No member of our group has so profoundly affected the colored
people of Newport as did Rev. M. A. Van Horne. He came to Newport
October 1,1868, and was shortly thereafter elected Pastor of the Union
Congregational Church, which position he held to 1897. He was a broad
minded man who did not confine his activities to his own
denomination or church. He took the keenest interest in the
welfare of all his people regardless of denomination. When he assumed
pastorate of the Union Congregational Church, it was passing through a
severe crisis, but his originality and leadership soon became evident
and his pastorate marked the golden era of the church.
It entertained the Rhode Island Congregational Conference in
1879 and most creditably cared for the sixty ministers and delegates in
the homes of the members of the church. He was a delegate to the
National Council of Congregational Churches held in Worcester,
Massachusetts, October, 1889. Was elected a member of the School
Committee in 1873 and served until 1892. During this period, he was
chairman of several important committees, being for twelve years
chairman of the committee on text books. Rev. Van Horne was also one of
the committee on examination for the State Normal School. He was elected
a member of the Rhode Island legislature in 1885 and served for three
successive terms. In 1897, he was appointed by President
McKinley as U. S. Consul to the Danish West Indies.
During the Spanish American War, he purchased
all the coal in the islands, preventing the Spanish fleet from obtaining
the same, which resulted in its destruction in Santiago harbor. He
resigned from the diplomatic service in 1908 and took up religious work
in the Moravian Church in Antigua, at which place he died April 24,
1910.
