Macedonia Cooperative Community Records

The Macedonia Cooperative Community was formed in 1937 in Habersham County in northern Georgia by Morris Randolph Mitchell (1895-1976), an educator who later served as the first president of Friends World College. The Macedonia Cooperative Community, which took its name from a nearby Baptist Church, was comprised of families who worked collectively on dairy, agricultural, forestry, and woodworking projects that provided the economic underpinnings of the community.

Originally established as an economic cooperative, Macedonia later passed through two distinctive phases before it folded in 1958. At the end of World War II, an infusion of conscientious objectors, who had been engaged in Civilian Public Service and/or had served prison terms during the war, joined the community, bringing an emphasis on pacifism. The eighteen pacifists worked at various forms of farming and at a small woodworking factory which they built. The wage system was discarded, and the entire operation was run on a communal, subsistence basis. In 1949 the Macedonia community applied for membership in Peacemakers as a local cell group. The last stage of Macedonia was during the time (1953-1957) when its members explored the possibility of merging with the Society of Brothers (Bruderhof), with whom they had already been working to make toys and other wooden items to sell. In 1958, Macedonia became officially part of the Society of Brothers, and the Community's property was sold at public auction on June 27, 1958.

Morris Mitchell quit his role of financier and public force for the Community in 1948, but retained an active interest in it until its demise.