James Leacher Saunders (1864 - 1934)

Born 10 Nov 1864 in Nassau, Bahamas

Husband of Candacie Merlin (Farrington) Saunders — married 11 Jan 1892 in Nassau, Bahamas

Husband of Alicia Ellen (Brice) Saunders — married 12 Dec 1892 in Nassau, Bahamas

Died 30 Jun 1934 at age 69 in Miami, Dade County, Florida

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James Saunders is part of a Bahamian family.

Biography

James Leacher Saunders was born in 1864 in Nassau, Bahamas to John Edward Saunders and Sarah Bell Saunders.

He married twice: first, in January 1892, to Candacie Merlin Farrington, daughter of Howard Hullen Farrington and Leonora Moss Farrington, at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Nassau; and second, in December 1892, to Alicia Ellen Brice, daughter of D A Brice and Isabel Ann Solomon Musgrove, at the same church.

Candacie Farrington Saunders died of jaundice in the summer of 1892 in the seventh month of her marriage.

Alicia and Leacher Saunders had children - among them Muriel Isabel, Ethel Maud, James Leacher Jr., Gladys May, Alicia Ellen, Kathleen and Robert Rowland Dunlop Saunders.

J Leacher Saunders was proprietor of JL Saunders and Company, George Street and Bay Street. He had many businesses in New Providence that he managed with his brother Edward: groceries and liquors, dry and fancy goods, liquors, and Havana cigars he rolled in Nassau with Cuban tobacco. They also ran a casino at Hog Island and offered a ferry service there and back on the vessel "Alicia."

In 1917, the Saunders family emigrated to Miami, Florida; Leacher established a company that he and his son-in-law called Saunders & Mader. As shipping agents for vessels ferrying goods between Miami and the Bahamas, Leacher Saunders frequently returned to Nassau to promote the growing trade between the two ports.

James Leacher Saunders was struck by a vehicle 30 June 1934 in Miami, Florida and did not survive this accident. He was buried at the Miami City Cemetery.

Sources

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Nassau, Bahamas, Marriages 1891-1901, January 1892. The wedding of Leacher and Candacie.

Find A Grave: Memorial #89216916Grave of first wife, Candacie Farrington Saunders.

St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Nassau, Bahamas, Marriages 1891-1901, December 1892. The wedding of Leacher and Alicia.

A History of the Bahamian People: From the Ending of Slavery to the Twenty ... By Michael Craton, Gail Saunders, Volume 2, page 210.

1920 United States Federal Census for James L Saunders, Florida, Dade, Miami, District 0028.

Florida, Naturalization Records, 1847-1995 for James Leacher Saunders, Southern District Court, Miami, Miami Petitions, 1913-1991, (003).

The Miami News, Miami, Florida, 9 November 1927.

The Miami News, Miami, Florida, 12 October 1930.

"Florida Deaths, 1877-1939," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FPHK-W4Q : 24 December 2014), James Saunders, 30 Jun 1934; citing Miami, Dade, Florida, reference 9588