JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER, ELDER
STATESMAN
OF COLUMBUS
by RICHARD CLYDE MINOR
Professor of Sociology, Lincoln
University, Jefferson City, Missouri
The story of James Preston Poindexter,
though it can never
be told in its completeness, still
reveals enough to show that he
was a remarkable man. Of mixed Negro,
Caucasian, and Indian
blood, the force of circumstances made
him a Negro; the force
of his personality made him a man
respected among men.
There are many still living who knew
him. Never once has
the writer heard him spoken of in other
than the highest forms
of praise. Those still living who
remember him, of necessity
knew him as an older man who had already
reached the zenith
of his career and had perhaps mellowed
in the process. But
much earlier in his life he exhibited
the qualities which brought
him to prominence in later years.
Strict honesty in every sense of the
word more than any
other trait explains why he was elected
and appointed to offices of
honor and trust in the State. At the
time of his death in his
eighty-eighth year he was the holder of
an office to which he had
been appointed by a governor of the
State and had just relin-
quished an office which he held for eighteen
years, the three six-
year terms being given him by three
different governors.
Poindexter was born in Richmond,
Virginia, September 25,
1819, the son of Evelina Atkinson (one
source gives the surname
of Evans), a woman of Negro and Cherokee
Indian blood, and
Joseph Poindexter, a journalist in the
employ of the Richmond
Enquirer. George B. Poindexter, a brother of Joseph, migrated
to Mississippi and became one of the
early governors of that state
and is said to have been a very able
administrator.
The mother of Poindexter died when he
was but four years of
age. Very early in his life, at ten
years, he was put to work as an
apprentice barber, his trade for many
years. Poindexter married
267
268
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
at the age of eighteen, and moved at
once to Ohio where he
settled in the village of Dublin, ten
miles north of Columbus.
The Poindexters did not remain long in
this farming community
because of the wife's dissatisfaction
with it.1 Thus in the year
1838 they came to Columbus where they
remained the rest of their
lives.
In Columbus, Poindexter promptly joined
a small group of
white and Negro citizens who operated a
station of the Under-
ground Railroad for the benefit of the
fugitive slaves on their way
by the central route to Canada. He once
stated that about the
first thing in Columbus he had "any
distinct recollection of" was
the Underground Railroad and that his
secret connection with it
continued until the Civil War put an end
to it.2 Tradition relates
that Poindexter was permitted to vote
because of his Caucasian
and Indian blood, but the privilege was
denied Negroes generally
in the State by the terms of the state
constitution, adopted in
1803. The weight of his sympathies,
however, was always used
in favor of the Negro group with which
he identified himself.
Poindexter's leadership, political,
social, economic, and religious,
was of decided significance because of
the relatively large num-
ber of Negroes in the city. Not until
sometime after the Civil
War did two cities of the State,
Cleveland and Cincinnati, exceed
Columbus in Negro population.
POINDEXTER AS A RELIGIOUS LEADER
When Poindexter and his wife settled in
Columbus there were
already two flourishing colored churches
in the town: the St. Paul's
African Methodist Episcopal Church (then
known as Bethel
M. E.), established in 1823, and the
Second Baptist Church,
established in 1836. Poindexter
professed religion in the former
church but soon afterwards joined the
Baptist Church. In the
latter church he became a preacher
during the pastorate of the
Reverend Wallace Shelton, who resigned
to assume leadership
of the Zion Baptist Church of
Cincinnati. Poindexter often
1 [S. A. Vesey], comp., Franklin
County (Ohio) at the beginning of the Twen-
tieth Century (Columbus, 1901), 364.
2 A letter dated July 30, 1943, to
the writer from Emeritus Professor Wilbur H.
Siebert who interviewed Poindexter in
the summer of 1897. See also Siebert's
book,
The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom (New York, 1898), 253.
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER 269
preached and officiated as pastor in his
church when there was
no regular minister.
In 1847 a Negro family of Poindexter's
acquaintance which
had previously owned slaves in Virginia
joined the Second Bap-
tist Church. The family had sold their
slaves before coming to
Ohio, but many members of the
congregation felt that they had
committed a grievous sin in having held
slaves and a far more
grievous one in having sold them. It
was, therefore, demanded
that the money received from the sale be
applied in redeeming
them. This demand not being complied
with, "forty dissenting
brethren" with Poindexter as leader
organized the Anti-Slavery
Baptist Church. This group grew to 104
members who held
services in a brick edifice at the
corner of Town and Sixth streets.
The Ohio State Journal reports
that fifty members were added to
the church by a revival in January 1858,
conducted by the Rev-
erend Mr. Shelton from Cincinnati,3
but the church seems to
have passed out of existence that same
year. Poindexter returned
to the Second Baptist Church, this time
as pastor. He remained
in this capacity for forty years, that
is, until July 1898, when his
resignation took effect. During much of
his pastorate, Poindexter
also worked in his barbershop, not
wishing, he said, to burden
his church financially.
The Second Baptist Church was the oldest
of that denomina-
tion among Negroes in Columbus and for
many years the largest
and most influential. This was due in
high degree to the character,
influence, and leadership of Poindexter.
In the pulpit he was a
convincing speaker, but he also took a
prominent part in secular
affairs and was quite at home in debate.
He held a respected
place among the prominent ministers of
the city and was the
only Negro member of the Pastors' Union,
made up of the more
able ministers of the city. He served as
president of this organ-
ization for a time. His colleague, the
eminent Congregational
clergyman and author, Dr. Washington
Gladden, remembered
Poindexter thus:
It was in 1858 that I first came to
Columbus. During a religious
meeting I had occasion to drop into a
service in a building located at that
3 Ohio State Journal, January
29, 1858.
270 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
time about Lazelle and Gay Streets. A
black haired man, with well-defined
features, dark in color, was telling the
Story of the Gospel. I was im-
pressed. When I was located in Columbus
some twenty-five years after, I
received a visit one day from a colored
preacher. "I am a neighbor of
yours," he said, "and I want
to bid you welcome to our work." Then I
recognized the same Negro preacher that
I heard a quarter of a century
before. His hair was gray now, but the
kindly countenance was un-
changed. He always has worked for the
uplift of the Negro race.4
It may be noted that Poindexter was
moderator over the
thirtieth anniversary meeting of the
Anti-Slavery Baptist Associa-
tion of Ohio held at Springfield early
in September 1871, at the
Second Baptist Church.5 The
secretary of the meeting was the
Reverend J. M. Meek. The names of the
secretary and moderator
authenticate an address to the Christian
church which was then
adopted and its publication desired
"in all newspapers friendly to
the cause of Christ." One of the
things strongly deprecated in the
address was race prejudice within the
church. "The prejudice
which prevents God's people from meeting
on terms of equality in
God's house, which restrains Christians
from embracing each other
in affection and brotherly love without
regard to color," read the
address, "is the disgrace and
weakness of the Church in America
and we beseech you in the name of Christ
to purge it out."6 Poin-
dexter saw clearly that freedom from
slavery was but a start in the
right direction. Complete participation
of Negroes in the religious
life of America as well as in civic,
religious, and political affairs
was the goal to be striven for.
Poindexter's ministry gave him an
opportunity to express his
liberalism; it also provided others with
the opportunity to show
their implicit faith in his thoughts and
actions. His influence
and friendliness extended to whites as
well as Negroes. The
following incident is a splendid
example, for despite his adherence
to the Republican Party, Poindexter had
good friends among prom-
inent Democrats. One of these was O. P.
Chaney of Canal Win-
chester, a small town just south of
Columbus. Chaney was a
well-known state official whose father
was a Congressman. Early
in November 1906, O. P. Chaney died. In
accordance with a
4 Ibid., February
18, 1907.
5 In an unfinished and unpublished history of the Negro
Baptists in Ohio, by the
late Reverend George Washington,
pastor of the Bethany
Baptist Church of Columbus,
the statement is made that the Anti-Slavery, title was retained
until 1895.
6 Ohio State Journal, September 6, 1895.
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER 271
previous arrangement, Poindexter was
called upon to conduct the
funeral service. The Ohio State
Journal reported that "Rev.
James Poindexter officiated at the
funeral of the late O. P.
Chaney at Canal Winchester,
Tuesday. Poindexter and Mr.
Chaney had been lifelong friends and
many years ago the
deceased exacted a promise from the
veteran colored minister
that when he (Chaney) died, Poindexter
was to officiate at the
funeral ceremony. Mr. Chaney at that
time said 'Jim, you know
me and what you say about me, people
will believe.'"7 Poindexter
officiated at the funeral ceremonies of
other prominent men of
both races.
His long ministry was characterized by
deep earnestness,
steadfastness of purpose, fidelity to
the cause of Christianity, an
uncompromising attitude towards wrong,
and a breadth of vision
that extended beyond denominational
lines. He insisted that the
preacher must be a thoroughly upright
man. In eulogizing him,
Bishop B. F. Lee of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church
said, "The deceased refused to
allow anyone to preach from his
pulpit who had any stain on his
character."
During his pastorate the church moved
from its location at
the southwest corner of Gay and Lazelle
streets to larger quarters
at the northwest corner of Rich and
Third streets, the former
location of the First Baptist Church.
This was in the year 1896.
POINDEXTER AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
The Anti-Slavery Baptist Association was
founded in 1841
and was instrumental in promoting
antagonism to slavery among
Baptist congregations in Ohio
communities. Such antagonism
had existed, however, in the Second
Baptist Church of Columbus
since the time when Poindexter became
attached to it. He read-
ily recalled in his old age certain of
its men who were evidently
the most daring and energetic in local
underground railroad opera-
tions. These members of the flock were
John Booker, N. B.
Ferguson, David Jenkins, and John Ward.
It may be that Louis
Washington, his son Robert, and James
Hawkins also belonged
to the congregation. At any rate, they
could be counted on for
midnight labors on the Underground
Railroad. Louis Washing-
7 Ibid., November 8, 1906.
272 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
ton was described by Poindexter as a man
possessed of great
physical strength and able "to get
away with half a dozen ordinary
men." Washington came to Columbus
from Richmond, Virginia,
and seems to have been a teamster. He
owned teams and wagons
with which he or his drivers often
conveyed fugitive slaves from
their hiding places in Columbus to the
Methodist Chapel in Clin-
tonville, a settlement five or six miles
from the State Capitol. The
chapel was on the west side of the
Worthington Plank Road
(now High Street) near the house of the
local Methodist preacher,
Jason Bull. The rear basement of the
chapel was piled high with
hickory wood for the winter's use. That
wood was so arranged
that it walled in a number of small
rooms for concealing the fugi-
tives. Food and water were carried to
the hiding slaves in the
night by Bull's family. Poindexter spoke
of Bull as the super-
visor of Underground Railroad operations
northward out of Co-
lumbus. He seems to have had the native
force and judgment of
a capable manager. In Columbus there
were several white men
of high standing in business and
professional circles who pro-
vided hiding places and whatever other
aid was needed to carry
on the secret work. Fugitive slaves were
often hidden in the
attic of the house of Dr. James H.
Coulter on Third Street be-
tween Gay and Long streets and in the
barn at the rear. Another
place of concealment was the attic of L.
G. Van Slyke's home,
188 East Town Street.8 The
location of these homes was in
what is now the downtown section of
Columbus. Dr. Samuel M.
Smith and James M. Westwater, both
prominent citizens of Co-
lumbus, were active in the Underground.
All were warm friends
of Poindexter.
Apparently some friend presented
Poindexter with a copy of
the book entitled Reminiscences of
Levi Coffin. Coffin, a Quaker
who had worked in the Underground from
the age of fifteen
through a long life, aided about 3,000
fugitive slaves to escape.
He did much to help spread the
antislavery movement. In his
humanitarian work he was associated with
a great number of
Quakers, some of whom lived in Columbus.
Poindexter said,
in expressing great admiration for them,
"Truly the Quaker
Friend is a noble specimen of humanity;
equally true it is, thank
8 Siebert, letter to the author, July
30, 1943.
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER 273
God, as impartial history avoucheth,
that the Negro, after two
hundred and fifty years of the cruelest
bondage, stood well in
comparison with the best type of his
white brethren."9
POINDEXTER'S INTEREST IN EDUCATION
In 1836, two years before Poindexter and
his wife became
residents of Columbus, the colored
people of the town made
some provision for educating their
children by procuring a
teacher and providing a school
building. Not until after the
Civil War was any action taken to
provide tax-supported facili-
ties for Negro children in Columbus, and
those facilities were
poor. One of the two schools provided
for colored youth was
located on south Seventh Street (Grant
Avenue) between Mound
and Fulton streets. The other, called
the "Alley School," was
located at the intersection of two
alleys, LaFayette and Lazelle,
just a short distance northeast of the
center of the city. It was
also called the "Pig Pen." The
latter school was an old double
house from which the partition had been
removed.
It was then the custom for each school
to have a "visiting
committee," made up of citizens
appointed to make recommen-
dations. The visiting committee, of
which Poindexter was a
member, complained that the school was
"unsightly, both in
character and situation." Shortly
afterward the schools were
abandoned and Negro children were sent
to the Third Street
School at the southeast corner of Third
and Long streets. The
date of this change was 1872. Poindexter
and other members
of the committee were not yet satisfied
with the provisions made
for Negro education. The annual reports
of the Columbus Pub-
lic Schools record complaints against
the location of the Third
Street School, which had been renamed
the Loving School, in
honor of Dr. Starling Loving, who on
many occasions had cham-
pioned the rights of Negroes. The last
complaint voiced in the
Annual Report for 1881 is typical:
Respecting the building, we do not see
that any very important repairs
are required. But we recommend a change
of location. It is certain that no
school in the city is surrounded by such
an unhealthy moral atmosphere as
9 Ohio State Journal, October 16, 1877.
274
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the Loving School. Saloons and street
corners lie on every hand and make
it at once one of the worst places for a
public school in the city. All these
things suggest the necessity of
change.10
This section of the city was rapidly
acquiring an evil repu-
tation and came to be known as "Bad
Lands." Shortly after-
ward Loving School was razed, and Negro
students were dis-
tributed in the other public schools
according to the school dis-
tricts in which they lived. This change
came in September 1882.
Membership on visiting school committees
gave Poindexter
practical training for membership on the
Columbus School Board.
This position came to him on December
30, 1884, by unanimous
vote of the school board after the
elected incumbent, Dr. Starling
Loving, had rendered himself ineligible
by moving out of the
ward from which he had been elected. For
ten years Poindexter
served as member of the board, being
elected four times from the
Ninth Ward. During his term of service
on the city school
board, he was chairman of the following
committees: schoolhouse
sites, rules and regulations, textbooks
and course of study (six
years), discipline, and visiting
committees for Spring Street School
(three years) and Central High School
(two years). He also
served as member of the following
committees: supplies, hygiene,
public library, manual training,
printing, salaries, and teachers and
examinations.11
During Poindexter's tenure of office
some controversy arose
when Catholic school authorities sought
to obtain the temporary
use of an unoccupied schoolroom in the
Twenty-third Street
School, while awaiting the completion of
a new parochial school
in the vicinity. Poindexter championed
the right of Catholics to
use the quarters until their own
building was ready for occupancy.
Poindexter is said to have had no formal
schooling, although
he was tutored by an English-born
citizen of Columbus. The
fact that he was chairman of the
important textbooks and course
of study committee for six years would
indicate he did his work
acceptably. Unquestionably, too,
membership on such a variety
of commitees in itself was an education
of great value to him,
though it came to him relatively late in
his life.
10 Annual Report of the Board
of Education of the Columbus Public Schools
(Columbus, 1882), 1881-82, 193.
11 Ibid., 1882-83
to 1893-94, passim.
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER 275
Six years before assuming his place on
the board he had
voiced his objection to separate schools
for Negro children as
follows:
Colored people don't desire to abuse the
educational privilege of the
white children but simply to put their
children on an equality with the white
children. Abolish our beneficent system
of free schools and the distance
between the white and colored people
will widen to all eternity. We are
poor and ignorant as a class, they are
intelligent and rich. They have had
the benefit of their own and the colored
man's toil for two hundred and
fifty years, we have not only been
worked without pay, but shut up in cells
of ignorance. Oh, No! For heaven's sake
don't shut up the free schools
until we get some of the benefits of
them. Another objection [to integrated
schools] is that the colored child can
learn four times as much under colored
as under white teachers; and another is
that the colored teachers draw
$320,000 per annum out of the treasury
for their services, which . . . would
be lost to the colored people if the
change be made. . . . More and more
as they rise to comprehension of the
vast good to our people of mixed
schools, will our colored teachers assent
to the sacrifice here proposed, as
one righteous to be made. Holding aloft
this standard, we vindicate the
sacrifice suffered for us by the
Martyred Lovejoy, Wendell Phillips, William
Garrison, O. P. Morton and the great
statesman and philanthropist, Charles
Sumner.12
Largely through Poindexter's efforts
colored teachers taught side
by side with white teachers in nine
different schools in the city
of Columbus.
The kind of teachers desired by colored
people was set forth
in the following comprehensive
statement:
Parents of colored youth, like parents
of white youth, demand that
those appointed to teach their children
shall have the requisite educational
qualifications; be pure in their lives;
orderly in deportment; devoted to
their work, and successful, because
capable and devoted. And they demand
further, that the schools for their
children, in their whole make-up, be the
freest possible from sectarian taint.13
Poindexter was a faithful worker while
on the school board
and is said to have rarely missed a
meeting. He had been advo-
cating consistently the merger of
schools for white and colored
students before becoming a member, and
his unanimous choice for
12 Ohio State Journal, February
14, 1878.
13 Ibid., June 10, 1878.
276
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
membership on the board, made up as it
was of prominent men
of the city, was a deserved recognition
of his influence.
A further contact in an official way
with the educational sys-
tem of Ohio came with his appointment as
a trustee of the State
School for the Blind by Governor Charles
Foster in 1880. He
served through the year 1883, during the
superintendency of
George S. Snead. Later, Governor Joseph
B. Foraker named
consecutively the two granddaughters of
Poindexter to be teach-
ers at that institution.
His nomination in 1885 as a trustee of
Ohio University at
Athens by Governor George Hoadley was
not ratified by the
State Senate on the ground that he was
too partisan. The vote
was thirteen noes to eleven ayes.
Replying to the charge of par-
tisanship, Poindexter wrote:
It is not best for colored men of the
country that they be compelled to
vote for the candidate of any one party.
This the masses of them will feel
it is a religious duty to do until the
Democratic party accept in good faith
the constitution as it is, and
illustrate that acceptance of it by fitting recogni-
tion of capable colored men in official
positions.14
In April 1896 Poindexter was appointed
by Governor Asa
Bushnell a trustee of the combined
Normal and Industrial Depart-
ments of Wilberforce University. The Ohio
State Journal com-
plimented the Governor on his wise
choice and congratulated the
appointee on the recognition accorded
him. It spoke of his being
well known everywhere for his honorable
achievements and his
Christian virtue. The Journal stated
that all conceded it to be
the best selection which could have been
made and hoped that
his wise counsel would serve to guide
Wilberforce through any
struggle that might occur.15
POINDEXTER IN POLITICS AND CIVIC AFFAIRS
Negro suffrage in Columbus followed, of
course, the ratifica-
tion of the Fifteenth Amendment. One
newspaper in taking note
of the circumstance offered some advice
to the new voters, saying:
Every free man above the age of
twenty-one years without regard to
14 Ibid., April 17, 1885.
15 Ibid., April 19, 1896.
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER 277
color or complexion is entitled to vote
on Monday at the City and Township
Election. Every colored citizen must,
therefore, be at the polls early and
vote as the best interests of the city
require. Modesty, calmness and so-
briety should mark the behavior of these
newly enfranchised voters.16
After the election both the Ohio
State Journal and the Ohio
Statesman commented favorably on the deportment of these citi-
zens who were voting for the first time,
one saying "their record
on the day made memorable by their first
vote is a very good one.
The further comment was that nearly all
voted the Republican
ticket. While the name of Poindexter is
not mentiond in this
connection, one may well be sure that
he, by both precept and
example, set the tone for the Negro vote
at that first election.
Shortly after the election, the Negroes
of Columbus under-
took the celebration of the ratification
of the Fifteenth Amend-
ment. This was an all-day celebration
which got under way with
the firing of cannon early in the
morning. A parade was next in
order with the line of march covering
the central portion of the
city, and ending at the State Capitol
where the speaking took
place. Five hundred and sixty-five
people took part in the parade
and there were 47 carriages in line. The
Douglass and Potomac
Guards (presumably militia) led the
procession. At the head of
the Sons of Protection (an organization
of some importance
paying sick and burial benefits) marched
Poindexter, the presi-
dent of the organization. There was much
oratory by prominent
men of both races at the afternoon
ceremony.
In the evening the celebration was
continued at the Opera
House. There were more speeches by
Governor Rutherford B.
Hayes, the Honorable Sam Galloway, the
Honorable E. E. White,
the Reverend J. P. Underwood, and the
Reverend G. H. Graham.
But the orator of the evening was
Poindexter who made a long
speech in which he urged: "Fellow
citizens, rejoicing in the liberty
which the elective franchise brings, let
us look squarely in the
face its accompanying duties and
earnestly and energetically make
the needful preparation to rightly
discharge them." In this speech
Poindexter showed an extensive knowledge
of English and Amer-
ican history.17 The Columbus
newspapers gave considerable
16 Ibid., April 2, 1870.
17 Ohio
Statesman, April 14, 1870.
278
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
space to recording the proceedings of
the day which gave due
emphasis, they felt, to the newly
acquired privilege.
This period marks the emergence of
Poindexter as an influ-
ential political figure, and it is not
surprising that his name was
prominent among the signers of a
"call of the colored men of
Ohio to a mass convention to be held in
this city on the 18th inst.
(January 18, 1871)." The object of
this convention, the notice
stated, "is to so organize the
colored people that their votes shall
be made available for securing and
maintaining for ourselves and
our children the legitimate benefits
resulting from our newly ac-
quired rights under the
constitution."18 This convention
reaf-
firmed allegiance to the Republican
Party and endorsed the
nomination of Ulysses S. Grant for
President.
Later in the same year an article
appeared in a Columbus
newspaper entitled, "Rev. James
Poindexter for Senator." It was
stated, in what was a careful estimate,
that:
As Senator he would rank with the ablest
debaters in that body. If
he can be induced to become a candidate,
he is entirely competent to dis-
cuss the questions at issue between the
political parties with any gentleman
the opposition may bring against him.
Mr. Poindexter is scholarly, of
polished address, and will make a good
impression wherever he goes.19
On August 1, 1873, Poindexter delivered
an address at Chil-
licothe, Ohio, on "The Duty of the
Citizen of the United States
as a Voter." An excerpt from this
address will suffice to show
the speaker's opinion of the moral and
political responsibility
attached to American citizenship.
First, he [the citizen] must acquaint
himself with the object of gov-
enment or he can not intelligently labor
for its success. Secondly, he must
attend all elections because those of
opposing principles will be there; to stay
away himself is to suffer his cause to
go by default. Thirdly, he must not
support his party when it becomes the
advocate of bad measures, because he
is individually responsible to his
country for his political action. Fourthly,
he must not vote for unworthy
candidates, because weak or corrupt men
can not be depended upon to carry out
sound measures. Colored persons
should demand nothing because they are
colored; [and] should consent to
have nothing withheld from them on that
account.20
18 Ohio State Journal, January 7,
1871.
19 Columbus
Dispatch, September 6, 1871.
20 Ohio State Journal, August 5,
1876.
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER 279
Late in August 1873 Poindexter was
approved by the Repub-
lican State Central Committee as a
candidate for the Ohio House
of Representatives. Although it was said
of him in the press that
he was a gentleman who would not suffer
in any aspect by com-
parison with any member of the body for
which he was named,
he was defeated in the election.
Poindexter's barbershop was not only the
means of support
for him and his family; it was also the
place where he became
well acquainted with many state and
national politicians and
gained considerable enlightenment about
public affairs. His shop,
at 61 South High Street, was across from
the State House, and
close to the Neil House, the
headquarters of numerous public men
of prominence. Among his customers,
also, were well-known
professional and business men. They
liked to patronize so con-
venient a place whose proprietor was a
decided character, always
courteous and attentive. He never refused to serve colored
patrons.
In 1876 Poindexter served as delegate to
the Republican
National Convention,21 and
during the subsequent presidential
campaign he actively supported the
Republican candidate, Ruther-
ford B. Hayes. In consequence of this
there was talk among
friends and admirers in favor of his
appointment as minister to
Haiti. A basic quality of his character
may be easily seen from
his reaction:
Two years more and I shall have earned
my bread for fifty years at
the barber's chair and will have been a
preacher of the gospel for forty
years; and to lift me out of these
pursuits into the dazzling one of a foreign
mission may be highly injurious to myself
and by no means advantageous
to the public service. Hence, I am not
worried about the Haytian Mission.22
In the centennial year Poindexter was
again nominated for
the state legislature, only to be
defeated again. Success in the
campaign would have pleased him,
provided he could have won
in a manner consistent with his way of
life. He had already made
it clear that he asked no favors of
voters. In an Emancipation
Day address in 1873 he said:
21 Ibid., May 15, 1876.
22 Ibid., June
21, 1877.
280
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Let no gentleman vote for me simply that
[sic] he has known me a
long time and thinks me a clever fellow.
Let none vote for me that [sic]
I am a colored man; he that would vote
for me because I am a colored man
would vote against me if I were a white
man. . . . In clothing one with pub-
lic trust the question should be, Does
the candidate possess the ability and
the integrity to discharge the duties of
the office with credit to himself and
advantage to the State? If he does, is
he, too, gentlemanly in his bearing
as to make it a pleasure to his
associates to cooperate with him in measures
promoting the interests of his
country?23
Poindexter did much to promote the
interests of the Repub-
lican Party among Negroes in Ohio. While
he reserved the right
to withdraw his support from his party
when it advocated "bad
measures" or "nominated
unworthy candidates," he lacked confi-
dence in the Democratic Party. Franklin
County, of which Co-
lumbus is the county seat, gave a
majority vote for Vallandigham,
the Copperhead candidate for Governor of
the State, while the
Civil War was in progress. A petition to
the legislature after the
war from the same county prayed that
"the immigration of the
Negro into Ohio be stopped." The petitioners lamented the eco-
nomic situation brought about by the
resulting competition in
labor.24 In addition this county cast a
two-to-one vote against
giving the colored people in Ohio the
right of suffrage. Later
on, of course, that right was granted by
the State.
While the seating of the President was
still in question early
in 1877, Frederick Douglass and
Poindexter conferred with
Rutherford B. Hayes in Columbus. Hayes
wrote in his diary for
February 18, 1877:
The indications still are that I am to
go to Washington. I talked
yesterday with Fred[erick] Douglass and
Mr. Poindexter, both colored, on
the Southern question. I told them my
views. They approved. Mr. Doug-
lass gave me many useful hints about the
whole subject. My course is a
firm assertion and maintenance of the
rights of the colored people of the
South according to the Thirteenth,
Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments,
coupled with a readiness to recognize
all Southern people without regard to
past political conduct, who will now go
on with me heartily and in good
faith in support of these principles.25
23 Ibid., September 23, 1873.
24 Sara G. Rider, The Negro in Ohio
with Especial Reference to the Influence of
the Civil War (unpublished master's
thesis, Ohio State University, 1931), 30.
25 Rutherford B. Hayes, Diary and
Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes, edited by
Charles Richard Williams (5 vols.,
Columbus, 1922-26), III, 417.
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER 281
It may be mentioned parenthetically that
it was the general
opinion at the time that Poindexter
recommended Douglass for
the federal office he received from
President Hayes. Like Doug-
lass, Poindexter believed that the
Negro's destiny was interwoven
with that of the Republican Party. Four
years before, in 1873,
a group of colored citizens met at the
Shiloh Baptist Church to
take action on the "Chillicothe
resolutions," which urged bolting
the Republican Party. The resolution in
answer to the Chilli-
cothe resolutions was written by
Poindexter and said in part:
"Although we have our grievances,
growing out of our party affili-
ations, it is not in our heart to
denounce the Administration and
the Republican party."26
Poindexter served on a committee of
resolutions to negate
the resolutions of a national meeting of
Negroes at Nashville,
Tennessee, in I876. The Nashville
convention likewise was con-
sidering bolting the Republican Party.
Again it was declared
that the time for such action was not
yet ripe. . Poindexter ex-
pressed himself freely and boldly in the
press, many of his letters
commending the acts and words of some of
his contemporaries
and condemning those of others.
This parceling out of praise and blame
irritated a local white
politician by the name of Furay, who
considered the tone of
Poindexter's letters presumptuous. He
therefore wrote of him in
sarcastic vein as follows: "Brother
Poindexter talks and writes
as if he carries the fifteen thousand
colored votes of Ohio in his
breeches pocket. He will wake up some
day to a discovery of
the fact that his assumption and
arrogance are very offensive, and
especially so to those voters whom he
imagines he owns." The
elderly clergyman answered this caustic
paragraph in mild but
effective language: "I claim no
authority over the votes of the
colored man, and if I have any influence
with my own people it
is the fruit of a long life of devotion
to our cause as an oppressed
race and this, I think, no generous
white man will grudge."27
That Poindexter's influence with the
Negroes of Columbus
was in no way affected by the remarks of
Furay was attested by
the fact that he was elected to
membership on the city council in
26 Ohio State Journal, August 28, 1873.
27 Ibid., August
12, 1877.
282
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the year 1880, being the first of five
Negroes up to 1902 who
served in that capacity. He was re-elected in 1882 and became
the vice president of that body by vote
of his fellow members.
Poindexter was well informed of the
uncompromising attitude
of the Democratic Party in the southern
states toward political
rights for colored men there. He wrote:
When it was proposed to make colored men
in the South voters, the
cry was raised: This is a white man's
government and white men should
run it. Democrats opposed making colored
men voters because they be-
lieved they [Negroes] would vote solid
for the Republicans and take from
the Democracy the Southern states . . .
and . . . put it in a hopeless
minority in national affairs. Now many
of the colored man's best friends
deplore the fact that he was made a
voter; the measure [the Fifteenth
Amendment] they thought would protect
him and preserve the South in the
hands of those who had kept it in the
Union has been made the pretext for
inflicting untold suffering upon the
colored man and despite of it, the south-
ern states, with largely increased
electoral votes, have been captured by
the Democracy.28
Dr. Carter G. Woodson in his History
of the Negro Church
has remarked "how difficult it was for the Negro minister
to
avoid politics," quoting from
Poindexter in support of that state-
ment as follows:
Nor can a preacher more than any other
citizen plead his religious
work or the sacredness of that work as
an exemption from duty. Going
to the Bible to learn the relation of
the pulpit to politics, and accepting the
prophets, Christ and the Apostles, and
the pulpit of their times and their
precepts as the guide of the pulpit
today, I think that their conclusion will
be that wherever sin is to be rebuked no
matter by whom committed, an
ill to be averted or good to be achieved
by our country or mankind, there is
a place for the pulpit to make itself
felt and heard. The truth is all the
help the preachers and all other good
and worthy citizens can give by
taking hold of politics is needed in
order to keep the government out of
bad hands and secure the ends for which
governments are formed.29
After Poindexter's political activities
lessened because of his
age, he often attended Republican
meetings and was invariably
given a seat of honor on the rostrum.
28 Ibid., April 30, 1877.
29 Carter
G. Woodson, History of the Negro Church (Washington, 1921), 325.
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER 283
POINDEXTER IN HIS LATER YEARS
For eighteen years Poindexter was a
member of the Ohio
State Forestry Bureau. Hlis first
appointment to this office was
made by Governor Bushnell in the year
1887. The tenure of
office was six years. He was appointed
by three successive gov-
ernors. This gives an index to the deep
respect which he enjoyed.
During his first term in this bureau he
served as its treasurer. In
the Third Annual Report of the
Ohio State Forestry Bureau, the
director, Adolph Leue, wrote of
Poindexter:
Mr. Poindexter, who is pastor of a
church in Columbus, is a man of
medium size, sixty seven years of age,
wears long silver-white hair, and is,
in spite of his advanced years, strong
and very active, which latter qualities
he attributes to his temperate habits;
for he does not drink anything stronger
than tea and coffee, and does not care
for that when he can have plenty
of good water. He used to take great
delight in smoking a good cigar, but
cares for it no more. Mr. Poindexter is
thoroughly convinced of the great
importance of the Forestry Bureau, and
will do anything that may tend to
advance the good cause for which we are
assembled.30
In the latter years of his life
Poindexter received many
honors. He was invited to preach the
baccalaureate sermon at
State University, Louisville, Kentucky,
May 15, 1887, and on the
following Tuesday he received the
honorary degree of Doctor of
Divinity at that school.31 In I881
during the 41-day Ohio Cen-
tennial Celebration held immediately
after the Grand Army of the
Republic's sojourn in Columbus,
Poindexter was appointed Presi-
dent of the Day at the ceremonies on
September 22, and with
Bishop Benjamin Arnett, spoke to a crowd
of 4,000 on that occa-
sion which was called the "Jubilee
of Freedom." In the next
year he was appointed by Governor
Foraker one of the four dele-
gates to attend the National Forestry
Congress held at Philadel-
phia October 15. The Franklinton
Centennial Celebration was
held in the year 1897 marking the
anniversary of the founding
of the town on the west bank of the
Scioto River. Franklinton
was the forerunner of Columbus. Poindexter served on two
committees, the reception committee and
the committee on historic
30 Ohio State Forestry Bureau, Third
Annual Report, 1887 (Columbus, 1888), 14.
31 W. J. Simmons, Men of Mark (Cleveland,
1887), 404.
284 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
relics. This celebration drew many noted
visitors from all over
the State.32
In 1898 Poindexter resigned the
pastorate of the Second
Baptist Church. He did not give up his
interest in the religious
affairs of his church and the community
however. He spent
considerable time visiting and assisting
in the work of the younger,
weaker churches, saying he did not wish
to rust out and knew of
no other way in which he could spend his
time more profitably.
His death came on February 7, 1907, in
his eighty-eighth
year, from an attack of pneumonia. His
old friend and neighbor,
Dr. Starling Loving, was in attendance.
With him were also his
two granddaughters, Nettie and Della,
and the three children of
the former, Albert, James, and Ruth
Scott. Mrs. Poindexter had
died in 1876 and his only child, Joseph,
died shortly before him.
He was conscious to almost the end, and
his last words were
said to have been, "I have served
God, my Country and mankind to
the best of my ability."
His funeral was held in the church of
which he had long been
pastor. It was attended by the Governor
of the State, the Hon-
orable Andrew Harris, and a host of
other prominent Ohio men.
Bishop B. F. Lee of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church
and the Reverend Washington Gladden of
the First Congregational
Church of Columbus were among his
eulogists. The Columbus
Press Post reported the following men served as honorary pall-
bearers: Henry Churchill, Henry Cooper,
Scott Viers, James Hill,
Benjamin Lofrau. The active pallbearers
were James L. Gray,
W. H. Lynch, James Tyler, Daniel
Lincoln, Robert Moorman,
George Bowman, and Robert Payne.
Among the many floral offerings, of
especial note was the one
sent by the Knights of Columbus of the
city, said to have been
given in remembrance of his good offices
in behalf of Catholic
school children. Thousands of people of
all walks of life viewed
his body as it lay in state at the home.
In eulogizing him, Dr. Gladden very
fittingly said: "With
the blood of three races in his veins,
the white, the Indian and
32 Stephen A. Fitzpatrick and U.
S. Morris, History of Columbus Celebration:
Franklinton Centennial (Columbus, 1897), 11, 12.
JAMES PRESTON POINDEXTER 285
the Negro, to him more than any other
belongs this country."33
Obsequies were not at an end with the
funeral. A memorial
service was held on Sunday, February 16,
at the Second Baptist
Church. Governor Harris, E. A. Jones,
State Commissioner of
Public Schools, C. B. Galbreath, State
Librarian, W. L. Curry,
State Commissioner for Soldiers' Claims,
and Dr. Joshua Jones,
President of Wilberforce University,
were speakers, as were also
various members of the church.34
Honors came to Poindexter after his
death. The brotherhood
of the Second Baptist Church to which he
had ministered so long
adopted his name in loving memory. A
building on the campus
of Wilberforce University bears his
name. A government housing
project of 426 units in Ohio's capital
city, completed in the sum-
mer of 1939, was named Poindexter
Village. It was said in the
press at the time: "The selection
of Poindexter Village for the
name of Columbus' first low-rent housing
project is a happy one
when the significance of the name of
Poindexter to colored Co-
lumbus is considered. . . . The name
Poindexter should serve as
an inspiration for those who are to live
in this modern housing
unit."35
Poindexter made a very striking picture
as he walked the
streets of Columbus. He wore the long
minister's coat and a
high beaver hat. Most arresting was his
white, silk-like hair,
which he wore almost to his shoulders.
As he walked the streets
he was greeted on all sides by friends
and well-wishers.
For a span of nearly seven decades he
touched intimately the
lives of the people. Always it was to do
good as he saw it. The
following editorial of a local paper
said at his death:
The death of Rev. James Poindexter
removes from Columbus one of
its ancient landmarks. He was one of its
best known citizens and his fame
extended throughout the state. There
were few men who have met with
more kindly salutations than he. It was
because he was respected. He
made friends by his intelligent genial
manner. He was a man of principle,
and that principle seemed to be the
outgrowth of his Christian faith, which
shone wherever he went. We feel like
offering this tribute to the memory
of this gentle old man not only because
he was a noble example to his own
33 Ohio State Journal, February 11, 1907; Columbus Dispatch, February
11, 1907.
34 Ohio Stare Journal, February
19, 1907.
35 Columbus Dispatch, July 16, 1939.
286 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
people but because in keeping on the
better and truer side of life he taught
a lesson to us all.36
The Council of the City of Columbus
added its testimony in
the following resolutions of February
25, 1907:
That this is an occasion when eloquent
words and finely drawn phrases
cannot express the depth and extent of
the grief and sorrow which overcomes
this community in its loss to the public
service of one whose earnestness and
untiring devotion to duty made him a
power for good, and that loss almost
irreparable.
Of this one whose death ee all mourn, it
can truthfully be said that
his influence was great in the religious
and moral uplift of this city.
He was obliging and courteous at all
times, he rose above personal,
partisan and political friendship, and
expounded the law of righteousness as
he knew it and as he understood it, in
his profession and in his transaction
of public affairs.
36 Ohio State Journal, February 10, 1907.