Biography of Daniel Louis Leas, pages 704/705/706/707.  
History of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, 
Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



The gentleman whose name appears at the head of this 
biographical review needs no introduction to the people of 
DeKalb county,  since his entire active life has been spent 
in this section of the state, a life devoted not only to 
the fostering of his own interest, but also to the welfare 
of the community at large. An honorable representative of 
one of the esteemed families of his section and a gentleman 
of high character and worthy ambitions, he has filled no 
small place in the public view.  He is a splendid type of 
the intelligent, up-to-date, self-made American in the full 
sense of the term, a man of the people, with their 
interests at heart. As a citizen he is progressive and 
abreast of the times in all the concerns the common weal. 
Although a partisan, with strong convictions and well 
defined opinions on questions on which men and parties 
divide, he has the esteem and confidence of the people of 
the community and his personal friends are in number as his 
acquaintances, regardless of party ties.  Daniel Louis Leas 
is a native of the old Hoosier state and was born in 
Steuben county on October 17, 1865, and is a son of John 
Leas. The latter is represented at length elsewhere in this 
work, therefore further detailed mention of the subject’s 
ancestral history will not be made at this point. When 
Daniel L. Leas was about three years old, the family moved 
to a farm immediately north of Waterloo, where he was 
reared to manhood, He attended the common schools and later 
the high school at Waterloo, where he was graduated in 
1884. He ten took a commercial course at the Tri-State 
Norman School, in finishing the complete course,  after 
which he assisted his father on the home farm and in the 
latter’s bank until his marriage in 1889, after which he 
formed a partnership with J. C. Boyer and engaged in the 
general merchandise business at Waterloo. They prospered in 
this business, but about six and a half years after their 
start they were burned out, suffering a total loss of store 
building and stock. Mr. Leas then bought Mr. Boyer’s 
interest in the lot and erected a two-story brick business 
block, which he now occupies and there is engaged in the 
dry goods business, handling ladies’ and gents’ 
furnishings, hats, caps, shoes, carpet, draperies, clothing 
and other auxiliary lines. When Mr. Leas became a partner 
with Mr. Boyer they also conducted a feed and grain 
business in connection with the general mercantile work, 
and this line Mr. Leas has continued with splendid success. 
About 1904 he erected the elevator at Waterloo and 
continued also to run this and with this, as with his other 
enterprises, he had been eminently successful. In1895 Mr. 
Leas embarked in one of the most important lines  with 
which he has been connected during this business career, 
that of hay, in which he has achieved a big success and 
acquired a widespread reputation. He erected large hay 
barns at Waterloo and was in that business for about 
sixteen years. He at one time shipped about five hundred 
car loads of hay a year, but in 1910 he sold this business 
to his nephew, Earl Leas. About 1905 Mr. Leas bought the 
defunct DeKalb Bank at Waterloo, moved the fixtures to 
Hudson and organized what is now known as the Hudson Bank, 
which was a pronounced success from the start. About two 
years after the organization of this institution he sold 
his interests there to his nephew, Leroy Waterman, and 
invested heavily in the German-American National Bank in 
Fort Wayne. He has also been in various other enterprises 
and owns a farm of one hundred and sixty-five acres west of 
Waterloo, and also has property at Angola, Ashley and 
Toledo. He is one of the organizers of the National Hay 
Association and has filled nearly all the important office, 
never missing a meeting of the association. He is a member 
to the National Grain Dealers’ Association, in the workings 
of which he has been an important factor. The hay business 
was his most prominent line until he sold out to his 
nephew, and in many ways he has given a distinct impetus to 
business affaires in this locality, being entitled to 
noteworthy distinction on this account. He has been 
essentially a man among men, having ever moved as one who 
has commanded respect by innate force a swell as by 
superior ability. As a citizen he easily ranks with the 
most influential of his compeers on affairs which are for 
the betterment of his chosen county. While he  has carried 
on special lines of business in such a manner as to gain a 
comfortable competence for himself, he has also belonged to 
that class of representative men of affairs who have 
promoted the public welfare while advancing individual 
success.  In 1889 Mr. Leas married Nellie Wickwire, who was 
reared at Angola, Indiana, the daughter of George and 
Rebecca (Hanna) Wickwire. George Wickwire was born in 
Seneca county, New York, and died at Angola, Indiana, on 
October 5, 1883, at the age of sixty-seven year. He was a 
son of  Seba Wickwire, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. He 
came to Steuben county, Indiana, among the first pioneers, 
locating about four miles east of Angola, and there became 
the owner of a section of land which has been kept in the 
possession of his family ever since. Rebecca Hanna  was 
born probably in Steuben county, this state, and was the 
daughter of William Hanna, George Wickwire became a banker 
at Angola, also owning flour mills at Nevada and saw mill 
and farming interests in other places. He was twice 
married, having three children by his first marriage and 
seven by his marriage with Rebecca Hanna, Mrs. Leas being 
one of the latter. The mother died in 1875. Mrs. Leas lived 
most of her younger life in Angola and completed her 
educational studies in the Tri-State Normal College at that 
place. To Mr. and Mrs. Leas has been born a daughter, 
Nellie Fern, who was born and reared in Waterloo, graduated 
from the high school in that city in 1908, and then 
becoming a student in Oxford Seminary at Oxford, Ohio, and 
also the European School of Music at Fort Wayne.  She has 
also studied drawing and music at Ypsilanti, Michigan, and 
in the fall of 1913 took charge of music and drawing in the 
schools of Waterloo, and is an enthusiastic devotee of her 
work. In local public affairs Mr. Leas has taken a 
commendable interest and has been a prominent factor in the 
advancement of the highest interest in this locality. He 
was a member of the Waterloo town board two years, and the 
Waterloo school board six years, his last term expiring in 
August, 1913. He was a charter member of the Leonidas Lodge 
No. 205, Knights of Pythias, which was installed in 
January, 1889, and has filled all the offices in this lodge 
and twice been its representative in the grand lodge of the 
state. He was made a member of the Free and Accepted Masons 
in 1893, and became a thirty-second-degree member of the 
Scottish Rite branch of that order at the time the Scottish 
Rite cathedral at Fort Wayne was dedicated, and also at 
that time he became a Nobel of the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Leas 
has been a man who has looked on the sunny side of life, 
ever hopeful that the good will rule instead of the bad, 
and as the result of such a fortunate disposition, he has 
made it pleasant for those with whom he comes in contact, 
either in a business or social way. Of kindly nature and 
sociable impulses, he is also a man of high moral 
character, and thus enjoys the confidence, good will and 
friendship of all who know him.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com