Leary, Albert Greene

Born: 1810 Maryland

Died: 1853 New Orleans, Louisiana

Leary entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1829, and left after one year. Afterwards, he became a lawyer. He arrived in Ottawa, Illinois, in the early 1830s, but he settled in Chicago by 1836. A Democrat, he won election to the Illinois House of Representatives that year, representing Cook and Will counties. In 1839, his election bid for the Illinois Senate was unsuccessful; but in 1840, he won election to the Illinois House, representing the Chicago-area counties of Cook, Will, McHenry, Du Page, and Lake. He was married to a niece of President John Tyler. Leary practiced law in Chicago until his removal to St. Louis sometime before 1850. By 1851, he was living in New Orleans, where he died from yellow fever in 1853.

Alfred T. Andreas, History of Cook County, Illinois (Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1884), 271; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 302, 327, 347; University of Pennsylvania, Biographical Catalogue of the Matriculates of the College, 1749-1893 (Philadelphia: Printed for the Society, 1894), 93; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Ward 4, St. Louis, MO, 11.