Feature for Black History Month: Samuel Weir, 1812-1884

For Black History Month 2026, Newsline is offering a feature for each week in February to celebrate our Black forebears in the Church of the Brethren.

In this issue, we celebrate the life and groundbreaking ministry of Samuel Weir, the first ordained Black Brethren elder and preacher.

A post from Brethren Press about Weir’s appearance in a new edition of the classic Church of the Brethren card game Forerunners:

“Samuel Weir was freed from slavery in Virginia when Samuel’s owners, the McClure family, wanted to join the local Brethren congregation but couldn’t because owning a slave was not something Brethren were permitted to do. Virginia law required freed slaves to leave the state within a year or be enslaved again, so Samuel resettled in southern Ohio. He loved to read and study the Bible, and eventually began to preach. The Paint Creek congregation affirmed this gift and called him to the ministry in 1849, but he was charged to serve Black members only. Samuel was fully ordained an elder in 1881, three years before his death.

“Words of wisdom: ‘When I found that I could read the Bible I felt satisfied, and I gave up all other books but that. The Bible has been my delight, and I have read it through several times.’

“Learn more: Anna M. Speicher, ‘Samuel Weir: African-American Preacher and Elder,’ in A Dunker Guide to Brethren History, pp. 57-59; Gimbiya Kettering, ‘Have Patience, Brother Samuel, Have Patience,’ Messenger, March 2018, pp. 16-17; James H. Lehman, The Old Brethren, pp. 139-156.”

(Find out more about the Forerunners card game at www.brethren.org/bp/forerunners.)

From “Have Patience, Brother Samuel, Have Patience” by Gimbiya Kettering, Messenger, March 2018:

Weir, born enslaved in 1812 in Virginia, was freed by his second owner, Andrew McClure, when McClure converted to become Brethren in 1843. Once freed, at age 30, Weir applied to be baptized and became a member of the church, the first Black person to be received into membership in that area of the state. Brethren then helped him move to Ohio, get a job, and learn to read. He became the first ordained Black Brethren elder and preacher in 1881 at age 69.

A Messenger article from March 2018, written by Gimbiya Kettering, moves beyond the “story that shows the Brethren at our best” to the grievous elements of his experience in the church.

Samuel Weir was never extended the traditional greeting between church members of the holy kiss, but was only offered the right hand of fellowship. After moving to Ohio, he never saw his own family again, including his siblings and his mother, who died in slavery. In Ohio, he was not permitted to worship with white Brethren but was told “to find Black people of other denominations to worship with…. He was acknowledged as Brethren, but not fully welcomed,” Kettering writes.

“Brother Samuel never married and never had children,” writes Kettering. “So all of us, regardless of race, are his descendants. That means that we are the ones to retell his story. How long should he have had to be patient? How long should we be patient?”

(Read the full Messenger article in the March 2018 issue at the link on the page www.brethren.org/messenger/archive/2018-issues.)