Our Founder

Leo Robert French

The story of our parent company, Mother Lode Holding Company, started in 1973 when its founder, the late Leo French, established Placer Title in California. His mission was to put together a team “who really cared about each other,” and, in turn, cared about the customers that they helped every day.

If this was accomplished, Leo believed success would follow, and he was correct. Starting with five employees he treated like family, Leo grew Placer Title Company throughout Northern and Central California and beyond by building the agencies that make up Mother Lode Holding Company, including us. Everyone at the Washington Title & Escrow Company is proud to be a part of the history of this MLHC Family.

Our key to success over the years here and across the MLHC footprint has been our dedication to our customers, our fellow employees and the industry as a whole – just the way Leo would have wanted it. His ideals still guide our company today. He was a wonderful communicator who was famous for his handwritten letters and notes filled with humor, wisdom and rhymes. He and his wife, Eileen, loved to tap dance and led the MLHC team of dancers, performing at company events with colleagues who shared their love of dance. The couple’s enthusiasm was contagious.

Eileen died in 2010, and Leo passed away in 2013. However, the couple’s caring spirit and Leo’s vision of creating a company based on caring for people will live on for years to come through all the work we do at Washington Title and Escrow and throughout the Mother Lode family.

Leo Robert French photo

Our Founder

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