Reuben Kendrick (Amite County)
State House: 1872-1875
Born: 1841 in Louisiana
Died: January 7, 1892 in New Orleans, LA
Born into slavery and self-educated in Louisiana. Also served as an Amite County supervisor and constable. Baptist minister. Listed as “Rueben McKendrick” on the 1870 census in Amite County with wife Angeline and three sons. The couple separated at some point; Angeline and one of their sons are listed in Amite County on the 1880 census, during the time Reuben was living in Natchez. He may have remarried later in Louisiana.
Around 1890, he moved to New Orleans, where he registered to vote in 1891 and died in 1892. Sons Reuben (b. 1869) and Aaron (1873-1900) and their descendants are documented in later New Orleans birth, marriage, death, and census records.
“Eld. Reuben Kendrick, a colored minister, did much for the cause in this state. He lived in Louisiana. He was baptized by Eld. Wesley Gule of Kentucky and received into the Wamac Chapel Church. He was licensed to preach in 1868 at Baton Rouge and formed his first church at Spring Hill under a large white oak tree. His second was at Zion Hill and third at Cockram Hill. Willis Harris now joined them and they formed the fourth church at Pleasant Grove. He was ordained at Baton Rouge in 1869 by Eld. Gule and Geo. Harris of Kentucky. Returning to Mississippi he lived with his first work till 1875, during which time he had baptized 612 persons. In 1871 he was chosen representative to the State Legislature and served four years. He left that part of the state because of the corruption of the political party to which he belonged and settled at Natchez. Here he worked a year for Christal Swarts to get him to build him a chapel to preach in, which was done and soon he formed a church in Natchez… In 1884 he went to Amite City, Louisiana, and established a church in that place.”
(G. W. Million and G. A. Barrett, A Brief History of the Liberal Baptist People in England and America, 1911)
This page was last updated on December 23, 2025.