George Dowell Leask

Major George Dowell Leask was born August 28, 1896 in Mason City, Iowa to William Leask (1855-1940), a carpenter, and  Elizabeth Hewison Leask (1860-1902). William & Elizabeth had emigrated to the U.S. in 1884 from England. 

Elizabeth Hewison Leask

Elizabeth was born in Westray, Orkney, Scotland to tailor, then sailor, then later farmer Murdoch Hewison (1821-1901) and Jane Reid Hewison (1819-1896/1901), who were married Feb. 15, 1866. Murdoch's parents were Balfour Hewison (1782-1861) & Jean Hewison (b. 1782). After Elizabeth died in 1902, George remarried Alice Kehr Leask (1877-1935) in 1908.

Major Leask's Life

George Leask was evidently an electrician prior to his time in the service. George was raised in Mason City, Iowa before moving to Oakland. He married Edna B. Anderson on Aug. 7, 1922 in Oakland, while both were living in San Leandro. Edna was born March 2, 1901, raised in Omaha, NE and worked as a bookkeeper for Eppley Hotel Co. Edna's parents were Edward N. Anderson and Hannah Johnson Anderson. Hannah was born in Sweden, and in the assembly. George Sr.'s parents were William Leask (1855-1940), a carpenter, and Alice Ramsay Kehr Leask (1877-1935). Edna gave birth to George Dowell Jr. in 1924, and Edna died in Los Angeles on June 7, 1940.

Military

The picture below is of Major George Dowell Leask with his son Pfc. George Dowell, Jr. Leask. George Sr. was stationed in Oakland, three days after Pearl Harbor, as an Assistant Signal Officer for the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, and reported later in 1946 at the Pearl Harbor trial proceedings by telegram that "lying on the Oakland Pier for a long time were three 100-foot radar towers.  In my opinion if these radio towers had not been delayed on the Oakland docks you could have used them to good advantage December 7, 1941." as quoted by Maj. Gen. Walter C. Short to the Oakland Tribune.

George was injured in a bombing in Naples in 1944 and retired at the rank of Major to Waterloo, Iowa in June of 1944 from Oakland. 

George's son George Dowell Jr. Leask was killed in action while serving in a medical unit in the Army. See his own bio for more information, including letters written about Dowell from his commanding officer, his grandmother, and his father that were printed in Letters of Interest.

Dunkerton

1) William & Elizabeth's daughter, Robina Mowat Leask (b. 1892) married Orrin Esband Dunkerton, son of Thomas Dunkerton (1856-1924) and Lucy A. McIntosh Dunkerton (1867-1908) that founded the first Brethren assembly in Iowa (and the town of Dunkerton).

2) William & Elizabeth's son, William Jr. (b. 1882) married Edith McLeod, and they had a daughter Margaret Elizabeth that married Howard Glenroy Dunkerton (b. 1911), grandson of the aforementioned Thomas Dunkerton.

3) William & Elizabeth's daughter, Barbara Jane Leask (b. 1884) married James Andrew Dunkerton (1884-1927), son of aforementioned Thomas Dunkerton.

Farber

George had at least four other siblings that didn't marry into the Dunkerton family:

• Murdoch Hewison Leask (1886-1903)

• Mary Dawson Leask Hollopeter (1889-1975) married Glenn Hollopeter (1891-1972), WwI Vet. and part of Western Ave Gospel Hall in Waterloo; Three children:
  • Elizabeth Frances Hollopeter (1920-2001) married John Carnie Littlefield (1917-1973), son of Ralph Edwin Littlefield, optometrist & Mary Carnie Littlefield; Mary was daughter of Charles Ferrier Carnie, a brother of the evangelist John Carnie.
  • Catherine Edith Hollopeter (1922-1997) married Mr. Ahrenholz
  • Mary Louise Hollopeter (1925-2013) married Robert Inglis Thompson (1926-2007) WWII Vet, born in South Africa to Robert Inglis Thompson, Sr. (1898-1989), Scottish preacher;
  • Glenn Wayne Hollopeter (b. 1932)

• Elizabeth Hewison Leask Hermann (1894-1968) married George Elmer Hermann (1891-1979). George & Elizabeth had five children:
  • Dorothy Jeanne Hermann (1916-2003) married Farber
  • George William Hermann (1919-2018), WWII Vet, married Norma "Judy" June Peters (1926-1990) in 1948 in Council Bluffs, IA, then Mary Lakie in 1993 in Macomb, IL;
  • Leask H. Hermann (1921-2012), WWII Vet, married Ruth Talpin
  • Stanley Richard Hermann (1926-1996) married Mary Helen Shirley (1925-2013) in 1950.
  • Philip Donald Hermann (1928-2009)

• John Edward Leask (1898-1966), WWI Vet, married Myrtle Rose Joyce; Children:
  • JoAnn Elizabeth Leask (1934-2016) married Max Jordan; Children:
    • Sheri Jordan Hildman

Sources

• Ancestry.com
• 1945 Light & Liberty