Nathan Cook Brackett (1836–1910) was an

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

Free Will Baptist Free Will Baptists or Free Baptists are a group originating from General Baptists that emphasizes the teaching of free salvation and free will. The movement can be traced back to the General Baptists in 17th century England. In 1702, Paul Palm ...

pastor, first president of

Storer College Storer College was a historically Black college in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, that operated from 1867 to 1955. A national icon for Black Americans, in the town where the 'end of American slavery began', as Frederick Douglass famously put i ...

, and chairman and co-founder of

Bluefield State College Bluefield State University is a public historically black university (HBCU) in Bluefield, West Virginia. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. History The Bluefield Colored Institute was founded in 1895 as ...

. Nathan Brackett was born in

Phillips, Maine Phillips is a town in Franklin County, Maine, United States. The population was 898 at the 2020 census. It is home to the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad, a heritage railroad. History The plantation was part of a large tract granted b ...

in 1836 and starting in 1857 attended

Bates College Bates College () is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian ...

(then called the Maine State Seminary) and then

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine, United States. Founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, it was renamed Waterville College in 1821. The donations of Christian philanthropist Gardner ...

(then called Waterville College) and finally

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

for his senior year. After graduating from Dartmouth in 1864 and becoming ordained as a Free Will Baptist pastor, Brackett joined the U.S. Christian Commission in the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia in the United States. The Valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the east ...

assisting soldiers and freed slaves. In 1865 the

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

's Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society sponsored Brackett in establishing a primary school for former slaves and in supervising several dozen northern women from the North who were teaching in Free Will Baptist schools throughout the Shenandoah Valley. Also in 1865 Brackett married Louise Wood of Lewiston, Maine, who was also an 1860 alumna of Bates (Maine State Seminary), and later a vice-principal and teacher for twenty five years at Storer College, teaching drawing, painting, Latin and Greek. Again with the backing of

Oren Cheney Oren Burbank Cheney (December 10, 1816 – December 22, 1903) was an American politician, minister, and statesman who was a key figure in the abolitionist movement in the United States during the later 19th century. Along with textile tycoon Ben ...

, founder and president of the Free Will Baptist Church in

Ocean Park, Maine Ocean Park is a village in the New England town, town of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, Old Orchard Beach in York County, Maine, York County, Maine, United States. A historic family style summer community affiliated with the Free Will Baptists, the c ...

, Brackett founded

in October 1867. Brackett served as president of Storer until 1897 and treasurer until his death in 1910. He also was on the Harpers Ferry Town Council and superintendent of free schools there, and a co-founder and regent of the Bluefield Colored Institute (now

) and as president of the board. He had a son, Ledru Joshua Brackett, born on 29 March 1873, in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brackett, Nathan Cook Bates College alumni Colby College alumni Dartmouth College alumni Free Will Baptists 1836 births 1910 deaths Storer College people Storer College faculty People from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia