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African-American History of Henry County, IN

Rev. Daniel Winslow

1810-1876

   The Reverend Daniel Winslow was born in North Carolina about 1810, the son of Peter and Millie Winslow. Peter Winslow was the first known African-American landowner in Henry County, IN purchasing eighty acres of land in West half of the Northeast quarter of section twenty-eight in township fifteen, North of range eleven East in Dudley Township on 26 Jun 1827, located about one mile northwest of the little town of Straughn, IN.
   Peter and Millie Winslow had four known children, sons, Joseph, Nathan and Daniel, (the subject of this article,) and a daughter Sarah Winslow.
   Daniel Winslow's wife's name was Mary ------, their family consisted of Elizabeth Jane, John Wesley, Priscilla D., Paul D., Quincy, Sara J., George C., Lydia and Mary Winslow. Daniel Winslow was a circuit rider Preacher of the African Methodist Episcopal Church by occupation. He first started his preaching career in Rush County at the Beech African-American settlement about 1840. He helped organize the AME churches in the five county areas of Fayette, Henry, Randolph, Rush and Wayne in Indiana. In Randolph County he preached at Greenville, Snow Hill and Cabin Creek, all early Africa-American settlements. He was a preacher for the Connersville, Indiana AME Church.
   On 28 may 1844, Peter Winslow and his wife Millie deeded to Jeremiah Felton, Thomas Moss, John Barnes, Samuel Bundy and Daniel White, all Trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, of Henry county, one-half acre of land for the building of a AME Church. It was located about one-half mile Northwest of Straughn, Indiana.
   Daniel Winslow and Willis R. Revels (brother of Hiram Revels, the first African/American to be elected to the United States Senate) were the preachers in this church.
   On 27 November 1844, Rev Willis R. Revels performed the marriage ceremony of Henry Winslow and Mary Elliot, and on 8 Feb 1849, Daniel Winslow married John Winslow and Sylvia Lytle, presumably both occurred in the AME Church at Straughn.
   In 1848, the Dublin, Indiana AME Church was organized. The Reverend Daniel Winslow was named Pastor.
   Sometime around 1850, the Straughn AME Church was closed. In 1860, Daniel Winslow helped organize the Hiram, No. #7, F & M Masonic Lodge in Dublin, Wayne County, Indiana, with Daniel D. Winslow as Worshipful Master. In August 1865 Winslow helped organize the St. James #2 Chapter of the Masonic Lodge in the Outland Hall in Richmond, IN.
   During the Civil War, Daniel Winslow had three sons who enlisted in the Union Army, John Wesley, Paul D. and Quincy Winslow. His son John Wesley Winslow enlisted in 54th. Regiment, Mass., Colored Infantry in the spring of 1863 and was a KIA in the storming of Fort Wagner.
   The Reverend Daniel Winslow died on 10 Jul 1876 hours after preaching his last sermon at his church in Dublin, Indiana. The obituary for Reverend Daniel Winslow was published in the New Castle Mercury on 3 July 1876.

The Obituary of Rev. Daniel Winslow

New Castle, Indiana, July 3, 1876

   We regret to hear of the death of Rev. Daniel Winslow (colored), which occurred at Dublin, Indiana sometime over a week ago. Mr. Winslow has been a minister in the colored Methodist Episcopal Church for at least thirty-five years had just finished a sermon in the colored church at Dublin, Indiana, and feeling very much exhausted, repaired to the house of a friend where he sank rapidly and died almost without pain. He was of that build which marks the victim of apoplexy, to which disease he doubtless fell prey. Mr. Winslow was for thirty years or more a resident of this County. He was a man of much native sense and strength of character, and had he been an educated man, he would have stood among the foremost of his race. Like all men of similar training, he was extremely fond of high-sounding phrases and soaring metaphors. Those who have been familiar with him will never forget his "Eagle nest" sermon, which was, to his mind, the crowning work of his life. He preached it on most great occasions and whenever he wished to produce a sensation. Mr. Winslow was very fond of the mysterious, and had advanced far up the ladder of Masonry, as it is known among the colored people, and was recognized as the leading Mason among the colored people of this section of the state. At the time of his death he was Presiding Elder over a large district embracing many congregations. He was the father of a large family, and one or more of his sons fell in the Union Army during the Rebellion.

Winslow Cemetery

   Reverend Daniel Winslow, along with his wife Mary and several other relatives are buried in the old Earlham Quaker Cemetery at Richmond, IN.
   Many members of the Peter and Millie Winslow family and several of their African-American friends and neighbors are all buried in the old Winslow Cemetery just Northwest of Straughn, IN.
   The cemetery has been completely obliterated, destroyed and no visible evidence remains of the old AME church or the cemetery. (I have seen two stones that came from the cemetery, but they contained only the letters J. C. L. on one and "Mother" on the other.) The cemetery was still there in the late fifties; I have had several people show me where it once was. It was known then as, "The old Indian burial grounds."
   There are several direct descendants of the pioneer Winslow family still living in Henry County to this day.


2008 UEB

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