Leach, Lewis, M.D.

Dr. Lewis Leach was born in 1823 and grew up in Binghamton, New York, before moving to St. Louis in 1840 at seventeen. He attended medical school at the State University in Jefferson City, graduating in 1848, and later led an overland party to California via the Southern route in October 1850. After arriving along the San Joaquin River at Gravelly Ford, he delayed his planned return east to perform a surgical operation and subsequently remained in Fresno County for the rest of his life.

In California, Dr. Leach served as battalion surgeon for the Mariposa Battalion during the Indian War and later established successful mercantile partnerships with Major James Savage, Captain Vinsenhaler, and Samuel A. Bishop at Fort Miller and the Fresno River. Moving to Millerton, he served as the county primary physician and hospital director until relocating to Fresno City on October 4, 1874, to establish the new county seat hospital and city water works. He married Mrs. Mathilda Converse in 1872, helped organize major civic institutions including the Farmers Bank, and remained a venerated community leader until his death on March 18, 1897.