Located in the Josephine Leary building in historic downtown Edenton, the Chowan Herald is a weekly publication owned by Adams Publishing Company.
The North Carolina Press Association member and award-winning newspaper has covered Chowan County since Aug. 30, 1934. It recently expanded coverage to include eastern Washington counties, as well as Tyrrell and Hyde counties.
Josephine Napoleon Leary was born into slavery in nearby Williamston, North Carolina, in 1856.
During the 1870s, she and her husband, Sweety, moved to Edenton, where they established a barber shop downtown and purchased numerous properties.
After a fire swept through and destroyed the section of downtown known as "Cheapside" in 1893, Mrs. Leary had a new building constructed with an elaborate metal facade which displayed her name. With a barber business and numerous rental properties around town, she became one of the town's leading African American businesswomen.
Josephine Leary died in 1923. Her building has housed the Chowan Herald since its founding in 1934.
