LEECH FAMILY

Bernard Odell Leech; Son of James Leech

My grandfather, Bernard Odell Leech, was born in 1879 in Taylor, MS, a few miles southwest of Oxford in Lafayette Co.

According to the 1880 census James M Leech, 47, born in MS had wife Ella and son Bernard. James was said to have been born in MS and both of his parents in AL. Ella is said to have been born in MS, her father in AL and her mother in MS:

1880 Miss Yalobusha Co. census Twp Water Valley (Taylor and Water Valley are quite close, although in different counties) Leech James M 43 born MS Leech Ella A 22 born MS Leech Bernard 10/12, born MS

The 1890 census was unfortunately burned.

Some time before the turn of the century James Leech and family moved from rural Mississippi to the city of Memphis. No doubt then as now people leave the country to make their fortune in town.

1900 Tenn Shelby census ed. 102 sheet 10, line 42 Leach James, age 66; Shaw St., Memphis. Born 1833 in Alabama. carpenter (house), literate, a renter Leach Ella E b. May 1857 age 43 mother of 2 children, 1 living Bernard O son born July 18, 1879; aged 20, born in Miss laborer (riveter iron) literate.

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Descendants of Bernard Odell and Minnie Mae Holmes Leech

Two daughters were born in Memphis: In 1904 Mary Maud Leech. In 1921 she married Robert L Clayton in New Orleans.
In 1905 Mae Leech. In 1920 she married Vernon H. Bray. The Brays had 3 children: Vernon, Jr., born 1923 Betty Jean, born ca 1927, died of diphtheria at age of 3. William, born ca 1942 in Glendale, CA.

Ca 1936 Vernon and Minnie Mae Bray moved from Memphis to Glendale CA. Soon thereafter Minnie Mae's parents followed them. They were members of the Broadway St. Methodist Church. Life was better for the family than it had been in depression days in Memphis. In 1953 most of the Leech family were in California: the Brays and the two Clayton grandchildren, Margaret having moved there in 1942 and Larry serving in the U.S.Navy. 

 The Bray family is subject for another discourse.

© 2001 Larry Clayton
My Home

 file:///home/ellie/Documents/Genealogy/leech.htm

YOUNG LARRY

 

DWELLING PLACE

British Museum

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

Revelation 21

 [3] And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
[4] And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
[5] And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
[6] And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
[7] He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

Phillips

21:1-4 - Then I saw a new Heaven and a new earth, for the first Heaven and the first earth had disappeared and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride dressed in beauty for her husband. Then I heard a great voice from the throne crying, "See! The home of God is with men, and he will live among them. They shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more, and never again shall there be sorrow or crying or pain. For all those former things are past and gone."

VISIONS OF ETERNITY

Reading the Bible

Larry wrote:

 Like Los Blake walks up and down the biblical scene from Adam to John of Patmos. He takes what best serves his purpose, or rather the biblical symbols rearrange themselves kaleidoscopically into his visions of Eternity. These together add up to a cogent and provocative commentary on the Bible and on its child, the Christian faith.

Out of this intuitive unconscious process arose the great themes of his faith, embodied in his art: the universal man, fallen and fractured, struggling, redeemed and returning in the fullness of time into the blessed Unity from which he came. This is the essential story of the Bible for one who reads it whole and without the constraints and blinders of what I have called the black book. 

 

 

OPEN GATE

 JOHN MASEFIELD

POEM

O Christ, who holds the open gate

O Christ, who holds the open gate,
O Christ who drives the furrow straight,
O Christ, the plow, O Christ, the laughter
of holy white birds flying after.

Lo, all my heart's field red and torn,
and thou wilt bring the young green corn,
the young green corn divinely springing,
the young green corn for ever singing.

And when the field is fresh and fair
thy blessèd feet shall glitter there,
and we will walk the weeded field,
and tell the golden harvest's yield.

The corn that makes the holy bread
by which the soul of man is fed,
the holy bread, the food unpriced,
thy everlasting mercy, O Christ.

YOUTUBE

DARKNESS & LIGHT

Christ Blessing the Little Children

 Darkness cannot impinge upon the light.

RESURRECTION

 The inert body of the entombment has been replaced by the soaring body of the resurrection.