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Josephine Leary

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Josephine Napoleon Leary
Born1856 (1856)
Williamston, North Carolina
DiedMarch 13, 1923(1923-03-13) (aged 66–67)
Edenton, North Carolina
OccupationBusinessperson

Josephine Napoleon Leary (1856–1923) was an American businesswoman and real estate entrepreneur from Edenton, North Carolina. Built in 1894, the J. H. Leary building, with her name on the pediment, stands today.

Biography

Josephine Napoleon Williams was born into slavery circa 1856 in Williamston, North Carolina. Her mother was an enslaved Black woman, whereas her father was a white man, probably a member of the Williams family that owned the plantation on which she was born. Emancipated at the end of the American Civil War, she went with her grandmother to Williamston to attend school and in 1873 married a barber by the name of Sweety Leary, with whom she had two daughters, Clara (born 1874) and Florence (born 1880). She and her husband built a flourishing business as Edenton barbers, and she made her first real estate property investment in 1873.

By 1881, Leary had purchased six residential and commercial buildings and lots in the Cheapside district of Edenton, including the Cheshire Storehouse, which spanned three lots on South Broad Street. When a fire destroyed the warehouse in September 1893, she hired Theo Ralph to construct the J. N. Leary Building on the site. This 1894 structure still stands. She continued to buy, sell, and rent out properties across Chowan County through the 1910s and built a new brick barbershop at 317 South Broad Street, which also still stands.

Late in life, Leary battled cancer and had to sell or mortgage most of her property, including the J. N. Leary building, to pay for medical treatments. She died of stomach cancer on March 13, 1923, at the age of 67. Her estate was worth $8,825. As a relative share of GDP, her estate would be valued at over $10 million today.

Legacy

Leary's business papers and correspondence were purchased by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University in 1991, with materials added to the collection in 2002. Selections from the Leary Papers were featured in an exhibit case at Duke's Perkins Library in 2023.

In 2022, Simon & Schuster published Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander. This novelization of Leary's life received a mixed review in Kirkus Reviews. Publisher's Weekly called it "fairly unremarkable" historical fiction whose author "does a nice job illuminating the life of an extraordinary historical figure."

References

  1. ^ "Josephine Napoleon Leary Day". Edenton Historical Commission. 2022. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  2. ^ "Finding aid to the Josephine Napoleon Leary papers, 1875-1991". David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. February 2020. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  3. "Where Women Made History". Saving Places: Explore Where Women Made History. National Trust for Historic Preservation. 2020. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  4. "Josephine Napoleon Leary". Duke University Libraries Exhibits. January 2023. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  5. "Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander". Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-9821-6369-3. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  6. "Review of Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander". Kirkus Reviews. 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
  7. "Review of Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander". Publishers Weekly. 2021-11-18. Retrieved 2025-01-02.
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