When Leonora was in her early teens, her mother died.  Her father married a woman five years older than his daughter and the two women did not get along.  Leonora took lessons from the head of the Colton Girls School and earned a teaching certificate at age sixteen.

Amsterdam woman was pioneer union leader

By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History

   An Irish immigrant woman who lived and worked in Amsterdam became a national union leader in the nineteenth century.

   Leonora Kearney Barry wrote. “Day after day, I sat sewing men’s trousers for five cents a dozen.”

   Leonora was born in 1849 in Cork.  Her parents, John and Honor Kearney, fled the Irish potato famine and settled in Pierrepont in northern New York where her father worked a farm.

   When Leonora was in her early teens, her mother died.  Her father married a woman five years older than his daughter and the two women did not get along.  Leonora took lessons from the head of the Colton Girls School and earned a teaching certificate at age sixteen.

   Leonora taught school for seven years.   In 1871 she married a house painter and musician from Potsdam, William Barry.  William, too, was from Ireland and came to Canada when young.  He served nine years in the British army.

   The Barrys moved from town to town seeking work.  They settled on Amsterdam’s Voorhees Street with their three children.

   William Barry died in April 1881.  The obituary of the 38-year old said he had suffered lung ailments. 

   He was a “well-known musician” and composer who led the Amsterdam Cornet Band and played in the Thirteenth Brigade Band.  The Barrys’ three-year-old daughter also died that year.

   Now a widow with two young sons, Leonora could not return to teaching because only single women were acceptable candidates for teaching positions.

   She went to work in Amsterdam’s booming factories including Pioneer Hosiery, a knitting mill.  It was located on the south side of 31 Main Street, between Market and Church Streets.

   In 1884 Barry joined the women’s branch of the Knights of Labor in Amsterdam.  There was a knitting mill strike and management lockout of the union in 1886.  Mill owners eventually prevailed in ousting the Knights, at least temporarily.

   In 1886 Barry attended a Knights of Labor convention in Richmond, Virginia, and was named to the new department of women’s work.  Leaving her children with relatives, she traveled the country.

   There was criticism of her “high moral tone” from some union leaders and opposition to her idea that women should be full-fledged union members.

   The Biographical Dictionary of Notable American Women described her as tall with a commanding presence, contagious smile, gifted with Irish humor, blue eyes and spontaneity. 

   Barry advocated for equal pay for women and fought against child labor. She spoke against sexual harassment, saying men used the power of their positions to “debauch women and boys.” 

   In 1888, at Susan B. Anthony’s invitation, Barry spoke to the 40th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention for women.

   In 1890 Leonora married Obediah Read Lake, a printer from St. Louis.  Leonora didn’t think married women should work outside the home unless there was economic necessity.  She resigned from the union.

   Known as Mother Lake at the end of her life, she lived until 1923 and was popular on the lecture circuit as an advocate for temperance and women’s rights.

   She took part in a successful women’s suffrage campaign in Colorado in 1893; that year she delivered her popular speech called “The Dignity of Labor” to the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.

   After marrying Lake, Leonora lived in St. Louis until 1916 when she moved to Minooka, Illinois, to live with her husband’s sister.  A baseball fan, she visited Chicago to see ball games.  She died of cancer in 1923. 

   Retired Montgomery County historian Jacqueline Daly Murphy was instrumental in getting an historical marker honoring Barry placed at the east end of the mall in downtown Amsterdam in 1998.

Monday, September 4, 2023-Story behind the story-Leonora Barry.

Tuesday, September 5, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Parade sends wedding party outside

Wednesday, September 6 , 2023-From the Archives- Episode 72, August 2, 2015- David Jennings is author of the historical novel After Bondage and War. The novel tells of people impacted by slavery through the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Thursday, September 7, 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Local soldiers in the Civil War

Friday, September 8- Episode 491-The origin story of American football. Gregg Ficery traces what became the National Football League back to teams which played in Ohio and Pennsylvania in 1892.  Ficery is author of Gridiron Legacy.

Episode 490-Christopher Gorham is author of Anna Rosenberg, The Confidante: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America.

The Greater Amsterdam School District Hall of Fame induction is coming soon.  The dinner and ceremony will take place at 6 pm Friday, September 15, 2023 at the Perthshire on Route 30 north of Amsterdam. The cost is $50 per person.  For more information email [email protected] or call or text Rich Allen at 518-878-6374

Mohawk Valley Weekend Weather, Sunday, September 3, 2023

67 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:38AM (Early for a Sunday. Happening or done before the usual or expected time.)

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