John Strothers was born in 1845 to a black family in Virginia. He was said to have been taken as a slave by the John Reigart family when only a small boy. The Reigarts, as the story goes, brought him to Beloit where they began farming east of town.

In April 1861 John Strothers, age 16, evidently with permission of the Reigarts, answered the call to arms issued by President Lincoln after the Confederates fired on Fort Sumpter.

John joined the 18th Colored Regiment of Infantry and saw fighting in Nashville early in the Civil War, earning the rank of Corporal. He was discharged in Chattanooga in August 1865. Early newspaper accounts differ, some saying Strothers returned to Beloit with the Beloit City Guards. Other accounts say he came back to Beloit and for a time was the city’s only black resident.

John was thought to have returned to Virginia after the war to claim Minnie Benson as his bride. They came to Beloit and raised seven sons and a daughter. The children all attended Beloit schools. One son, Theodore, graduated from Beloit College, while another, Merrill, attended Beloit College but did not graduate.

As the family grew, John became well-known and respected. John was considered as being a good natured, rugged individual and a man of integrity. He was said to have operated a shoemaking business, and according to some stories, was also a blacksmith.

According to John’s obituary in the Beloit Daily News, the family attended First Congregational Church. A family plot was purchased in Oakwood Cemetery where his wife Minnie, who died in 1932, was buried. Also in the plot are all of their children, Theodore, Clarence, Andrew, George, Merrill, Eugene, Paul (and his wife Mabel), and daughter Clara.

Up to the time of his death, John proudly marched in Beloit’s Memorial Day parades along with other veterans, even though he was not permitted to join the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) as were his white comrades.

John died March, 1927 at the age of 82.