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Frank Aleamon Leach Sr.

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Frank Aleamon Leach Sr.

Birth
Auburn, Cayuga County, New York, USA
Death
19 Jun 1929 (aged 82)
Oakland, Alameda County, California, USA
Burial
Oakland, Alameda County, California, USA Add to Map
Plot
14B
Memorial ID
View Source
MASONS TO
HOLD RITES
FOR LEACH

Pioneer Publisher and
Political Figure to Be
Buried From Madison
St. Cathedral; Former
Head of Mint

Funeral services for Frank A. Leach, California pioneer newspaper publisher and political figure, who died yesterday at the age of 82 years, will be held tomorrow from the Masonic cathedral, Fifteenth and Madison Streets.
The services will be conducted by Navel lodge, No. 87 of Vallejo, with which Leach had been affiliated for 58 years. Following the service, which will start at 3 P. M., Burial will take place at Mountain View cemetery.
Leach died at Merritt hospital yesterday morning after a sudden breakdown in health two months ago.
For more than a half-century he was a prominent figure in California. Born in Auburn, N. Y., of a pioneer American family, he was brought to California as an infant by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin A. Leach. The family lived successively in San Francisco, Sacramento, Napa, Vallejo, and Oakland.
Leach attended private school in Sacramento until the first public school was opened there and completed his education at the age of 17 in Napa. He became an apprentice printer and there gained the experience which enabled him to found first the Napa Daily Reporter, then the Vallejo Chronicle and finally with A. B. Nye and W. F. Burbank the Oakland Enquirer.
Named To Legislature.
His political career was launched in Vallejo in 1879 when he was elected to the state legislature as representative for Solano County. He served two terms and from 1882 to 1884 was postmaster of Vallejo.
In 1897 he was appointed by President McKinley as superintendent of the mint in San Francisco and held that position for 10 years.
During the fire which struck San Francisco in 1906, Leach achieved national recognition by providing an emergency financial system for the stricken city. The mint was the only financial institution which remained intact and bank officials turned to Leach for aid. He recommended that, through their eastern credits, they secure telegraphic transfer of funds by United States treasury orders on the San Francisco mint and use such funds in establishing a temporary central bank representing all the banks of the city.
Local bankers supplied tellers and bookkeepers and the emergency financial institution was established in the mint and performed invaluable in restoring order out of the chaos of disaster.
Named Fund Treasurer.
When the magnitude of the disaster became known in Washington, Leach was asked to report on the situation and recommend relief measure to the treasury Department. He suggested free telegraphic transfer of funds from the east, payable in orders on the mint. President Roosevelt named Leach treasurer and through the system he received and disbursed more than $40,000,000 in 6 weeks' time without a single loss.
Leach's work following the disaster is credited with having influenced his appointment, in 1907, as director-general of United States mints with headquarters in Washington, a post he held until 1909.
He resigned then to become president and manager of the People's Water Company of Oakland, serving in that capacity until October 1911 when he retired. In July 1912, however, he was called out of retirement to again become Superintendent of the San Francisco mint following the death of Judge Sweeney. He resigned in August 1913.
Surviving him are four sons, Frank A. Leach, Jr. vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Gas & Electric company: Abe P. and Harry E. Leach, Oakland Attorneys and Edwin R. Leach and an uncle, H. J. E. Roffee of Seattle Washington.

From the OAKLAND TRIBUNE, Thursday Evening, June 20 1929
Copied to MS Word Document by Cheryl A. Tovar of Ventura, CA
December 15, 2010.
MASONS TO
HOLD RITES
FOR LEACH

Pioneer Publisher and
Political Figure to Be
Buried From Madison
St. Cathedral; Former
Head of Mint

Funeral services for Frank A. Leach, California pioneer newspaper publisher and political figure, who died yesterday at the age of 82 years, will be held tomorrow from the Masonic cathedral, Fifteenth and Madison Streets.
The services will be conducted by Navel lodge, No. 87 of Vallejo, with which Leach had been affiliated for 58 years. Following the service, which will start at 3 P. M., Burial will take place at Mountain View cemetery.
Leach died at Merritt hospital yesterday morning after a sudden breakdown in health two months ago.
For more than a half-century he was a prominent figure in California. Born in Auburn, N. Y., of a pioneer American family, he was brought to California as an infant by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin A. Leach. The family lived successively in San Francisco, Sacramento, Napa, Vallejo, and Oakland.
Leach attended private school in Sacramento until the first public school was opened there and completed his education at the age of 17 in Napa. He became an apprentice printer and there gained the experience which enabled him to found first the Napa Daily Reporter, then the Vallejo Chronicle and finally with A. B. Nye and W. F. Burbank the Oakland Enquirer.
Named To Legislature.
His political career was launched in Vallejo in 1879 when he was elected to the state legislature as representative for Solano County. He served two terms and from 1882 to 1884 was postmaster of Vallejo.
In 1897 he was appointed by President McKinley as superintendent of the mint in San Francisco and held that position for 10 years.
During the fire which struck San Francisco in 1906, Leach achieved national recognition by providing an emergency financial system for the stricken city. The mint was the only financial institution which remained intact and bank officials turned to Leach for aid. He recommended that, through their eastern credits, they secure telegraphic transfer of funds by United States treasury orders on the San Francisco mint and use such funds in establishing a temporary central bank representing all the banks of the city.
Local bankers supplied tellers and bookkeepers and the emergency financial institution was established in the mint and performed invaluable in restoring order out of the chaos of disaster.
Named Fund Treasurer.
When the magnitude of the disaster became known in Washington, Leach was asked to report on the situation and recommend relief measure to the treasury Department. He suggested free telegraphic transfer of funds from the east, payable in orders on the mint. President Roosevelt named Leach treasurer and through the system he received and disbursed more than $40,000,000 in 6 weeks' time without a single loss.
Leach's work following the disaster is credited with having influenced his appointment, in 1907, as director-general of United States mints with headquarters in Washington, a post he held until 1909.
He resigned then to become president and manager of the People's Water Company of Oakland, serving in that capacity until October 1911 when he retired. In July 1912, however, he was called out of retirement to again become Superintendent of the San Francisco mint following the death of Judge Sweeney. He resigned in August 1913.
Surviving him are four sons, Frank A. Leach, Jr. vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Gas & Electric company: Abe P. and Harry E. Leach, Oakland Attorneys and Edwin R. Leach and an uncle, H. J. E. Roffee of Seattle Washington.

From the OAKLAND TRIBUNE, Thursday Evening, June 20 1929
Copied to MS Word Document by Cheryl A. Tovar of Ventura, CA
December 15, 2010.


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