Anna L. Drake was born on October 26, 1842, in South Carolina to James Drake and Malinda Emerson. Her father was a farmer who owned $5,000 of real estate and $2,000 of personal property by 1860. She grew up and attended school in Anderson County, South Carolina. She married Thomas Leak, and their son Jimme was born around 1871. They lived in Anderson County, and her husband worked as a tobacco dealer and operated a livery stable. In 1883, she published a “notice to trespassers” warning readers “not to hunt, fish, or otherwise trespass, by day or night, on our lands, situated in Anderson County.”

 

She was a member of the local Baptist Church, and a local writer noted that she was “noted for her kindness to those in need and the sacrifices she constantly made to minister to the wants or comfort of the sick.” She also ran a “ladies’ store” in Anderson. She died in Anderson County, on February 2, 1886, “after an illness of four months.”

SOURCES