James and Sophia Clemens:
Notable Alumni from the Union Literary Institute:
William McCowan, a trustee of the Union Literary Institute. He served in the 45th Pennsylvania United States Colored Troops and was present at Appomattox when General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant to end the Civil War.
Reverend John G. Mitchell
One of the founders of Wilberforce College in Ohio, the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans, and Dean of Payne Theological Seminary.
Joseph Lowry Johnson was granted his medical degree from Howard University. He was Minister Resident/Consul General of Liberia (Ambassador) from 1918-1922.
Hiram Rhodes Revels
The first African American to be elected to serve in either house of the United States Congress. Elected Senator from Mississippi during Reconstruction, he filled the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis. He was later appointed as the first president of Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Alcorn State University), a historically black college.
Willis R. Revels, brother of Hiram Rhodes Revels, first came to Indiana when he attended the Union Literary Institute. He was the pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Indianapolis and was heavily involved with the Freedman’s Aid Society, which assisted fugitives and free black migrants. It is believed that opponents of his work set fire to his church on July 9, 1862. In 1865, he joined a group of Quakers to present a petition requesting the expansion of rights for Indiana’s black residents to the Indiana General Assembly.
James S. Hinton was the first black person to hold state office in Indiana and the first African American to serve in the Indiana state legislature, representing Marion County.
[photo on Indiana Dept of Administration and Wikipedia]
Dr. Ira Alexander McCown received his medical degree from Ohio State University College of Medicine. He graduated at the top of his class and went on to become the first African American resident at Harlem Hospital in New York City. He was later appointed medical director of the New York State Athletic Commission.
Amanda M. Way
A founding member of the Indiana Woman’s Rights Association. She served as its president in 1855. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony dubbed her the “mother of ‘The Woman Suffrage Association’ in Indiana for her efforts in initiating the first women’s rights convention in the state. An Indiana Historical marker in Winchester, IN.
Rev. Thomas Addington was an ordained minister and was later involved in the insurance business. A member of Company A, 84th Union Infantry, he participated in the battle of Chickamauga and other skirmishes. He also acted as chaplain for the company.
Madison Thornburgh, a farmer, was appointed Justice of the Peace in Central City, California, and clerk of the Board of School Trustees.