Thomas Morris Chester

Thomas Morris Chester (May 11, 1834 – September 30, 1892) was an American war correspondent, lawyer and soldier who took part in the American Civil War.

Early life and education Chester was born at the corner of Third and Market Street in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on May 11, 1834, the fourth child of George and Jane Marie Chester. At the age of 16, Chester attended Akron College, an African-American academy in Pittsburgh. As a student there, his classmates included Jeremiah A. Brown, Benjamin Tucker Tanner, and James T. Bradford. In May 1853, he moved to Monrovia, Liberia where he attended Alexander High School. In September 1854, he returned to the United States and enrolled at Thetford Academy in Vermont, where he graduated in 1856. He then returned to Liberia where he taught school to Africans of former American slaves. He left Africa around the start of the American Civil War in 1861, first moving to Liverpool and London, England, and then to the United States.

Later life He returned to the U.S. in 1871 and settled in Louisiana, where he practiced law and where he was the brigadier-general of the militia and the superintendent of schools in 1875. In 1884 he was elected president of the Wilmington, Wrightsville, and Onslow Railroad. He returned to his home town of Harrisburg due to illness where he died at the home of his mother at 305 Chestnut Street on September 30, 1892. Chester is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Penbrook, Pennsylvania.

Legacy In 2022, the town of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania recognized T. Morris Chester's lifelong fight for civil rights and freedom with the dedication of a new monument titled "Gathering at the Crossroads" at Fourth and Walnut streets as well as a newly renamed street in his honor. T. Morris Chester Way starts at the corner of North 5th Street and goes to the Susquehanna River. On this street will be the T. Morris Chester Welcome Center, in partnership with the McCormick Public Library and the Commonwealth Monument Project. The Center serves as a welcome and access point to the library as well as pay homage to T. Morris Chester and the historic black neighborhood, Old Eight Ward, in Harrisburg where the center is located.