Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -

Sale 2697 - Lot 344

Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(RELIGION.) Thomas W. Stringer. Letter by the noted Mississippi A.M.E. minister and founder of the Knights of Pythias. Autograph Letter Signed "Thos W Stringer" to "all whom it may consern." One page, 9½ x 7½ inches, with docketing on verso: "John W. Bowman certificate of ordination"; lacking integral blank leaf, mailing folds. Vicksburg, MS, 8 January 1867
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Thomas W. Stringer (1815-1893) was born in Maryland, raised in Canada, and became an A.M.E. minister in Ohio before the war. As a missionary, he helped found 35 churches. After the war, he moved to Mississippi to continue his ministry. There he helped launch the state's Republican Party, and served in the Mississippi State Senate in 1870 and 1871. In 1880, he was a key founder of the Knights of Pythias.

This letter was written in Stringer's capacity as minister soon after he arrived in Mississippi, ordaining two new ministers to perform marriages: "This is to certify that Joseph S. Moore and John W. Bowman is authorized to celebrate the rites of matrimony in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and is now in communion. Given under my hand this day above writing."

We trace no other autographs by this influential minister and politician at auction.

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