Martha Alice Moody

Date: 14 Nov 2012 [unknown]
Location: Northampton County, North Carolina
Surnames/tags: Mason Moody

Martha Alice Moody was my great-grandmother. She is referred to as Alice and I don’t believe she was ever called Martha. She was born April 18, 1838 in Greensville County, Virginia. She was educated at Petersburg Female College. On June 30, 1859 at her parents’ home in Northampton County, NC (Woodland) she married her first cousin once removed, Dr. Hezekiah Gilbert Leigh II (Gib). To my knowledge, I have never seen a picture of her. My impression of her from documents (her will and The Moody letters) is that she was a whiner. She died in Petersburg June 2, 1906 and is buried in the Leigh Lot in Blandford Cemetery.

Dr. H. G. Leigh was born in Mecklenburgburg Co. VA March 12 1833. He grew up in Boydton, VA, attended Randolph-Macon College where he received an bachelor’s degree and a master‘s degree in languages. He taught languages at the college for two years. After his father’s death he and his brother, Richard, went to Lowndes Co. Mississippi to look after and manage property there left to them. While in Mississippi he taught languages for a year at a female academy in Aberdeen (Monroe County) MS before returning east and attending medical school, both at the University of Virginia and in New York. During the Civil War he served as surgeon for the 58th Virginia Regiment and for the 5th Louisiana Regiment. After illness (1863-64) he managed the Confederate Hospital in Raleigh, NC. He attained rank of Major. After the War the family lived in Petersburg, 20 Union Street where Dr. Leigh practiced medicine. Dr. Leigh was a steward of the Washington Street Methodist Church and Coroner for the City of Petersburg from 1870 until 1897. During John Mason Moody’s bankruptcy proceedings Dr. Leigh bought most of his land at auction and either put it in Martha’s name or, in the case of the Dancy land, gave it to his wife. Dr. Leigh died Nov. 16, 1898.

Dr. Leigh and Alice had four surviving children: Mary Eulah Leigh (Minnie), b. June 13, 1860; John Hamilton Patterson Leigh, b. June 8, 1862; Martha William Leigh (Willie), b. April 30, 1865; and Hezekiah Gilbert Leigh III (Bert), b. Nov 1, 1866, my grandfather. There was at least one child who was stillborn and two children who died in infancy, Robert and Alice. H. G. Leigh and his wife, Alice, and the children, Robert and Alice, are buried in Blandford Cemetery.

Virginia Leigh Refo, November 14, 2012

Acknowledgement

• Many thanks to cousin Virginia Leigh Refo whose research and transcriptions added to this profile. The originals were donated to the Library of Virginia in 2004 by Liz Edens Vermillion with the help of Virginia Refo [Moody Family Papers, 1750-1881. Accession 40535, Personal Papers Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.]