David Leitch: Mysterious 18th Century Kentucky Land Speculator by Curtis Dewees (review)

Like many Virginia colonists who came of age in the late eighteenth century, David Leitch (1755–1794) sought his fortune in western lands. By the time of his death, Leitch had emerged as one of the largest landowners in northern Kentucky, laying claim to over 350,000 acres spread across twenty-five present-day counties. In his focused examination of Leitch's mark on the historical record, Curtis Dewees concludes that Leitch's name would be "much more well-known by historians and local inhabitants alike" if not for his early demise at the age of thirty-nine (p. 112). As was the case with many lesser-known speculators in the early republic, Leitch amassed a real estate empire in his thirties only to die relatively young, leaving a widow, young children, his business associates, and the courts to sort out his tangled affairs.

Dewees has stitched together what is now the definitive account of Leitch's life and accomplishments. His subject's supposed "mysterious" character, however, is probably more the result of an incomplete historical record than of a life cut short by the fates. Leitch's personal papers and correspondence were lost or destroyed, and only a handful of fugitive letters are to be found in other collections. His military service in a Revolutionary militia unit is unverifiable, though not doubted, as the unit's records have been lost. Local historians and Kentucky genealogists will find many valuable corrections to earlier accounts of Leitch's Station, Kentucky, the origins of the town of Leitchfield, Kentucky, and the histories of the Moss, Taylor, and Leitch families.

David Leitch immigrated to Virginia in 1768 with his older brother, and they both served as agents of Dreghorn, Murdoch and Company, a Scottish trading firm. The brothers made their American fortune in the transatlantic tobacco trade and plowed their profits into western land speculation. David Leitch's holdings were concentrated in Virginia Treasury Warrants, which were sold by the newly independent state government. Leitch's lands were not acquired through his own Revolutionary military service, and the purchases appear to have been financed primarily by Leitch with the backing of a small group of frontier business partners. Keturah Moss, Leitch's widow, remarried after Leitch's death and joined the vast Leitch holdings with those of General James Taylor, another of the region's largest landowners.

While Dewees has helped rescue Leitch from obscurity, his account fails to locate his subject within numerous historiographical debates. Seemingly unaware of much of the recent literature on land speculation and the settlement of the trans-Appalachian West, Dewees does not engage with recent works by Barbara Rasmussen, Alan Taylor, Andrew R. L. Cayton, and Craig Thompson Friend, among others.