Frank A. Leach was born in Auburn, New York, on August 19, 1846, the son of Edwin Warren Leach and his wife Mary A. Leach.[1] When he was a boy, his father moved to Sacramento, California, to establish a bottling plant there, and Frank and his mother later joined his father there.[2] In 1857, the family moved to Napa, California.[2]
In 1867, at age 20, Leach became a newspaperpublisher when he began publishing the VallejoEvening-Chronicle.[1] He married Mary Louise Powell in Vallejo in December 1870.[1] He published the Evening-Standard until 1886, when he moved to Oakland, California, and founded the Oakland Enquirer.[1]