NEWBURYPORT – Louis Tyree was the man any parent would love to have as a son.
He grew up in Indiana, where his father was a farmer and fought with the Union Army in the Civil War. His mother was highly literate and imbued her son with a desire for education and to better himself.
When told one of the best schools was Phillips Exeter Academy, young Tyree struck out on his own, traveling more than a thousand miles, to Newburyport where he worked to save money to pay his tuition by working at Wolfe Tavern. whose owner was known to help African Americans “get a leg up,” said Cyd Rasche, a founder of the Newburyport Black Initiative. He became a lawyer.
He attended Newburyport High School before he achieve his goal of being accepted to Exeter.
Tyree graduated from Clark University and studied at Harvard University and earned his law at Boston College School of Law.
He got mixed reactions while living in Newburyport. The Daily News carried an article criticizing black lawyers, yet members of the Newburyport Harvard Club raised money for his tuition.
The initiative and the city of Newburyport will dedicate an interpretive sign honoring Tyree at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7, at Tracy Square on Pleasant Street where the sign about Tyree is installed. It is one of several signs around the city commemorating and educating residents and tourists about the role African Americans played in Newburyport.
Local genealogist Kristen Fehlhaber helped identify several Tyree descendants. Two descendants of Tyree, Will Evans, an attorney in Milton, and Denice Garrett, who live in Dorchester, plan to attend the unveiling of the sign honoring their ancestor.
Funded by the city’s Community Preservation Committee, the Black History Initiative is dedicated to highlighting the city’s Black history through lectures, panel discussions, workshops and historic interpretive signs.
