Francis Terry Leak was a cotton planter and businessman of Tippah (now Benton) County, Miss.
From the description of Francis Terry Leak papers, 1839-1865. WorldCat record id: 23739578
Francis Terry Leak, son of Walter and Hannah Pickett Leak, was born in 1803 in Rockingham, N.C. He was admitted to the North Carolina bar 27 December 1824. By 1839, however, he had established himself in northern Mississippi, where he was engaged in planting.
Leak's plantation was in Tippah County (now Benton County) near the town of Salem, which was an important trading center until the Civil War. Leak apparently bought the southern part of his holdings in 1836 and added significantly to his lands around 1851. In 1837, he was assessed for 32 slaves, who he probably brought with him from North Carolina. In 1850, there appear to have been ten or eleven whites living on the plantation (chiefly family members) and 110 blacks, most of whom must have been slaves. In that same year, he declared for tax purposes the following: 1,360 acres of land; factory stock in North Carolina; 1/3 share of a warehouse in Salem, Mississippi; houses, wagons, and farming tools; 100 yards of carpeting; 500 bushels of oats; 500 bushels of peas; 1,000 bushels of potatoes; 400 pounds of butter; 250 bales of cotton; 19 horses; 18 mules; 13 cows; 8 oxen; 23 cattle; 26 sheep; 150 hogs (manuscript volume 2, p. 195). In 1860, he owned 90 slaves, the largest number owned by any one man in Tippah County.
Leak appears also to have been active in financial dealings outside of farming operations. Besides the North Carolina factory stock and the interest in the warehouse in Salem, records in Tippah County for 1860 indicate that Leak had a sizeable amount of money loaned at interest.
Leak died in Alabama in 1863 and was buried in Selma.
From the guide to the Francis Terry Leak Papers, 1839-1865, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)
