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There are so many people who I have never met that have helped shape my life. These people are my heroes as they have encouraged me to be all I can be to help my community, and my hometown to be all it can be. One of those people is Rev. Corneilus Edward Askew (1870-1964.) He was the Pastor of the Spring Garden Missionary Baptist Church here in Washington from 1906-1919.

Pastor Askew married my grandparents in 1906, and I heard about him from my grandmother. She called him a ‘great thinker’ as he truly became legendary in this town. With his progressive thinking, it was his desire to promote and lead his church and community to a higher standard of living through education, financial responsibility and civic development.

In 1906, Pastor Askew co-chartered the People’s Investment and Protective Company, the first Black owned bank in Washington.

He was pivotal for his work on the committee that brought Dr. Booker T. Washington here to speak at Brown’s Opera House in 1910, a part of Dr. Washington’s five state tour through the south.

During President Woodrow Wilson’s administration 1913-1919, Rev. Askew was appointed by President Wilson as a World Speaker for his administration.

Pastor Askew helped establish and was the superintendent of the Washington Colored Industrial High School, a private school which was housed in the Educational Building of the Spring Garden Missionary Baptist Church. The school’s most notable graduate was David A. Keys, whose father David A. Keys Sr., helped to establish the Mother of Mercy Church here in Washington. David Keys is also Sarah Louise Keys Evans, (renowned civil rights activist) brother.

Pastor Askew was also a delegate for the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1919.

Spring Garden Missionary Baptist Church was already a stable and powerful influence for the Black Community as it was founded in 1866. With Pastor Askew’s leadership, guidance and ‘out of the box thinking,’ be helped to make Spring Garden Missionary Baptist Church an even greater beacon of hope and stability for generations of people and the community.