Obediah Summers

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Obediah Summers (1844–March 15, 1896) was an American minister, Civil War veteran, and the first Black chaplain of the California State Legislature. He was born into slavery in Clay County, Missouri, and was forced to work as a servant for a Confederate officer. In 1862, Union troops captured him at the Battle of Marshfield, and he chose to join the Union Army, serving in Company A of the 18th United States Colored Infantry.

After the war, Summers worked for the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Nebraska and later in Marysville, California. He moved to Oakland in 1891 and started the Old Bethel Church on 15th Street. From 1891 to 1894 he served as the pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in San Francisco. In 1895, he became the California State Legislature’s first Black chaplain during the 31st session.

He was married to Elizabeth L. Banks in 1871, and they had seven children.

Summers died on March 15, 1896, in Oakland, from a liver illness, and was buried at Mountain View Cemetery. His headstone was initially misspelled as "O. Sommers," and his grave was not well funded. In 2003–2004, Oakland historian Dennis Evanosky and Summers’s great-granddaughter Myra Adams arranged for a proper burial with a new federal headstone placed in the Grand Army of the Republic plot for Civil War veterans. He is also known by alternate spellings: Obediah Sommers, Obadiah Summers, and Obidiah Summers.