Theophilus G. Steward

Theophilus Gould Steward (April 17, 1843 – January 11, 1924) was an African-American clergyman, teacher, and writer.

Steward was born in Gouldtown, New Jersey, on April 17, 1843. As the son of free Blacks reared in a family that stressed education, he received his formal education in the Gouldtown public schools. He was ordained a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1863. Following the Civil War, Steward helped organize the A.M.E. Church in South Carolina and Georgia. He was also active in Reconstruction politics in Georgia. After the war he graduated from the Episcopal Divinity School of Philadelphia, and later was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree from Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1881.

From 1872 to 1891 Steward established a church in Haiti and preached in the eastern United States. In 1891 he joined the Twenty-fifth U.S. Colored Infantry, serving as its chaplain until 1907, including service in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and in the Philippines. Between 1907 and his death on January 11, 1924, Steward was a professor of history, French, and logic at Wilberforce University.

Steward's second wife was Dr. Susan Smith McKinney, one of the first black physicians in the country.

Works by Steward include:

Genesis Re-read (1885)
Active Service, or Religious Work Among U.S. Soldiers (1897)
A Charleston Love Story (1899)
The Colored Regulars in the United States Army (1904)
The Haitian Revolution 1791 to 1804, or Sidelights on the French Revolution (1914)
Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry (1920) (E-text)