Frederick Leike (variously spelled Leek) enlisted into Company C of the 102nd United States Colored Troops on February 10, 1864 at Ypsilanti, Michigan. He was a 25-year-old illiterate farmer who was born in Tennessee. On June 29, 1864, he was arrested for sleeping at his post while guarding the regiment’s commissary stores. His court martial for sleeping on the post was held on November 9, 1864. His court martial likely was delayed because he was sick, being hospitalized during September and October. At his trial he was found guilty of sleeping on post and was sentenced to four months confinement, at hard labor at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida He was also fined forfeit ten dollars of his pay every month he was in confinement. He was at Fort Marion from November 29, 1864 until March 20, 1865. After he was released, he returned to his Company for duty and was mustered out of the military on September 30, 1865 at Charleston, South Carolina with the rest of the regiment.

            After leaving the military, Leike lived in Battle Creek, Michigan from September 1865 to April 1866. From Battle Creek he moved to Chicago where he lived until his death in 1892. He married Laura A Gould, on June 19, 1871. They lived together on 523 28th Street. Leike claimed that he could not work because of bad eyesight and severe headaches so he applied for a disability pension. He was given a medical examination on January 8, 1890 and the surgeon stated that there was permanent damage to Leike’s eyes. Dr. Wesley Vincent, the surgeon for the 102nd U.S.C.T. during the war sent the pension office a statement saying that he knew of Leike and remembered him to be unfit for duty. Leike claimed that his eyes started to fail towards the end of the war and that his head pains were due to a sunstroke he had during service while at stationed at Hilton Head, South Carolina. He was formally diagnosed with disease of the eyes and severe headaches due to sunstroke. He was additionally diagnosed with impairment of his nervous system, mental derangement, rheumatism and affliction of the lungs, weakness of legs, and general disability. His pension claim was approved on the basis of disease of the eyes and was awarded a pension of twelve dollars a month beginning July 17, 1890.

            On October 16, 1892, Frederick Leike died in Chicago, Illinois at the age of 56. He left behind his widow, Laura A. Leike, who applied to receive a widow’s pension on October 24, 1892. She claimed that she was 47 years old, weak, disabled, and had no occupation. Witnesses testified that she had not remarried since Leike had died. In 1902, her pension claim was still pending, and she had moved to Humboldt, Kansas. Her pension claim was then abandoned and she never received the pension. There was no indication as to why there was such a delay in her getting a pension or why her claim was abandoned.

             Incidentally, the census records of 1880 record both Frederick and Laura as white. It is not known if they were actually white or just white passing. There are no other census records that record Frederick. After Laura moved to Kansas, she was still listed as white on the 1900 and 1910 censuses.