A Seattle Church Honors the Bishop Who Built Black Methodism on the Coast

The African Methodist Episcopal church on Jones street was crowded last evening with members and their friends to witness the memorial exercises in honor of the late Bishop Thomas M. D. Ward. The little chapel was draped in mourning for the occasion, with floral offerings placed about the platform and pulpit, and the services of the dead were carried out throughout the programme, which was as follows:

Song—“Shall We Meet Beyond the River?”—Choir. Song—“Jesus, Lover of My Soul”—Mrs. Barrington. Reading—Selected—J. T. Gaylor. Solo—“Come, Thou Fount”—Miss B. Davis. Recitation—“The Burial of Moses”—Little Mabel Dixon. Duet—“Departed Friends”—Mrs. R. G. Gland and Mrs. S. Freeman. Duet—“Raise Me, Jesus”—Mrs. Barrington and Mrs. Viney.

The pastor, Rev. J. Allen Viney, officiated, and at the close of the exercises gave a brief discourse on the life and works of the dead bishop, taking his text from Genesis xxv:8.

Mrs. J. Allen Viney, the pastor's wife, read a biography and eulogy of Bishop Ward, who was the tenth bishop of the A. M. E. church. He was born at Hanover, Pa., September 28, 1823, converted in 1838, licensed to preach in 1843, joined the itinerary in 1846 in the New England conference, was ordained deacon in 1847, ordained elder in 1849 by Bishop William P. Quinn, elected bishop May 21, 1868, and ordained May 28, 1868, at Washington City, where he died June 10, 1894, and from which city he was buried four days later. He had been licensed to preach at 20, and was fifty-six years a church member and fifty-one years in the ministry. He had come on the stage of life when it was difficult for a colored youth to get an education, and grew up without regular or systematic training, except such as he gave himself by indefatigable study enhanced by a great love for good books. He was appointed missionary to the Pacific coast, where he labored for fourteen years, founding all the African Methodist Episcopal churches throughout California. As a bishop he devoted much of his time to the people of his race in the Southern states.