St. Philip's Mission and School- 1861 - Peter Williams Cassey and Annie Bessant Cassey

A Celebration of Two Notable Servants

On Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2009 Trinity Cathedral celebrate over a hundred and fifty years of ministry and mission from Trinity Church.   We honored Edna Pope as she approaches her hundred and fourth birthday with the choir singing the cantata that was commission for her hundredth birthday at the 10:30 Eucharist. 

             We also commemorated the life and ministry of the first person ordained in Trinity when the building was still new.  Peter Williams Cassey was ordained a deacon in Trinity Church on August 13, 1866 by  Bishop William Kip, first Bishop of California.  He was the first African American to be ordained in  California and probably west of the Mississippi River. He was among the original founding communicants of Trinity Church in 1861 and his daughter, Amy Henrietta was among the first baptized by the Rev. Mr. Ethridge. He was a third generation freed African American and the name-sake of his grandfather and great grandfather.    His great grandfather  had been a slave owned by a Methodist congregation in the New York City.  He  bought his freedom and founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church in that city.  His grandfather left the AME to join the new Trinity Parish, Wall Street and was  the first ordained priest in the Diocese of New York, becoming the founding rector of  St. Philip’s Church in Manhattan which had been formed in 1809.  His daughter, Matilda, married Joseph Cassey,  a renowned African American abolitionist in Philadelphia.  Among their close associates was Frederick Douglas.  Their home on Delancy Street in the City of Brotherly love is a national monument and the place of Peter Williams Cassey’s birth. 

          As a twenty-two year old Cassey arrived in San Jose in 1853 and worked as a barber, dentist and bleeder.   He was a founding member of Trinity parish in 1861.  In December after his ordination he established "St. Philip’s Mission School for Negroes" because African American students were prevented from attending public schools.   The original school, which took in boarding students from throughout California and the West, was located at 4th^d and Williams.  The Phoenixonian Institute, the first secondary school for African American children in the West, grew out of St. Philip’s Mission School (later Academy).  Peter and his wife, Anna (Annie) had two daughters.  After the schools were established, Anna took over much of the day to day administration while Peter was directed by Bishop Kip to establish “Christ Episcopal Church for Black people” in San Francisco.   

           In 1881 the Bishop of North Carolina called Cassey to become the first African American priest at St. Cyprian’s  Church, in New Bern.   In 1894 he was called to become rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Fernandina, Florida and in 1898 he was called to be rector of St. Philip’s, Jacksonville.  Two years later he was moved to St. Cyprians at Saint Augustine, Florida where he served until his death on April 16, 1917.  These words concluded the bishop’s memorial address:  “He was a remarkable teacher..He was broad-minded, an omnivorous reader, a clear thinker.  His devotion to the Church and his untiring pastoral work brought many into the Church…A devoted servant of the Lord, a broad-minded Christian, a true and faithful pastor, the poor and sick will miss him, but the example of his life will live to lead many to the Cross.

Cassey was never allowed to be ordained a priest, even though his bishop in Florida said he was more learned in Greek, Latin and theology than most of the White clergy.  The institutional racism was so pervasive that few were able to challenge these set patterns in the Church.  He was bared from sitting in the conventions of the dioceses in which he served yet the words of the bishop at his funeral  reveal a man of profound faith and dedication even in the face of horrendous oppositions, even within his our Church.

     We honored the Rev. Peter Williams and Anna Cassey on Trinity Sunday because in September 2009 the History Department of San Jose State University opened  a year long exhibit in the City Hall Rotunda of five early African American families in San Jose.  Among them were the Cassey’s.   Fr. Jerry Drino sermon on Cassey’s life and ministry is found on the Trinity Cathedral web site.   (First published May 2009