The students of the Radical University: Thaddeus Saltus

Thaddeus Saltus (b. September 2, 1851; d. June 13, 1884)
South Carolina.  Born free.  Mulatto.
Occupation: preacher.
Father's occupation: policeman, door sentinel, fruiter.

Thaddeus Saltus was born in 1851 in South Carolina to Elizabeth and Philip Saltus. The parents were free persons of color living in Charleston. The 1860 U.S. Census lists Philip as owning 4 slaves (a man, a woman, and two girls).

Thaddeus studied at the Avery Normal Institute in Charleston and attended the (College) Preparatory Department at Atlanta University for one year (the 1872-73 academic year).  In Atlanta, he studied alongside fellow future University of South Carolina student Thomas J. Reynolds.

Thaddeus registered as a student at the University of South Carolina on October 18, 1873.  He was a college student following the classical studies track.  The university closed before he completed his degree.

After the university closure, Thaddeus returned to Charleston and worked an Episcopal minister at St. Mark's Church, a church organized in 1865 by free persons of color.  He was ordained as a deacon in 1881 and then as a priest in 1882.  He was the first African American in the state to be ordained in the Episcopal church, and his ordination was reported in newspapers.  At the ceremony, the ordination sermon was given by Thaddeus's former professor Benjamin B. Babbitt (who was also an Episcopal minister).  Babbitt spoke on 2nd Corinthians, iv, 5: "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake."

Thaddeus's time as a minister was cut short because of health problems. He died of tuberculosis on  June 13, 1884.  The African American Charlestonian poetess Mary Weston Fordham's poetry collection Magnolia Leaves includes the following poem written in Thaddeus's memory:

To Rev. Thaddeus Saltus
Sleep, Christian warrior, sleep,
Life's fitful dream is o'er,
Thy pain-tossed bark is anchored
Safe on the golden shore.
'Neath the green sward we lay thee
Thus early to thy rest,
And press the sod thus lightly,
Upon thy gentle breast.

Though but in manhood's prime,
When the dread summons came,
To hush the voice so well attuned
To preaching "In His Name."
Thous did'st not murmur, but with joy
Obeyed the Master's word,
And rapture crowned did'st enter
The palace of thy Lord.

Then sweetly sleep, dear Rector,
Thy grave we'll deck with flowers,
An earnest of that Better Land
Of ever blooming bowers.
Around this spot a halo twines,
While angels vigils keep,
And we rejoice that thus "He give
To His beloved sleep."

Sources:
1). 1860; Census Place: Charleston Ward 8, Charleston, South Carolina; Page: 510

2). 1880; Census Place: Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: 1222; Page: 503A; Enumeration District: 076.

3). Charleston City Directory, 1890. Charleston, SC: Southern Directory and Publishing Co., 1890

4). Powers, Bernard E. Black Charlestonians: A Social History, 1822-1885.  University of Arkansas Press, 1999.

5). "Ordination of a colored Episcopal deacon".  The Weekly Union Times.  February 11, 1881.  p. 2.