The following testimony of Clay Leach was taken 11 February 1948; this post is the ninth of eleven. The background (explanation) for this testimony can be found in my post dated 23 July 2014.
OHIO CIRCUIT COURT (1948)
Chester F. Leach, Clyde F. Leach, Oscar Leach, Otis Leach, Ersa Leach, and Samuel Leach, Plaintiffs.
vs.
S. D. Leach, Defendant.
DEPOSITIONS FOR DEFENDANT
Also the deposition of Clay Leach taken at the same time and place and
for the purpose stated in the caption. Witness being first duly sworn, deposed
as follows:
Examined by Otto C. Martin, attorney for defendant.
Q. 1 State your name.
A. Clay Leach.
Q. 2 Your age?
A. 45.
Q. 3 Your residence?
A. Beaver Dam, Route
3.
Q. 4 In what community do you live?
A. Rob Roy.
Q. 5 What is your occupation?
A. Farming.
Q. 6 I believe you are a brother of S. D. Leach?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 7 A son of Jasper N. Leach?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 8 You are the
youngest child?
A. No, Scott is the
youngest.
Q. 9 Do you now live on your father's old home
place?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 10 The one he
owned when he died?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 11 How near is
that to the S. W. Leach farm?
A. It adjoins it.
Q. 12 On which side?
A. On the North.
Q. l3 How long have
you lived where you are now living?
A. All my life.
Q. 14 You knew S. W.
Leach while he lived?
A. Yes sir .
Q. 15 Was he related
to you?
A. Yes, distantly related.
Q. 16 You knew his
wife also?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 17 Have you been
on the S. W. Leach farm very much?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 18 How long have
you known it?
A. Practically all my life, since I have been old
enough to know anything about it.
Q. 19 You are 45
now, you were about 16 years old when Mr. S. W. Leach died?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 20 Do you
remember when your father bought this farm from S. W. Leach's widow?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 21 Do you know
what he paid for it?
A. $2,000.00.
Q. 22 Were you with
him when he bought it?
A. Well, no, I was not with him at the time. I don't think.
Q. 23 Do you know
whether or not your father later sold an interest in that farm to Jake Leach?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 24 How much
interest did he sell him?
A. Half interest.
Q. 25 For how much?
A. $1,000.00.
Q. 26 Do you know
when the timber on this S. W. Leach f arm was cut?
A. The year the
bought it or the following year along about that time.
Q. 27 Who cut that
timber?
A. I think Jake Leach
cut it.
Q. 28 Who bought it,
if you know?
A. Stimson Lumber
Company.
Q. 29 All of it?
A. A part of it was in ties.
Q. 30 Who were the ties sold to?
A. I don 't know.
Q. 31 Do you know what they got for that timber?
A. I think $1,000.00,
for what they sold to Stimson.
Q. 32 Do you know
what they sold the ties for?
A. No sir.
Q. 33 Do you know who bought them?
A. No sir, I don't. I don’t know whether they
were taken t o the railroad or to the river.
Q. 34 Do you have any
idea how many ties they got off that place?
A. No sir.
Q. 35 Did they sell to Stimson in the tree, or how?
A. They sold it in
the tree.
Q. 36 When did your father die?
A. In 1935.
Q. 37 When did Jake
get rid of his interest in that farm?
A. About 1936 or
1937.
Q. 38 After your father died?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 39 Who did he sell to?
A. My brother S. D.
Leach.
Q. 40 How did you
other children get rid of your interest?
A. My father gave it
to my brother S. D.
Q. 41 How much did S.
D. pay Jake for his half interest?
A. $400 .00.
Q. 42 Then your
father gave him a half interest and the other children made the deed to S. D. -
that correct?
A. That is right.
Q. 43 How many
children were there?
A. Six of us.
Q. 44 Including S.
D.?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 45 Who are these
children?
A. Harry Leach, Annie
M. Porter, Jobe Leach, S. D. Leach, myself and then Scott.
Q. 46 Jobe Leach 1s
now dead?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 47 Five boys and
one girl?
A. That is right.
Q. 48 Now, I will ask
you if your knew about S. D. Leach selling this farm to a man by the name of
Adams, in 1943?
A. Yes sir, but I
don't remember his name.
Q. 49 Do you know
what he was to get for this place from Adams?
A. I thin it was
$800.00.
Q. 50 Where is S. D.
Leach now?
A. He is at
Indianapolis, Indiana.
Q. 51 Hew long has
he been out of this state?
A. He has been out of the state most of the time since about
1924. He lived here in this state three different times since, about a year
each time.
Q. 52 How long has
he been at Indianapolis?
A. Four years.
Q. 53 Now you say
you knew this place of S. W. Leach's, tell the court what kind of buildings
were on that farm when Mr. Leach died?
A. There was a log
house that had been weather-boarded and ceiled on the inside. There were two
big rooms, and a small kitchen, a hallway between the two big rooms.
Q. 54 Was there an
upstairs?
A. Yes, one finished
room up there.
Q. 55 Was that house
ever painted?
A. No sir, There was a small barn~ not very well
built.
Q. 56 Do you know anything about the ages of those
buildings?
A. The house was old when I can first remember
it.
Q. 57 What other buildings on that place?
A. A small chicken
house.
Q. 58 Any fence on that place when Mr. Leach died?
A. None to amount to
anything.
Q. 59 I believe there were 112 acres in that farm?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 60 About how many acres in timber was there?
A. I judge 30 or 35.
Q. 61 What kind of
timber, the size, etc.?
A. Most of it was small timber, some log timber
on it. It was Oak principally.
Q. 62 Any soft wood?
A. Not a whole lot,
as I remember.
Q. 63 What about the other part of the farm, other than the
timber land?
A. It was just an old
farm, most of it grown up.
Q. 64 How much of it was productive or that you
could cultivate and produce crops?
A. Might little at
that time. I would say around 15 acres.
Q. 65 Any of this
bottom land?
A. About 2 ½ acres.
Q. 66 Did Jake, or any
of the other owner since S. W. Leach owned it do anything to improve the land
in any way?
A. Jake tilled a
little of that bottom, put up some fencing, reroofed the house once.
Q. 67 Did Jake Leach live there?
A. Yes sir, at that
time.
Q. 68 How long did Jake 1ive on that farm?
A. I couldn't say
exactly, ten or twelve years.
Q. 69 What, in your
opinion, was the fair market value of that farm, the buildings, improvements and
timber, in 1919, when your father bought it from Mrs. Finis Leach?
A. I would think that $2,000.00 was a fair price for it.
Q. 70 What would the, surface and improvements have
been worth without the timber?
A. I would say $600.00.
Q. 71 Considering the fact that Mrs. Leach was 62
years old when Mr. Leach died, and in poor health, what would her life estate have
been worth that time, her life estate only entitling her to live on the farm and
have possession, control and use of it, and get the rents and profits from it
during her life time, with no interest in the coal or minerals; what
would that have been worth?
A. That would have been worth very little.
Q. 72 About what would
you say it was worth, considering her age and the conditions of her health, and
considering that she only had the use of the surface and improvements, and got
the rents and profits, of course, the purchaser would have to pay the taxes and
upkeep?
A. It would not have
been worth over three or four hundred dollars.
Q. 73 You know, of course, Mr. Leach's children, do
you not?
A. I don’t know as I
would know all of them.
Q. 74 That is Oscar over there, do you know him?
A. No, Oscar left out
there when I was small.
Q. 75 Did you know Leslie Leach?
A. Yes, I knew him.
Q. 76 He died about a month before his father's
death?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 77 There was Clyde. Did you know him?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 78 Do you know
where he was living when Mr. Leach died?
A. No sir.
Q. 79 Where was Chester Leach living when his father
died?
A. On an adjoining
farm, on the east side of this place.
Q. 80 Did he own a farm adjoining his father's farm?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 81 Was he living there when your father bought
that farm?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 82 Do you know whether or not he advised his
mother to sell the farm?
A. That is what I
have heard.
Q. 83 You don't know that of your own personal knowledge?
A. No sir.
Cross-examined by Claude E. Smith, attorney for plaintiffs.
Q. 1 You say you lived on an adjoining farm to the S. W.
Leach farm?
A. Yes
Q. 2 How does the farm you live on compare with
this S. W. Leach farm?
A. We have more
bottom land.
Q. 3 The upland about
the same quality?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 4 I believe your
father owned the farm you now live on when S. W. Leach died?
A. That is right.
Q. 5 The Stimson Lumber Company did not get any
timber from this farm, except log timber, did they?
A. That is right.
Q. 6 Such timber as
could be sawed into lumber?
A. That is right.
Q. 7 I believe you say the greater part of this
timber was not log timber?
A. I said it was small timber.
Q. 8 Was the greater part
of this tie timber?
A. A lot of it was.
Q. 9 Half of it?
A. No, I don't know
as I would say half of it.
Q. 10 You say it
consisted of White Oak and Black Oak?
A. Yes sir.
Q. l1 Was this good sound timber?
A. Well, I don’t know
if it was all, some trees possibly were damaged.
Q. 12 What relation was Jake Leach to your father?
A. He was a nephew.
Q. 13 You say he lived on this Leach place ten or
twelve years?
A. Something like that,
I don't know just the exact time.
Q. 14 Was this farm occupied by anyone else after
Jake left it?
A. Yes sir.
Q. 15 Who lived
there last, or after he moved away?
A. There was several
lived there.
Q.16 Would you recall any of them?
A. Clay Baird lived
there one year, Kenneth Davis one year, and Boyce Phelps lived there, I don't
know just how long.
Q. 17 Is the property
habitable now?
A. No
Q. 18 How long has it
been uninhabitable?
A. About three
years.
Q. 19 That dwelling
house has practically rotted down?
A. There is a lot of
lumber in it yet. Over one room the roof has fallen in.
Q. 20 The barn is gone?
A. Yes sir.
Q.21 The other outbuildings are all gone?
A. They have fallen
down.
Q 22 How long since this has been occupied by any
one living there?
A. About three
years.
Q. 23 How long since any of the land was cultivated
or kept up in any way?
A. Around three years,
I guess. Something 1ike that.
Q 24 What kind of crops have been grown on that place
since Mr. Leach died?
A. There has been corn,
and one or two crops of dark tobacco.
Q. 25 Do you know anything about what was received
for the timber that was sold to Stimson Lumber Co., except what you have been
told.
A. That is all.
Re-direct examination by Otto C. Martin, Attorney for
defendant.
Q. 1 Who told you what they got for the timber?
A. My father, I
guess.
END