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George T. Leebrick – White Supremacist, 1866
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on July 27, 2018
During the Civil War, George T. Leebrick, served in the 46th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company D, Private. He was a bookkeeper from Halifax and was a charter member of the G.A.R. Post at Fisherville. He is buried at the Halifax United Methodist Church Cemetery. Leebrick also served in the 15th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company D, although that service was not noted in the petition explained below. [Note” Pennsylvania Death Certificate from Ancestry.com].
George Thomas Leebrick was born in Pennsylvania, 23 September 1844, the son of John Philip Leebrick and Hannah Mary [Parke] Leebrick. About 1877, he married Sarah N. Noblet (1844-1933) the daughter of Samuel Noblet and Susan [Ettin] Noblet. It is not known as of this writing whether they had any children together.
For his first Civil War enlistment, George T. Leebrick enrolled as a recruit to replace a deserter, John Stein, in the 15th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company D, as a Private at Harrisburg. At the time he claimed to be 19 years old. The record from the Pennsylvania Archives indicates that he was mustered out with his regiment on 8 August 1861.
Secondly, George T. Leebrick enrolled in the 46th Pennsylvania Infantry, at Harrisburg on 2 September 1861. At the time he was 20 years old, stood 5 foot 6 inches tall, had brown hair, dark complexion, and grey eyes. He gave his residence as Halifax and his occupation as student. He was mustered into service as a Private in Company D on 31 October 1861, and was discharged on 2 December 1862.
On 11 March 1902, George T. Leebrick applied for an invalid pension, which he received and collected until his death. His widow, for some unknown reason, waited until 1919 to apply for benefits. The record shows that she received the pension, but the statement at the bottom card indicates something about a “decl” [possibly “declaration”] which was not obtained until April 1919.
Previously on this blog, one post mentioned George T. Leebrick: Halifax Area Civil War Veterans.
George T. Leebrick died on 28 February 1919. His obituary appeared in the Harrisburg Telegraph, 1 March 1919:
George T. Leebrick, Civil War Veteran, Dies at Halifax
Halifax, Pennsylvania, 1 March 1919 — George T. Leebrick, one-time Democratic candidate for the State Senate against John E. Fox, of Harrisburg, died last evening at his home in Market Street, following a stroke of paralysis, aged 78 years. He was a life-long resident of Halifax.
A veteran of the Civil War, he with [sic] the local post of the G.A.R. He had played a rather prominent part in Democratic politics in this section of the county. His wife survives him. Funeral services will be held at the home on Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock, conducted by Rev. J. G. Smith, pastor of the Halifax Methodist Episcopal Church. Burial will be in the Halifax Cemetery.
After the war, George T. Leebrick openly supported the white supremacist views of Heister Clymer by signing a call for denial of equal rights to African Americans, both those who were previously slaves and those who were previously freemen. The statement was published in the Harrisburg Patriot of 24 July 1866 and included his name, regiment, company and rank.
Heister Clymer was a white supremacist candidate for Pennsylvania Governor on the Democratic Party ticket in 1866, and was previously profiled here on 26 April 2016.
The call for a meeting of Union Soldiers was printed in the Harrisburg Patriot, 24 July 1866, along with an up-to-date list of Clymer supporters who openly supported Heister Clymer‘s white supremacist views and wanted to deny “negro equality and suffrage” even to those who had been free men before the war.
The undersigned honorably discharged Union soldiers, believing that we battled in the late war for the Union of these States, and had successfully maintained it, view with alarm the persistent efforts of radical men who seem determine, practically to destroy the Union we went forth to save. They would have the community believe that Union soldiers are willing to give up in the hour of victory the great object to which their sacrifices and toll and blood were given….
Therefore we unite in requesting all the honorably discharged officer, soldiers and seamen of Dauphin County who favor the wise and constitutional policy of President Johnson, who oppose the doctrine of negro equality and suffrage, and desire the election of the Hon. Hiester Clymer, to meet in Mass Convention at the Democratic Club Room, Walnut Street, below Third, Harrisburg, at 7 1/2 o’clock, on the evening of the 25 July 1866, for the purpose of electing fourteen delegates to the Convention of Union Soldiers, which is to assemble in this city [Harrisburg] on Wednesday, 1 August 1866.
The Dauphin County veterans who signed the racist petition calling for the meeting were from a variety of regiments and social levels. Included in the list were some residents of Upper Dauphin County, the area north of Peter’s Mountain – all of which is included in the geographic area of the Civil War Research Project.
George T. Leebrick was only one of many honorably discharged Union soldiers who openly supported the white supremacist gubernatorial campaign of Heister Clymer in 1866. The full list of those with a connection to Upper Dauphin County will be presented over time.
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Pension Index Card from Fold3. Newspaper clipping from Newspapers.com.
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