Thomas Chapman Leas ^{1 2 3}

  General Notes:

1 Dec 1841 Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa Find all individuals with events at this location [4]

* The United States of America, Certificate No. 4532: To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: Whereas, Thomas Leas of Henry County, Iowa Territory has deposited in the General Land Office of the United States, a Certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Burlington whereby it appears that full payment has been made by the said Thomas Leas according to the provisions of the Act of Congress of the 24th of April, 1820, entitled "An Act making further provision for the sale of the Public Lands," for the west half of the South west quarter of Section Eleven, in Township Seventy-one North of Range Six west in the district of land Subject to Sale at Burlington Iowa Territory, Containing Eighty acres according to the official plot of the survey of the said Lands, returned to the General Land Office by the Surveyor General, which said tract has been purchased by the said Thomas Leas; and to his heirs, the said tract above described: to have and to hold the same, together with all the rights, privileges, immunities, and appurtenances of whatsoever nature, thereunto belonging, unto the said Thomas Leas and to his heirs and assigns forever.

In Testimony Whereof, I, John Tyler, President of the United States of America, have caused these Letters to be made Patent, and the Seal of the General Land Office to be hereunto affixed. Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, the first of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-one and of the Independence of the United States the sixty sixth by the President John Tyler. by R. Tyler, Sec'y. J. Williamson Recorder of the General Land Office.


Thomas and Jane (Walker) Leas moved to Iowa Territory between 1835/6, possibly even before Jane's sister's family, that of William and Prudence (Walker) Hardin. (Note: the information provided Fay Leas by Norma Gregorson stated it was 1837. See the following biographical sketch.)

Apparently in 1849 wanderlust took the Leas family (or possibly just Thomas and son George), and they started further west, following the Oregon Trail.

Thomas died on the Fourth of July in 1849 at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. This may have contributed to the family returning to Henry County, Iowa (if they were all moving), where they were by the time of the 1850 census.

Alternatively, since son George was in Calveras County, California, mining for gold at the time of the 1850 census (and the rest of the family was in Iowa), perhaps just he and his father were on the fateful trail where Thomas Leas died.

Fort Laramie, the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, was a military post, and a welcome site for the pioneers, as it was the first sign of civilization many of them had seen in six weeks. It was bought from the American Fur Company by the U.S. Army in 1849 after the fur trade subsided. The army was embarking upon a westward expansion at that time, and the Sioux Indians, alarmed by the flight of white Americans westward, had become increasingly hostile.

The general store at Fort Laramie gouged the emigrants on their westward trip, charging about 20 times the amount they would have paid for supplies if they'd been further East in the country. Many of them wanted to sell the store the extra provisions they'd loaded originally, as treking it in wagons was not easy business, and they needed to lighten their loads, but apparently the store refused to trade in this manner, and the trail near the fort ended up littered with heirloom furniture, stoves and food.

(See URL: http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/FtLaramie.html (5/2007)) ⁴

Thomas married Jane Walker, daughter of George Walker and Julian Jean Welsh, on 9 Feb 1826 in Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, USA. (Jane Walker was born on 7 Sep 1804 in Knox County, Tennessee, USA and died on 27 Apr 1885 in Henry County, Iowa, USA.)