Samuel David Ferguson

Samuel David Ferguson (January 1, 1842 – August 2, 1916) was an African American clergyman in Liberia. He was the first African American to be elected as a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Liberia.

Biography

Samuel David Ferguson was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 1, 1842.^[1]

He moved with his family to Liberia when he was six years old. He was ordained a deacon on December 28, 1865, and a priest on March 15, 1868. He was consecrated as bishop on June 24, 1885, (Saint John the Baptist's Feast Day) at Grace Church, New York, becoming the first black member of the House of Bishops.^[2] He married Mary Leonora Montgomery.

As Missionary Bishop of Liberia, he founded what is now Cuttington University.^[3] Ferguson also established the Bromley Mission School. One of his protégés, Raphael Morgan, became an Episcopal priest in the United States but ultimately converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ferguson remained in Liberia until his death in Monrovia in 1916.^[4]

Notes

^ Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard, eds. (1906). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Vol. IV. Boston: American Biographical Society. Retrieved March 19, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
^ African American Registry Archived April 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^ Cuttington University College site
^ "Obituary: The Right Rev. Samuel D. Ferguson". Brooklyn Eagle. August 4, 1916. p. 8. Retrieved March 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.

References

Representative Man - A Note on Samuel David Ferguson: America's 1st Black Bishop, Seward Montgomery Cooper (2005)
Handbooks on Missions of the Episcopal Church Number IV Liberia, National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Department of Foreign Missions, New York, 1924, p. 50
History of the Afro-American Group of the Episcopal Church, Baltimore, Maryland: Church Advocate Press, 1922, p. 206, by George F. Bragg
History of the Episcopal Church in Liberia 1821-1980, American Theological Library Association and Scarecrow Press, Inc. London (1992), p. 155, by D. Elwood Dunn