Thomas W. Stringer (1815–1893)
Minister • Legislator • Freemason • Organizer
Early Life and Education
Thomas W. Stringer was born in 1815 in Maryland as a free man of color. He was raised in North Buxton, Ontario, a settlement of Black Canadians, where he was exposed to abolitionist ideals and community organizing. He later moved to Ohio, where he was ordained as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and became a prominent missionary, founding over 35 churches across Ohio and Canada.
Religious and Civic Leadership
After the Civil War, Stringer relocated to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he became a central figure in Reconstruction-era politics and religious life. He served as general superintendent of missions and presiding elder for the AME Church in Mississippi, exercising near-complete control over its development in the state.
In 1869, he was elected to the Mississippi State Senate, serving from 1870 to 1871, and was a key organizer of the 1868 Mississippi Constitutional Convention. He was also credited with helping to found the Mississippi Republican Party and served as Warren County Treasurer.
Prince Hall Freemasonry
Stringer became a Prince Hall Mason in 1836 at Hiram Lodge No. 3 in Pennsylvania. He later helped organize the Grand Lodge of Ohio, becoming its first Grand Master in 1849. Upon moving to Mississippi, he founded the first Prince Hall lodge in Vicksburg in 1867 and organized the M.W. Stringer Grand Lodge in 1875, serving as its first Grand Master until his death in 1893. [en.wikipedia.org]
He is widely recognized as the “Father of Black Masonry in the South,” having established lodges in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
Fraternal and Social Innovation
In 1880, Stringer co-founded the Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, a fraternal organization that provided insurance and death benefits to African Americans excluded from white fraternal orders. He also helped establish the Independent Order of Calanthe, its women’s auxiliary.
Legacy and Death
Thomas W. Stringer died of malarial fever on August 25, 1893, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He is buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery. His legacy lives on through the M.W. Stringer Grand Lodge, which remains a cornerstone of Prince Hall Freemasonry and civil rights history in Mississippi.