Rev. Thomas Marcus Decatur Ward (September 28, 1823 – June 1894) was an American preacher, missionary,

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

, and

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

who aided African-Americans escaping slavery. Ward is considered to have been a central leader of African American religious activity in the 19th-century and has been referred to as “the original trailblazer of African Methodism” in the United States. In 1854, Ward took over leadership of St. Cyprian's African Methodist Episcopal Church in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He was an early representative of the A.M.E. church on the Pacific Coast, and he also served as the 10th Bishop of the A.M.E. Church starting in 1868. Ward often went by the name T. M. D. Ward, but was also known as Thomas Mayers Decatur Ward.

Childhood and early life

Ward was born September 28, 1823, in

Hanover, Pennsylvania Hanover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, southwest of York and north-northwest of Baltimore, Maryland and is north of the Mason-Dixon line. The town is situated in a productive agricultural region. The population was 16,429 at the ...

. His parents and grandparents were African American and had escaped from slavery and moved to Pennsylvania, where they became active in the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. His uncle was

Samuel Ringgold Ward Samuel Ringgold Ward (October 17, 1817 – ) was an African American who escaped enslavement to become an abolitionist, newspaper editor, labor leader, and Congregational church minister. He was author of the influential book ''Autobiograp ...

. Ward grew up in Philadelphia, where he joined the A.M.E church in 1838 at age 15.

Start of church career

At age 20, he received his license to preach and joined the

New England Conference The New England Conference (full name: New England College Conference of Intercollegiate Athletics) was a collegiate sports conference in the Eastern United States, more specifically in New England, that operated from 1923 to 1947. As four of its ...

in 1846. Ward became a church elder in 1849. Ward soon became a member of the AME church hierarchy in Pennsylvania. He was then elected secretary of the New England Conference for the territories within the national church. During this conference, Ward broached the idea of a "California mission". The church sent him to San Francisco to accomplish it.

San Francisco mission

When Ward arrived in San Francisco, he found the AME church to be very small and impoverished. He was forced to find outside work to survive. He lived in a small complex on 532 Bush Lane. Soon after his arrival, the church was attacked by an

arsonist Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

in 1854. From 1854 until 1856, Ward worked as a Sunday School teacher and pastor at Saint Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church in Sacramento. In 1855 and later years, Ward was an active participant in the annual

California State Convention of Colored Citizens The California State Convention of Colored Citizens (CSCCC) was a series of colored convention events active from 1855 to 1902. The convention was one of several social movement conventions that took place in the mid-19th century in many states ...

, including hosting the event at his church in 1857. Ward became involved in the campaign to

Archy Lee Archy Lee was an African-American born into slavery in Mississippi in 1840. Lee's slave-owner, Charles Stovall, brought Lee with him to Sacramento, California on October 2, 1857. While in California, Stovall rented out Lee for his wages. In Januar ...

. In 1857, Lee had been transported from Mississippi to Sacramento. In 1867, Ward helped raise $50,000 dollars for legals costs of three trials that eventually emancipated Lee. Ward later spent US $3,050 to stop Lee's former owner from kidnapping him back to Mississippi. After the beginning of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, Ward was president of the California Contraband Relief Association and provided funds for the care of the

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

. In the mid 1860s Ward was elected as Bishop to the Pacific Coast at the church's annual conference. Ward acted as a delegate to and was also the chair of the education committee of the California State Convention of the Colored Citizens.

Georgia and later life

In his later years, Ward returned frequently to the Northeastern United States to preach He was finally reassigned to the fifth district of the church in Georgia. In Georgia, he presided over numerous general conferences that were held there. In 1875, the church invited white Americans to the conference for the first time. In one of his sermons, Ward preached of the importance of education and stated, "Encourage learning and you will live; despise it and you will die". Ward was often described as "old man eloquent". Another common description made by his colleagues was that he was an overweight man who charmed his audiences with a resonate voice and was a man of courage. In the late 1870s, Freedmen University (later Western University) was founded and one of the halls was named Ward Hall after him for his work with African-American youth. In 1886, Ward created a coalition of religious figures dedicated to the study of learning. In June 1894, Ward died in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, and he was buried in Washington, D.C.

References

External links

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Archy Lee Case
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Thomas Marcus Decatur 1823 births 1894 deaths African Methodist Episcopal Church clergy People from Hanover, Pennsylvania 19th-century American clergy Clergy from San Francisco African-American missionaries Colored Conventions people African Americans in California