Dr. Thomas W. Stringer (Warren County)
State Senate: 1870-1871
Born: c. 1810-1815, probably in Maryland
Died: August 25, 1893 in Vicksburg, MS
Methodist Episcopal minister. Founded the first African American Masonic lodge in Mississippi. Warren County treasurer. See Wikipedia entry for full bio.
Stringer’s headstone says he was born in Maryland, though other records differ. The headstone also says that he was made a Mason in 1836 at Hiram Lodge No. 3 in Pennsylvania.
He was commissioned by his Masonic lodge in Philadelphia to work in Ohio in 1848. He may be the Thomas Stringer, age 40, listed on the 1850 census in Cincinnati and working as a cook. He is listed on the 1861 census in Raleigh, Kent, Canada, occupation “yeoman,” religion Episcopal Methodist. The 1880 census places him in Vicksburg, age 65, with the occupation of “preacher” and wife Lida. Stringer died of malarial fever at his home on Cherry Street in Vicksburg in 1893.
Married Minnie Keith, the aunt of Samuel A. Sanderlin, in Cincinnati in 1852. Her 1877 will includes the clause, “[I]n no event is my husband, Thomas W. Stringer, to be chosen or appointed nor is he to have any management or control of my estate whatsoever.”
Links:
Memorial on Find A Grave
Wikipedia entry for Thomas W. Stringer
“By far the most influential Negro in the [1868 constitutional] convention, and the most powerful political leader of his race in the state until 1869, was T. W. Stringer of Vicksburg. A former resident of Ohio, he came to Mississippi as general superintendent of missions and presiding elder for the African Methodist Church, of which he had almost complete control for many years. The man had a genius for organization. After a distinguished career in religious and fraternal organizations in Ohio, he led in the development of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada before his move to Mississippi. Wherever he went in the state, churches, lodges, benevolent societies, and political machines sprang up and flourished.”
(Vernon Lane Wharton, The Negro in Mississippi, 1865-1890, 1965)
This page was last updated on April 23, 2026.