From Proud Heritage, Volume III by DCPA. This 352 page hardcover book is available online.
Anthony M. Leake was born July 4, 1791 in Goochland County Virginia, the son of Susanna Jones (b. 1772) and Walter Leake (b. 1768). His grandparents were Ann Minter and Josiah Leake, Sr. (b. 1730 in Virginia). Josiah’s grandfather, William, was born in England about 1664 and immigrated to Goochland County in 1685.
Josiah was a captain in the American Revolution and became a major landowner in Goochland County. He married three times, Ann Minter being his second wife. He died in 1789 and his will was filed in Goochland County. Details of this family can be found in Families of Virginia, Vol. I.
Anthony’s parents, Walter and Susanna, married on October 1, 1790 and moved to Maysville in Mason County, Kentucky about 1805. According to their family Bible they had thirteen children, Anthony being the oldest. By 1840 most of the children had moved west. Susanna died in 1848 and Walter in 1853, both in Mason County.
Anthony enlisted as a private in the 4th Regiment of Kentucky Volunteers in August 1812, and was discharged in March 1813. For his service he was granted a warrant for eighty acres of bounty land in 1855.
On June 22, 1815 Anthony married Frances “Fanny” Brockman, born about 1797 in Virginia. The marriage bond was issued in Boone County, Kentucky and was made by Anthony and the bride’s father, Moses Brockman. The parents of Frances were first cousins, Eleanor and Moses Brockman. Their grandfather, Samuel, was born about 1690 and died 1765 in Virginia. The father of Eleanor was William Brockman, born in Orange County, Virginia in 1740, who served in the Revolutionary War, and died in Boone County, Kentucky in 1812.
Anthony and Frances purchased land in Fleming County, Kentucky in 1818 and lived in that area until about 1828 when they moved to Tippecanoe County (which became Clinton County), Indiana. The family is next found in Monroe County, Missouri, during 1832, when Anthony purchased various tracts of land. In October 1845 he sold all his properties in Monroe County and moved to Texas.
In a land grant application, Samuel Leake, the son of Anthony, stated that the family arrived in now Dallas County on November 29, 1845 and obtained a land grant of 640 acres through the Peters Colony. Anthony is shown on the poll tax list for 1846 in the new County of Dallas, new State of Texas. His grant is presently located in Richardson between Plano and Jupiter Road.
He immediately purchased additional land east of the Anthony M. Leake Survey, and the 1846 tax list for Dallas County shows A.M. Leake owning 1,320 acres of land, 3 horses, and 8 cattle. The 1850 census shows Anthony’s occupation as farmer. In 1851 he was Justice of the Peace for Dallas County.
Anthony died February 29, 1856 on the farm in Dallas. His complicated estate was settled in 1857 in Texas District Court No. 14 (Book B, pages 187 and 279). Frances died about 1858.
Anthony and Frances had at least nine children. The oldest, a male, born about 1817 did not come to Texas. The eight who did were Elvira, Samuel, Almeda, Elizabeth, Edna, Mary, Louisa, and Josiah.
Elvira was born in 1818 in Mason or Fleming County, Kentucky. She married first Thomas B. Mayes, about 1834 in Missouri, and they moved to Ellis County, Texas in 1846, where Thomas died in 1847. Their three sons born in Shelby County, Missouri, were Charles C., Robert Kanady, and William Walter. All three served in the Confederate Army from Dallas County.
On September 30, 1847 Elvira married John Cooper Cook, a widower. This family union had her children, his children, and their children, and it is through them that I am descended. (There is a John Cooper Cook article in this volume.)
Samuel, second child of Anthony and Frances, born April 21, 1823 in Kentucky, married Margarett Pickett (see Volume II) on November 9, 1854. Their son, James K., was born in 1860. Samuell died November 14, 1872.
Almeda, born April 11, 1825 in Kentucky, married Richard Crowley on December 28, 1849. She died June 26, 1893 and is buried in the Western Heights Cemetery in Dallas.
Born about 1827 in Kentucky, Elizabeth married Hubbard P. Walker on September 7, 1848 in Collin County, and died about 1853.
Edna was born in Indiana about 1828 and married Benjamin F. Crowley on April 19, 1849. They moved to Tarrant County.
The next child was Mary, born 1834 in Missouri. She married Eli Murphy on October 14, 1852.
Louisa was born December 9, 1835 in Missouri and married J.J. Alexander on October 17, 1856. J.J. was a landowner near the Leake farm. They are buried in the Big Springs Cemetery on Jupiter Road in Dallas County.
The last child, Josiah, was born during 1839 in Missouri. He married Lorena E. Williams on January 10, 1858, and two of their sons were Anthony T. (b. 1865) and William W. (b. 1869).
From the union of Anthony M. Leake and Frances Brockman have come hundreds of descendants, many of whom still live in the north Texas area. Anthony and Frances brought the traditions of Virginia and a pioneering spirit to the Dallas County area.
By A. E. “Gene” Gaddy
