Leakey, Joel (ca. 1795–ca. 1840)

Joel Leakey (Lakey, Laky), one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, was born around 1795. He married Nancy Calloway, with whom he had at least seven children. He came to Texas about 1826, possibly from Louisiana, and claimed a headright of three leagues near Caney Creek. Four of his children came to Texas, and three remained in Louisiana. On May 28, 1827, he received title to a sitio of land in an area that later became part of Washington and Austin counties. Between 1827 and 1832 he was awarded 2½ leagues in the same area. According to the census of 1826 he was a farmer and stock raiser, aged between forty and fifty, and had a wife, four daughters, and one servant. He died around 1840. On September 15, 1844, a J. T. Lakey was enlisted as a private in Capt. Leonard A. Mabbitt's company of three-month volunteers.