Preserving Cokesbury’s history is a generational job
Preserving history is a job that’s passed down through generations, and that’s no exception at Cokesbury College.
Built by the Bascombe Lodge of the Freemasons, Cokesbury College was opened June 27, 1854 as a women’s college. The community that grew around this bastion of learning included the Payne Institute, where Black students had the opportunity to enrich themselves, and the Cokesbury Conference School for boys.
The college building has seen multiple renovations since then, and today the dedicated Cokesbury Historical and Recreational Commission work to preserve and integrate the historic site into the broader community of Greenwood County.
Among those keeping the torch aflame these days are multi-generational families of history buffs. On Oct. 19, George McKinney helped hoist wooden beams for a new gazebo going in on the college grounds, but in 1967 his grandfather was one of the key voices calling to keep the college standing.
As a child, McKinney didn’t understand the depth of the work his grandparents were doing at Cokesbury, but that didn’t keep him from getting involved.
“I was taught that you preserve history because it’s important for us to know how things were done in the past,” he said.
Working alongside author Nell Graydon, Henry McKinney campaigned in the 1960s for the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Church to help preserve the then-dilapidated college building. It had fallen into disrepair, and was destined for demolition if not for the work of advocates on the building’s behalf.
Graydon wrote a cookbook that George McKinney remembered helping sell copies of as a child, but she also rallied donors from the Presbyterian church and from Methodist conferences in other states. Henry McKinney gave a speech in 1967 to the state convention on the history of the building and the spirit of scholarship and faith it engendered in the community.
Thousands of dollars were raised in that campaign, which funded the necessary repairs with money coming from as far away as Texas, McKinney said.
“The Trustees hope and expect this project to continue until the building and grounds are restored to the original splendor of yesteryear,” Henry McKinney wrote, “then make arrangements for it to be maintained as a shrine which everyone concerned will be proud to point to as a most important heritage.”
That “most important heritage” was passed down to George McKinney, a few years after he returned to Greenwood from his time serving in the military. He had been a history major like his father, who wrote papers about the Cokesbury College site.
A friend of McKinney’s asked him to film their wedding at Cokesbury College, and McKinney being a member of the Bascombe Masonic lodge, his interest in the historic community was sparked again.
It wasn’t until he retired at the end of 2021, however, that he was really free to throw himself into the work. He went to enjoy the annual Cokesbury College Christmas event there and learned about an opening on the commission’s board.
“It was amazing to understand, later on in life, how much of an impact across the U.S. and world it had made,” he said. “It touches you, and I like that. To say — I am here, who else was here? What did they do?”
The man who convinced McKinney to join the commission was Don Goforth. Goforth joined the commission in 1981, after finishing his history degree at then-Lander College. Throughout the ‘80s, Goforth said the commission worked to honor the work Graydon, McKinney and others had done over the years to protect and promote the college’s history.
After a few years away while working and living in Columbia, Goforth returned to serve as the commission’s chairman, where he pushed for events that brought Civil War re-enactors on the campus and hosted representatives of Alan University, which grew from its roots at The Payne Institute.
Graydon had a vision for restoring not just the college, but the village store and nearby homes, highlighting the history of the entire planned community. Goforth said that was a vision that still motivates the commission.
“By the time I was in college … there was a big push in preservation to restore and protect old houses and buildings,” he said. “Promoting history, I think in this area, is very important, and I hope younger generations continue to be fascinated by the history here.”
His 20-year-old son Andrew certainly is. Andrew Goforth is the commission’s youngest member, and his father said he’s developed a passion for researching the history of the school and its grounds.
“A lot of people, when I go out there, they’re excited that somebody young is excited about history,” Goforth said. “That a younger person is interested in the preservation of history and the protection of it.”
Preserving history is key, but the commission wants to integrate this history into the social scene of Greenwood as a whole. That’s how, McKinney said, they can hope to get people invested in preserving the site.
Regular annual events are a great way to bring out crowds. The college hosts weddings, wedding photos and even prom photo shoots. A new gazebo is going up near the school building that can host events, and the Greenwood County Capital Projects Sales Tax from 2016 set aside more than $33,000 to build restroom facilities at Cokesbury College.
The 170th anniversary of the school’s opening is in 2024, and McKinney said the commission members hope to make a celebration of it.
“What we want to do is become part of the community again,” he said.
Originally Published by Index-Journal on:Oct 28, 2023
By DAMIAN DOMINGUEZ ddominguez@indexjournal.com
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