Thomas W. Stringer

Biography

Thomas W. Stringer (1815–1893) was an American Christian minister in the A.M.E. Church, state senator in Mississippi, Prince Hall Mason, and the founder of the Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. He helped organize churches, schools, and fraternal organizations. He was elected to the Mississippi Senate in 1869 and served from 1870 until 1871. Stringer was born in Maryland, and raised in North Buxton, Ontario, a settlement of Black Canadians. He later moved to Ohio, where he was ordained a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a highly successful AME missionary in Ohio and Canada, founding over thirty-five churches. He moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, after the American Civil War. Stringer was Union League organizer and credited as the founder of the Mississippi Republican party. He was an organizer at Mississippi's 1868 constitutional convention. He is buried at the Vicksburg City Cemetery.

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