OBIT: John ALEXANDER, 1893, Altoona, Blair County, PA

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John Alexander,

One of the oldest, most widely known and highly respected colored 
residents of this city, passed into the great unknown at 1:40 this 
morning, of diseases incident to old age, at his home, 1007 Sixteenth 
street.  The deceased was born in Fauquier county, Virginia.  His exact 
age is not known, but from the recollections of his oldest friends, he 
must have been near eighty.  When born he was the property of Thos. O. 
B. Carter, and as his slave grew to manhood, married a slave named 
Mariah King and had three children, all of them boys and all now dead.  
His marriage took place in about 1845.  His owner, Mr. Carter, died in 
the year 1840, and in his will set all his slaves free.  The will was 
contested, however, and for nine years the case was in the courts.  It 
was settled in 1849 and at about the same time a law was passed in 
Virginia which compelled freed slaves to leave the state.  In obedience 
to this Mr. Alexander started for the north, and, in coming to this 
state, first found work at Yellow Springs, Bedford county.  About a 
year later he removed to Martinsburg and from that place he came to 
Altoona in 1855, which place he has made his home ever since.  
  A porter and waiter at the Logan House, a drayman, and finally a 
restaurateur, he has in all been industrious and successful.  His 
financial success was such that he was soon able to buy his wife and 
children, which he did, and brought them to this place, where his wife 
died in 1872.  Not content with mere financial success, he set about 
educating himself, and was one of the few born in slavery who learned 
to read and write.  In his prime he was noted for his physical 
strength, and in the old slave days none could be found who could equal 
him in the harvest field or in feats of strength.
  When the African Methodist church was organized in this city he took 
an active hand in the work and has ever since been a leading member in 
that congregation and an active worker in the Sunday school connected 
with it.  He was also a charter member of the colored Masonic lodge of 
this city.
  Probably no other colored person in the city was so well known or so 
generally esteemed by all who knew him.  Among his race he was looked 
up to, not as a highly educated man, but as one who, considering the 
opportunities he had, was far above the ordinary in his acquirements.  
A kind heart and a generous hand endeared him even more to them and his 
death leaves a vacancy which cannot be filled.
  The funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon, the services to take 
place in the Sixteenth Street church at 2 o'clock.  Interment in the 
Eastern Light cemetery.

Altoona Mirror, Altoona, Pa., Tuesday Evening, June 13, 1893