Religious Figure, Author. He is remembered as an African-American clergyman, teacher, and writer. One of six children of James Steward and Rebecca Gould Steward, he became a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in June of 1864 at the age of 21. Initially appointed to a church in South Camden, New Jersey, the following year he received an appointment to South Carolina, where he would meet his first wife, Elizabeth Gadsden, whom he married on January 1, 1866. After subsequent postings to Georgia in 1867 and to Delaware in 1871, he ventured to Haiti in 1873 on a mission to survey the scene for proposed missionary work by the AME Church. Unfortunately, church politics and financial problems contributed to his decision not to return, and he subsequently served the church in Brooklyn, New York, and later in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Washington DC, and Baltimore. In 1891, he was made Chaplain of the 25th U.S. Colored Infantry of Fort Missoula, Montana, only the third African-American to be so appointed after the Civil War. Here he would be assigned until 1898. The year of 1893 would prove a sad year, with the death of not only his eldest son James back east, but also the death of his wife Elizabeth later that year at Fort Missoula. During the fall of 1896, he took a leave of absence and returned to Brooklyn where he married the widow Dr. Susan Smith McKinney, who was the first female African-American physician in the state of New York and third in the nation. The year of 1898 would see the departure of the 25th USCI from Fort Missoula as they headed to Cuba during the Spanish American War. Steward did not venture to Cuba with his unit, however, being instead ordered to perform recruitment duties stateside. Later, in 1899, when his unit was sent to the Philippines, he again remained stateside, and during this time wrote a novel, "Charleston Love Story," as well as a historical account of African-American soldiers, entitled, "The Colored Regulars," which would not see publication until 1904 and had a later republishing as "Buffalo Soldiers: The Colored Regulars in the United States Army." Later, in the fall of 1899, Steward's next assignment led him to follow his unit to the Philippines, where he became quite involved in the religious and educational lives of the Filipino people. In 1902, he returned to the United States, receiving a post at Fort Niobrara, Nebraska, and later, in 1906, at Fort McIntosh, Texas. In 1907 he applied for retirement from service, and received as his last assignment a post to Wilberforce, Ohio, where he would later join his wife Susan as a member of the faculty of Wilberforce University. A contemporary of W. E. B. DuBois, Steward's writings and other intellectual qualities were widely admired, and he was a greatly respected member of the Wilberforce faculty. In 1913 he and his brother William published a book regarding the history and genealogy of their New Jersey hometown entitled, "Gouldtown: A Very Remarkable Settlement of Ancient Date." In 1914 he published "The Haitian Revolution," and in 1921 he published, "Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry: From 1864-1914." A staunch advocate for equal rights, he wrote and spoke often regarding racism and the mistreatment of African-Americans. He passed from this life on January 11, 1924, being praised as "one of African Methodism's greatest preachers" according to "The Christian Recorder". In his eulogy, D. M. Baxter stated, "the church has lost a great man, Wilberforce a splendid teacher and the race an advocate." William Seraile's 1991 biography, "Voice of Dissent: Theophilus Gould Steward and Black America" gives many details of his life.