Josephine Napoleon Leary (1856–1923) was an American businesswoman and real estate entrepreneur from Edenton,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. The J. H. Leary building, a large commercial property in Edenton built in 1894, features her name on the pediment.

Biography

Josephine Napoleon Williams was born into slavery circa 1856 in Williamston,

. 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 The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, Josephine accompanied her grandmother to Williamston to attend school and in 1873 married a barber by the name of Archer "Sweety" Leary, with whom she had two daughters, Clara (born 1874) and Florence (born 1880). She and her husband built a flourishing business as barbers in Edenton, 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 architect Theo Ralph to construct the J. N. Leary Building on the site. Completed in 1894, this

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

structure features Leary's name on the pediment and a distinctive metal facade manufactured by the Mesker Brothers. She continued to buy, sell, and rent out properties across Chowan County well into the 1910s. In 1907, she 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 at the time of her death. As a relative share of the U.S.

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performanc ...

(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 Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

in 1991, with additional materials added to the collection in 2002. Selections from the Leary Papers were featured in an exhibit at Duke's Perkins Library in 2023. The Edenton Historical Commission celebrates her as a Woman of Distinction. In 2022,

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

published ''Carolina Built'' by Kianna Alexander, who fictionalizes Leary's life. The novel received a mixed review in ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' and a rave review in the ''Southern Bookseller Review''. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' described the novel as "fairly unremarkable" historical fiction whose author "does a nice job illuminating the life of an extraordinary historical figure."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leary, Josephine. 1856 births 1923 deaths 19th-century African-American businesspeople 19th-century African-American women 19th-century American businesswomen 19th-century American businesspeople 20th-century African-American businesspeople 20th-century African-American women 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century American businesspeople African-American women in business American businesspeople in real estate American freedmen Businesspeople from North Carolina People from Edenton, North Carolina People from Williamston, North Carolina