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Matthew Anderson, (1848-1928), n.d.
Minister of the Berean Presbyterian Church;
Founder of the Berean Manual Training and Industrial School, Berean
Building and Loan Association, and the Berean Retreat. |
As African Americans migrated to the industrial centers of the north in
the late nineteenth century, many did not have the necessary training to
obtain employment. Working as domestics, day laborers, and drivers, men
and women often held multiple jobs for low wages. One of the primary supports
for these new urban residents was the churches. By providing churches, the
Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian denominations gave people a starting
place to develop their communities. Matthew Anderson answered a call, filling
the needs of the African American community of Northwest Philadelphia and
assumed the challenges of establishing a church from a small meeting room,
creating a kindergarten to educate the children, and developing a training
school for those intent on improving their place in society. This is the
Berean Enterprise. Today the institutions organized and developed through
the work of Matthew and his wife Caroline Anderson still encourage and support
the African American community of Philadelphia.
Caroline Virginia Still Anderson (1848-1919) was the daughter of William
Still, whose home was one of the stations on the “Underground Railroad”
in Pennsylvania. Caroline was educated at Oberlin College and in 1878 graduated
from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. During her lifetime,
she served as a physician to the African American community of Philadelphia.
When Caroline married Matthew Anderson in 1880 (her second husband) she
also became an educator and administrator at the Berean Manual Training
and Industrial School.
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