THIS feature could well be datelined Dayton, Ohio, because that's where we have been for the past week. It was first and foremost to join in the last rites for our nephew, Howard W. Philip, Jr. (pictured)

And, secondly, to reconnect with the city of Dayton which has as its centre the historic Wayman Chapel AME Church, and with its neighbouring community of Wilberforce, the home of Wilberforce University and Central State University.

Wilberforce and Wayman, both entities of the AME Church, and steeped in American history, have for generations been magnets for bright young Bermudians in pursuit of higher education and wider career horizons. Wilberforce is one of the two or three oldest institutions of higher learning for black people in the United States.

Wayman was organised in 1835, a year after the Emancipation of Slavery in British territories. It was the first AME Church in Dayton. In February 1841 its first house of worship was burned during a night of looting, vandalising and beatings by violent white mobs. Fearing for their lives, many of the "coloured" citizens left the city and the congregation ceased to function. It was, however, regenerated in 1867.

The church has a membership in excess of 800, including about a dozen Bermudian-connected families. Bermudian the Rev. Dr. Wilbur Lowe, Jr. and his family (now pastors of Mt. Zion AME Church in Southampton) began an eight-year pastorate there in 1986. The Rev. Howard Philip, Sr., is now one of Wayman's Associate Ministers, as is another former Bermudian, the Rev. Mrs. Hattie Bankston.

Howard, Jr. was one of the pillars of Wayman. Up until his passing at age 52, he had served for many years as president of its lay organisation, and was also first vice-president of the combined lay organisations of the Third District of the AME Church.

A graduate of Wright State University, Ohio, and a social worker, he was an outstanding tenor in Wayman's senior choir, and director of its men's choir. His multifaceted church-related interests followed in the mould of his father, and his deceased mother, Constance (Connie Fox) Ross. Formerly of Somerset, the parents and sons Howard and Randy migrated to Dayton 42 years ago.

We need hardly state that the funeral at Wayman on Monday was well attended. So was the wake the night before, by almost as many persons whose work commitments precluded them from being at the service and the luncheon following the burial.

It was heart-warming for us to meet two and three generations of offspring from the Philip family whose home is in Dayton. Our connection with the city stems from our sister, now deceased Myra Alice Philip, later Wallace.

After graduating from Sandys Secondary School, she went to Wilberforce in 1947 and worked her way through university. She married a fellow Wilberforce graduate and they settled in Dayton, raising a family.

Subsequently, brother Howard and younger sister Rosalind, later Darrell, were attracted to Dayton and pitched their tents there, while the eldest of our family of eight siblings, Ivy, later Symonds, settled in New York.

As we said before, many Bermudians were attracted to Wilberforce and Dayton ? among them the former Barbara Bascome, now Clemons, and Barbara Horton, later Simons, both retired educators and Wilberborceans who made their marks as college and university teachers.

In 1965 young Hattie Bean, the second of the five children of Helen Cariah Bean and the late Earl Bean of Somerset, accepted an invitation to spend some time with her godmother, Myra Alice Wallace.

Hattie stayed on, attending Miami Junior College. Just over a year later she became the wife of Jerry L. Bankston. He was a Central State University graduate about to embark as a soldier in the US Army for service in Vietnam. The couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary in Hawaii, while he was on furlough from the warfront.

In 1968 the Bankstons were stationed in New Jersey. They have a family of three sons, Jerry, Jr., 35, Jock, 33, and 31-year-old Jeffrey. Jerry and his Toni have a child, Jochlynn. They are all active in the Wayman AME Church.

Incidentally, Hattie and Jerry are ordained ministers, who since 2000 have been on the ministerial staff at Wayman. Previously, they had their own separate pastorates in Cincinnati and other cities. Hattie completed her ministerial studies at Payne Theological Seminary. Her siblings in Bermuda are Noreena, Belinda, Hinson and Patrick, whom she visits whenever her schedule permits.