Edward Owen Leech

Edward Owen Leech (December 9, 1850 – May 1, 1900) was Director of the United States Mint from 1889 to 1893.

Biography

Edward O. Leech was born on December 9, 1850, in Washington, D.C. where his father, Daniel D. Tompkins Leech (1810–1869) was an official with the United States Post Office and then the United States Department of the Treasury. Edward O. Leech was a direct lineal descendant of Lawrence Leach (1589–1662), a follower of Francis Higginson who settled in Salem, Massachusetts in 1629; Edward O. Leech's great-grandfather, Captain Hezekiah Leach fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. Leech served as Director of the Mint from October 1889 until May 1893. In 1892, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Upon retiring from government service, Leech became Vice President of the National Union Bank in New York City. At the 1896 Republican National Convention, Leech played a major role in securing a plank in the party's platform favorable to maintaining the gold standard.

Leech died of complications related to appendicitis at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on May 1, 1900.