Leary | Fourth Generation Inclusive

May 13, 2015

His half-brother — and owner — are free men of color.

FIFTY DOLLARS REWARD.

RANAWAY from the Subscriber, on the 19th inst., a Negro man named LUKE, about five feet six or eight inches high, dark complected, has a scar on the side of one of his eyes, (which one not recollected, but believed to be the right eye,) stout built, weighs about 175 or 180 pounds.

He was purchased in 1846 from Mr. Josiah E. Bryan of this town. He has relatives in the County of Sampson, among them a half-brother named Sam Boon, — a free man of color, — and may possibly be lurking in that neighborhood, as I am informed he was seen about there a short time since. Possibly he may have obtained free papers, and is endevouring to escape to a free State, as I understand some free persons of color removed from Sampson county last week to Indiana.

A reward of Ten Dollars will be given for his apprehension and delivery to me, if taken in this county; Fifteen Dollars if taken in any other county in this State and lodged in a safe Jail; or Fifty Dollars if taken out of state — so that I get him again. M.N. LEARY.

Fayetteville, March 29, 1853.

Fayetteville Observer, 7 April 1853.

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May 29, 2014

The new firm.

NOTICE.

The Subscriber having associated himself in business with his son Matthew, the business will hereafter be conducted under the name and style of M.N. Leary & Son.

The undersigned, thankful for the liberal patronage hitherto extended to him, respectfully solicits a continuation of the same in behalf of the new Firm.

All those indebted to the undersigned, either by debt or account, are earnestly requested to settle the same as early as possible. M.N. LEARY, Fayetteville, June 2, 1852.

Fayetteville Semi-Weekly Observer, 22 July 1852.

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May 23, 2014

Negro candidates, their pedigrees and general character.

NEGRO CANDIDATES.

We requested our friends, a few days ago, to send us, from all parts of the State, the names of negro candidates in the State for the several offices, their pedigrees and general character. These statements begin to come in. A friend in Fayetteville sends us the following:

“NEGRO CANDIDATES IN CUMBERLAND: For House of Representatives, Isham Swett, free mulatto of old issue; Barber by trade; went with 1^st Regt. N.C. Vols. (Confederate) in the capacity of a servant.

John Leary – free mulatto, old issue; Saddler by trade. His father, also free mulatto, formerly owned slaves and sold them. One of his brothers was in the raid with John Brown and was killed at Harper’s Ferry.”

If our friends will comply with our request as above, we shall have an interesting chapter of the practical working and character of Radicalism.

Semi-Weekly Raleigh Sentinel, 18 April 1868.

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May 17, 2014

One of the insurrectionists.

LEWIS S. LEARY, a free negro, one of the insurrectionists, who was shot at Harper’s Ferry, was a native of Fayetteville, an infamous scoundrel who ran away from justice, and thereby cheated the rope of a deserving compliment. His father still lives in Fayetteville and is a very exemplary citizen — and his brother has a saddle and harness manufactory.

North Carolina Argus (Wadesboro), 17 November 1859.

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May 22, 2013

For the murder of Archibald Beebee.

MATTHEW N. LEARY, jr., a witness for the prosecution, having been first duly sworn, testified as follows:

Examined by the Counsel for the prosecution.

Q. What is your name? A. Matthew N. Leary, jr. Q. Where do you reside? A. In Fayetteville. Q. What is your occupation in Fayetteville? A. Saddle and harness maker was previous to the war. Since the war I have added to that a small grocery in the same building. A. Have you been a free man all your life? A. All my life, sir. Q. Where did you reside in the beginning of the year 1867? A. In Fayetteville. Q. Did you know one Archy Beebee there? A. I did, sir, by sight. I knew him when I saw him. Q. Where is he now? A. Dead. Q. When was he killed? A. On the 11^th of February. … [p. 3]

ROBERT SIMMONS, a witness for the prosecution, having been first duly sworn, testified as follows:

What is your name? Robert Simmons. Where do you live? In Fayetteville, sir. What is your occupation there? I keep a grocery there. Was that your occupation at the beginning of the year? Yes, sir. Did you know Archy Beebee? Yes, sir. … [p. 47]

HENRY HAGANS, a witness for the prosecution, having been first duly sworn, testified as follows:

Examined by the Counsel for the prosecution.

Where did you live at the beginning of this year? In Fayetteville. What is your business there? Shoemaker. Whose shop did you work in, the first part of this year? I worked with Mr. Henry Sykes. Is that the one-armed man? Yes, sir. Did you know Archy Beebee? Yes, sir. … [p. 55]

Argument of ED. GRAHAM HAYWOOD:

… Here is Matthew N. Leary, jr., whose character is unassailed, and unassailable, who says – he was standing to the right of the man who fired the pistol, and his rear, about five feet. … Between Leary and the man who fired his pistol, stood Lewis Smith. Square behind [John] Armstrong – almost touching him – and within five feet or six feet of the man who fired the pistol, stood Henry Hagans; a little further to the front than James Douglass, and to his left stood Robert Simmons… [p.347]

Proceedings in the Case of the United States against Duncan G. McRae, William J. Tolar, David Watkins, Samuel Phillips and Thomas Powers, for the Murder of Archibald Beebee at Fayetteville, North Carolina on the 11^th Day of February, 1867, together with the Argument of Ed. Graham Haywood, Special Judge Advocate (1867).

In the 1860 census of Fayetteville, Cumberland County: D. Simmons, 40, Robert, 23, Saml., 20, and Mary Simmons, 12.

In the 1860 census of Fayetteville, Cumberland County: Joseph Heggins, 51, laborer, wife Harriett, 31, and children Henry, 13, Duncan, 9, Lavina, 7, Sophia, 5, and Mary, 3.

March 29, 2013

Fayetteville State founders.

Fayetteville State University, now part of the University of North Carolina system, was the first normal school for African Americans in North Carolina. The university’s founding dates to 1867, when David A. Bryant, Nelson Carter, Andrew J. Chestnutt, George Grainger, Matthew Leary, Thomas Lomax and Robert Simmons paid $140 for a lot on Fayetteville’s Gillespie Street and named themselves into a board of trustees to maintain the property as a permanent site for the education of black children. General O. O. Howard, an early supporter of black education, erected a building on the site, and the school was named the Howard School in his honor.

The education center was chartered by the legislature as the State Colored Normal School in 1877. In 1880 Charles W. Chesnutt was appointed principal of the school after the death of principal Robert Harris. Chesnutt served the institution for three years before resigning and moving to Cleveland, Ohio.

Ezekiel Ezra Smith was appointed as Chestnutt’s replacement in 1883. E. E. Smith had a long and distinguished career at the school. During his span as principal (and eventually president) at the institution, he served in a host of other positions. Smith was appointed Minister Resident and Consul General of the U. S. to Liberia by President Grover Cleveland in 1888. George H. Williams assumed the duties of principal in Smith’s absence. After serving in Liberia for two years, Smith returned to North Carolina to organize the state’s first newspaper for African-Americans, The Carolina Enterprise, in Goldsboro. During Smith’s tenure, he saw the school the school move to its permanent location on Murchison Road in 1907. The high school curriculum was discontinued by the state in 1929 and Smith’s title change to president. He retired in 1933.

Adapted from http://www.ncmarkers.com.

In the 1850 census of Fayetteville, Cumberland County: Angus Carter, 45, boatman, wife Dezda, 38, and children Nelson, 16, Angus, 15, John, 13, Margaret A., 12, Betsy, 10, Jane, 8, Alonzo, 5, Mellissa, 2, and Ann, 2 months.

In the 1850 census of Fayetteville, Cumberland County: John Terry, 13, Ellen Terry, 16, Sally Lucus, 12, and Thos. Lomack, 18, in the household of Jesse W. Powers, merchant.

In the 1850 census of Eastern Division, Cumberland County: Griscilla Simmons, 35, Robert, 12, Samuel, 8, and Mary A., 2.

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February 28, 2013

Pure white and Indian.

Enoch Manuel and wife live in Dismal Township, Sampson County. He is now 70 years old. His father was Michael Manuel and lived on South River and died in 1858. Michael’s father was Nicholas Manuel, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, in John Toomer’s Army. His father was Ephraim Manuel. The records of Sampson County show, book 5, page 222, that in the reign of George III Benjamin Williams conveyed to Ephraim Manuel 400 acres of land, lying on the east side of Great Coharie, charging annual quit rents to His Majesty. We find another deed from Solomon Hardin to Levi Manuel, dated October 10, 1778, for 125 acres on March Branch and Miry Bottom Branch in Sampson County, consideration 50 English pounds. There are numerous other old deeds to the Manuel family on record in Sampson County. The father of Ephraim Manuel was Nickey Manuel and came from Roanoke River and claimed to be half white and half Indian. There is no trace of negro blood known to exist in the Manuel family as far back as they have any record.

Enoch Manuel says that his ancestor, Nickey Manuel, raised Matthew Leary, father of Sheridan Leary, who was killed in John Brown’s insurrection at Harper’s Ferry. Sheridan Leary was a brother of John S. Leary, a lawyer of Charlotte, formerly of Fayetteville, N. C. … Sarah, wife of Enoch Manuel, whose picture appears above, was a daughter of Amos Hardin, a wheelright [sic] in Honeycutts Township, and was recognized as a Croatan Indian. This couple have seven children and numerous grandchildren. They have not intermarried with the negro race, and their children attend Shiloh Indian School in Dismal Township, of which school Enoch Manuel was the founder.

[“]My mother’s mother was one Lanie Jackson, a white woman. Therefore as you can plainly see, my father and mother were pure white and Indian. My wife was the daughter of Amos Harding and Cassie Lockamy, a white woman, of Irish descent.

We had in our home several sons and daughters. Jonah Emanuel, who married Luberta Bledsole, daughter of W. J. Bledsole. W.J. Bledsole was the son of Mary Bledsole, a white woman, his father unknown. He is evidently a white man, with some trace of Indian blood. Enoch Emanuel, Jr., also married a daughter of the above W. J. Bledsole. Macy Lee Emanuel married Hassie J. Jones of Robeson County, a person of white and Indian descent. All of the above are descendants of the late Nicholas Emanuel and Jonathan Harding.

Many of the members of the Emanuel family have moved to other sections. They are now living in as many as seven different States of the Union. Some have spelled our name Manuel; others Emanuel. I have followed the latter form for our name in this pamphlet. [“]

From George E. Butler, “The Croatan Indians of Sampson County, North Carolina. Their Origin and Racial Status. A Plea for Separate Schools,” (1916).

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February 2, 2013

The freed man frees. Maybe.

M.N. Leary, Executor, v. S.W. Nash and others, 56 NC 356 (1857)

This case the Court of Equity of Cumberland County and involved the interpretation of a Solomon W. Nash‘s will. The clause at issue:

Item 6. “I further leave my negro slave woman Venice, to serve my daughters ten years from the time of my death, and after the expiration of that time, I desire her to be freed; and if she wishes to remove to any free State, I wish her to be permitted to do so; and if she may be permitted to remain in North Carolina, that she may enjoy all the privileges that can be, or may be, allowed by law to slaves left by their masters or mistresses to be freed. The way I desire Venice to serve my daughters is, for her to be hired out for the term of ten years, and the proceeds of the same to be equally divided amongst them.”

Venice had no children at the time the will was made, but later had two, Jack and Festus. Executor Matthew N. Leary asked the court (1) if Venice was entitled to freedom and, if so, under what terms and (2) if Jack and Festus were entitled to freedom. The court was also asked if John Nash, born after his father made his will, was entitled to any of the estate.

The decision:

1. John, who was born after Nash made the will, but before his death, was entitled to a filial portion.

2. Venice can elect either to leave the State and be emancipated, or to remain here as a slave.

3. Venice’s two children, born after the will was made, are slaves. “There is no ground upon which they are entitled to their freedom” because Nash did not include Venice’s future increase in his bequest.

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January 18, 2013

Lewis Sheridan Leary.

Lewis Sheridan Leary (1835–1859), a harnessmaker from Oberlin, Ohio, joined John Brown’s unsuccessful raid on Harpers Ferry, where he was killed. Leary was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Matthew N. Leary, also a harnessmaker, and Julia Memril Leary. His paternal grandfather was an Irishman, Jeremiah O’Leary, who fought in the American Revolution under General Nathanael Greene. A paternal great-grandparent, Abram Revels, a free man of color, was also a Revolutionary War veteran. His mother’s grandmother was “French Mary,” a freed West Indian who was a well-regarded cook in Fayetteville.

In the mid-1850s, Leary moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where two of his sisters had settled. One sister, Sarah, had married Henry Evans, whose sister Delilah Evans Copeland, the mother of John A. Copeland Jr., another John Brown follower. Leary married Oberlin College graduate Mary Patterson, and had a daughter, Louise. Leary became involved with abolitionists in Oberlin, which had an active community. Later, he met John Brown in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1858, Leary joined in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, when fugitive slave John Price was forcibly taken from the custody of a U.S. Marshal to prevent his being returned to slavery . He was not among the 37 men (twelve of them free men of color) who were indicted and jailed for their actions.

Accompanied by Copeland, Leary joined John Brown at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Leary died eight days after the attack on Harper’s Ferry from wounds suffered in the conflict. Copeland was captured, tried and later executed.

Leary’s family remained in Fayetteville during the Civil War. During Reconstruction, his father and a brother served as city councilmen and county commissioners, and his brother Matthew Leary Jr. was an early trustee of the college that became Fayetteville State University. Leary’s youngest brother, John Sinclair Leary, graduated from Howard University in 1871 and was one of the earliest black attorneys admitted to the bar in North Carolina. He served in the state legislature for two terms as a Republican representative for Cumberland County during Reconstruction, and in 1884 was sent as a delegate to the National Republican Convention. He later founded and served as the first dean of the Shaw University Law School, and in the 1890s moved his family and practice to Charlotte. Today the Charlotte chapter of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers is named the John S. Leary Bar Association in his honor.

Adapted from “Tar Heels at Harper’s Ferry, October 16-18, 1859,” http://www.nccivilwar150.com/history/john-brown-nc.htm, published by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

Photograph, c. 1850s, courtesy of Oberlin College Archives, Oberlin, Ohio.

In the 1860 census , Fayetteville, Cumberland: Matthew Leary, 48, wife Julia A., 42, Matthew, 17, Lewis S., 15, Julia A., 12, John S., and Mary E., 13.

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