Former Winonan Gets New Post With Mine Firm

Rapid Rise of Ed Leach Followed Lumber Mill Job Here.

"This is still America, and Horatio Alger is still right, and 'Rags to Riches' is not yet a fantasy."

This comment pertains to E. W. (Ed) Leach of Hibblng, Minn., a former Winona boy who. recently became assistant general manager of the Lake Superior division of the Plckands, Mather Company, huge concern which operates iron mines In the Minnesota Range country and elsewhere.

Leach, a son of W. P. Leach, was paid five cents per hour, ten hours a day, six days a week, for 'his duties at a surfacing machine in a Winona lumber mill when he was 14 years old. Now he is characterized as one of the best-known, best-liked and most efficient mining men in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

He attended St. Joseph's parochial school here and later was graduated from Winona High school in 1904.

An account of Leach's rise is not a sensational, bombastic sort of a story. But neither is it dry or dull. It's the tale of a young American who worked hard, made education possible for himself, and by talent and application reached the ton.

Born Here.

Leach was born In Winona. His father was a foreman at a lumber mill here. Ed attended school but at an early age, with a companion, began piling fence pickets with a friend for the Winona Lumber Company. At 14, he was working regularly at the mill In the summer time.

When he was 16 he had worked into the yard of the mill letting down lumber from 60-foot piles. He well remembers Tom Wltten, general manager of the mill, who later became the head of the famed Rainy Lake Lumber Company of Virginia. Mr. Leach's- father often visited Witten when the latter came to the range. Mr. Witten helped Ed get work at the mill.

Meanwhile, young Ed began finding work at the lumber mill monotonous and. when he was graduated from high school, found a job with a pile driver crew as water boy. He received $2.50 a day—a man's wage in those days, he says. Part of his railroad career began' to include building of heavy machinery platforms. It was necessary to move big stringers.

"That was a heavy Job," Mr Leach recalls.

Became Rodman.

Later, however, he became a rodman operating between Winona and Pierre, S. D.

In 1906, he entered the University of Minnesota in the college of civil engineering and every summer, before his last examination, he obtained further work as a railway rodman.
The panic in 1907 affected Ed Leach as it did almost everyone. He was unable to finish up his schooling and in the spring of 1903, he got work at the Ormond dam in South Dakota.

Later he joined the Chicago and North Western railroad on location between Ormond and Midland. He earned enough to finish his school and In 1910 _resumed location between Ormand and Midland. In Montana. After a few months he joined the United States War department engineering division to do work between Hannibal and the mouth of the Missouri river. The period of 1910-11 was spent in dredging and dam operations.

In 1912, Mr. Leach was placed In charge of the Mississippi river between St. Paul and Winona.

A year later, Ed Leach found himself.

Varied Experiences.

He made a trip to the Mesaba range and joined John Butler, head of the Butler Brothers mining firm, at Buhl on January 31, 1913. He was an engineer for the district., which included six or seven pits and was in charge of the preliminary stripping at the Butler properties at Nashwauk.

Ed Leach's experiences were varied. In 1914-15 he became village engineer at Buhl and at that time paved the main street there. But politics, as it is to all men, was fickle, and he was out of a job the next year.

The mining business, meanwhile, had got into his blood and m 1915 he Joined the Meriden Iron Mining Company, which then held the fee interest in the Canisteo mine nt Coleraine. After about three months, that firm decided to reopen the Bennett mine at Keewatin and in November, 1915, Ed Leach was made chief engineer—he was in the path which was to become his life.

Took Over Bennett.

In the summer of 1917. Pidkands, Mather took over the Bennett and opened the Danube at Bovey. Ed Leach was made superintendent of the Danube. In May, 1923, he was made general superintendent of the western district of the Mesnba range with headquarters at the Bennett mine. His major property was the Bennett but the Danube was still included. Early in 1926, Leach was made assistant to Prank Botsford, then district manager of Minnesota mines. Mr. Botsford died in 1930.

In 1931, Leach succeeded to the post as manager of Minnesota mines and served there until last month when It was announced that he had been appointed assistant general manager of the Lake Superior division of P-M with offices at Duluth. Mr. Leach is married and the father of four sons and three daughters. In Hibblng, he has been one of the most indefatigable workers in civic projects. For years he has been president of the Headquarters area Boy Scout council which covers all- of the range and other sections of northern Minnesota. He has been prominent in Chamber of Commerce and other work and he has been a leading factor in working for understanding between mining companies and the people of the range. His interest In mine safety work has helped lead Piekands, Mather mines there to national honors.

"Sink or Swim," to Ed Leach meant "Swim," and nothing else.