CHARLES B. KINER  (1862-1924)

Charles B. Kiner was the first African American to hold public office in Worthington, serving as Town Marshal in 1891-1892.   He was also one of five men instrumental in the founding of the Bethel A.M.E. church on Plymouth Street, now known as St. John A.M.E. Church.

Kiner was born in 1862 to parents Benjamin and Frances Kiner in New Hope, Augusta County, Virginia, where his family was enslaved. Charles was one of nine children.  At the end of the Civil War, Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide practical aid to newly freed African Americans in their transition from enslavement to freedom. In the book The Thin Light of Freedom by Edward Ayers, the author mentions the Kiners using the bureau to reconnect. He wrote, “In a few instances, the efforts worked. Benjamin Kiner had moved to Ohio and wrote his wife Frances back in Augusta in 1866, through the connections of the Freedmen’s Bureau. “I would like to have you come out here and I hope you will make up your mind and come with the children”, he urged. “I should like to have all the children with me as they can go to school.” 

A subsequent letter in the Freedman’s Bureau Field Office Records was written to support Mr. Kiner’s work to reunite his family.  “Sir, I have the honor to forward names of children of a freedman named Benj. Kiner now residing in Carroll Fairfield Co. Ohio.  Kiner is anxious to have his children with him and he is represented to me by citizens of this County as a finest man of his color.  The children are now residing with Mr. J.G. Stoute of New Hope, August, Co Va.   Mr Stout is anxious to get rid of the family and I think it would be better for them to go north if transportation can be furnished them the following is a list of their names and ages – Cyrus 17 Emily 15 Ann 10 Lewis 12 Harry 8 Ada & Ellen 6 (twins)  I also enclose herewith an affidavit from certain citizens of Ohio as to the ability of Benjamin Kiner to support the children if sent to him.”  (The youngest children, Charles and Nancy, are not named in this letter.)

In the 1870 Lancaster census, the Kiner siblings are listed as attending school.  Charles was working as a laborer on a farm in Fairfield, Ohio in the 1880 census.  It is unclear exactly when he arrived in Worthington, but it is known that his sister Ada came to Worthington around 1885 to work as a nurse for Mrs. Henry Fay.  In 1889, Charles married Cora “Carrie” Banks, daughter of Peter and Sarah Banks, whose family had moved from Virginia to Worthington before the Civil War.  In 1891, Kiner was elected to the position of Town Marshal in Worthington.    

Under the leadership of his father-in-law Peter Banks, Charles Kiner, Dr. H. Taborn, J.T. Horton and James Birkhead formed the Bethel A.M.E. Church in Worthington in 1896.  By 1903, Charles and Carrie Kiner moved to Grinnell, Iowa where they raised their family.  

JOHN HOOD (1839-1907)

John Hood was born in 1830 in Georgia and served as a Private in the Union Army, Co. M., 5th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery. He enlisted in February 1865 and was discharged one year later.

He married Keziah Jane Hooper in 1858, and the couple had 12 children.  They came to Worthington sometime in the 1870s, and purchased two acres on Proprietors Road in 1882.  The Hoods’ daughter Lettie married James Birkhead.  Catherine Birkhead, also featured in this exhibit was one of their ten children.

JESSE CLARK (1839-1907)

Jesse Clark was among the nearly 180,000 African-Americans who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.  Clark served in Co. A of the 17th U.S. Colored Infantry and participated in the Battles of Nashville, Overton Hill,  Decatur  and was part of the  pursuit of General Hood to the Tennessee River.  He was mustered out April 25, 1866.

Clark married Martha Lucas in 1866 in Pickaway County, and the couple came to Worthington sometime after 1880. They had three children, Nelson (Nels), Harry and Ora. The family lived in a frame house a little north of the intersection of Granville Rd and Hartford Street.  Frank Corbin wrote, “Mrs. Clark was a humane and sympathetic woman of outstanding courage, who, oblivious to the danger of contagion to herself and her family, brought her help to the hardpressed Vest parents when their son Samuel was fatally stricken with diphtheria. She was the only neighbor to do so.”

THE MCDUMAS FAMILY

Recent research revealed information about the McDumas family, buried at Flint Cemetery.  While details are scant, a glimpse of this African American family’s time in Worthington can be found in the historical record.

The 1870 Sharon Township census reveals that Gaston (15) and Elijah (14) “McDomis” were living with John Potter’s family in the Flint area.  A sister, Isabelle (8), lived with the family of “Peter Ostin”, presumably Peter Alston, who came to Ohio with the Alston Freed Slaves around 1860.  The brothers were born in North Carolina, listed as farm laborers and could not read or write.  

It is unclear what befell Gaston, however headstones in Flint Cemetery reveal that he died in 1879, at age 24.  Also buried with him are his sister Isabelle and a daughter, Edith, both of whom died in 1880.  Gaston McDumas married Martha Parks in November 1878.

A visit to the Flint Cemetery revealed a second McDumas headstone.  Riley McDumas, father of the three children, died in 1870.  An estate record for the older McDumas can be found in the Ohio Wills and Probate Records.  A schedule of personal belongings lists items ranging from a Grey mare ($125), 12 hogs ($96), 3 old chairs ($0.50), 1 old desk + table ($0.50) and numerous other items. Schedule D of the record reads “There not being any assets suitable to set off for the years support of the three minor children of the deceased, namely: Gaston McDumas, Elijah McDumas + Isabel McDumas, we do therefore set off one hundred + fifty dollars in money from the proceeds of the appraisement.” The sale bill lists items purchased by neighbors in Flint and in Worthington including the Gardners, Johnsons, Potters, Alstons and Peter Banks at a total of $369.30.  

Further research shows that son Elijah continued living in Flint with the Potter family through at least 1800.  By 1885, he appeared in Kansas in a state census record, and in 1889 “Elijah Mack Dumas” purchased 160 acres in Barbar, Kansas through a land patent.  By the early 1900s, McDumas was living in Florence, Arizona where he died on Christmas Day, 1937.

An obituary reads, “Old Mac,” born a slave in North Carolina June 9, 1857, and for 25 years a resident of Florence, died in the Pinal County hospital here today.

“Old Mac” was Elijah E. McDumas. The colored man served as janitor for Florence business houses for many years.  

After emancipation he was adopted by an English family and educated. [John Potter, Flint]

Graveside services will be held at 11 o’clock tomorrow morning in Florence cemetery….”

Many questions remain unanswered about the McDumas family: How and when did they come to be in Flint? Was there a relationship with the Alston Freed Slaves? What was their relationship with the Potter family like? This small amount of information, however, provides a brief glimpse at the lives of one African American family buried at Flint Cemetery. Perhaps with time, as more records become available, additional details about the McDumas family will come to light.