Voices From St. Simons Excerpts: Personal Narratives of an Island's Past
Voices From St. Simons is a contemporary oral history of St. Simons Island, a barrier island located on the Georgia coast between Savannah, GA, and Jacksonville, FL. This book includes interviews with descendants of slave and descendants of slave owners as well as other long time area residents. The following are random excerpts.
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Sadie Ryals: Sadie Ryals, born in 1924, is the oldest of thirteen children who were raised in a small community just north of Darien, Georgia. She is the descendent of slaves who worked the rice fields for Pierce Butler, a prominent Philadelphian who inherited plantations near Darien and on St. Simons Island.
" I saw Audrey, one of my younger sisters, come out of my mama’s womb, September 19, 1941. We had a midwife. She took sick, and I had to help bring her into this world. I dropped Audrey’s naval string. We had to put bands on the baby. Had to burn white cloth and put it on the naval until that navel rotten. When the naval string drop, then you put a band on the baby. When the baby grows, you keep tightening it. We had them great big long pins like that to band the little body up to strengthen their back. I had all my babies at home with a midwife. We used to bury the caul [the membrane enclosing a fetus]. If you didn’t bury the caul, the child might see ghosts. We had to bury that stuff in the yard. Sometime the caul looks like a thin membrane. Sometimes people born with a caul are born little ministers and stuff like that. I don’t know what place it was but they [slave traders] brought the older ones [Africans] over on a ship. There was two white people buying the Negro slaves. They called them slaves the “Butler niggers.” That’s what they used to call them. On Butler Island. See that brick chimney? Right there. That was a rice plantation. The old ancestors were from Africa. They buy them like they’re buying animals."
Eleanor Stiles Cate: Mrs. Cate is a direct descendent of John Couper, a colonial planter who is familiar to historians. She is also a relative of Juliet Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of America. Excerpts from family letters and journals date to the antebellum period and reveal fascinating glimpses into the past with vivid descriptions of life before the Civil War.
"We didn’t shop for groceries. When I was small, a black man had a horse and wagon, and he would come up to the house and yell, 'Groceries!' or whatever he had. Our cook, Henrietta, would go out with a basin and mother would get what she wanted. And we had the fish man, too, who would yell, 'Fish!' which were strung on a marsh rack. It looked so pretty. Our milk was delivered to us. There was a delicatessen downtown that also delivered to us. And we had a garden in back. Henrietta was a former slave. I remember father correcting her about something, and she said, 'Mr. Cate, I was not a house slave. I worked in the fields.' Wasn’t that horrible? That’s one thing I’m ashamed of. Mercy!...I descend from John Couper of St. Simons Island. We pronounce it Coop-a. John Couper was my father’s great-grandfather. John Couper had a plantation on St. Simons, and his son managed Altama [Plantation] on the mainland in Glynn County.... John Couper was very successful with some of the crops he grew. Thomas Jefferson recommended that he grow olive trees. Thomas Jefferson and John Couper corresponded because they were both farmers. The olive trees lived for a good while before there was a terrible freeze, which killed everything."
Carolyn Whitfield & Bernice Myers: Sisters Carolyn Whitfield and Bernice Myers are the granddaughters of Ben Sullivan, a well-known and highly respected islander featured in several books about St. Simons. Ben was the grandson of Sali-bul-Ali, a Mohammedan who was given free rein to conduct plantation affairs in John Couper’s absence.
"We used to hear stories about conjuring. I remember our grandmother used to tell us that she thought there were animals at the foot of her bed and would choke her. We thought she had thyroid problems. Another lady who lived across the street, each night would cut that house up because she thought something was choking her. She would have a butcher knife. When she fell asleep she would feel the choking and think someone was doing it. So she just used a knife. She believed it was a haint [haunt] coming to visit her. She would keep these knives. When she was over at her niece’s house you could see her doing this in her chair [waving a knife around her head] like something is coming around her....I remember my grandmother nailing a penny in the doorstep to bring prosperity. As often as you walked over it, you would attract money. Some people in the neighborhood put a horseshoe over the door."
James Gould, III: James Gould III is a direct descendent of James Gould, builder of St. Simons’ first lighthouse. James Gould and his family were immortalized in a novel trilogy by Eugenia Price – Lighthouse, Beloved Invader, and New Moon Rising – which have been in print since the 1970s and have sold millions of copies worldwide. Jim vividly recalls the day of Paul Redfern’s ill-fated flight from the beach of Sea Island to Brazil.
"In the old days, my father told me, as you went up Frederica Road towards Christ Church, you could see Sea Island. There were open fields. Sea Island was first called Goat Island. Then it was called Long Island. Then Glynn Island. Longview Shopping Center probably got that name because you could have see Long Island from there. Longview Shopping Center was originally called Redfern Field or Redfern Airport, named after Paul Redfern who was from Columbia, South Carolina....I remember Paul Redfern very well. His airplane was based on Sea Island...They had a big hanger about on Fifth or Sixth Street. Paul was going to fly to Rio de Janeiro in August, 1927. Back then Sea Island Drive was a rutted road. It was a pretty good-sized hanger with planks from the hanger door to the hard beach. He kept his airplane there while he was getting ready for the trip. Lindbergh had crossed the Atlantic in May, so Redfern was hoping to fly to South America from Brunswick. He had a Stinson aircraft painted green with “Port of Brunswick” and “Brunswick to Brazil” on the side of it. To me, it was very large airplane. There was quite a group of people out there on the beach wishing him well and just wanted to see him take off. I’m sure his aircraft was nothing but a flying gas tank."
Diane Haywood: Diane Haywood is a descendent of Neptune Small, a former servant of the King family of Retreat Plantation. Neptune Park, located between the lighthouse and the village of St. Simons, is named after him. He is the subject of an award-winning book, Neptune’s Honor: A Story of Loyalty and Love, by Pamela Bauer Mueller, published in 2005. Mrs. Haywood, like a number of African Americans who own land handed down from generation-to-generation, lives on prime real estate but refuses to sell her inheritance.
"I am the fourth generation grandchild of Neptune Small. There are 35 of us still living. Neptune went to the [Civil] war in 1861. He followed the King boys during the war and took care of them. When one of them was killed, Lordy King, he brought him back to the island. Then he went away with the other brother after that. We put together a family book with some of the stories of Neptune....All our family is buried there in the cemetery on the Sea Island Golf Course. It’s behind where they have the golf carts. The Sea Island Company keeps it up. That’s where Neptune Small is buried. We still have plenty of lots there. I plan to be buried there. I hope so. My mother’s there. My grandmother’s there. Uncle Jasper Barnes is there. My aunt, Creola Belton, is there. She was one of the first black nurses at the Brunswick Hospital. She also taught school in Glynn County. Neptune helped plant some of those trees that make up the avenue of oaks going to the Sea Island Golf Club."
Harry Aiken, Jr.: Harry Aiken, Jr. is a direct descendent of Thomas Butler King, legislator, champion of America’s infant navy, collector of the Port of San Francisco, and owner of Retreat Plantation on the south end of St. Simons. Harry contrasts the island life of his ancestors before and after the Civil War with life on the island when he was growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s. He offers insights into a post-Civil War transition point in the 1880s when islanders like Mallory King and James Postell began to see the area as a tourist destination long before Howard Coffin’s arrival to the area in the 1920s. Harry also relates how the village on the south end of St. Simons came into existence.
"My ancestors, the King family, went to Christ Church, which was quite a haul in those days. During the Civil War Northern troops pillaged Christ Church and looted the island. One of the things they took was a clock from Retreat. It was later found in an antique shop in Attleboro, Massachusetts and returned to Retreat and put in what was then the Sea Island Clubhouse. In 1936, the clubhouse burned, so the clock was destroyed with it. My grandparents used to live by the ocean on Florence Street in a house called Sea Marge. When my father was growing up, their dogs would swim over to Jekyll and play on the beach over there when the channel between St. Simons and Jekyll wasn’t so wide. It wasn’t that far a swim. They would yell over to the dogs to come home."
Voila Abbott: Viola Abbott lives on property that once belonged to Georgia’s founder, James Oglethorpe. Her great-grandfather, Randolph, was a servant of Captain Charles Stevens and fought in the Civil War. After the war, Randolph and his brother, Tom, adopted the surname of a family living at Frederica. Tom Abbott’s son, Robert Sengstacke Abbott, achieved fame and wealth as the founder – starting in 1905 with a total capital of 25 cents – of the Chicago Defender, a weekly newspaper that eventually made him a millionaire. Robert Abbott (whom Mrs. Abbott refers to as “RS” in this narrative) encouraged blacks to move north during in support of “The Great Migration” movement. It is estimated that more than a million southern blacks migrated between 1915 and 1925.
"Virginia Stevens is the one who cared for RS’s (Robert Sengstacke Abbott) monument at the park [Fort Frederica] while they lived there – before it was a national park. They got kicked off of that land just like people are trying to kick us off our land now. Everything has changed so drastically. It’s happening everywhere, not just St. Simons. They don’t want to see a green spot. When the last tree goes, we’re all gone. RS’s father worked for the Stevens family. When RS started his newspaper and could afford to have that monument done, Mrs. Virginia Stevens took care of the monument because he sent her children to school. Why would he do that? He was honoring his father. RS also sent his family’s nieces and nephews to college up to a certain point. He is a relative, but the time we came along, we didn’t get any of the money. There was a book about Robert Abbott, The Lonely Warrior. "
Sally Jones and Charles Pearson: Sally Jones, a lifelong resident of St. Simons, is the great-granddaughter of Captain Charles Stevens, a coasting captain who owned what is now the Fort Frederica National Park. Sally grew up at the town of Frederica, established in 1735 by Georgia’s founder, General James Oglethorpe. The Stevens and Taylor families – descendents of Captain Taylor – built their homes there. Mrs. Jones’ family lived at Frederica until the 1940s when the area was handed over to the federal government and made into a national park. Dr. Charles Pearson, Sally’s nephew, is the grandson of Reginald Taylor. He has written several articles about the Stevens–Taylor families, including an article in the Georgia Historical Quarterly on Charles Stevens. Dr. Pearson resides in Appomattox, Virginia.
"Charles Stevens’ uncle, James Frewin, worked as a coasting captain in the 1820s. From the late 1830s until the Civil War, Charles Stevens was engaged in local trade along the Georgia coast between St. Augustine and Port Royal, South Carolina. That was the area of activity of these traders after 1810. Prior to that Charleston dominated the trade, but in the 18-teens, particularly after the War of 1812, Savannah began to capture more and more of the local planters’ trade. The coasting captains carried plantation goods into Savannah and Charleston and carried goods out. The Civil War destroyed the sailing trade. Steamboats kept going after that, but the sailing trade was essentially destroyed. At one time there were several hundred sailing ships and 500 captains involved in the trade. Some of the captains only sailed once or twice. A large percentage were New England men who came down and worked. But the vast majority of captains were foreigners like Frewin and Stevens. Southerners as a whole were not interested in maritime activity. Very few native-born Southerners served as captains."
Allen Burns: Allen Burns is a direct descendent of the Postell family whose Kelvin Grove plantation once encompassed the southeastern portion of St. Simons. He has the distinction of being twice evicted from land on the island by eminent domain, first due to airport construction, the second time due to the creation of a national park. He has lived on historic ground, Frederica, and German Village. He tells about the about the murder of Episcopalian minister in 1938.
"I saw a lot of old tabby ruins way back in the woods a couple of miles north of West Point on the marsh edge. I have also come across Indian burial sites on the north island up at Hampton Point on the riverbank. I’ve also seen them in the German Village area on the riverbank. There were shell mounds when I was a kid between German Village and Taylor’s Fish Camp. The Indians would come to the island and eat oysters and leave the shells behind in these mounds. I found a few arrowheads and clay things. We’d also play on the fort’s old barracks and dive off the old tabby fort into the Frederica River and swim. Back then the river came right up to it. They have since built up the riverbank in front of the fort to keep it from crumbling into the river. There was a tomb that was at the end of our property, which is still there. We would go in there and catch bats. I remember there was one cannon out there left over from Oglethorpe’s days. We didn’t know the original colonial Fort Frederica home foundations were right there under us."
Sonja Olsen Kinard: Sonja Kinard is a local writer and historian who grew up on historic Gascoigne Bluff – the site of Georgia’s first Navy, the site of the invading Spanish fleet’s landing in 1742, and the location of live oak trees harvested to build USS Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides.” The bluff is also the location of Hamilton Plantation, on which two slave cabins still stand, and it is the location of post-Civil War lumber mills. During World War II, U. S. Navy used Gascoigne Bluff to load and unload men and cargo. Sonja and her older sister, Thora Olsen Kimsey, compiled a book of area resident’s recollections titled Memories from The Marshes of Glynn: World War II. Her family, like others on the island, was Scandinavian.
"During World War II, so many people moved to the area that they opened an elementary school on St. Simons on East Beach at Camp Marion. I was in the fifth grade that year. Fraser Ledbetter was my teacher. I went there for about two weeks. Since we lived on the west side of the island, I was transferred to school in Brunswick at Sidney Lanier Elementary where I had attended the preceding four years. That year we had to go to school in shifts because of the influx of so many people...military and mostly shipyard workers. When the semester changed, students who were going in the morning went in the afternoon and vise versa. I could go only in the morning since I rode the school bus. Afternoon sessions didn’t get out until 5 p.m., and the school buses left at 3:15 p.m. Sidney Lanier Elementary, Prep High and the high school, Glynn Academy, were right there together. Now, all of that compound is the Glynn Academy High School. When I was in the 6th grade, they opened the St. Simons Elementary school and I attended the 6th grade there. Two oil tankers were sunk off the coast by German U-Boats. The next day, the Esparta, a cargo ship, was sunk off of Cumberland Island. It was a United Fruit Company boat. It sunk and is still there. It’s called the wreck, but I don’t think there were any casualties on that one. I never knew of the third ship sunk until my sister and I did research on our book."
Buck Buchanan: A farmer turned bricklayer who moved from Hazlehurst to St. Simons in 1934 “for something better,” Buck Buchanan talks in this interview about former slaves still living in the community of Jewtown, one of three settlements on St. Simons founded by freedmen and women. Here, he recalls a time when Georgia politics were dominated by Eugene Talmadge, Herman’s father. As a skilled brick mason, Mr. Buchanan helped build many homes still standing on the island and restored brickwork on the kitchen ovens at John Couper’s plantation, Cannon’s Point.
"When I first came here, most black people couldn’t vote in the state of Georgia – nowhere. When I came here I registered and started voting. Nobody paid no attention. All the people get in a line – all the whites get in a line and the blacks get in that same line and vote. We’d vote down to the pier at the Casino. What is was – get in line and they’d talk with you and everything. Mr. Bacchus Magwood [a former slave] would take his walking stick and walk down there [approximately two miles] and vote. That was back in 1936. I voted for Roosevelt. Anybody you wanted to vote for, you’d get in that line and vote. I don’t know if I voted for Talmadge or not. He’s a man I knowed real well. He’s from McRae. I came to St. Simons looking for something better. I had some nieces and nephews living down here. There used to be a train that run from Atlanta to Brunswick. Anywhere up and down that line you could catch the train. You could leave here tonight and come back the next morning on the train. It took me about four or five hours by train to get here. It would stop at small places. I loved train travel. Go to Atlanta, see my people, and come back by train. It was good traveling."
Bubber Olsen: Olaf Olsen, Jr. is Sonja Olsen Kinard’s older brother and a good friend of Buck Buchanan. He recounts how he and a black childhood friend, Buster Bell, built a lawnmower during the Depression. He also provides more details about the rescue operation his father was involved in following the German U-Boat sinking of two freighters off the Georgia coast in 1942.
"Edo Miller funeral home took charge of the dead seamen. The captain and the engineer from the Baton Rouge stayed at a hotel in Brunswick. They couldn’t get a commercial boat to take them back and forth to the ship, and I was a young boy at that time, about 16, so Daddy said I could take them out in my 35-foot balsa boat. I picked them up in Brunswick every morning at 4:30 and run them out to STS. There was a boat that picked them up at STS and took them on out to the ship. Then I’d be back in Brunswick in time for school. Every afternoon, I’d pick them up again and bring them back. That only lasted for three days. Everyday they’d bring me a present. The Baton Rouge life ring and the bell are now at the Coast Guard Station museum on East Beach. I let the museum have them as a loan, so they can’t get rid of them. Eventually the ships were raised and brought into the St. Simons sound."
Evelyn Oliver: Perhaps more than any other resident of St. Simons, Mrs. Oliver typifies the battle between “old island” charm and modern development. Her home sits on historic ground, ironically, the site of another battle in which the first exchange of gunfire between the British and Spanish invaders in 1742 took place. She also recalls her encounter with Hurricane Dora in 1964, which demolished a row of homes just a block away, and President Johnson’s motorcade parking behind her house when he came to inspect the damage. Her husband, A. C. Oliver, built many homes on the island. One of his bricklayers was Mr. Buck Buchanan, also interviewed in these narratives.
"We were here when hurricane Dora struck. We crossed the street and stayed overnight in the First Baptist Church’s fellowship hall. It was just A. C. and me. The police would stop in every once in a while and tell us what was happening. We didn’t really sleep that night. The Bolands, Rosa, Vickie, and David, stayed in their house across the street from ours. They were right close to where the block of homes washed away. They had no idea until morning that those four or five houses behind them had been demolished. Evidently the hurricane spawned a tornado which hit those homes.... After that, a couple of days later, President Johnson came to the island to inspect the damage. We began hearing that he was coming. We had no idea he would show up at our back door. They parked right on the corner on the other side of the street behind our house. They had sent equipment to clear the roads so that the entourage could get in with cars. There were a number of cars because every one of the Congressmen who could come came with him. I don’t remember who they were, but I remember there were lots of people who came with him. He got and walked around and looked, but they didn’t stay very long. Everybody in the neighborhood came over and tried to see what was going on."
Edwin Fendig: Edwin Fendig, Jr. is a long-time harbor pilot for the Port of Brunswick, Georgia. He talks about the transition of St. Simons from a summer vacation destination for mainlanders to a full-time place of residence. He recalls in detail a tragedy in which 11 people drowned after a ship struck the Sidney Lanier Bridge. Twice drafted into the military, he recounts his World War II experiences. He also remembers an interesting local man who regularly island-hopped (walking and swimming) from St. Simons to Sapelo Island to visit his girlfriend.
"We were approaching the bridge, and the quartermaster turned the wheel the opposite direction from the instructions I gave him. It’s unbelievable how many times that has happened — not in that situation, and not with the same consequences. The mate is responsible to see that the quartermaster turns the wheel the way that the pilot tells him to turn it. We were already going left ten. I said, 'Left twenty.’ I wanted a little more wheel on it. The next thing I knew, the bow sort of swerved to starboard. I looked up at the rudder indicator. When the ship got written up after this accident, they determined it was not convenient for the pilot to navigate and see the rudder indicator. The quartermaster has to look at it, and the mate has to look at it. It was night, but I saw where we were going. When I saw us swerve that way, I knew that the rudder was going right twenty. We were going exactly the opposite direction."
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Bruce Faircloth: Bruce Faircloth came to Brunswick on cattle truck during World War II to work on the Liberty ships as an arc welder. He ended up moving to the area, bringing with him a much-needed commodity for any community – an appreciation of the fine arts. He recounts life during World War II and his work in helping to establish two local theatre groups. Mr. Faircloth has served multiple terms as president of the Brunswick Community Concert Association. For many years he ran his business, B. F. Custom Interiors, on Mallory Street in the village of St. Simons. His wife, Jane Lou Faircloth tells amusing tale about a relative who served in the Civil War.
"I started out as a ship fitter. You had to go to school for about two weeks. I found out that ship fitters mostly swung sledgehammers. I probably weighed 125 pounds and was definitely not sledgehammer swinging material. I also found out that welders made the most money. Outside shell welders earned the most money because it was dangerous and required first-class welding. There was a shortage of them, always. They worked over time at time-and-a-half pay. I worked maybe a week out on the yard swinging a sledgehammer and transferred to welding. I went back to a welding school there in the shipyard and passed the welding test in about three days. I went out from the yard and down on the ways where the final assembly of the ships took place before they were launched. I worked on the scaffolding as an arc-welder, which I really enjoyed. I was working there when they launched the first ship they built there."
Jonathan Williams: Jonathan Williams is a true American success story. He was born in the remote section of Hog Hammock on Sapelo Island – the only access was by boat – where his mother worked at the “big house” for R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco fortune heir. Upon moving to St. Simons, he became good friends with another “island child,” Jim Brown, destined for the NFL Hall-of-Fame and a string of Hollywod movies. After earning a college degree and serving his country in the Army, Jonathan helped pave the way for racial equality as the head football coach of a predominantly white high school during the early days of integration. As of this interview he has served several terms as a City Commissioner in Brunswick, Georgia — a long way from growing up on a remote barrier island during the Depression.
"Jim Brown and I grew up together on St. Simons. He and I were playmates. You could see his athleticism then. Jim, myself, and Andrew Phillips played together. For some reason, no one challenged us. We weren’t bullies, but we might have been more physical than a lot of the other boys we dealt with. He has a daughter on St. Simons who lives in the house he grew up in. When Jim was in his glory days, he came back to the island several times. I remember when I was coaching at Brunswick High I told my players that I grew up with Jim Brown. They didn’t believe it. Then one day one of them told me, 'I saw Jim Brown last night. He’s staying at Sea Palms.' So I called the motel and asked if Jim Brown was registered there. They said, 'Yes, he is registered here.' I asked, 'Is he taking calls?' They said, 'Well, he didn’t say he wasn’t taking calls. I’ll ring him for you.' Sure enough he rang the room, and Jim answered the phone. And I was a little reluctant. I thought, Hey, this guy’s forgotten all about me. So I said, 'Hey Jim. This is BJ.' For some reason, I got the nickname BJ growing up. Don’t ask me what it stands for, because I don’t know. Anyway, he was elated. Man, you could hear him hollering, 'Hey, my man!' So we had a good conversation. I told him I was coaching at Brunswick High and that I would like for him to come and talk to my team. He didn’t hesitate. He said, 'I’ll be over there tomorrow.'”
George Baker: A longtime blackwater rescue-commercial diver and self-styled “expert on hearsay history on the coast,” George Baker brings a unique perspective to area events. He has an intimate knowledge of the Golden Isles life from the air and its underbelly – the ocean, rivers, creeks, and sloughs. George has logged hundreds of hours in gator and shark infested waters, looking for people and finding objects others don’t want found – hijacked cars, guns used in crimes, and stolen safes. When the African Neptune hit the Sidney Lanier Bridge in 1972, George helped search for survivors.
"Another ship grazed the bridge a number of years later. The only fatality occurred a few months later when a friend of mine, one of the welders working on the repairs, went to slide down a beam that was torqued. They were cutting it, and the beam was still hot. He reached out and he hadn’t 'safetyed' off and reared back when he touched the beam. He fell about 80 feet and went down between the fender system and the bridge.... The visibility is double-damn zip down there. But I finally got lucky and found him. The problem was they wanted his climbing gear to see if the safety line broke, which they never do – they just aren’t buckled. So, here’s this big old boy, and I had to untangle him and drag him out of all the debris. Well, I had lost track of time and mentally began to think that I had to decompress. I got up on the piling to where I guessed the ten-foot line would be. I dragged him – literally, because he’s so heavy – up the fender system, and I don’t want to over-inflate since I want to stop and lay on that fender system for as long as I can stand it to make sure I decompress. Ninety-nine out of a hundred victims I tie them to me so I don’t lose him. But I realized that I might have to go back to get him because I was getting totally whipped. I wasn’t 100% sure I could break the surface. Finally I thought it’s time to blow or go, so I got a hold of him by his belt. So I blew the surface and it was screaming. It was raining and thundering. And I’m beating on the side of the ranger boat, but they can’t hear me. So I slid down the boat, and I’m not a happy boy."
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Sadie Ryals: Sadie Ryals, born in 1924, is the oldest of thirteen children who were raised in a small community just north of Darien, Georgia. She is the descendent of slaves who worked the rice fields for Pierce Butler, a prominent Philadelphian who inherited plantations near Darien and on St. Simons Island.
" I saw Audrey, one of my younger sisters, come out of my mama’s womb, September 19, 1941. We had a midwife. She took sick, and I had to help bring her into this world. I dropped Audrey’s naval string. We had to put bands on the baby. Had to burn white cloth and put it on the naval until that navel rotten. When the naval string drop, then you put a band on the baby. When the baby grows, you keep tightening it. We had them great big long pins like that to band the little body up to strengthen their back. I had all my babies at home with a midwife. We used to bury the caul [the membrane enclosing a fetus]. If you didn’t bury the caul, the child might see ghosts. We had to bury that stuff in the yard. Sometime the caul looks like a thin membrane. Sometimes people born with a caul are born little ministers and stuff like that. I don’t know what place it was but they [slave traders] brought the older ones [Africans] over on a ship. There was two white people buying the Negro slaves. They called them slaves the “Butler niggers.” That’s what they used to call them. On Butler Island. See that brick chimney? Right there. That was a rice plantation. The old ancestors were from Africa. They buy them like they’re buying animals."
Eleanor Stiles Cate: Mrs. Cate is a direct descendent of John Couper, a colonial planter who is familiar to historians. She is also a relative of Juliet Gordon Low, founder of Girl Scouts of America. Excerpts from family letters and journals date to the antebellum period and reveal fascinating glimpses into the past with vivid descriptions of life before the Civil War.
"We didn’t shop for groceries. When I was small, a black man had a horse and wagon, and he would come up to the house and yell, 'Groceries!' or whatever he had. Our cook, Henrietta, would go out with a basin and mother would get what she wanted. And we had the fish man, too, who would yell, 'Fish!' which were strung on a marsh rack. It looked so pretty. Our milk was delivered to us. There was a delicatessen downtown that also delivered to us. And we had a garden in back. Henrietta was a former slave. I remember father correcting her about something, and she said, 'Mr. Cate, I was not a house slave. I worked in the fields.' Wasn’t that horrible? That’s one thing I’m ashamed of. Mercy!...I descend from John Couper of St. Simons Island. We pronounce it Coop-a. John Couper was my father’s great-grandfather. John Couper had a plantation on St. Simons, and his son managed Altama [Plantation] on the mainland in Glynn County.... John Couper was very successful with some of the crops he grew. Thomas Jefferson recommended that he grow olive trees. Thomas Jefferson and John Couper corresponded because they were both farmers. The olive trees lived for a good while before there was a terrible freeze, which killed everything."
Carolyn Whitfield & Bernice Myers: Sisters Carolyn Whitfield and Bernice Myers are the granddaughters of Ben Sullivan, a well-known and highly respected islander featured in several books about St. Simons. Ben was the grandson of Sali-bul-Ali, a Mohammedan who was given free rein to conduct plantation affairs in John Couper’s absence.
"We used to hear stories about conjuring. I remember our grandmother used to tell us that she thought there were animals at the foot of her bed and would choke her. We thought she had thyroid problems. Another lady who lived across the street, each night would cut that house up because she thought something was choking her. She would have a butcher knife. When she fell asleep she would feel the choking and think someone was doing it. So she just used a knife. She believed it was a haint [haunt] coming to visit her. She would keep these knives. When she was over at her niece’s house you could see her doing this in her chair [waving a knife around her head] like something is coming around her....I remember my grandmother nailing a penny in the doorstep to bring prosperity. As often as you walked over it, you would attract money. Some people in the neighborhood put a horseshoe over the door."
James Gould, III: James Gould III is a direct descendent of James Gould, builder of St. Simons’ first lighthouse. James Gould and his family were immortalized in a novel trilogy by Eugenia Price – Lighthouse, Beloved Invader, and New Moon Rising – which have been in print since the 1970s and have sold millions of copies worldwide. Jim vividly recalls the day of Paul Redfern’s ill-fated flight from the beach of Sea Island to Brazil.
"In the old days, my father told me, as you went up Frederica Road towards Christ Church, you could see Sea Island. There were open fields. Sea Island was first called Goat Island. Then it was called Long Island. Then Glynn Island. Longview Shopping Center probably got that name because you could have see Long Island from there. Longview Shopping Center was originally called Redfern Field or Redfern Airport, named after Paul Redfern who was from Columbia, South Carolina....I remember Paul Redfern very well. His airplane was based on Sea Island...They had a big hanger about on Fifth or Sixth Street. Paul was going to fly to Rio de Janeiro in August, 1927. Back then Sea Island Drive was a rutted road. It was a pretty good-sized hanger with planks from the hanger door to the hard beach. He kept his airplane there while he was getting ready for the trip. Lindbergh had crossed the Atlantic in May, so Redfern was hoping to fly to South America from Brunswick. He had a Stinson aircraft painted green with “Port of Brunswick” and “Brunswick to Brazil” on the side of it. To me, it was very large airplane. There was quite a group of people out there on the beach wishing him well and just wanted to see him take off. I’m sure his aircraft was nothing but a flying gas tank."
Diane Haywood: Diane Haywood is a descendent of Neptune Small, a former servant of the King family of Retreat Plantation. Neptune Park, located between the lighthouse and the village of St. Simons, is named after him. He is the subject of an award-winning book, Neptune’s Honor: A Story of Loyalty and Love, by Pamela Bauer Mueller, published in 2005. Mrs. Haywood, like a number of African Americans who own land handed down from generation-to-generation, lives on prime real estate but refuses to sell her inheritance.
"I am the fourth generation grandchild of Neptune Small. There are 35 of us still living. Neptune went to the [Civil] war in 1861. He followed the King boys during the war and took care of them. When one of them was killed, Lordy King, he brought him back to the island. Then he went away with the other brother after that. We put together a family book with some of the stories of Neptune....All our family is buried there in the cemetery on the Sea Island Golf Course. It’s behind where they have the golf carts. The Sea Island Company keeps it up. That’s where Neptune Small is buried. We still have plenty of lots there. I plan to be buried there. I hope so. My mother’s there. My grandmother’s there. Uncle Jasper Barnes is there. My aunt, Creola Belton, is there. She was one of the first black nurses at the Brunswick Hospital. She also taught school in Glynn County. Neptune helped plant some of those trees that make up the avenue of oaks going to the Sea Island Golf Club."
Harry Aiken, Jr.: Harry Aiken, Jr. is a direct descendent of Thomas Butler King, legislator, champion of America’s infant navy, collector of the Port of San Francisco, and owner of Retreat Plantation on the south end of St. Simons. Harry contrasts the island life of his ancestors before and after the Civil War with life on the island when he was growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s. He offers insights into a post-Civil War transition point in the 1880s when islanders like Mallory King and James Postell began to see the area as a tourist destination long before Howard Coffin’s arrival to the area in the 1920s. Harry also relates how the village on the south end of St. Simons came into existence.
"My ancestors, the King family, went to Christ Church, which was quite a haul in those days. During the Civil War Northern troops pillaged Christ Church and looted the island. One of the things they took was a clock from Retreat. It was later found in an antique shop in Attleboro, Massachusetts and returned to Retreat and put in what was then the Sea Island Clubhouse. In 1936, the clubhouse burned, so the clock was destroyed with it. My grandparents used to live by the ocean on Florence Street in a house called Sea Marge. When my father was growing up, their dogs would swim over to Jekyll and play on the beach over there when the channel between St. Simons and Jekyll wasn’t so wide. It wasn’t that far a swim. They would yell over to the dogs to come home."
Voila Abbott: Viola Abbott lives on property that once belonged to Georgia’s founder, James Oglethorpe. Her great-grandfather, Randolph, was a servant of Captain Charles Stevens and fought in the Civil War. After the war, Randolph and his brother, Tom, adopted the surname of a family living at Frederica. Tom Abbott’s son, Robert Sengstacke Abbott, achieved fame and wealth as the founder – starting in 1905 with a total capital of 25 cents – of the Chicago Defender, a weekly newspaper that eventually made him a millionaire. Robert Abbott (whom Mrs. Abbott refers to as “RS” in this narrative) encouraged blacks to move north during in support of “The Great Migration” movement. It is estimated that more than a million southern blacks migrated between 1915 and 1925.
"Virginia Stevens is the one who cared for RS’s (Robert Sengstacke Abbott) monument at the park [Fort Frederica] while they lived there – before it was a national park. They got kicked off of that land just like people are trying to kick us off our land now. Everything has changed so drastically. It’s happening everywhere, not just St. Simons. They don’t want to see a green spot. When the last tree goes, we’re all gone. RS’s father worked for the Stevens family. When RS started his newspaper and could afford to have that monument done, Mrs. Virginia Stevens took care of the monument because he sent her children to school. Why would he do that? He was honoring his father. RS also sent his family’s nieces and nephews to college up to a certain point. He is a relative, but the time we came along, we didn’t get any of the money. There was a book about Robert Abbott, The Lonely Warrior. "
Sally Jones and Charles Pearson: Sally Jones, a lifelong resident of St. Simons, is the great-granddaughter of Captain Charles Stevens, a coasting captain who owned what is now the Fort Frederica National Park. Sally grew up at the town of Frederica, established in 1735 by Georgia’s founder, General James Oglethorpe. The Stevens and Taylor families – descendents of Captain Taylor – built their homes there. Mrs. Jones’ family lived at Frederica until the 1940s when the area was handed over to the federal government and made into a national park. Dr. Charles Pearson, Sally’s nephew, is the grandson of Reginald Taylor. He has written several articles about the Stevens–Taylor families, including an article in the Georgia Historical Quarterly on Charles Stevens. Dr. Pearson resides in Appomattox, Virginia.
"Charles Stevens’ uncle, James Frewin, worked as a coasting captain in the 1820s. From the late 1830s until the Civil War, Charles Stevens was engaged in local trade along the Georgia coast between St. Augustine and Port Royal, South Carolina. That was the area of activity of these traders after 1810. Prior to that Charleston dominated the trade, but in the 18-teens, particularly after the War of 1812, Savannah began to capture more and more of the local planters’ trade. The coasting captains carried plantation goods into Savannah and Charleston and carried goods out. The Civil War destroyed the sailing trade. Steamboats kept going after that, but the sailing trade was essentially destroyed. At one time there were several hundred sailing ships and 500 captains involved in the trade. Some of the captains only sailed once or twice. A large percentage were New England men who came down and worked. But the vast majority of captains were foreigners like Frewin and Stevens. Southerners as a whole were not interested in maritime activity. Very few native-born Southerners served as captains."
Allen Burns: Allen Burns is a direct descendent of the Postell family whose Kelvin Grove plantation once encompassed the southeastern portion of St. Simons. He has the distinction of being twice evicted from land on the island by eminent domain, first due to airport construction, the second time due to the creation of a national park. He has lived on historic ground, Frederica, and German Village. He tells about the about the murder of Episcopalian minister in 1938.
"I saw a lot of old tabby ruins way back in the woods a couple of miles north of West Point on the marsh edge. I have also come across Indian burial sites on the north island up at Hampton Point on the riverbank. I’ve also seen them in the German Village area on the riverbank. There were shell mounds when I was a kid between German Village and Taylor’s Fish Camp. The Indians would come to the island and eat oysters and leave the shells behind in these mounds. I found a few arrowheads and clay things. We’d also play on the fort’s old barracks and dive off the old tabby fort into the Frederica River and swim. Back then the river came right up to it. They have since built up the riverbank in front of the fort to keep it from crumbling into the river. There was a tomb that was at the end of our property, which is still there. We would go in there and catch bats. I remember there was one cannon out there left over from Oglethorpe’s days. We didn’t know the original colonial Fort Frederica home foundations were right there under us."
Sonja Olsen Kinard: Sonja Kinard is a local writer and historian who grew up on historic Gascoigne Bluff – the site of Georgia’s first Navy, the site of the invading Spanish fleet’s landing in 1742, and the location of live oak trees harvested to build USS Constitution, also known as “Old Ironsides.” The bluff is also the location of Hamilton Plantation, on which two slave cabins still stand, and it is the location of post-Civil War lumber mills. During World War II, U. S. Navy used Gascoigne Bluff to load and unload men and cargo. Sonja and her older sister, Thora Olsen Kimsey, compiled a book of area resident’s recollections titled Memories from The Marshes of Glynn: World War II. Her family, like others on the island, was Scandinavian.
"During World War II, so many people moved to the area that they opened an elementary school on St. Simons on East Beach at Camp Marion. I was in the fifth grade that year. Fraser Ledbetter was my teacher. I went there for about two weeks. Since we lived on the west side of the island, I was transferred to school in Brunswick at Sidney Lanier Elementary where I had attended the preceding four years. That year we had to go to school in shifts because of the influx of so many people...military and mostly shipyard workers. When the semester changed, students who were going in the morning went in the afternoon and vise versa. I could go only in the morning since I rode the school bus. Afternoon sessions didn’t get out until 5 p.m., and the school buses left at 3:15 p.m. Sidney Lanier Elementary, Prep High and the high school, Glynn Academy, were right there together. Now, all of that compound is the Glynn Academy High School. When I was in the 6th grade, they opened the St. Simons Elementary school and I attended the 6th grade there. Two oil tankers were sunk off the coast by German U-Boats. The next day, the Esparta, a cargo ship, was sunk off of Cumberland Island. It was a United Fruit Company boat. It sunk and is still there. It’s called the wreck, but I don’t think there were any casualties on that one. I never knew of the third ship sunk until my sister and I did research on our book."
Buck Buchanan: A farmer turned bricklayer who moved from Hazlehurst to St. Simons in 1934 “for something better,” Buck Buchanan talks in this interview about former slaves still living in the community of Jewtown, one of three settlements on St. Simons founded by freedmen and women. Here, he recalls a time when Georgia politics were dominated by Eugene Talmadge, Herman’s father. As a skilled brick mason, Mr. Buchanan helped build many homes still standing on the island and restored brickwork on the kitchen ovens at John Couper’s plantation, Cannon’s Point.
"When I first came here, most black people couldn’t vote in the state of Georgia – nowhere. When I came here I registered and started voting. Nobody paid no attention. All the people get in a line – all the whites get in a line and the blacks get in that same line and vote. We’d vote down to the pier at the Casino. What is was – get in line and they’d talk with you and everything. Mr. Bacchus Magwood [a former slave] would take his walking stick and walk down there [approximately two miles] and vote. That was back in 1936. I voted for Roosevelt. Anybody you wanted to vote for, you’d get in that line and vote. I don’t know if I voted for Talmadge or not. He’s a man I knowed real well. He’s from McRae. I came to St. Simons looking for something better. I had some nieces and nephews living down here. There used to be a train that run from Atlanta to Brunswick. Anywhere up and down that line you could catch the train. You could leave here tonight and come back the next morning on the train. It took me about four or five hours by train to get here. It would stop at small places. I loved train travel. Go to Atlanta, see my people, and come back by train. It was good traveling."
Bubber Olsen: Olaf Olsen, Jr. is Sonja Olsen Kinard’s older brother and a good friend of Buck Buchanan. He recounts how he and a black childhood friend, Buster Bell, built a lawnmower during the Depression. He also provides more details about the rescue operation his father was involved in following the German U-Boat sinking of two freighters off the Georgia coast in 1942.
"Edo Miller funeral home took charge of the dead seamen. The captain and the engineer from the Baton Rouge stayed at a hotel in Brunswick. They couldn’t get a commercial boat to take them back and forth to the ship, and I was a young boy at that time, about 16, so Daddy said I could take them out in my 35-foot balsa boat. I picked them up in Brunswick every morning at 4:30 and run them out to STS. There was a boat that picked them up at STS and took them on out to the ship. Then I’d be back in Brunswick in time for school. Every afternoon, I’d pick them up again and bring them back. That only lasted for three days. Everyday they’d bring me a present. The Baton Rouge life ring and the bell are now at the Coast Guard Station museum on East Beach. I let the museum have them as a loan, so they can’t get rid of them. Eventually the ships were raised and brought into the St. Simons sound."
Evelyn Oliver: Perhaps more than any other resident of St. Simons, Mrs. Oliver typifies the battle between “old island” charm and modern development. Her home sits on historic ground, ironically, the site of another battle in which the first exchange of gunfire between the British and Spanish invaders in 1742 took place. She also recalls her encounter with Hurricane Dora in 1964, which demolished a row of homes just a block away, and President Johnson’s motorcade parking behind her house when he came to inspect the damage. Her husband, A. C. Oliver, built many homes on the island. One of his bricklayers was Mr. Buck Buchanan, also interviewed in these narratives.
"We were here when hurricane Dora struck. We crossed the street and stayed overnight in the First Baptist Church’s fellowship hall. It was just A. C. and me. The police would stop in every once in a while and tell us what was happening. We didn’t really sleep that night. The Bolands, Rosa, Vickie, and David, stayed in their house across the street from ours. They were right close to where the block of homes washed away. They had no idea until morning that those four or five houses behind them had been demolished. Evidently the hurricane spawned a tornado which hit those homes.... After that, a couple of days later, President Johnson came to the island to inspect the damage. We began hearing that he was coming. We had no idea he would show up at our back door. They parked right on the corner on the other side of the street behind our house. They had sent equipment to clear the roads so that the entourage could get in with cars. There were a number of cars because every one of the Congressmen who could come came with him. I don’t remember who they were, but I remember there were lots of people who came with him. He got and walked around and looked, but they didn’t stay very long. Everybody in the neighborhood came over and tried to see what was going on."
Edwin Fendig: Edwin Fendig, Jr. is a long-time harbor pilot for the Port of Brunswick, Georgia. He talks about the transition of St. Simons from a summer vacation destination for mainlanders to a full-time place of residence. He recalls in detail a tragedy in which 11 people drowned after a ship struck the Sidney Lanier Bridge. Twice drafted into the military, he recounts his World War II experiences. He also remembers an interesting local man who regularly island-hopped (walking and swimming) from St. Simons to Sapelo Island to visit his girlfriend.
"We were approaching the bridge, and the quartermaster turned the wheel the opposite direction from the instructions I gave him. It’s unbelievable how many times that has happened — not in that situation, and not with the same consequences. The mate is responsible to see that the quartermaster turns the wheel the way that the pilot tells him to turn it. We were already going left ten. I said, 'Left twenty.’ I wanted a little more wheel on it. The next thing I knew, the bow sort of swerved to starboard. I looked up at the rudder indicator. When the ship got written up after this accident, they determined it was not convenient for the pilot to navigate and see the rudder indicator. The quartermaster has to look at it, and the mate has to look at it. It was night, but I saw where we were going. When I saw us swerve that way, I knew that the rudder was going right twenty. We were going exactly the opposite direction."
Read Unpublished Fendig Excerpt
Bruce Faircloth: Bruce Faircloth came to Brunswick on cattle truck during World War II to work on the Liberty ships as an arc welder. He ended up moving to the area, bringing with him a much-needed commodity for any community – an appreciation of the fine arts. He recounts life during World War II and his work in helping to establish two local theatre groups. Mr. Faircloth has served multiple terms as president of the Brunswick Community Concert Association. For many years he ran his business, B. F. Custom Interiors, on Mallory Street in the village of St. Simons. His wife, Jane Lou Faircloth tells amusing tale about a relative who served in the Civil War.
"I started out as a ship fitter. You had to go to school for about two weeks. I found out that ship fitters mostly swung sledgehammers. I probably weighed 125 pounds and was definitely not sledgehammer swinging material. I also found out that welders made the most money. Outside shell welders earned the most money because it was dangerous and required first-class welding. There was a shortage of them, always. They worked over time at time-and-a-half pay. I worked maybe a week out on the yard swinging a sledgehammer and transferred to welding. I went back to a welding school there in the shipyard and passed the welding test in about three days. I went out from the yard and down on the ways where the final assembly of the ships took place before they were launched. I worked on the scaffolding as an arc-welder, which I really enjoyed. I was working there when they launched the first ship they built there."
Jonathan Williams: Jonathan Williams is a true American success story. He was born in the remote section of Hog Hammock on Sapelo Island – the only access was by boat – where his mother worked at the “big house” for R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco fortune heir. Upon moving to St. Simons, he became good friends with another “island child,” Jim Brown, destined for the NFL Hall-of-Fame and a string of Hollywod movies. After earning a college degree and serving his country in the Army, Jonathan helped pave the way for racial equality as the head football coach of a predominantly white high school during the early days of integration. As of this interview he has served several terms as a City Commissioner in Brunswick, Georgia — a long way from growing up on a remote barrier island during the Depression.
"Jim Brown and I grew up together on St. Simons. He and I were playmates. You could see his athleticism then. Jim, myself, and Andrew Phillips played together. For some reason, no one challenged us. We weren’t bullies, but we might have been more physical than a lot of the other boys we dealt with. He has a daughter on St. Simons who lives in the house he grew up in. When Jim was in his glory days, he came back to the island several times. I remember when I was coaching at Brunswick High I told my players that I grew up with Jim Brown. They didn’t believe it. Then one day one of them told me, 'I saw Jim Brown last night. He’s staying at Sea Palms.' So I called the motel and asked if Jim Brown was registered there. They said, 'Yes, he is registered here.' I asked, 'Is he taking calls?' They said, 'Well, he didn’t say he wasn’t taking calls. I’ll ring him for you.' Sure enough he rang the room, and Jim answered the phone. And I was a little reluctant. I thought, Hey, this guy’s forgotten all about me. So I said, 'Hey Jim. This is BJ.' For some reason, I got the nickname BJ growing up. Don’t ask me what it stands for, because I don’t know. Anyway, he was elated. Man, you could hear him hollering, 'Hey, my man!' So we had a good conversation. I told him I was coaching at Brunswick High and that I would like for him to come and talk to my team. He didn’t hesitate. He said, 'I’ll be over there tomorrow.'”
George Baker: A longtime blackwater rescue-commercial diver and self-styled “expert on hearsay history on the coast,” George Baker brings a unique perspective to area events. He has an intimate knowledge of the Golden Isles life from the air and its underbelly – the ocean, rivers, creeks, and sloughs. George has logged hundreds of hours in gator and shark infested waters, looking for people and finding objects others don’t want found – hijacked cars, guns used in crimes, and stolen safes. When the African Neptune hit the Sidney Lanier Bridge in 1972, George helped search for survivors.
"Another ship grazed the bridge a number of years later. The only fatality occurred a few months later when a friend of mine, one of the welders working on the repairs, went to slide down a beam that was torqued. They were cutting it, and the beam was still hot. He reached out and he hadn’t 'safetyed' off and reared back when he touched the beam. He fell about 80 feet and went down between the fender system and the bridge.... The visibility is double-damn zip down there. But I finally got lucky and found him. The problem was they wanted his climbing gear to see if the safety line broke, which they never do – they just aren’t buckled. So, here’s this big old boy, and I had to untangle him and drag him out of all the debris. Well, I had lost track of time and mentally began to think that I had to decompress. I got up on the piling to where I guessed the ten-foot line would be. I dragged him – literally, because he’s so heavy – up the fender system, and I don’t want to over-inflate since I want to stop and lay on that fender system for as long as I can stand it to make sure I decompress. Ninety-nine out of a hundred victims I tie them to me so I don’t lose him. But I realized that I might have to go back to get him because I was getting totally whipped. I wasn’t 100% sure I could break the surface. Finally I thought it’s time to blow or go, so I got a hold of him by his belt. So I blew the surface and it was screaming. It was raining and thundering. And I’m beating on the side of the ranger boat, but they can’t hear me. So I slid down the boat, and I’m not a happy boy."
