MORGAN'S HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY CONFERENCE Page 238
Freedmen's Bureau. His first school was broken up by the Ku Klux. He returned to Louisville, which was then the headquarters of the Freedmen's Bureau, and was immediately sent to Hopkinville, in the southern part of the State, where he remained about a year. He was remarkably successful as a teacher, being particularly distinguished for his ability to govern, and discipline. While in Hopkinville he formed the acquaintance of a young lady, who afterwards became his wife. From Kentucky he went to Mississippi, and for a long time was actively engaged in politics. From the first he took high rank as a political speaker - so much so that he was often regarded as a prodigy. He also engaged in teaching. In 1871 he was licensed to preach by the Rev. O. A. Douglass, then pastor of the A. M. E. Church at Jackson; Miss. He attended the annual conference, which met at Yazoo City in December, 1872, but on account of his extremely youthful appearance, which seemed to create a prejudice against his admission, his friends withheld his application, and on the adjournment of the conference he was received as a supply by Bishop Ward, and appointed to the Raymond Circuit, where he remained one year, after which he moved to Alabama, joined the conference in that State, was ordained a deacon at Mobile, December, 1873, and stationed at Union Springs, Bullock county. Having some fondness for politics, he entered the exciting campaign of 1879, and was elected a member of the Alabama House of Representatives by a large majority. His brilliant and forcible manner of speech won for him the title of "the orator of the House." At the expiration of his term, in 1876, he moved to Tennessee, and resumed the duties of the ministry. In November, 1876, he was ordained an elder in Nashville, Tenn. While in Nashville he established the Pilot, a weekly secular paper, which rapidly gained a large circulation, and its editorials were frequently quoted by the leading journals throughout the State. He was the central figure of the Colored Men's National Convention, which met in Nashville, April, 1876, and delivered a speech that attracted general attention throughout the country. During his residence in Nashville, he attended the Meharry Medical School.
From Nashville he removed to Brownville, Pa., thence to Pittsburg, and from there to Bloomington, Ill., where he now resides.
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