My connection is to Gideon Lease. His wife was Sarah Ann Cummings, my ggfather's sister, her second marriage, the first being to Lyman Olmstead.

I believe you are related to Nathan A. Lease who went to Minnesota in 1856 and bought 160 acres in Section 31, Township 110N, Range 21 West. Did he eventually marry an Englishwoman named Hickstrum and have pre-teen children when he was in his 60's? Did he die 11 July 1916?

He was a neighbor of Major Cummings, William Cummings and David Cummings in LaGrange in 1840 when he was in his 20's. Sarah Ann was then married to Olmstead, and later to Gideon Lease.

There are a couple of Cummings boys born in Canada (as were several Cummings children) between 1803 and 1820. John N. Cummings who married a Martha, she born in Ohio, lived in LaGrange and William, whose wife Mary was born in Indiana, lived in Logansport.

Sound like yours? I think they're mine. But that's the only connection to Leases I have. Prior to neighbor Nathan and gguncle-in-law Gideon, I've got nothing. Sorry!