eagerly over the guards of the landing boat, at her new home, she saw a levee not hard to visualize today, for in many respects it has changed little during the passing seventy four years. There was, of course, no sea-wall, no railway tracks, no fine Railroad Station in the distance; but the levee, even then, was the best between St. Louis and Memphis. It had virtually the same skyline as today, with the same two and three storied buildings stretching across the top. At the north end, on the corner of Harmony (Broadway) stood the imposing Riverview Hotel, and beyond that Nathen's large flour mill and warehouses. Far to the south she caught a glimpse of another large mill, the Convent, and the beautiful Catholic church. In front of her, up Themis Street, the court house stood on its pinnacle with a square two storied brick building on an erosionned hill-no grass and a path leading up to the top. It was twenty five years later that Elizabeth Leech's son-in-law, a member of the City Council, fought for and won a terraced, grass sodded lawn with shade trees for the "court yard." Soft maples were planted because of their rapid growth, with the hope that other forest trees would be gradually added. There were no houses to rent in Cape Girardeau in 1857. Someone had to leave town or for some reason consent to rent their homes for a few months. While looking for a place to live, the Leech family stayed at the St. Charles Hotel, of which Mr. Zalma Block was owner and proprietor. While here a close friendship was cemented between them and the Block family that has lasted through four generations. For a short while Elizabeth Leech and her family were domiciled in the Philipson home on Harmony Street,then they were moved to a large, gloomy house on the corner of Themis and Main Streets, just across from the Leech store. They had not lived there long when Col. Sturdivant decided to remodel the house into a business house, and it became the "Bank of Sturdivant." However Col. Sturdivant retained a suite in the building for his own home, and lived there until he went back to Virginia. The Leeches moved up the street to the Harris house on the corner of Themis and Spanish. It was during this period that Aunt Patience was acquired, Then Mr. Leech went to the Ingram place (now the Sprout home) to select a servant. He took his oldest daughter with him, saying the children had a right to help select their nurse. When Aunt Patience, who was about fifty five years old, saw them coming she ran from the group of Negroes to them crying: "Oh, Marsa, take me, I knows you's a good man!" The little girl selected Aunt Patience on the spot. Dr. Stockton, a physician of the Cape at the time took her son Tom so that they might not be separated. Tom Stockton became the town's famous Crier and was for years the sexton of the Presbyterian Church. Shortly after Aunt Patience came to the Leech family she "got religion." She invited the family to come down to the river to see her baptized. The levee was full of spectators, but when Aunt Patience emerged she caught a glimpse of "her people" and in a hysterical frenzy she rushed up to her master and threw her arms around him crying, "Oh, Marsa Am, I's so happy!" The crowd laughed, and "Marsa Am" went home to put on a dry shirt. During the War Elizabeth and her little family of three were moved to the large two story frame house that stood for so many many years on the northwest corner of Lorimer and Themis. There were five children born to her while they lived there. And it was from this house years later, when W. V. Leech and his wife Maria, were living there, that the Leech family and their friends witnessed, from the upper porch, the famous race between the Metohez1 and the Bee1 go past the Cape. The Union soldiers made much of the little children across the street from their camp. They knew the family were southern sympathizers and sometimes would tease the little one until the children would retort with something about the "Yankees", then the men would laugh good naturedly and an argument would ensue. Amzi Leech did not join the Confederate army because his fast growing family needed him, but he did provide a substitute. Clara Haydock, who spent much of her time with her sister, Elizabeth, was an ardent and zealous Confederate. In defiance she named a little calf on the place Jefferson Davis, then kept it locked up in the smokehouse to keep the soldiers from carrying it off. When a Union battle had been won the citizens were required to illuminate their homes for the big parade that always took place. Can you imagine placing hundreds of candles along the small panes of glass in every window in your house, then have the soldiers groan as they passed because they knew you had decorated because you had to, not because you wanted to. Most of this in the light of today appears like schoolboys' pranks, but there were some tragedies and some near tragedies. Once the little Leech children saw a young boy hauled away in a wagon from the guardhouse, seated on his newly constructed pine coffin. A little latter they saw his old mother walk up and down, up and down, wringing her hands and crying. Three times the life of Amzi Leech apparently hung in the balance. The soldiers knew he was a Confederate sympathizer, but they liked him and treated him courteously. But three times, when there had been too much drinking they came to the house late at night with threats of shooting and demanded that he come with him. Once, Louis Klosterman, a young State Militia man who was clerking in the Leech store and living at the house, persuaded them to leave. Another time, Mr. Leech himself shamed them into leaving; and the third time, Aunt Patience jumped among them from the porch and prayed so long and fervently that the good Lord come down and saved Marsa Am that they gradually faded away. One day it was rumored that the Confederates were marching on the city. There was great excitement, orders rang out and the soldiers marched out to meet them leaving their coats piled high on the side porch of the Leech house. It was the day of the skirmish West of town, on April 26th 1863. When the town was threatened by Confederate gunboats one of the Leech children was very ill and there was no thought of any of them taking the boat that waited at the levee to carry Cape citizens to a point north of the town. Two of the children sat on the high wall and watched the men, women and children hurry by. Some of the women carried feather beds on their heads and the children followed with birdcages, quilts and toys. They offered to take the two on the wall with them for they knew it would prove a veritable target if the town should be bombarded, which it was not. While the men in the southern counties were at war the women came to the Cape to sell and buy. It was not an unusual thing for Elizabeth Leech to have five or six women and as many children as guests for overnight. Shortly after the War Mr. Leech bought the happy place on the Jackson Road. It was a lovely house of red brick, white stone coping, French windows, and a two-storied front porch that extended to the eves of the roof. There was a lovely garden on the east side. Here, for many years Elizabeth Leech planted and cared for the flowers that were ever her delight. There were large forest trees that lined the walkway to the gate. On the lawn mysterious Jack-o-lanterns often played at night over the meadow atthe foot of the hill, to the great consternation of the Negroes and children. A few years before his death A. D. Leech's brothers took into their store as a clerk a first double cousin from Kentucky, David A. Glenn. David Glenn had many characteristics in common with his cousins-he was gifted in that he made and held friends, was always liberal, and gave his tireless support to his town and community. After her husband's death Elizabeth Leech attempted to carry on in the same generous way she had been used to. She was a active member of the Presbyterian church, and her home was always open to the ministers and their families. For many years the Presbyterian women served meals during the Fair. All the meat, bread, chicken salad and many other deliciously cooked edibles were prepared in the Leech kitchen and carried out to the fair grounds on the Bloomfield Road in the surrey behind old Thad. It was she, because of her knowledge of parliamentary law that held the Cape Girardeau Presbyterian Church in the Southern Assembly. The motion was put before a small prayer meeting congregation and passed. Mrs. Leech was not at church that night and had retired when she was told what had happened. In her own words written in a letter January 17, 1880, she said: "I got out of bed quickly and got some paper and ink and wrote a note to Mr. Pender, one of the elders, and told him they had not advertised that theywould vote on it that night and that the members were not all there, and that they would have to call another meeting. All the members went to this meeting and they put the church in the Southern Assembly. All were pleased about it except Col. Van Frank. He showed his displeasure for a while." Senator Oliver once told me that Dr. Farris, a Presbyterian minister of St. Louis, told him that at one time he had written repeatedly to the clerk of the session and other men of the Cape church for certain information and had received no reply, when it occurred to him to write to Mrs. Leech. In a short while her answer came with the exact information. She was always conscientious in the performance of a duty. She did not seek the vote for women, but when it came to them she felt it her duty to expressher opinion through it, especially in issues she considered moral. In 1883, her family reared, (one daughter, Mary, had died at the age of sixteen, a few years after her father) she moved to Kansas City to live with one of her sons. Kansas City was at the time in the beginning of its phenomenal boom, and for almost forty years she watch the growth of the town-felt she was a part of it. She was always interested in the world about her-her friends, her neighbors, her flowers and chickens, and above all else her church and her family. Her natural courteousness with its bit of shyness was charming and the heritage she has left her grand-children. *******************************************************************

Taken from "Story of Great Grandmother Leech," written in 1931, probably by Nancy Ann (Bebo) Leech and named by someone else in the family.

Elizabeth Haydock Leech was born in Smithland, Kentucky, September 26, 1833. Her mother, Harriet Conway, was of Irish descent, her father, Gideon Haydock, was a Quaker whose parents had come to America to escape religious persecution in England. Smithland is now counted among the forgotten towns of our country; situated at the junction of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers it was at one time the most flourishing little city in southwest Kentucky. It was the center of an agricultural activity and the county seat of Livingston County. During the winter months the prosperous farmers of the community would move their families into town in order to send their children to a subscription school. They were taught arithmetic, reading, writing, spelling, French and Latin. All through the many years of her life, Elizabeth Leech cherished a little French note written to her by a little playmate who was visiting away from Smithland. The girls were given lessons on the piano. Years after Elizabeth's fingers had grown stiff with age she would sometimes consent to play "Santa Anna's Retreat" to the great delight of her grand children.

Gideon Haydock died before his five children, Elizabeth, Joe, Gus, Maria (Buntie) and Clara were grown. At about the same time a brother of Gideon's and his wife died leaving five children. Harriet Haydock took these children into her home, and the ten children were reared as brothers and sisters. She was a frail woman, delicately reared with only a farm for a livelihood, and a farm in pioneer Kentucky was a big proposition for any woman with ten small children. But her children were clothed, fed, andeducated probably better than the average children in a pioneer country. Her oldest son, Joe and the oldest nephew, Dick, later owned and operated for years, the Ohio River warehouse at Cairo. Then Dick moved to California, and Joe came to Cape Girardeau and became Mr. Houck's bookkeeper at the railway station at the foot of Goodhope street. Gus, the younger son, was in the Confederate army and was killed at Shilo and buried in the trench with hundreds of other Confederate soldiers. Clara Haydock married L. J. Albert of Cape Girardeau, and Maria became the wife of W. V. Leech who became a partner of A. D. Leech and carried on the business after the older brother's death. Harriet Haydock spent the last years of her life with her daughters, and lies at rest in the Lorimer cemetery.

On another Kentucky farm near Smithland, a young widow was experiencing a life not unlike Harriet Haydock's. Linda Glenn Leech had been left, at the death of her hunband, with a farm, seven sons and a daughter. These seven sons became successful businessmen and the daughter, the wife of Captain Joe Fouler of Paducah. Sam, one of the sons was married at Princeton, Kentucky, to a sister of the late Judge Robert J. Wilson of Cape Girardeau. The Leech and Haydock families were old friends, exchanging visits and meeting frequently in town. Amzi Leech and Elizabeth Haydock were married Oct. 19th, 1853. Four years later, in 1857, they came to Cape Girardeau to live, and Amzi Leech became the owner of a general merchandise store on the corner of Main and Themis Street, the best business stand in town at the time. From what I have gathered of A. D. Leech's business methods, I suspect they more nearly resembled 20th Century methods than anything Cape Girardeau had experienced up to that time. He establisheda cotton market that brought cotton to the Cape from as far South as Arkansas, instead of to Menphis, as previously. It was not an unusual sight in season to see cotton wagons lined up next to the Leech store, down Main street, up Independence and southon Spanish for half a block or more. Mr. Frank Anderson of Commerce once told me that A. D. Leech went personally among the farmers of the lower counties and solicited their business, that he had a charming personality and numbered his friends in Southeast Missouri by the hundreds, the men held their cotton for him because they had confidence in his fair and square dealing. He had faith in the future of Cape Girardeau and gave the town his loyal support. A. D. Leech died in 1873 at the age of thirty nine.

When Elizabeth Leech, a small blue eyed, golden haired mother, with a little son in arms and a daughter (Mattie) just three, looked eagerly over the guards of the landing boat, at her new home, she saw a levee not hard to visualize today, for in many respects it has changed little during the passing seventy four years. There was, of course, no sea-wall, no railway tracks, no fine Railroad Station in the distance; but the levee, even then, was the best between St. Louis and Memphis. It had virtually the same skyline as today, with the same two and three storied buildings stretching across the top. At the north end, on the corner of Harmony (Broadway) stood the imposing Riverview Hotel, and beyond that Nathen's large flour mill and warehouses. Far to the south she caught a glimpse of another large mill, the Convent, and the beautiful Catholic church. In front of her, up Themis Street, the court house stood on its pinnacle with a square two storied brick building on an erosionned hill-no grass and a path leading up to the top. It was twenty five years later that Elizabeth Leech's son-in-law, a member of the City Council, fought for and won a terraced, grass sodded lawn with shade trees for the "court yard." Soft maples were planted because of their rapid growth, with the hope that other forest trees would be gradually added.

There were no houses to rent in Cape Girardeau in 1857. Someone had to leave town or for some reason consent to rent their homes for a few months. While looking for a place to live, the Leech family stayed at the St. Charles Hotel, of which Mr. Zalma Block was owner and proprietor. While here a close friendship was cemented between them and the Block family that has lasted through four generations. For a short while Elizabeth Leech and her family were domiciled in the Philipson home on Harmony Street,then they were moved to a large, gloomy house on the corner of Themis and Main Streets, just across from the Leech store. They had not lived there long when Col. Sturdivant decided to remodel the house into a business house, and it became the "Bank of Sturdivant." However Col. Sturdivant retained a suite in the building for his own home, and lived there until he went back to Virginia. The Leeches moved up the street to the Harris house on the corner of Themis and Spanish.

It was during this period that Aunt Patience was acquired, Then Mr. Leech went to the Ingram place (now the Sprout home) to select a servant. He took his oldest daughter with him, saying the children had a right to help select their nurse. When Aunt Patience, who was about fifty five years old, saw them coming she ran from the group of Negroes to them crying: "Oh, Marsa, take me, I knows you's a good man!" The little girl selected Aunt Patience on the spot. Dr. Stockton, a physician of the Cape at the time took her son Tom so that they might not be separated. Tom Stockton became the town's famous Crier and was for years the sexton of the Presbyterian Church. Shortly after Aunt Patience came to the Leech family she "got religion." She invited the family to come down to the river to see her baptized. The levee was full of spectators, but when Aunt Patience emerged she caught a glimpse of "her people" and in a hysterical frenzy she rushed up to her master and threw her arms around him crying, "Oh, Marsa Am, I's so happy!" The crowd laughed, and "Marsa Am" went home to put on a dry shirt.

During the War Elizabeth and her little family of three were moved to the large two story frame house that stood for so many many years on the northwest corner of Lorimer and Themis. There were five children born to her while they lived there. And it was from this house years later, when W. V. Leech and his wife Maria, were living there, that the Leech family and their friends witnessed, from the upper porch, the famous race between the Metohez1 and the Bee1 go past the Cape. The Union soldiers made much of the little children across the street from their camp. They knew the family were southern sympathizers and sometimes would tease the little one until the children would retort with something about the "Yankees", then the men would laugh good naturedly and an argument would ensue.

Amzi Leech did not join the Confederate army because his fast growing family needed him, but he did provide a substitute. Clara Haydock, who spent much of her time with her sister, Elizabeth, was an ardent and zealous Confederate. In defiance she named a little calf on the place Jefferson Davis, then kept it locked up in the smokehouse to keep the soldiers from carrying it off. When a Union battle had been won the citizens were required to illuminate their homes for the big parade that always took place. Can you imagine placing hundreds of candles along the small panes of glass in every window in your house, then have the soldiers groan as they passed because they knew you had decorated because you had to, not because you wanted to. Most of this in the light of today appears like schoolboys' pranks, but there were some tragedies and some near tragedies. Once the little Leech children saw a young boy hauled away in a wagon from the guardhouse, seated on his newly constructed pine coffin. A little latter they saw his old mother walk up and down, up and down, wringing her hands and crying. Three times the life of Amzi Leech apparently hung in the balance. The soldiers knew he was a Confederate sympathizer, but they liked him and treated him courteously. But three times, when there had been too much drinking they came to the house late at night with threats of shooting and demanded that he come with him. Once, Louis Klosterman, a young State Militia man who was clerking in the Leech store and living at the house, persuaded them to leave. Another time, Mr. Leech himself shamed them into leaving; and the third time, Aunt Patience jumped among them from the porch and prayed so long and fervently that the good Lord come down and saved Marsa Am that they gradually faded away.

One day it was rumored that the Confederates were marching on the city. There was great excitement, orders rang out and the soldiers marched out to meet them leaving their coats piled high on the side porch of the Leech house. It was the day of the skirmish West of town, on April 26th 1863. When the town was threatened by Confederate gunboats one of the Leech children was very ill and there was no thought of any of them taking the boat that waited at the levee to carry Cape citizens to a point north of the town. Two of the children sat on the high wall and watched the men, women and children hurry by. Some of the women carried feather beds on their heads and the children followed with birdcages, quilts and toys. They offered to take the two on the wall with them for they knew it would prove a veritable target if the town should be bombarded, which it was not. While the men in the southern counties were at war the women came to the Cape to sell and buy. It was not an unusual thing for Elizabeth Leech to have five or six women and as many children as guests for overnight.

Shortly after the War Mr. Leech bought the happy place on the Jackson Road. It was a lovely house of red brick, white stone coping, French windows, and a two-storied front porch that extended to the eves of the roof. There was a lovely garden on the east side. Here, for many years Elizabeth Leech planted and cared for the flowers that were ever her delight. There were large forest trees that lined the walkway to the gate. On the lawn mysterious Jack-o-lanterns often played at night over the meadow atthe foot of the hill, to the great consternation of the Negroes and children.

A few years before his death A. D. Leech's brothers took into their store as a clerk a first double cousin from Kentucky, David A. Glenn. David Glenn had many characteristics in common with his cousins-he was gifted in that he made and held friends, was always liberal, and gave his tireless support to his town and community.

After her husband's death Elizabeth Leech attempted to carry on in the same generous way she had been used to. She was a active member of the Presbyterian church, and her home was always open to the ministers and their families. For many years the Presbyterian women served meals during the Fair. All the meat, bread, chicken salad and many other deliciously cooked edibles were prepared in the Leech kitchen and carried out to the fair grounds on the Bloomfield Road in the surrey behind old Thad. It was she, because of her knowledge of parliamentary law that held the Cape Girardeau Presbyterian Church in the Southern Assembly. The motion was put before a small prayer meeting congregation and passed. Mrs. Leech was not at church that night and had retired when she was told what had happened. In her own words written in a letter January 17, 1880, she said: "I got out of bed quickly and got some paper and ink and wrote a note to Mr. Pender, one of the elders, and told him they had not advertised that theywould vote on it that night and that the members were not all there, and that they would have to call another meeting. All the members went to this meeting and they put the church in the Southern Assembly. All were pleased about it except Col. Van Frank. He showed his displeasure for a while."

Senator Oliver once told me that Dr. Farris, a Presbyterian minister of St. Louis, told him that at one time he had written repeatedly to the clerk of the session and other men of the Cape church for certain information and had received no reply, when it occurred to him to write to Mrs. Leech. In a short while her answer came with the exact information. She was always conscientious in the performance of a duty. She did not seek the vote for women, but when it came to them she felt it her duty to expressher opinion through it, especially in issues she considered moral.

In 1883, her family reared, (one daughter, Mary, had died at the age of sixteen, a few years after her father) she moved to Kansas City to live with one of her sons. Kansas City was at the time in the beginning of its phenomenal boom, and for almost forty years she watch the growth of the town-felt she was a part of it.

She was always interested in the world about her-her friends, her neighbors, her flowers and chickens, and above all else her church and her family. Her natural courteousness with its bit of shyness was charming and the heritage she has left her grand-children.
*******************************************************************

Sources

Description	Quality	Information	Evidence
Family Group Sheets for Leech Family	Don't know	Don't know	Don't know
Haydock Family Notes	Don't know	Don't know	Don't know
McCarty-Smith GEDCOM file	Don't know	Don't know	Don't know

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