One of the charms of Camp Bratton-Green has always been that it’s small. This past summer, at any given session, camper enrollment topped out shy of 100 campers. CBG has always been scrappy, too—making the most with lesser budgets and fewer facilities than other camps. This keeps the emphasis on human relationships and also makes it possible for more kids to attend regardless of their parents’ incomes (tiered pricing and scholarships mean no one is turned away for financial reasons).

Still, camp’s humble beginnings a century ago this year make the present-day camp look like a massive institution. When the Diocese of Mississippi held its first ever summer camp at the Gulf Coast Junior Military Academy on the beach between Gulfport and Biloxi in the summer of 1924, the enrollment was five campers. They paid 10 dollars each.

Then-Bishop of Mississippi Theodore Dubose Bratton presided over an amorphous diocese, very loosely connected and, in those days, struggling with churches experiencing stalled or declining membership. Bratton wisely saw youth programs as a way to shore up the church’s future, and tapped the Rev. Bradner Moore of St. Peter’s, Oxford, to spearhead a summer camp. Moore, in turn, recruited an Ole Miss freshman, Girault Jones (whose family influence on summer camp in the diocese has been tremendous and continues to this day), to round up some young men for the program.

The Diocese of Mississippi and the world were very different then. Those first five campers had to travel to the coast on roads that were rutted gravel affairs in the best of circumstances, scarcely more than dirt trails in others. Babe Ruth was in the prime of his career. The radio was the latest hot piece of tech.

Throughout the rest of the 20s, camp persisted but bounced between its coastal venue and the Castallion Springs luxury resort north of Jackson. By most accounts, campers preferred the luxury resort to the military academy.

But camp in the 1920s had plenty in common with camp in the 2020s—skits, games, swimming, sports and, of course, worship and prayer. And after ten years in operation, what had come to be known as Camp Bratton-Green, named after the bishop who started it and his successor, had a budget of a whopping $120 and an enrollment of 137 campers. Notably, it had also bucked the trend of most camps of the day and admitted both boys and girls, who played and worshipped together.

Of the 1933 camp, held in June, The Church News reported:

Camp Bratton Green, Castallion Springs, has just closed the most successful year in its history, the best spirit among the campers, splendid cooperation. Bishop Bratton and Bishop Green were in constant attendance, each bishop leading a daily conference among the adult members of the camp.

After a decade and a half bouncing from location to location, it was decided that All Saints’ School in Vicksburg would become Bratton-Green’s home in 1939. It was in some ways a very appropriate venue since camp at that time was much more school-like than it is now.

In addition to their fun activities like a daily trip to Vicksburg’s city pool, campers took classes like Prayer Book, Christian Family Living, and Church History.
Singing at meals, however, would have looked very familiar to anyone who’s been to lunch at camp in modern times:

“Campers jumped up and down so hard that the glasses bounced on the tables,” according to W.G. Christian, the headmaster of the school at the time.

In 1943, Duncan Gray, Sr., was elected bishop, and one of his goals was to build a physical site for camp to call its permanent home.

“Camp Bratton-Green is the most important and helpful of our diocesan gatherings,” said Gray. “We who have known Camp Bratton-Green over the years find it hard to exaggerate the values of its fellowship and training. Friendships formed at church camp are the sort that endure.”

In 1946, Bishop Gray took a look at a property ten miles north of Canton called Rose Hill—it was beautiful and came with a house equipped with sheets, towels, and china, as well as a cow, a horse, and a mule named Ella.

The asking price was out of reach at first, but in late March when the bishop was making his annual visit to Columbus, he got some good news from the rector there, the Rev. Cecil B. Jones Jr., who was also serving as the camp director at the time. He’d received an offer to buy the property for $32,000.

The deal closed just over three weeks later, and the era of Bratton-Green as it’s known today began.

The work was only just beginning, though. The house on the property (home in modern times to the members of the Permanent Staff) wasn’t nearly large enough to house the campers. Money had to be raised, cabins and a dining hall built, and the land had to be tamed.

Jones recalled the state of the property this way:

The big house was in very good condition, but that was it. Down a dusty road were glimpses of the lake where the children were going to swim, all over grown, moccasin heads sticking up out of the surface of the water… Briers, bushes, vines, snakes, yellow jackets and wasps nests were everywhere. Pine stumps stuck out of the water like candles on a birthday cake…

He, along with Bishop Gray and a small army of men and women who volunteered, did much of the work themselves—erecting cabins, felling trees, building a swimming pier, cleaning the site. Ella the mule pulled a mowing plow to clear waist-high grasses.

Rose Hill hosted campers for the first time in 1947—which also marked the first year of multiple camp sessions. For the first seven years, the very first session was a ‘work camp’ to improve the facilities. A version of this lives on in modern times in the form of camp alumni association work sessions held throughout the year.

There were many milestones to come in the ensuing decades. A permanent dining hall, administration building, recreation hall, well, and swimming pool were completed in 1954. Permanent cabins throughout the latter half of that decade. An arts and crafts shack added in 1959.

On top of the physical improvements, camp changed in other ways. The first Permanent Staff of college students was introduced in 1963. The first Special Session for people with all sorts of disabilities was held in 1968. Special Session, which remains a cornerstone of Bratton-Green to this day, hosts campers of all ages, and some have attended for as many as 50 years. The influence of this camp is perhaps even greater for the young people who come to serve as counselors and learn the true meaning of service.

The most infamous date in camp history, of course, came decades later on December 21, 1990, when a powerful tornado leveled most of Bratton-Green. When Jones, who served in his role at camp for thirty years before his retirement, heard the news, he reportedly said, “Well, we built it in three months. You’ll have to rebuild it in three months.”

Of course, camp was rebuilt, though it wasn’t really built in three months either the first time or the second. It’s been in a constant state of building now for 100 years, with each new generation of campers picking up the mantle and renewing it for the next. There’s no telling what the next 100 years of camp will bring.

This article is adapted from Camp Bratton-Green: As Remembered by Many Who Experienced It by Linda Kay, Ed.D., 1991. To read more, visit msepiscopalian.com/camp. Additional reporting by the Rev. Hugh “Scoop” Jones.