Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church
Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church
Fulfilling the great commission as recorded in Matthew 28.
Dr. Isaac Peter Brockenton
1828-1908
Isaac P. Brockenton was born in Lee County, SC on May 19, 1828. Brother Isaac was sold to Dr. Tom Flynn of Darlington, SC in 1856. They both joined the First Baptist Church of Darlington the same time.
In 1860, Dr. Brockenton married Martha Jackson, born Feb,1838. Their 10 children were Caroline "Carrie" b.1861, Mercy b. March 12, 1864, Frank b. Nov.1865, Isaac Jr. b. Oct. 20,1867, Edgar b.1869, John b.1870, Charlie b. June 1873, Jolley (Reverend) b.1876, Edward b.1878, and Easter b. Oct.1880.
Shorty after the Civil War, Dr. Brockenton organized Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Darlington when he and several other African-American parishioners of Darlington's First Baptist Church sought letters of dismissals to constitute a new church in Darlington. He was assisted in this effort by Dr. Charles H. Corey, a white northern Baptist Missionary and Rev. James Hamilton, a black pastor from Philadelphia. Brockenton became the first pastor of Macedonia and served Macedonia for forty-two years before his death on January 6, 1908.
Dr. Charles Henry Corey, the author of "A History of the Richmond Theological Seminary", and later President of Richmond Theological Seminary, came to Darlington, SC and helped instruct Dr. Brockenton and others in the ministry by assisting in organizing churches and ordaining ministers. Dr. Corey was concerned with educating the colored ministry.
According to the words of Dr. Corey, in his book "A History of the Richmond Theological Seminary", p. 78-79, "I remember that Isaac P. Brockenton, a colored young pastor from Darlington, South Carolina, also a pupil, was present on this memorable occasion. He told us that he had already built a meetinghouse for his people since the war closed, the first offering towards it being twenty-five cents which he himself contributed. He gave us a most vivid picture of how he led his people to victory from so small a beginning as that. How his church members at first laughed to scorn his poor little twenty-five cent piece as it lay there lonesome upon the table; and how a year later they cried for joy, and sang and shouted triumphantly over their little meetinghouse, built and paid for by a great many twenty-five cent gifts, which they themselves had brought in. It is not at all to be wondered at, that this same man Brockenton, child of God and brother of Jesus and hero of faith, as a grain of mustard seed , has since built two other Baptist Churches in his own town of Darlington, the last one costing $18,000."
Dr. Brockenton was a Trial Justice in Darlington for eight years.
Dr. Brockenton was a member of the House of Representatives during the Reconstruction Period.
January 14 - March 18, 1868, Dr. Brockenton was a delegate to the S.C. Constitutional Convention held at Charleston, SC. This convention met in Charleston on January 14, 1868. This convention was memorable for several reasons. It was the first body of the sort in which the Negro members constituted a majority. It was the first experiment in this country of working out a government based on the cooperation of the two races. It was composed of members who for the next several years would control the destiny of the State. Other Delegates elected to the convention from Darlington were B.F. Whittemore, white; Jordan Lang and Richard Humbird, black.
In the spring of 1867, a Convention of the colored Baptists of the State was called at Morris Street Baptist Church in Charleston, SC. Delegates from nearly a dozen churches met in the Morris Street church on May 1st. Rev. I. P. Brockenton was the President and J.C. Pawley was the Secretary. Out of this Convention grew the Gethsemane Association, the first in the State.
According to the Pee Dee Baptist Association History and the History of the Great Gethsemane Baptist Missionary Association, Rev. Brockenton, during the Pee Dee Baptist Association's annual session held at Zion Baptist Church in Columbia, SC on October 21, 1875, introduced an initiative which would eventually lead to the organization of the Baptist Educational Missionary and Sunday School Convention of SC. As the Pee Dee Baptist Association's Moderator, Rev. Brockenton recommended that the Gethsemane Baptist Association Lower Division and the Gethsemane Baptist Association III Division, be consulted about organizing a state convention. On October 21, 1876, at the next annual session which convened at Macedonia Baptist Church in Darlington, the Association heard a report on the subject of the formation of a state convention. All Baptist Associations and Sunday School Conventions of South Carolina were asked to meet at Shiloh Baptist Church (First Missionary Baptist Church) Sumter, SC. On the first Wednesday in May, 1877, three Associations, Pee Dee, Ashley, and Gethsemane, met at the above named church and the Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of SC was formed. The Bethlehem Baptist Association joined that same convention year. Rev. James Hamilton served as the organizing Moderator from 1877-1881 and was succeeded by Rev. A.R. Bacote who served for one year. Rev. I.P. Brockenton served as Moderator from 1883-1908.
For seven years, 1875-1882, Dr. Isaac P. Brockenton, then pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Darlington, SC, was the second Moderator for the Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Association (organized November 12, 1867). The Association took its name "Gethsemane" from the old Gethsemane Baptist Church of Chester, where its first session was held. At that time, the Gethsemane Baptist field took in from Charleston on the south, to York on the north, from Society Hill on the east to Abbeville on the west. After a number of years, the Association became too large to be handled properly. The brethren in the lower part of the state divided the Association into the Upper and Lower Gethsemane Baptist Association. After some years, the Lower Gethsemane Association renamed itself the "Ashley" Association.
From 1877-1908, Dr. Brockenton was President of the SC Baptist Education & Missionary Convention.
From 1883-1908, Dr. Brockenton was Moderator of the Pee Dee Baptist Association formed in 1881 at Pee Dee Union Baptist Church in Cheraw, SC.
Dr. Brockenton was one of the organizers of the SC Baptist Convention.
Dr. Brockenton was responsible for the organization of several churches in South Carolina.
In the book "The Negro in South Carolina During Reconstruction", it is noteworthy that Brockenton whose work converged mainly around Darlington built in that city three magnificent churches, the first of which increased in membership from thirteen in 1866 to thirteen hundred in 1889.The third church was erected at a cost of $18,000. Regarded to all who knew him as a Christian gentleman, Brockenton was honored by the Negro Baptists
throughout the State. In addition to the promotion of missionary work, the Negro convention was instrumental in securing to Benedict Institute the generous financial support of their communicants in the State. Besides this direct aid given to the institution, the convention assisted in training young men known as beneficiaries whose expenses defrayed, wholly or in part, gave the latter the opportunity to prepare for the Christian ministry.
In 1887, the National Baptist Publishing Board organized to render a hymn and tune book. In September 1900, at a meeting of the National Baptist Convention, Dr. Brockenton, along with representatives from other states, was appointed to the National Baptist Hymnal Publishing Board to assist in the adaptation of a hymnal for use in Negro Baptist Churches.
While attending Richmond Institute (later Richmond Theological Seminary), Dr. Brockenton's benefactors were Rev. and Mrs. C. W. Waterhouse of Lakewood, Ocean County, NJ.
According to "A History of the Richmond Theological Seminary", p. 142, Dr. Brockenton was taken in infancy from his parents and, at age twenty, he was sold to pay his master's debts. Securing the elements of an education, and enjoying the confidence to a rare degree of his owners under the old regime, he has a record of which any man might be proud. He has enjoyed the confidence of the community and has held important positions in church and State. For a number of years he has been President of the Baptist Educational Missionary and Sunday School Convention of South Carolina and Moderator of the Pee Dee Baptist Association. Dr. Brockenton became a highly esteemed and prominent minister, attended Richmond Theological Seminary, assisted in starting over 50 churches (2 in Darlington) and as many Sunday Schools and baptized above 3000 persons.
Dr. Brockenton taught the first school for Negro children in Darlington County, SC. Brockington Elementary School (now Brockington Magnate School) and Brockington Heights Apartments was named in his honor.
Dr. Corey said the type of leadership Dr. Isaac P. Brockenton provided Macedonia for forty-two years until his death in January 1908, is best depicted by his extended vision. First, he found it necessary to establish the first black church in his community of which seven other churches evolved. Then he found it necessary to lead the congregation in enlarging its physical facilities on two separate occasions. He helped to organize the Pee Dee Association and the State Convention. Dr. Brockenton served as first president of the latter parent organization. He also helped to establish higher education among Baptists in South Carolina. Dr. Isaac Peter Brockenton is remembered as a great man of vision.
Dr. Brockenton was quoted as saying "A large part of my success as a pastor is due to the influence which the Institute has had upon me. I was there stimulated to strive to become 'a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.' "
Rev. D. M. Pierce, another prominent minister, was baptized by Dr. Brockenton at Macedonia. Rev. Pierce became the AM Principal of the Timmonsville, SC Colored Graded School.
Rev. P. H. Callaham of Society Hill, SC had both a church and a school.
Rev. Isaac Peter Brockenton and Martha Jackson Brockenton's children:
1. Caroline "Carrie" Brockenton born 1861, died Feb 13, 1942. She married Albert Gregg. He was born in May 1858. They had the following 2 children: Perry L. Gregg born 1895 and Edward Gregg born 1903.
2. Mercy Brockenton born March 12, 1864. She married Frank Keith. He was born in 1861. They had the following 2 children: Willard Keith born 1896 and Julia H. Keith born 1898.
3. Frank Brockenton born Nov.1865. He married Alice Brockenton. She was born in April 1870. They had the following 5 children: Isaac M. Brockenton born October 1890, Benjamin Franklin Brockenton born October 1892, Lillian B. Brockenton born July 1894, Nicholas Brockenton born August 1896, and Ernest Brockenton born May 1898.
4. Isaac Peter Brockenton, Jr born October 20, 1867.
5. Edgar Brockenton born in 1869.
6. John Brockenton born in 1870.
7. Charlie Brockenton born June 1873.
8. Jolley (Reverend) Brockenton born in 1876.
9. Edward Brockenton born 1878.
10.Easter Brockenton born Oct 1880. She married Edgar Garfield (Reverend) Thomas. He was born Feb. 28, 1880 in Shellman, GA. He died on October 26, 1944 in Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee, USA. They had the following 3 children: Ester B.Thomas, Edgar G. Thomas and Henry Thomas.
Dr. Brockenton's son-in-law:
One of Brockenton's daughters,Easter N. Brockenton, married another prominent minister, Rev. Edgar Garfield Thomas, A.B., B.D., pastor of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, Newnan. Rev. Thomas was a native of Calhoun County where he was born on Feb. 28, 1880. Mrs.Thomas was a college graduate of Shaw University and before her marriage she was a teacher. Their children were Ester B., Edgar G., and Henry. Rev. Thomas' parents, Henry and Delilah (Miles) Thomas, were both slaves. In July, 1906, Rev. Thomas was elected State B.Y.P.U. Organizer and Corresponding Secretary of the State Sunday School Worker's Convention of Georgia, a position he filled for two years. In September of that same year, he was called to the pastorate of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Monroe where he served for three years. Rev.Thomas gave up field work and accepted a call to Harmony Baptist Church, Augusta, serving for more that two years. While serving as pastor of this church, he also held the position of Theological Instructor at Walker Baptist Institute. In August 1910, he was elected President of Twin City Seminary of McRae, Ga. In addition to this position, in Nov. 1911, he was called to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church of McRae. He also served the Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Dodge County for one year. Early in 1915, he resigned McRae to accept the call of the Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Newnan.
Dr. Brockenton's grandson:
One of Rev. Edgar and Easter Garfield's sons was Henry Thomas, born July 1, 1914 in McRae, Telfair County, Georgia. Henry's father served as pastor from 1924-1928 of the historic First African Baptist Church, Franklin Square, in Savannah, Georgia. Constituted in 1777, First African Baptist is the oldest Black church in America. Mr Henry Thomas, as his father before him, graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He then earned a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Michigan at AnnArbor. He began college teaching at Tougaloo College in Mississippi and chaired English Departments at Spelman College in Atlanta and at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He moved his family to Los Angeles, CA and became a high school teacher of English so that his son could access the University of California at Los Angeles. During the first years of the 1950's, Mr. Henry Thomas worked at the United Nations, serving in the English Language Services unit that was responsible for the production of reports, documents and proceedings of United Nations in English language. Mr. Thomas was a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He also held life memberships in the NAACP and in the Morehouse Alumni Association. He passed away on April 27, 2004 in Jacksonville Duval County, Florida and was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood Los Angeles County, CA.
Found name spelled Brockenton, Brockinton and Brockington.
Credits given to the following books, articles, sketches, websites, conversations, etc.
"Historical Sketch: Roots and Fruit" by Dr. Lawson G. Bonaparte
"History of Macedonia Baptist Church" by Mrs. LaVicia P. McDowell
"The Directory and Pre-1900 Historical Sketch of SC Black Baptists" by Reverend John Allen Middleton
"A History of the Richmond Theological Seminary" by Dr. Charles Henry Corey
"History of the American Negro and His Institutions", Georgia Edition, Part 2
"Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree; The African-American Church in the South 1865-1900"
"The African Repository"
"Journal of Negro History" Vol 5, No. 1
Chatham County GA Archives History
"The First African Baptist Church", Chapter XV, 1925
"A Historical Retrospect" by Dr. W.H. Neal, Moderator and Dr. M.C. Fennell, Sec (1997)
National Register of Historic Places
Roots Web
S.C. Dept. of Archives and History
www.forgottenbooks.com/readbook
www.newsandpressonline.net/church-of-the-weekmacedonia-missinary
gbaonline.org/about-us/
www.nationalregister.sc.gov/darlington
SCIWAYS3.net
"The Baptist Home Mission Monthly" Vol. XX-1898
"History of the Greater Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Association"
"South Carolina Baptist Association"
US Census, 1880, 1900, 1910
Darlington Historical Commission
Conversations with Peter Wilds
Conversations with Scott Wilds
Info from Renee Brown Bryant, daughter of Bennie Brown
"Three Iron Horses and A Butterfly" by Arthur Bolden
"At Freedom's Door" by James L.Underwood and W. Lewis Burke
The Negro in South Carolina During Reconstruction
UPDATED: March 3, 2016
NOTE: This work has been compiled from a number of different sources, researched and compiled, in no particular fashion or order, by Patsy Yarborough Sawyer. I take no credit for any writings, articles, etc. Credit goes to the authors of the above articles, books, etc. Please send all corrections and/or additions, or any other assistance you wish to render, to Mrs. Sawyer by phone at 843-319-1837 (cell) or e-mail at psawyerinspire1@gmail.com. You may also mail correspondence to Macedonia Life-Skills Center, PO Box 179, Darlington, SC 29540.
We would love to hear from descendants of any of the previous pastors, officers, and/or members of Macedonia to have family info entered into our historical database.
Thank-you,
Deacon Patsy Yarborough Sawyer
843-319-1837
The following is an e-mail from Dr. I. P. Brockenton's great-grandson:
Dr. Henry Brockenton Thomas
4979 County Road 26
Dundee, NY 14837
Cell: 904-294-7811 or 607-301-0199 Landline: 607-292-3236
Email: hthomasx@gmail.com or hthomas@unf.edu
Associate Professor Emeritus
Department of Political Science and Public Administration
University of North Florida
https://www.unf.edu/catalog/about/University_Emeriti_Faculty/
Great-grandson of I.P. Brockenton, Henry Thomas Apr 8, 2018
Ms. Sawyer: I wrote to you earlier.
I was one of the students at Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1968-69 who locked out the school to get a Black Church Studies Program. We were recognized on last Friday night, April 6, 2018. https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2018/03/31/colgate-divinity-school-black-student-caucus-lockout-anniversary-martin-luther-king-jr/458608002/
I am the young student at the far right in the 1969 picture in the newspaper. I am seated second from the right in the picture taken Friday night.
Attached is the Gala program. The checked names on page 4 are those of us gone on to Glory: Joe Davis, Tom Diamond, Dave Garcia, James Garmon, Jim Goins, Ray Graves, Phale Hale, Lorenzo Robinson and Charles Walker. Additionally, a few of our colleagues were unable to attend: Charles Granger, Raleigh Hairston, Tom Jordan, William Larkin,& James Swindell.
Additionally attached is picture of those who attended (left to right: John Walker, Mel Hoover, Bobby Joe Saucer, Henry Mitchell (first MLK Professorship Chair), Henry B. Thomas and Jim Hunter. Many of the current Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School Black Caucus students are standing behind us.
Finally, each of us received a Lifetime Award. Attached is a picture of mine.
I pray that Great-grandfather Brockenton would have been proud.
HBT
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Colgate marks anniversary of historic civil rights lockout Justin Murphy, @citizenmurphy Published 11:14 p.m. ET March 31, 2018 Updated 8:06 p.m. ET April 2, 2018 (Photo:File photo)
Following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968, the newly formed Black Student Caucus at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School decided it was time for change on the nearly all-white campus.
They demanded more black representation in the faculty and board of trustees and the creation of a Black Church studies program. They brought Mahalia Jackson to town twice in one year and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Nearly a year went by. The school leadership said the right things but wanted more time.
"The trustees said we were asking just a little too much too quickly," the Rev. John S. Walker recalled. "(But) we called them demands, not requests or recommendations. And that's when we decided to lock up the school."
For 19 days in 1969, the South Goodman Street campus was brought to a halt in a successful protest that established the divinity school as a leader in civil rights among its peers.
The Black Student Caucus, which engineered the protest, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Many of those who stayed inside the school in March 1969 will be back in Rochester this week for a commemoration.
There will be a jubilee worship service at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 5, at Genesee Baptist Church, with Bishop T. Anthony Bronner as guest preacher.
There is then a gala dinner at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Colgate Rochester. Tickets are $50 or two for $90. Email blackstudentcaucus1@gmail.com or call (585) 271-1320.
'An attitude of slave mentality'
Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (Photo: Wikipedia)
The divinity school had gained a strong reputation in the early 20th century for producing talented black theologians and preachers, including Howard University President Mordecai Johnson and philosopher Howard Thurman.
Nonetheless, in 1968 it was structured like most other large institutions in Rochester, and more broadly in academia: led almost exclusively by white people, with little motivation to change.
"It was just an attitude of slave mentality, and that came from out in the community," said the Rev. Bobby Joe Saucer, another founding member of the caucus. "Most of us were from the South and had come up through the civil rights protest movement. It was easy for our eyes to see, and to respond to, insensitivity. The administration, while they meant well, really did not know what was happening."
The caucus was formed in September 1967, then accelerated its activities after the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. The students held a public memorial service and demanded the creation of a Black Church studies program.
The administration asked the students to raise half the cost of an endowed professorship and they did, including through a banquet featuring King's parents as guests of honor.
In December, they expanded their demands: 11 black trustees on the 36-person board, including three on the executive board; four black professors to fill the five current vacancies; and one black administrator.
They set a deadline of March 1 and the trustees let it pass. One of the caucus members went to a hardware store in the city and bought the biggest chain and padlock he could find.
The morning of Sunday, March 2, 19 black seminarians entered Strong Hall, the main academic and administrative building. Inside they met some custodians and one of their professors, Winthrop Hudson, who left when asked.
They hoisted a black flag on the roof and wrote on a classroom blackboard: "School closed until our demands are met." The lockout had begun.
Christian integrity
Rev. John S. Walker, center, in March 1969. He was one of the Black Student Caucus' spokesmen. (Photo: File photo)
For 19 days, the students organized regular worship services and played basketball in the gym to pass the time. They promised not to look through the school's records or to eat the food in the cafeteria.
Instead, white and black supporters brought them food, putting it into a basket that was pulled up onto the balcony.
"People in the community brought food every day — especially the poor people — and they were telling us, 'Hold on, hold on,'" Walker, now the pastor at Christian Friendship Baptist Church in Henrietta, recalled.
The president of the seminary was Gene Bartlett. Walker and Saucer praised him as a man of integrity and faith who stood up for the protesting students to the board of trustees.
"It was never a question about their Christian integrity and commitment," said Saucer, who went on to become dean of the Morehouse School of Religion. "I can't ever say I sensed they were upset. They were more concerned with: How can we do ethically and morally what has been omitted, and how can we move on from this as a Christian community?"
There was some tension inside the building as negotiations went on. Some of the students, including Walker, planned to graduate that spring and hoped classes could resume in time to permit it.
When the lockout was lifted on March 20, the seminarians had achieved all their goals, and none faced any discipline from the school.
"The sympathies, the mood, the hopes of the faculty and the white students were in that building, too," Bartlett said later, according to a school history. "These were, moreover, men for whom we had great respect. I have to tell you, I doubt if there are any 19 men we could gather who have as much basic ability, commitment and Christian concern as the men who were locked in that building."
A leader among seminaries
Marvin McMickle president, Rochester Colgate Crozer Divinity School (Photo: GregFrancis.com)
The most prominent achievement for the school was the creation of the Black Church studies program, the first of its kind in the country. It remains active today.
Seminarians at Colgate Rochester today have three course requirements to prepare them for a diverse ministry: Black Church studies, women in ministry and a course on LGBTQ rights.
"We've got to keep listening to people who say they belong to the church but the church doesn't belong to them," President Marvin McMickle said.
Of the seven current faculty members, McMickle is the only black professor, but he said the school hopes to find another person of color for a current vacancy.
Damond Wilson, president of Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School's Black Student Caucus, 2018. (Photo: Provided photo)
Damond Wilson, the current Black Student Caucus president, said he believes Colgate Rochester continues to lead seminaries across the country in terms of social justice — part of the legacy of the 1969 lockout.
"At the base of what they were doing was being able to have their voice heard, and that definitely is life-changing, because in this day there are definitely situations where people's voices aren't being heard," he said. "Even though the avenue might change, the conversation is still the same."
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