Bethel A.M.E. Church, Buffalo

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The “Colored Methodist Society” of Buffalo was founded in 1831, when the Afro-American population of Buffalo numbered approximately 300 persons. The meeting that resulted in the formation of the “Colored Methodist Society” was initially held in a frame house on Carroll Street. During the first several years of its existence, the society had no official ties to the A.M.E. denomination.

Rev. Richard Williams, one of the earliest A.M.E. itinerant ministers, was the first A.M.E. minister sent to the Western New York region. Rev. Williams, who was described as “upright and faultless in his moral character,” was eulogized as “the first regularly ordained and accredited elder who, amid great privations, carried the banner of the African Methodist Church and planted them on the shores of Canada and Western New York.”

When the New York Annual Conference convened on June 10, 1837, that body accepted and considered petitions from “St. Catherine’s, Canada West, and from Buffalo, asking for pastoral care.” The New York Conference passed resolutions to send missionaries “into Canada and the western part of the state of New York, to explore, and as far as possible, organize and regulate what Societies they can in these regions.”

In summarizing the proceedings of the New York Conference the following year, 1838, Bishop Daniel Payne, the first historian of the A.M.E. Church, wrote:

Rev. Richard Williams, who was the missionary sent out by the previous conference to explore the region of Western New York and Canada, for the purpose of planting churches wherever the Head of the Church should open an effectual door, made his report. It appeared that he had established a society at Rochester, consisting of 26 persons, and also licensed a local preacher to watch over their spiritual interests. He also planted one church at Buffalo, with 31 members, and licensed two local preachers.

Bishop Payne’s report further stated that “Brother George Weir, Sr., was ordained a deacon to serve the Buffalo Society.”

Rev. George Weir, Sr. was the first A.M.E. pastor assigned to the “Colored Methodist” Church of Buffalo. Rev. Weir, described as a mulatto, served the congregation and community for about ten years. Census tracts from 1850 indicate that the Weir family came to Buffalo from North Carolina.

In addition to his religious leadership, Rev. Weir was active in the pre-Civil War reform movement and in efforts to secure civil rights for people of color in New York State. Under Rev. Weir’s leadership, the congregation moved from Carroll Street to a frame building on Vine Street in 1839. The former Vine Street is now the block of William Street between Oak and Elm Streets. In 1845, the frame building on Vine Street was replaced with a new brick structure at a cost of $3,000. It was in that facility that the congregation of Vine Street A.M.E. Church worshiped until 1928.

Throughout his tenure in Buffalo, Rev. Weir was actively involved in improving the economic, social, and political conditions of his people. His work was frequently reported in contemporary Afro-American newspapers, including The Colored American and The North Star. Rev. Weir became a leading citizen in Buffalo’s Afro-American community.

By the mid-1850s, George Weir, Jr. had become one of Buffalo’s few Afro-American merchants. The 1850 census listed the younger Weir as a grocer. He was also an officer in the Vine Street church and later gained recognition in the postbellum era for his efforts to desegregate the Buffalo Public School System.

Rev. Weir was succeeded in 1847 by Rev. Thomas W. Jackson, who served the church for one year. In 1848, the New York A.M.E. Conference sent Rev. Charles Burch to the Vine Street congregation. Rev. Burch, described as a “very able minister,” had joined the conference in 1843.

It was during Rev. Burch’s two-year tenure that many of the leading officers and members of the Vine Street congregation left and organized what became known as the “East Presbyterian Church.” Among the dissenters were Richard Jones, a whitewasher, and Richard Turner, a cook, both among the more affluent members of Buffalo’s Afro-American community. George Weir, Jr. was also among those who left the Vine Street congregation. All of those mentioned became officers in the newly formed church. From its membership also came John Simpson, whose son would become one of the leading artists of the nineteenth century, and James Whitfield, a barber and poet. These men were also officers in the new Presbyterian church.

The year 1850 witnessed the New York A.M.E. Conference attempting to reverse its losses in Western New York by sending one of its most promising young ministers to the Vine Street Church. Rev. Jabez P. Campbell became pastor of the “Buffalo Station.” He immediately set out to effect “the revival of the work of God among the members of the churches of Western New York.”

Rev. Campbell, who would later be elected bishop, was destined to become one of the most influential nineteenth-century leaders in the A.M.E. Church. Reflecting on his work in Buffalo, he later wrote:

“In 1850 I was appointed by Bishop Quinn to the Buffalo Station, with the oversight of other charges in Western New York. Prior to my taking charge, the Church had been divided, and a large number of members had formed a Presbyterian Church, and those who remained were very much divided in their feelings and sentiments. But I was successful in gathering them together, and when I left them in 1852, the church was in a very healthy and prosperous condition.”

Rev. Campbell also helped preserve the early volumes of the A.M.E. Church Newspaper, a collection that is now part of the A.M.E. Church Archives.

His wife, Mrs. Mary A. Campbell, was a dedicated and outstanding A.M.E. Church woman. She was active in home and foreign missionary work and, on different occasions, served as president and secretary of the Mite Missionary Society.

Rev. Campbell was elected to the bishopric of the A.M.E. Church in 1864, becoming the eighth person elevated to that office. His administrative gifts were matched by his moral and spiritual authority. Upon his death in 1891, the A.M.E. Church Review devoted twenty-four pages of eulogies to his life. It is believed that, up to that point, only Frederick Douglass had been so honored.

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act. This law amended the original 1793 statute and placed fugitive slave cases under federal jurisdiction. It was directly aimed at those who had found sanctuary in northern communities. Under the law, commissioners were authorized to issue warrants for the arrest of fugitives and certificates for returning them to their enslavers. In many cases, free Black men who had never been enslaved were identified as fugitives, arrested, and forcibly taken South.

While northern Blacks worked to confront the effects of slavery and racial oppression, they also understood the need to attack the system itself. Consequently, Afro-Americans in Buffalo were actively involved in the campaign against slavery.

Vine Street A.M.E. Church and Michigan Street Baptist Church were located on major routes of the Underground Railroad, and the involvement of these two churches has become legendary. The Black Rock section of Buffalo was one of the principal crossing points into Canada. Because assistance to fugitives had to be carried out in secrecy, it is difficult to document in traditional ways the full story of Vine Street Church’s role as a station on the Underground Railroad.

In an address before the Ladies Literary and Progressive Association of the City of Buffalo, Rev. Weir maintained that man was created to promote the happiness of his fellowman and to glorify God. According to Rev. Weir, that divine purpose was fulfilled by striving to improve the condition of the human race.

He contended that all people have a duty to bear one another’s burdens, aid those in distress, minister to the needy, and extend a hand to the afflicted. Rev. Weir further argued that if the “colored” committed themselves to such precepts, the race would be elevated to a position of eminence. He urged the ladies of the Literary and Progressive Society to contribute to this elevation by disseminating “light and knowledge among their brethren.”

By 1854, the Vine Street Church was again in need of innovation. At the New York Conference in the spring of that year, Rev. Henry J. Johnson was appointed to the “Buffalo Station.” In an article published in The Christian Recorder, Rev. Johnson described his first impressions of the church and congregation:

“I arrived here on the 27th of July, and found my people waiting and looking for me, with much anxiety, but I did not find the church in the flourishing condition which I anticipated from what I had heard about it... There is much need and room for great improvement among them in this city.”

Specifically, Rev. Johnson explained that “the house we worship in is badly furnished with lights... and we have neither chorister nor choir in the church.” He further lamented that “the sabbath school has gone down for want of attention.”

Rev. Johnson later reported that improvements had begun. The Sabbath school was growing again “through the instrumentality of Mrs. G. Middleton.” He also noted that the congregation had established a library for the use of school children. At that time, all Black children were required to attend a poorly equipped “African School” located across the street from the Vine Street Church.

Rev. Johnson also wrote, “We have had some good additions [new members] and we have glorious meetings from time to time; and I think that we shall soon be enabled to move forward in good order.”⁴

In February 1855, Rev. Johnson wrote, “We have had a long and extremely cold winter here.” In spite of the frigid weather, he remained encouraged by the congregation’s progress. He said, “The God who called me to preach his word, has done and is still doing a great work in this city, and the present aspect of things is truly encouraging to us all.”

It appears that Rev. Johnson spent only one year at the Vine Street Church. He was succeeded by Rev. James M. Williams and Rev. Leonard Patterson, each of whom served one year. Rev. Patterson, a native of New York State, is reported to have been a teacher before entering the ministry, and his shorthand skills were described as excellent.

In 1857, the Supreme Court issued its landmark Dred Scott decision, a ruling many believe marked the eve of the Civil War. The New York Conference assigned Rev. Deaton Dorrell to the Vine Street Church. Rev. Dorrell served the congregation from 1857 to 1859 and returned to Buffalo for two additional years in 1862.

Rev. Dorrell was described as a man whose life was marked by “pure unselfishness, modesty, and strong character.” He was also recognized as an outstanding speaker. In the broader context of A.M.E. history, Rev. Dorrell is especially noted for his work in the General Conference. He was elected chairman of the Committee on Episcopacy at four successive General Conferences and served on the Board of Managers of the Parent Home and Foreign Missionary Society.⁵ His gifts as preacher, manager, and administrator were put to good use in Buffalo.

The years between 1831 and 1860 were crucial in the life of the Vine Street Church. In addition to struggling to sustain itself as an institution, the church was compelled by circumstance to provide a wide range of services to an Afro-American community that had to rely heavily on the church to address daily problems.

In the three decades prior to the Civil War, most American Protestant churches in the North were directly involved in the reform movement. In Buffalo, Vine Street A.M.E. Church and Michigan Street Baptist Church brought that reform energy into the city’s Afro-American community.

The American reform movement was religiously rooted and aimed at eliminating sin and immorality from the fabric of national life. It attacked slavery, alcohol abuse, gambling, war, and other practices considered un-Christian. Among northern Blacks, this movement toward racial elevation emphasized both internal moral reform and direct opposition to slavery, prejudice, and racial oppression.

During the pre-Civil War years, the pastors and congregation of Vine Street A.M.E. Church laid a strong foundation upon which future generations could build. In addition to offering spiritual and moral guidance, the church modeled Christian living at its highest level. Its witness in fighting injustice and improving the quality of life in the community—its commitment to doing God’s work on earth—would stand as an inspiration for generations yet unborn.

The years following the Civil War and emancipation ushered in a period of tremendous expansion in the programs and activities of the broader A.M.E. Church. After the abolition of slavery, the denomination established churches throughout the South and West. The millions of freedmen in the South and the westward migration of Blacks created fertile ground for home missions.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a growing race consciousness among Afro-Americans helped renew interest in the “Motherland,” Africa. Within the A.M.E. Church, this sentiment contributed to the movement to launch missionary work on the African continent.

As the A.M.E. Church entered its second half-century, other changes were also evident. More of its ministers and bishops were men with substantial formal education. That emphasis on moral improvement, education, and self-help contributed to the growth of Wilberforce, the denomination’s first institution of higher learning. The church also founded Allen University, Morris Brown College, and Paul Quinn College. In addition, it organized the Sunday School Union and opened its own publishing house.⁶

While the nation, the general A.M.E. Church, and the city of Buffalo experienced significant growth in population and finances during the post-Civil War era, the Vine Street A.M.E. Church and Buffalo’s Afro-American population remained close to prewar levels. Between 1830 and 1880, the Afro-American presence in Buffalo increased by only about 500 persons.

Moreover, the founding of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Buffalo in 1865 created a three-way division in the churchgoing population of this small African American community. St. Philip’s continued to grow and by 1890 reported the largest ecclesiastical racial group in Buffalo. Although Vine Street was served by many gifted and exceptional ministers during these years, the church as a whole did not appear to be advancing significantly. Even so, the church remained active in and contributed to some of the most important movements of the larger A.M.E. Church. This was a season in which the Vine Street Church held on and maintained its integrity and viability.

The Emancipation Proclamation became effective in January 1863, and it was a time of great celebration. These observances were rightly called jubilee celebrations, not only in the South but also in northern communities. The “colored people” of Buffalo set apart January 28, 1863 as a day to celebrate this grand event.

The celebration was reported in The Christian Recorder as follows:

“The exercises of the day commenced with religious services at 10 o’clock, A.M. at the Vine Street A.M.E. Church, where all, irrespective of sect, met and united in praise to God for the great work he had wrought. The sermon upon the occasion was preached by Elder Deaton Dorrell. Subject, ‘How shall we celebrate this day?’ Text was found in Ps. 1, 14, ‘Offer unto God thanksgiving.’”

The people gathered again in an afternoon service. There were testimonials and a general exchange of sentiments. Both Black and white citizens attended with great enthusiasm. There was singing, more testimony, the reading of the proclamation, a guest speaker, and supper.

This Emancipation Celebration exemplified how the nineteenth-century Black church addressed social, political, and spiritual concerns. The Vine Street Church was a crucial vehicle in the community, one through which the evils of slavery were challenged. It was fitting that the church should help lead the celebration of slavery’s legal end.

In 1864, the New York Conference sent Rev. Francis J. Peck to pastor the Vine Street Church. Rev. Peck was a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and the son of a minister. He began preaching in his father’s church at age eighteen. In 1863, at age twenty-nine, he enrolled at Wilberforce, but a lack of funds ended his studies after one year. Rev. Peck then applied to Bishop Daniel Payne for pastoral work and was sent to the New York Conference, where he was assigned to the “Buffalo Station.”⁸

One of Rev. Peck’s first projects was the establishment of a Literary Society, later named the Payne Literary Society of Buffalo in honor of Bishop Payne’s lifelong commitment to education in the A.M.E. Church.⁹

Rev. Peck enjoyed two years of fruitful ministry in Buffalo. He acknowledged that Vine Street had faced tremendous difficulties but wrote that “the church through God’s blessings, has been moving onward in spite of everything that appeared to stop her progress.” Rev. Peck was described as “a man of the right style—honest, true, frank, firm, and a good and studious preacher.”¹⁰

He also expressed his commitment to African Methodism in these words:

“I have long been impressed that African Methodism was essential, and that a Church governed by colored men, untroubled by white associations, was the only means by which we could prove our manhood and elevate our people; feeling I do no injustice by saying I believe her to be the power under God doing this great work, for she is the only colored Church in this country that educates her own ministry, that governs herself, builds her own houses of worship, pays for them herself, and is recognized by law as the rightful owner.”¹¹

In 1866, Rev. Peck was sent to a church in Albany. His successor was Rev. W. T. Catto, a newly ordained minister previously associated with the Presbyterian Church.

During the early nineteenth century, the American free school system led to the establishment of public schools in many northern cities. Afro-American communities in those cities usually faced discriminatory policies, segregated conditions, and inferior facilities whenever they sought access to public education.

In Buffalo, conditions in 1844 were deemed shameful. Buffalo’s “African School” opened in 1839. Between 1839 and 1848, it occupied three locations: a room in a tenement, a Negro church hall, and a basement beneath a central city market.¹³ It was eventually given a discarded district schoolhouse across the street from the Vine Street A.M.E. Church.

In addition to the poor condition of the building, Black children faced another serious burden: while white students attended neighborhood schools, Black children had to travel across the city to attend the single designated school. This burden was especially severe during Buffalo winters. Superintendent V. M. Rice described their suffering in a published report:

“It excites one’s pity, to see them in cold stormy weather often thinly clad, wending their way over a wearisome distance. Anyone possessing human impulses can but regret that, with all the other burdens which power and prejudice heap upon this people, their children, when so young, are doomed to suffer so much in striving to gain a little light to make their gloomy pathway through life less tedious.”¹⁴

During the 1860s, Henry Moxley, a trustee of Vine Street Church, renewed his challenge to Buffalo’s segregated school policy. Congress had passed the first of a series of civil rights laws in 1866. This postbellum period became known as Reconstruction. The 1866 Act was designed to guarantee persons of color “equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property, as enjoyed by white citizens.”

In June 1867, Moxley charged the city with violating the federal Civil Rights Act by denying him the right to send his children to district schools. Despite the city’s resistance, Moxley and other Black parents sent their children to public schools. School and city officials responded by forcibly removing the Black students.

Following this expulsion, a community meeting was held at Vine Street Church. That gathering led to Moxley taking the City of Buffalo to court. The suit challenged both the constitutionality of the city charter, which stated that “all schools chartered in the city of Buffalo shall be free to all white children,” and a city ordinance that required schools established by the Common Council to admit all children “except colored children.”

Moxley fought this battle for thirteen months. It ended in 1868 with the Supreme Court ruling against him. In nineteenth-century Buffalo, the Vine Street A.M.E. Church and its members stood at the forefront of the struggle against segregated schools.

Rev. Elisha Weaver was among the many talented and educated ministers sent to lead the Vine Street Church in the post-Civil War era. A native of North Carolina who grew up in Indiana, Rev. Weaver was already recognized as one of the leading editors and publishers of his day when he was assigned to Buffalo in 1868. Educated in Quaker schools and at Oberlin College, he had taught in Quaker institutions and published the monthly magazine Repository of Religion and Literature. In 1860, he was appointed publisher of The Christian Recorder, the A.M.E. Church’s newspaper. Rev. Weaver spent one year leading the Vine Street congregation.

The 1870s brought Rev. Abraham C. Crippen, who served two nonconsecutive terms at Vine Street, from 1869 to 1871 and again from 1876 to 1879. Between those terms, Rev. J. W. Cooper served from 1871 to 1873, and Rev. J. G. Mowbray served from 1873 to 1875. Rev. Caleb Woodyard then served from 1875 to 1876.

In 1879, Vine Street A.M.E. Church was renamed First A.M.E. Church, with Rev. George C. Bailey serving as pastor. Under the leadership of Rev. A. C. Sanders, First A.M.E. Church was renamed Bethel A.M.E. Church in 1912.

In the 1920s, Vine Street purchased Bethel Lutheran Church at 551 Eagle Street as part of an effort to expand its boundaries. This required the demolition of Bethel Lutheran Church.

The 1920s through the 1940s witnessed significant growth because of Black migration from the South.

In the 1950s, urban development and redevelopment programs forced Bethel to seek a new home. Under the leadership of Rev. Harry White Sr., Bethel relocated in 1953 to its current home at 1525 Michigan Avenue, formerly Covenant Presbyterian Church, at a cost of $120,000. Through Rev. White’s ability to raise and manage large sums effectively, the church was virtually debt-free by 1962.

Bethel A.M.E. Church has a long and distinguished history of service to its community, its conference, and the state. As enslaved people, our ancestors were sustained by the conviction that God had something better in store for them beyond slavery, and that they need only wait and trust Him for deliverance. Our churches are a product of those deeply held beliefs.

The imagery and symbolism of Scripture and Christianity took hold among those of our people who were enslaved. Our enslaved brothers and sisters created songs—the spirituals—that remain enduring affirmations of God’s liberating presence in the history of the church.

Whether known as Carroll Street, Vine Street, First A.M.E., or Bethel A.M.E. Church, this congregation did not come before its time. It emerged to meet the social, economic, educational, and spiritual needs of the people in its community. Bethel sought to answer the pressing problems of the neighborhood and the city. It addressed the need for education, challenged inequality, and ministered both to those within the church and to the broader community.

In many ways, Bethel A.M.E. Church helped narrow the economic, social, intellectual, and spiritual gaps between human beings from its earliest years through the present. The church has maintained a Head Start program and has remained deeply engaged in numerous community projects. More than 175 years later, Bethel continues to labor to make dreams realities.

 There are no records presently available listing the names of those pastors who led the “Colored Methodist Society” of Buffalo during the period from 1831 to 1835. The society joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church Conference in 1836.

1. Rev. George Weir Sr. — 1836–1847
2. Rev. Thomas W. Jackson — 1847–1848
3. Rev. Charles Burch — 1848–1850
4. Rev. Jabez P. Campbell — 1850–1852
5. Evidence unclear — 1852–1854
6. Rev. Henry J. Johnson — 1854–1856
7. Rev. James M. Williams — 1855–1856
8. Rev. Leonard Patterson — 1856–1857
9. Rev. Deaton Dorrell — 1857–1859
10. Rev. M. Moore — 1859–1861
11. Rev. Joseph M. Williams — 1861–1862
12. Rev. Deaton Dorrell — 1862–1864
13. Rev. Francis J. Peck — 1864–1866
14. Rev. William J. Catto — 1866–1868
15. Rev. Elisha Weaver — 1868–1869
16. Rev. Abraham Crippen — 1869–1871
17. Rev. J. W. Cooper — 1871–1873
18. Rev. J. G. Mowbray — 1873–1875
19. Rev. Caleb Woodyard — 1875–1876
20. Rev. Abraham Crippen — 1876–1879
21. Rev. George W. Bailey — 1879–1880
22. Rev. George Dardis — 1880–1882
23. Rev. Henry Harrison Lewis (died in office) — 1882–1885
24. Rev. Rudolph H. Shirley — 1885–1887
25. Rev. William H. Thomas — 1887–1890
26. Rev. Horace Talbert — 1890–1892
27. Rev. Charles W. Mossell — 1892–1893
28. No record — 1893–1895
29. Rev. J. L. Watkins — 1895–1896
30. Rev. W. H. Bryant — 1896–1898
31. Rev. Seth D. W. Smith — 1898–1899
32. Rev. J. C. Ayler — 1899–1901
33. Rev. E. A. Johnson — 1901–1902
34. Rev. Francis Giles (appointed in 1902 but rejected by members; church split) — 1902–1905
35. Rev. J. Harris Accoe — 1905–1906
36. Rev. A. Q. Norton — 1905–1906
37. Rev. T. M. Traverse — 1906–1907
38. Rev. E. C. Gumbs — 1907–1909
39. Rev. A. C. Saunders — 1909–1913
40. Rev. H. H. Williams — 1913–1914
41. Rev. Alonzo L. Wilson — 1915–1920
42. Rev. H. Allen Garcia — 1920–1922
43. Rev. W. Spencer Carpenter — 1922–1926
44. Rev. Mansfield E. Jackson — 1926–1935
45. Rev. Charles Steward (departed abruptly) — 1935–
46. Rev. J. A. Portlock — 1935–1938
47. Rev. H. P. Anderson — 1938–1939
48. Presiding Elder James A. Manning — 1939–1940
49. Replaced Rev. Anderson (died suddenly)
50. Rev. William McKinley Dawkins — 1940–1941
51. Rev. D. Ormonde Walker — 1941–1948
52. Rev. John W. P. Collier — 1948–1950
53. Rev. Charles E. Stewart — 1950–1952
54. Rev. Harry White Sr. — 1952–1965
55. Rev. G. Grant Crumpley — 1965–1977
56. Rev. James K. Baldwin — 1977–1980
57. Rev. Eugene E. McAshen — 1980–1988
58. Rev. Harry White Jr. — 1988–1993
59. Rev. Simon Bowie — 1993–1997
60. Rev. Richard Stenhouse — 1997–present