Biography of William Henry Leas, pages 552/553/554.  
History of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, 
Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



DeKalb county, Indiana, has been especially honored in the 
character and career of her public and professional men.  
Here, as in every community, there are found, rising above 
their fellows, individuals born to leadership in the 
various professions, men who have dominated not alone by 
superior intelligence and natural endowment, but by natural 
force of character. It is always profitable to study the 
lives of such men, weigh their motives and hold up their 
achievements as incentives to greater activity and higher 
excellence on the part of others. A lawyer of widely 
recognized ability and a man of undoubted integrity and 
honor, William H. Leas has made a definite impression on 
the history of his locality. DeKalb county has been 
dignified by his noble life and splendid achievements, and 
he stands as a worthy and conspicuous member of a striking  
group of public men whose influence in the political and 
civic life, as well as in professional circles, has been of 
a most beneficent order, and it is but a matter of justice 
to here enter a brief tribute to his career.  William Henry 
Leas was born in Salem township, Steuben county, Indiana, 
on the 16th day of September, 1849, and is the son of John 
and Susan (Schmipff) Leas.  More specific reference is made 
to his ancestral history in the sketch of his father, which 
appears elsewhere in this work.  He came with his parents 
to Smithfield township, this county, in 1868, and from that 
time on has been continuously and closely identified with 
the history of this locality.  He secured his elementary 
education in the common schools, after which he was engaged 
in pedagogical work, teaching first in the district schools 
and afterwards in the graded schools of Waterloo. Later he 
assisted Willard, Kingman and McConahey in surveying and 
the making of county maps in Ohio and Indiana, in which 
work he gained much valuable experience and knowledge.  
Having long entertained an ambition to enter the legal 
profession, in 1873 Mr. Leas began the study of law at 
Angola and in the fall of that year he entered the law 
department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, 
where he was graduated in March, 1875, with a degree of 
Bachelor of Law. He had been admitted to the bar in Angola, 
in 1874, and on June 1, 1875, he located at Waterloo and 
opened a law office. He was first in partnership with C. M. 
Phillips until October, 1875, from which time he was alone 
until November, 1876, during which period he succeeded in 
building up a good practice. In the month last mentioned he 
became a member of the law firm of McBride, Morlan & Leas, 
his partners being Judge R. W. McBride and Joseph L. 
Morlan.  In August, 1878, Mr. Morlan died and the firm was 
dissolved, since which time Mr. Leas has mostly practiced 
alone. In point of length of continuous practice Mr. Leas 
is the dean of his profession in DeKalb county. Mr. Leas 
success in his profession has been most pronounced. Always 
careful in the preparation of his cases and a deep student 
of law, he has the faculty of stating a case clearly and 
succinctly, while his candor, fairness and honor have made 
him deservedly popular among his colleagues and those with 
whom he has had dealings. He possesses a comprehensive 
knowledge of the law and a familiarity with precedents, 
which have made him a strong  pleader and an opponent to be 
feared.  Personally, his clean character, fidelity of 
purpose and affability of manner have won him a large 
circle of warm friends and commended him to the good 
opinion of all who know him.  Politically, Mr. Leas has 
always been and ardent supporter of the Democratic party 
and was twice elected a member of the board of school 
trustees of Waterloo, where he performed effective and 
appreciated work in the interest of educational affairs in 
the community. From 1902 to 1912 Mr. Leas served as 
attorney for the town of Waterloo, and is at the present 
time attorney for the town of Corunna.  On August 20, 1878, 
Mr. Leas was united in marriage to Emma J. Danks, the 
youngest daughter of Oris and Stella (Booge) Danks. She was 
born and reared in Waterloo, and suffered the loss of her 
mother when but an infant, in 1863. Afterwards her father 
married Sarah A. Jones. Orris Danks was born in Onondaga 
county, New York, on July 16, 1815, a son of Benoni and 
Pheobe (Earle) Danks, who also are natives of the Empire 
state. His grandfather, Robert Earle, was a soldier in the 
war of the Revolution. In 1836 Orris Danks came to DeKalb 
county and bought land in Smithfield township, returning to 
this native state two years later and there, in 1840, he 
married Euseba Brown. In the following year they returned 
to DeKalb county and made their home on his land, to the 
improvement and cultivation of which he devoted himself 
until 1862 when the family removed to Waterloo, where Mr. 
Danks engaged in the hardware business, afterwards engaging 
successively in the grocery and boot and shoe business.  
His first wife died in 1851 and in 1852 he married Estella 
Booge.  To Mr. and Mrs. Leas have been born two children, 
namely: Stella B., born July 4, 1880, is the wife of R. 
Earl Peters, whose permanent home is in Fort Wayne, 
Indiana, but who is now in Washington D. C., as secretary 
to Congressman Cyrus Cline of the twelfth district. Mrs. 
and Mrs. Peters have a daughter Leah Velletta, born March 
20, 1907. Earl D. Leas, born February 15, 1882, lives in 
Waterloo, where he enjoys a large business as a buyer and 
shipper of corn, baled hay and straw.  On January 20, 1904, 
he married Emma Gfeller, of Waterloo, the daughter of 
Samuel Gfeller.

Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com