Leander (Lee) David Cochran (Samuel W. - Thomas  B.) was born Liberty TWP, Henry County, Indiana, 1859.  Leander died May 1935, Smith Center Ks., at 75 years of age.  He married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Dorothy Prosser at Craig, Holt County, Mo., 1885.  She was born Aug 10, 1868, and died Jan 25, 1900, in Lebanon, Ks., at 31 years of age.  Her body was interned 1900, Bellair, Ks., Crystal Plains.  She was the daughter of William H. Prosser and Isabella G. Mendenhalll . Leander lived in Barada, NE., near his relatives, until 1895, when he moved to Smith County, KS., with his family and his father-in-law's family.  Two of his wife's brothers were there, also.  They had been in KS. only about 5 years, when Lizzie was killed by a train, while riding in a buggy.  She had come to Smith county with her husband, Leander, two small sons, Caleb and William, ages 6 & 8 and her parents, to start a new life.  The family, like most, lived in a dugout alongside a hill.  Leander said he had been a bound boy, and left IN. at age 14 to come to Barada, NE., working his way.  But one story is that his uncle, Stein, went back to Indiana and gained the release of Leander and Leander's  two brothers.  Leander, reportedly, operated a ferry across the Missouri River at Rulo, NE. at one time.  Not much is known of his life, prior to him moving to KS.  He never re-married after his wife was killed in the train-buggy accident.  Both of his sons were born in Barada, Ne.   

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