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Don Fernando de Leyba was a Spanish officer and politician who served as the third governor of Upper Louisiana from 1778 until his death in 1780.  He was a native of Barcelona, Spain and a Captain in the Stationary Regiment of Louisiana.  According to The Frontier War for American Independence, he sympathized with the Americans and aided George Rogers Clark in the war.  When Clark met de Leyba, he expected a stuffy bureaucrat and remarked that he had “never before [been] in Compy of any Spanish gent.”

De Leyba helped protect the village of St. Louis in what was called the Battle of Fort San Carlos.  Follow the link for more information on Fort San Carlos and the Battle of 1780.  The successful if costly defense of St. Louis prevented the British from obtaining control of the Mississippi River Valley.  De Leyba’s health was already poor, and, by June 28, 1780  he died. His report of the action reached Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Viscount of Galveston and Count of Gálvez only after his death, yet the general was impressed enough to promote the governor, posthumously, to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Marino Leyba was a Desperado who is said to have been associated with Billy the Kid. On December 10th, 1880, he was shot by Pat Garrett at Puerto de Luna. According to the Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, Garrett rerarked that Leyba was the “quickest man with a six-shooter” he had ever seen.