James Matthew Townsend (August 18, 1841 – June 17, 1913) was an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) minister and a state legislator from Indiana.

The family later moved to Oxford, Ohio, and Townsend attended local common schools.

[2] Townsend mustered out of service at the end of the war in 1865 and returned to Ohio where he enrolled in Oberlin College.

He was appointed to the position of principal of the colored schools of Evansville, Indiana, by the American Missionary Board of the AME church, during which time he continued his education.

He was also elected as corresponding secretary of the Parent Home and Foreign Missionary Society, a position he held for many years.

[4] In 1889, Townsend was appointed to the position of recorder of the United States General Land Office in Washington, D.C., by President Benjamin Harrison.

In 1895, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch criticized him for, in the course of condemning the lynching of Neal Smith in Tennessee, suggesting "the torch must be applied in those cities where the outrages occur."