The above cut of the Rev. Henry W. Tate, of Lexington, Ky., now appointed to Flemingsburg, was born of a slave mother at Hayesville, Clay County, North Carolina, Dec. 6, 1855. His father was Wister Tate, Doctor of Medicine a Caucasian. His mother was a mixture of Indian, African and Caucasian. She only lived to see her son fourteen years of age, she died Jan. 26, 1869. The subject of our sketch has no brothers or sisters, and is a self made man under many adverse circumstances. Being endowed with great energy he never failed to accomplish his chosen plans. Mr. Tate was a slave boy until eight years old. He resolved at that early age to run away when old enough to secure his freedom. The only book he remembers of seeing before freedom was an “Elementary Speller” in which he learned his letters. When Mr. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect in his native state Jan. 1, 1853, he with his mother left the old slave home and started a foot for Tennessee, a distance of eighty miles walk. They came to Cleveland, Tenn. And from there to Chattanooga, remaining in these cities three and one half years, during which time his mother was married to a colored soldier by the name of George Pleasant, of Ohio. In the summer of 1866, with his mother and stepfather, he came to Troy, Ohio. There he attended the Troy Colored schools five and one half years, during which time he advanced from the Primary to to the Intermediate Department of the white schools where he was admitted as the first instance of a Colored boy in that place to learn with the whites. No little excitement followed that was usual for those times. Subsequently the white friends with whom Mr. Tate lived removed to Dayton, Ohio, in the fall of 1871 and he went with them where he engaged in binding almanacs during the day and attended night school two miles from his home. The first of January 1872 he entered the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, where he studied the Normal and Scientific courses. Having but thirteen dollars, when he entered he acted as janitor, office boy and librarian, to make his way through school. Having graduated here he was intending to go South and teach, but the K. K. depredations were so great at that time that he remained in Ohio. He began to teach in Troy, Ohio, in 1874 and continued there three years, from thence he accepted a position at Chambersburg, Ohio, where he taught two years. Next he taught one year in Wilshire, Ohio, and one year at Bridgeport, Ohio. In March, 1880, Mr. Tate joined the Lexington Conference of the M. E. Church, then in session at Paris, KY. Ever since then he has been successfully holding charge in the following places: Bellaire, Bridgeport and Martins Ferry, O., 1880. Bridgeport, Martins Ferry and Mount Pleasant, O., 1881. Stevensville, O., Latimer Chapel, 1882. Springfield, O., Wiley Chapel, 1883, 1884 and 1885. Stevensville, O., Latimer Chapel, 1886. Lexington, Ky., Asbury Temple, 1887, 1888, 1889. Flemingsburg, Ky. 1890.
Success has attended pastor Tate in all his charges, and he has made many friends in the fields he has labored. Rev. Tate received theological training in Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, while pastor there. Since then he has studied the Pastor’s Theological courses of the Central Tennessee College, during his active work on his charges. Rev. Tate has served his Conference two years as the assistant, and six years their secretary in which capacity he edited and published their minutes very creditably seven successive years. He was elected the first ministerial reserve delegate to their last M. E. General Conference of 1888 at New York, and is prominently spoken of as a delegate for 1892. He is a ready and forcible speaker. He frequently contributes to his church papers and to the secular press. In the subject of our sketch we find a studious, progressive man, deeply interested in this race of people. A Republican in politics. Married. A member of the G. U. O. O. F. He surely vindicates that a poor Colored boy can rise to distinction. Two of his favorite lectures are “The Possibilities of an Humble Birth,” and “The Afro-American, Past, Present and Future.” He owns property both in Ohio and Kentucky.

Source:
“Rev. Henry W. Tate,” The Appeal (St. Louis, MO), Saturday, May 24, 1890, p. 2 c.4
[This article is available from the Chronicling America website at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016810/1890-05-24/ed-1/seq-2/]

Submitted 16 Mar 2017 by his great grandson Henry Burton Tate Jr. of Baltimore, Maryland who writes,

• There is some repetition when compared to his obituary but HWT was likely interviewed for this "sketch" while he was living with details not known before today by family.
• Ohio Death Certificate #41142 (1927) for Poebe Ann Tate viewed at http://search.labs.familysearch.org The correct spelling of HWT's wife was Phoebe Ann Tate.
• Rev. Tate was always a M. E.(Methodist Episcopal) minister not an A. M. E. (African Methodist Episcopal) minister as the heading of the sketch indicates.
• We are still perplexed about who is his father? It was concluded that it was Samuel Caldwell Tate, M.D. Now we see "Dr Wister Tate." We know of Samuel Caspar Wister Tate, a lawyer, and Robert N. C. Tate, a physician, who relocated to Gonzales, TX before 1855.

Rev. H. W. Tate. - Graduated in 1873