Abraham Leasure

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Husband Abraham Leasure ^{1 2 3}

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            AKA: Abraham Lasher 3
           Born: 1733 - Germany 4
     Christened: 
           Died: 1805 - Westmoreland Co, PA 1 4
         Buried:  - Unity Cemetery, Latrobe, Westmoreland Co, PA

       Marriage: 

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Wife

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           Born: 
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         Buried: 

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Children

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1 M Capt. Daniel Leasure ^{1 2}

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           Born: 1767 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Elizabeth Ryan (      -      ) 1

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2 F Margaret Leasure ³

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           Born: 
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           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Frederick Weaver (      -      ) 3

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General Notes: Husband - Abraham Leasure

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The original spelling of the name, as obtained from some very old foreign authorities, is Le Sueur.

His ancestors were natives of Navarre, and fled during the persecution of the Huguenots to a province on the Rhine in Germany. Here Abraham was born and married a French wife. They emigrated to the colony of Pennsylvania, and settled near Chambersburg, some years previous to the war of Independence. He afterwards settled on the "old Virginia road," leading from Baltimore to Fort Pitt. During the war of Independence he removed to the valley of the Kiskiminetas, where he was engaged as an Indian scout. When there were no Indians to encounter, he kept a train of pack-horses carrying merchandise from the Conecocheague to the Allegheny and its tributaries.
After the close of the war he removed with his family to a farm near the present site of Pleasant Unity, where he located a large tract of land for which he obtained a deed from the heirs of Penn. It was then known as "Manor Land," later the David Pollins' farm, the "garden spot" of Westmoreland County. Here he remained till his death. His wife survived him fifteen years. They were both buried in the old family burial-ground on the homestead. [HWC 1882, 605]

He was the founder of the family in America, also in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He came from Wales, and upon locating in Westmoreland County took up a large amount of land in the northeastern portion of Mount Pleasant township, comprising about four hundred acres, and conducted agricultural pursuits thereon. His death occurred at an advanced age. [HWC 1906 III, 379]

Of Huguenot descent this family emigrated from Navarre, France, to the Rhine district in Germany to escape religious persecution. Before the American Revolution, however, they came to America, settling near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, whence Abraham came to Westmoreland County. In 1787 he first acquired land in Unity and Mt. Pleasant townships, near Pleasant Unity, by patent from the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, his application for the same having been filed eighteen years before in 1769. During the next ten years he and his son, Captain Daniel Leasure, added greatly to these land holdings, acquiring some of the Penn proprietary land of the Manor of Sewickley from the heirs of William Penn, which was then and for sometime thereafter designated as "Sewickley Manor." A unique and interesting provision as affecting this land is found in one of these ancient deeds, wherein as part of the consideration price it is provided : ". . . . yielding and paying therefore unto John Penn the Elder and unto John Penn the Younger, their heirs and assigns, the yearly quit-rent of one pepper corn on the first day of March of each and every year forever hereafter if demanded." So far as this sixth generation on the land was concerned, this rent was never demanded.
Abraham Leasure served as an Indian scout and ranger during the period of Indian disturbances in the western country, and had a fort on his farm which served as a refuge for the families of the Upper Sewickley and to which some of those who escaped at the burning of Hannastown fled for protection. He was a soldier in the Revolution and was buried in Unity Cemetery near Latrobe, the body having been removed from the old Leasure burying ground on the Pollins farm when the old graveyard was abandoned about 1889.

1 George Dallas Albert, History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 605.

2 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 379.

3 Lewis Clark Walkinshaw, A.M, Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. IV (New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1939), Pg 257, 265.

4 Lewis Clark Walkinshaw, A.M, Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Vol. IV (New York, NY: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1939), Pg 265.