Frederick Ayer (missionary)

Reverend Frederick Ayer (died 28 September 1867) was a missionary from the American Missionary Association who came to Atlanta, Georgia in 1865 to help set up schools for newly freed slaves (freedmen).[1] Ayer was born in Uxbridge, Massachusetts; he served as a missionary among Native Americans in Wisconsin and Minnesota from 1843 to 1863, and at that time he started a school in Fort Ripley, Minnesota.[2] When Ayer arrived in Atlanta, he took over the educational work started by freedmen James Tate and Grandison B. Daniels. Tate and Daniels had started the "first school in Atlanta for African American children on the corner of Courtland and Jenkins Streets in a building owned by Bethel A.M.E. Church"; this school would eventually become Atlanta University.[3] Ayer also organized a public school that became Summer Hill School.[4][5] Ayer died on 28 September 1867.[6]

  1. ^ "Collection: Frederick Ayer records | Archives Research Center". findingaids.auctr.edu. Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library. hdl:20.500.12322/fa:015. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  2. ^ Clarence Albert Bacote (1969), The Story of Atlanta University: A Century of Service, 1865-1965, Atlanta: Atlanta University, p. ix, 449 p., LCCN 74013298, OCLC 80795, OL 5051763M, Wikidata Q106782974
  3. ^ "Booker T. Washington High School: Education Flagship for the People". Building Memories. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  4. ^ Sisk, Glenn (1964). "The Negro Colleges in Atlanta". The Journal of Negro Education. 33 (2): 131–135. doi:10.2307/2294579. ISSN 0022-2984. JSTOR 2294579. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  5. ^ "HISTORIC SUMMERHILL". Organized Neighbors of Summerhill. 9 September 2015. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021.
  6. ^ Garrett, Franklin M. (June 1969). Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, 1820s-1870s. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-0263-8. Retrieved 10 May 2021.