1876 – Sept. Organized as an AME missionary effort; founding members were Milford Daniels, Alexander Garnel, Mrs. Rachel Anderson, Allen Cooper, Mrs. Shoots. and Mrs. Walker.
1878 – 8 members
1880s – Trustees Nathan Thorpe, Milford Daniels, Alonzo Mayo, Granville Gooper
1883 – Sept. Mortgage to purchase property at 320 North Mechanic Street, Macomb, Illinois (James McClellan, local real estate & insurance broker acted as treasurer)
1885 – building completed. Rev. William G. Rinehart was pastor. Consecration service was conducted by AME Bishop John M. Brown of Washington, D.C. and the congregation was named for Bishop Brown.
1891 – built parsonage; Milford and Sanford Daniels did most of the carpentry and plastering
1892 – Oct. Rev. N. I. Gordon placed at Macomb – from Wisconsin Afro-American, edited by Rev. George A. Brown
1894 – 50 members
1896 – Pastor was Rev. George Alexander Wayman Brown, son of John M. Brown
1902 – 28 members (down from 47 in 1899)
1924 – 22 members
1925 – 11 members
1926 – 24 members
1944 – 21 members
194os- Membership declined as WW2 soldiers left and others moved to cities for factory work
1946 – 12 members
1943 – 1965: AME Conference sent a pastor to preach bi-weekly
1965 – 4 members: Mr & Mrs Herbert Sloan, Mrs. Lillian Sloan, Mrs. Carrie Lou Thorpe Davis; other members moved to Mt. Calvary Church of God in Christ; the Sloans attended Wesley United Methodist; Joe Daniels attended St Paul’s Catholic Church.
1975-6 – AME District investigated option of revitalizing a congregation but this did not proceed; Descendents of the early members (Daniels, Sloan, Thorpe, and Cooper families)
Other members:
Daniels: Milford & Dica; children Sanford, Elizabeth, Isabella Daniels Rodgers Suggs and Oliver
Daniels: Sanford & wives Millie Foster, Clara Newsome & Emma Hamliton, children: Joseph, Gertrude, Magella
Carroll: Richard
Mayo: George
Thorpe: Nathan
Newsome: Milo & Ardelia Washington
Vivian: C. T.
References:
Jones, Jeffery G. (1983). The History of Brown’s Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: 1876-1965, Macomb, Illinois. Macomb: Western Illinois University. Offers details of the congregation’s history and short biographies of a few members.