St. Simons, Georgia

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St. Simons, Georgia
—  CDP  —
Location in Glynn County and the state of Georgia
Coordinates: 31°9′40″N 81°23′13″W / 31.16111°N 81.38694°W / 31.16111; -81.38694
Country	United States
State	Georgia
County	Glynn
Area
- Total	17.9 sq mi (46.2 km2)
- Land	16.6 sq mi (43 km2)
- Water	1.3 sq mi (3.2 km2)
Elevation	10 ft (3 m)
Population (2000)
- Total	13,381
- Density	747.5/sq mi (289.6/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
FIPS code	13-68040[1]
GNIS feature ID	0322308[2]

St. Simons is a census-designated place (CDP) located on St. Simons Island in Glynn County, Georgia, United States. Both the community and the island are commonly considered to be one location, known simply as "St. Simons Island", or locally as "The Island". St. Simons is part of the Brunswick, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area, and according to the 2000 census, the CDP had a population of 13,381.

St. Simons Island is one of Georgia's renowned Golden Isles (along with Sea Island, Jekyll Island, and Little St. Simons Island). It is also the largest of the Golden Isles. The town is also a resort community and has many seasonal residents, as well as a steady base of year-round residents. Consequently, many of the residents are retired individuals from other parts of Georgia or the United States.^{[citation needed]} Malcolm McKinnon Airport (IATA: SSI) is located on the island.

Contents 1 Geography 2 Demographics 3 History 3.1 Native American History 3.1.1 The Marsh 3.2 Spanish Florida 3.3 Spanish Missions circa 1655 3.4 Fort Frederica 3.5 American Revolution 3.6 Lumber for ships 3.7 Wesley brothers 3.8 Christ Church 3.9 Cotton production 3.10 St. Simons Island lighthouse 3.11 Coast Guard Station and World War II 3.12 King and Prince Hotel 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Geography

St. Simons is located at 31°9′40″N 81°23′13″W / 31.16111°N 81.38694°W / 31.16111; -81.38694 (31.161250, -81.386875)^[3], approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of Brunswick, Georgia, the sole municipality in Glynn County and the county government seat.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 17.9 square miles (46.3 km²), 16.6 square miles (43.0 km²) of which is land and 1.2 square miles (3.2 km²) of it (7 percent) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there were 13,381 people, 6,196 households, and 3,804 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 805.8 people per square mile (311.0/km²). There were 8,437 housing units at an average density of 508.1/sq mi (196.1/km²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 94.29 percent White, 3.69 percent African American, 0.16 percent Native American, 0.93 percent Asian, 0.01 percent Pacific Islander, 0.28 percent from other races, and 0.63 percent from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.89 percent of the population.

There were 6,196 households out of which 22.5 percent had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.8 percent were married couples living together, 6.8 percent had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.6 percent were non-families. 32.9 percent of all households were made up of individuals and 13.3 percent had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.14 and the average family size was 2.71.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 19.3 percent under the age of 18, 4.6 percent from 18 to 24, 24.1 percent from 25 to 44, 30.7 percent from 45 to 64, and 21.4 percent who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females there were 86.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.8 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $58,475, and the median income for a family was $73,580. Males had a median income of $50,725 versus $32,351 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $37,256. About 2.4 percent of families and 4.5 percent of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.6 percent of those under age 18 and 7.5 percent of those age 65 or over.

[edit] History

[edit] Native American History

Just north of the village on St. Simons Island is a park of stately live oaks. On the southern edge of the oaks, along a narrow lane, is a low earthen mound. Growing upon it are three majestic oak trees serving as a natural monument for the more than thirty Indians buried in the mound. The men, women and children interred under these oaks lived in a settlement that flourished on this site two centuries before the first European touched shore.

The first inhabitants of St. Simons made this island their own some two thousand years before the time of Christ. No one knows what they first called themselves. Eventually they became known as the Timucuans - the name that has persisted to our own time. Part of the Mississippian culture that flourished over much of the Southeast, the eastern Timucuans ranged along the coastal plain of southeast Georgia and northern Florida. Their complex society was made up of seven distinct tribal groups that spoke at least five dialects.

[edit] The Marsh

St. Simons Island was the northern boundary of the tribal province known as Mocama - its name taken from that of the local dialect - that extended southward to the St. Johns River. The town of Guadalquini was located on the south end of the island at the site of the present day lighthouse, and the town's name also applied to the island itself. Just above Mocama was the territory of the Guales, occupying the coastal fringe between the Altamaha and Ogeechee Rivers. The Guales spoke quite a different language but were inextricably linked with their Timucuan neighbors and destined to share a common fate in the final drama that awaited them both.

These coastal Indians were a healthy and robust people. They were quite fond of adorning their bodies with strings of shell beads four to six fingers in breadth that were worn around the neck, arms, wrists, and under the knees and ankles. They painted their breasts, biceps and thighs with bright red body paint, soot and charcoal. Both men and women wore their hair long. They let both their fingernails and toenails grow, and the men would sharpen their fingernails on one side, an advantage in warfare. It was not uncommon for the Indians to engage in periodic warfare with their coastal neighbors as much for sport as for spoils, with violent ball games sometimes substituted for war. As for their clothing: deerskin breechclouts sufficed for the men in all but the coldest weather, moss skirts were preferred by the women.

The Indians' main source of food was the sea, which yielded sheepshead, sea catfish, drum, shellfish and the great Atlantic sturgeon. Their diet was supplemented by small game such as raccoons, opossum and the white-tailed deer. They also grew pumpkins, beans and corn, which they ground into meal, and gathered nuts, grapes and berries.

During spring and summer, the Indians gathered in villages and planted crops, hunted and fished until harvest. The villages included granaries, a large communal structure and family shelters made of saplings and boughs covered with palmetto fronds. The chief usually possessed a larger dwelling than his tribesmen. They used a wide range of bone tools; conch shells served as hoes and hammers.

Corn was harvested in the fall and the surplus was stored in the large village granaries. Several times a year this food was redistributed in ritualized festivals; after the fall redistribution ceremony, the Indians dispersed into small groups abandoning the village pattern until the following spring. They ranged along the coast, from inland pine and river valley forest on the mainland to the high hammock forests, tidal flats, beach and dunes of the barrier islands. The group lodged in temporary shelters of large, oval-shaped pavilions, moving on when game and fish were no longer plentiful. When food was scarce, a hunter could hunt or fish in territory belonging to the village of his wife.

The Indians were governed by territorial and local chieftains known as "caciques" (Mocama) and "micos" (Guale) and by lesser-ranking functionaries within each of the coastal villages. They developed a matrilineal society, with hereditary power passed through the mother. The chiefs were required to marry a commoner, therefore a sister or nephew inherited the title. Governing power was based on the storage of corn - hence control of the food supply in lean times - cultivated by labor tribute from the subordinate villages. Along with their political power, the caciques and micos enjoyed the right to have more than one wife; monogamy seemed to be the norm for the rest of the population.

Unfortunately, little has been recorded of the Timucuan religion. As for the Guales, we are limited to a single account by a Dominican who recorded it third hand. Guale mythology seems to have embraced the origin and destiny of the soul, and the communal atonement of sin. Their major deities were Mateczunga, god of the north, and Quexuga, god of the south. The Guales believed that all souls originated in the north, lingered briefly on earth, then departed to the realm of Quexuga. The Spanish were fascinated by one particular ceremony with religious connotations: the drinking of the "black drink" brewed from the berries of the cassina tree. After drinking this potent beverage, "their bellies swelled and vomiting followed" cleansing the body of the participant.

Knowledge of the Timucuan and Guale way of life prior to European contact is limited by the paucity of the archeological record and the subjective observations of the early explorers and missionaries. From all indications, however, they were becoming more settled at the time of European contact. As to the direction that their cultural evolution may have led, we can only speculate. For with the arrival of European civilization, the Timucuan and Guale cultures were doomed to extinction.

[edit] Spanish Florida

During the 17th century, St. Simons Island was one of the most important settlements of the Mocama missionary province of Spanish Florida. After the founding of South Carolina in 1680, conflict between the English and Spanish wreaked havoc on the Sea Islands. James Moore of South Carolina led a combined land and sea invasion of Florida in 1702 which essentially destroyed the Spanish mission system on the islands. Surviving Indians were subjected to slave raids leaving the islands depopulated by the time the colony of Georgia was founded. By the mid-Sixteenth Century, Spain had come into her own as the most powerful nation on earth and had thoroughly staked out her claim in the New World. For the quest of gold and the glory of God, mighty Spain held sway over vast parts of South America, Mexico and the Caribbean. As for her rivals, England was just finding the confidence with her new virgin queen, Elizabeth, to challenge Spanish domination; France was wracked with civil war between the Catholics and Protestants. But in the next few decades, the land of the Mocama and Guale would play a significant role in shaping the colonial aspirations of each of these European powers as they fought for a toehold in North America.

The Spanish came first. Ponce de Leon claimed the southern region for Spain in 1513, and Hernando de Soto probed western Georgia in 1540. But it was the French who prompted Spain to settle the area on a permanent basis and, as is so often the case in the affairs of men, religious fervor was the motive for the early colonial effort.

Protestants of France, known as the "Huguenots," were rebelling against the Catholics. The French queen was determined to end the bloodshed and strife and reasoned that a colony in the New World could serve as a haven for the persecuted Huguenots as well as a base for raiding the treasure fleets of Spain.

She selected Jean Ribault to head an exploratory expedition that landed at the mouth of the St. Johns River near present-day Jacksonville, Florida, in 1562. He called it the "River May," and as he sailed northward as far as Parris Island, South Carolina, St. Simons Island became the "Ile de Loire." Rene Laudonniere led a second expedition of three ships and three hundred colonists in 1564. They, too, landed at the St. Johns River, and immediately began work on Fort Caroline. Two ships were sent back for more supplies and additional colonists.

All of this did not go unnoticed by Philip II of Spain. He picked the ablest of his naval commanders, Pedro Menéndez de Aviles and gave him full power to destroy the French heretics who had dared to encroach on Spanish territory. With a small fleet, Menéndez landed forty miles south of Fort Caroline in August 1565. From this new base that he named St. Augustine, Menéndez attacked and destroyed the fledgling French colony. He then captured and executed Ribault and most of the survivors of the French relief expedition that had shipwrecked just south of St. Augustine. With them died France's last hope for a colony on the Atlantic coast.

Although the French threat was neutralized, Menéndez realized that further steps must be taken to prevent future incursions. He traveled northward from St. Augustine in 1566 to meet with the most powerful chief in the area, the mico of Guale (St. Catherines Island). The mico was called "Guale" as well, and soon the Spanish adapted the name to the mico, his people and the land itself.

During the meeting with the Guales, Menéndez had the good fortune to have a drought-ending rainstorm erupt just after he erected a cross on St. Catherines Island. This awesome display of power by the Spanish leader made the Guales much more receptive to the Jesuit missionaries that followed. This land of the Guales was soon to become a district in the Spanish province of La Florida.

Spain's roots were inexorably entwined with the Catholic faith, and her colonizing and conquering armies were accompanied by men of the cloth. The Jesuits, respected throughout Europe for their piety as well as their scholastic achievement, were selected to convert the Indians of Guale. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a mission in the province of La Florida, Father Sedaño and Father Báez were assigned to the district of Guale. Father Báez rapidly learned the Guale language and reportedly wrote a grammar, the first book written in the New World. Nevertheless, the Indians embraced the new faith reluctantly. Father Sedaño, after spending fourteen months in Guale along with three other priests of less tenure, could claim only seven Indian baptisms: four children and three dying adults.

It was frustrating for Indians and missionaries alike. The Jesuits were dedicated and capable men, totally committed to their task, but even the most zealous were discouraged in those early days. Father Rogel shares the frustrations as he writes about the neighboring district of Orista just to the north:

The Indians were so reluctant to receive the Catholic religion that no admonitions would curb their barbarity - a barbarity based on liberty unrestrained by the yoke of reason and made worse because they had not been taught to live in villages. They were scattered about the country nine of the twelve months of the year, so that to influence them at all one missionary was needed for each Indian.

The dedicated Jesuits tried desperately to deal with the nomadic wandering of their Indian charges. Father Rogel followed one group for twenty leagues (roughly sixty miles), offering presents, gifts and adornments to entice them to return to their newly built village and cornfields, but to no avail.

Although these earnest men continued their efforts, by 1570 their failure was acknowledged by the colonial government. Several of the Guale missionary contingents were sent to Virginia where they were massacred by Indians. The remaining Guale missionaries were ordered to Mexico City the following year. Although their efforts had come to an ignominious end, their sacrifices paved the way for the Franciscans who followed.

A few Franciscan priests arrived in 1573. Most of them were killed and the survivors recalled. The next ten years saw sporadic and bloody confrontations between Spanish soldiers and Indians in Mocama and Guale. But the Spanish government had more to contend with than the conversion of the Indians. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake destroyed St. Augustine. The English seadog's raid was a timely reminder to the Spanish that their grip upon Florida was fragile at best, and more Franciscans were soon on the way to the fledgling province. The first permanent Franciscan mission - establishing the Mocama missionary province - was in place by 1587 under Father Baltasár Lopéz.

[edit] Spanish Missions circa 1655

In 1593, a dozen friars arrived in Cuba, six of whom were sent to Guale. One missionary each was assigned to the mainland villages of Tolomato, Tupiqui, Santo Domingo de Talaje/Asajo, and Talapo, while two were sent to Guale (St. Catherines Island).

The priests worked diligently to learn the Timucuan and Guale languages, and in return demanded that the Indians learn by rote the Catholic ceremonies in Latin. The Ave Maria, the Credo and the Pater Nostra were memorized by constant repetition. But the frequent Spanish religious and national holidays were only frustrating and confusing to the Indians, as they were encouraged to work one day and prevented from working the next. The practice of polygamy was also abolished, prompting the complaint that "they take away our women, leaving us only the one perpetual [sic], forbidding us to exchange her." These and other aggravations prompted the violence that loomed just ahead for the Franciscans.

As the priests made more and more intrusions into the way of life of the Indians, resentment built up in some who chafed under the new ways. Juanillo, the son of a mico, became incensed when the Franciscans interfered with his succession after his father's death. The priests picked the older and milder-mannered Don Francisco over the petulant and quarrelsome Juanillo. The infuriated Juanillo responded by galvanizing opposition to the missionaries and leading the recalcitrant Indians in revolt. Juanillo and a small group of his father's followers killed Father Corpa at Tolomato on September 13, 1597. Father Rodrigues of Tupiqui was killed three days later, after being permitted to sing his last mass. The following day, the two priests of the Guale mission on St. Catherines Island, Father Miguel de Auñon and Father Antonio de Badajoz, were clubbed to death after ignoring warnings, by friendly Indians, of the insurrection.

At Asajo, Father Francisco de Velascola was absent, away on a visit to St. Augustine. The Indians, much afraid of his physical strength and huge stature, agreed that he must be killed. So this gentle monk was ambushed on the riverbank when he returned, and his body savagely mutilated. Father Francisco Dávila of the Talapo mission was wounded and captured. He escaped, but was recaptured and sent to the interior as a slave.

Flushed with the success of their insurrection, some four hundred Indians in forty canoes attacked San Pedro, the Mocama mission on Cumberland Island. A loyal chief, Don Juan, rallied the mission Indians and killed many of the attackers.

Meanwhile, a messenger was sent to Governor Canzo in St. Augustine who sent a relief force of 150 infantry that exacted a terrible revenge for the murders of the Franciscans. His small force ranged the length and breadth of Guale, razing the villages and storehouses, burning the corn in the fields and destroying all canoes that had been found. Canzo was unable to catch the rebels. He retreated to St. Augustine along with Chief Don Juan and his people and the surviving friars, leaving Guale a smoking ruin.

Almost a year after this bloody upheaval, a Spanish scouting party near St. Elena heard rumors that Father Dávila was still alive. Under threats of harsh reprisals, the Indians released Dávila. The friar had been starved, beaten, threatened with burning, used for archery practice and as a scarecrow in the fields. The Spanish captured seven young boys, four of whom were the sons of micos, and took them to St. Augustine. The oldest of the boys, a seventeen-year old named Lucas, was found guilty of being present at Father Rodrigues' murder, but the others were released because of their age. Lucas was tortured and hung - the only legal justice exacted by the courts of mighty Spain for the Juanillo revolt.

But the rebels were still at large, and Governor Canzo was determined to exterminate them. The Indian tribes north of Guale were urged to make war on the rebels, and Canzo issued orders that all Guale Indians captured would be enslaved. This decree, however, was judged to harsh by his superiors and was revoked.

The Spanish scorched-earth policy was ultimately successful. Severe drought compounded the Spanish destruction and by 1600 some of the important micos, their people facing imminent starvation, were ready to come to terms. The town of Tolomato refused to yield, however, and Asajo became the main village of Spanish influence. With his new power, the mico of Asajo led a successful expedition against Tolomato, after which more villages returned to the Spanish flock.

Juanillo still held out, aided oddly enough by his former rival Don Francisco. The two rebel chiefs and their remaining followers retreated to the interior stockaded village of Yfusinique. The mico of Asajo, Don Domingo, led an attack upon the town. After a fierce fight, the scalps of Juanillo and Don Francisco were sent back to St. Augustine. Don Domingo was made head mico of all Guale after his victory.

Thus the Juanillo rebellion was crushed, and the Spanish were once again masters of the land. But the ferocity of the revolt and the three years it took to extinguish the Indian spirit caused many in the colonial government to question the wisdom of maintaining a missionary presence in Mocama and Guale. The winning of heathen souls was proving to be a costly endeavor. To justify the expense, the crown ordered an investigation by the governor of Cuba, which quieted the missionaries' detractors, and future Spanish presence was insured.

Governor Canzo, determined to make the province an anchor of the Spanish empire, threw himself into improving the coastal missions. In 1603, he made an inspection tour of the Guale district, rebuilding the missions and cementing Indian loyalty. He was transferred soon after the tour, but his replacement, Governor Pedro de Iberra, was just as eager to develop both Mocama and Guale. Iberra toured the districts in 1604, and promised the Indians that more friars would be forthcoming. With the consolidation of Indian fealty, the way was paved for the first visit of a bishop on Mocama and Guale soil. Bishop Altimoreno arrived in St. Augustine in mid-March, 1606. He traveled for two months throughout the two districts and confirmed over one thousand souls.

The attentions of two governors and a bishop assured more friars for Mocama and Guale. From 1606 to 1655 the Spanish missionary effort reached its zenith as the Franciscan missions reflected a steady growth. San Buenaventura de Guadalquini was established on St. Simons, San Jose de Zapala on Sapelo Island, and Santiago de Ocone near the Okefenokee Swamp. Now Spain had a total of ten Mocama and Guale missions. Apparently conversions had increased dramatically, too. By 1617 Governor Iberra could report that although half the Christian Indians had died of pestilence, some eight thousand were still alive.

Despite the growth of the numbers of missionaries and converts, the conditions in which the Franciscans carried out their duties remained harsh. The main source of funds to support the mission effort was intestate properties of the colonies and deceased traders' estates unclaimed in Seville, the Spanish seaport link to the New World. Often ill clothed and hungry, friars rarely reached old age. Few ever saw their native Spain again; most succumbed to the hardships of their calling.

Primary emphasis was placed on spiritual conversion rather than colonizing for material gain; accordingly, there was no trade, no guns permitted, and very few skills taught. Horses had been introduced to La Florida, and some had been given to caciques and micos. But cattle were not made available for fear that crops would be eaten by them and the temptation for thievery would be too great. The most discernible changes resulting from Spanish contact were reflected only in pot manufacturing and the replacing of conch shell hoes with those made of iron. Spain's failure to supply attractive and practical trade goods (such as flints, mirrors, silver or brass ornaments) gave the English the advantage in the final conflict for Mocama and Guale that loomed ahead.

Apart from the Indians' decimation from disease - their numbers were reduced by 95% within a century of European contact - the death knell was sounded for the Spanish missions in 1661 when the "Chichimeco" Indians destroyed the mainland Guale town of Asajo. These fierce slave raiders, armed by the English in Virginia to ensure a steady supply of Indian slaves, migrated southward in the 1650s, preying on weaker tribes.

The disruptions of the Spanish missions did not abate. In the next few tumultuous years the Guales reestablished Asajo on the northern end of St. Simons Island (Cannons Point site). The "Yamassees" of coastal South Carolina, also fleeing the Chichimecos, established the refugee towns of San Simón (Fort Frederica site) and Octonico, 2-1/2 miles below, on the inland side of the island.

Charles II of England granted to eight Lords Proprietors all the land between Virginia and La Florida (31° -36° N) in 1663. This threat was sharpened in 1670 when Charles Town was settled. By 1675, only four Guale mission towns remained. The two Mocama missions left were widely separated and the intervening coast settled by unconverted Yamassees. The probability of attack from the English and the Indians loyal to them was now a constant fear to the Spanish. That fear was realized at its worst when the Chichimecos returned in 1680 to attack the towns of Santa Catalina and San Simón. The confusion and helplessness of the missionary and refugee Indians mounted as English pirates terrorized the Mocama and Guale coast in 1683. The following year, San Buenaventura de Guadalquini was ransacked and burned by pirates, and St. Simons Island was abandoned forever by the Timucuans who, for untold centuries, had called it their own.

In 1686, the English settled Port Royal, South Carolina - the old Spanish outpost of St. Elena. The Spanish responded by destroying the settlement, burning the English governor's mansion, and threatening Charles Town itself. It was a final, futile gesture. Most of the remaining Mocama and Guale Indians had already abandoned the missions and retreated southward to the St. Augustine area, to be eventually absorbed by the Yamassees. After almost a century and a quarter under the cross and sword of Spain, the Mocama and Guale Indians were no more - their land soon to be known as Georgia

[edit] Fort Frederica

Fort Frederica, now Fort Frederica National Monument, was the military headquarters of the Province of Georgia during the early colonial period, and served as a buffer against Spanish incursion from Florida. Nearby is the site of the Battle of Gully Hole Creek and Battle of Bloody Marsh, where on July 7, 1742, the British ambushed Spanish troops marching single file through the marsh and routed them from the island, which marked the end of the Spanish efforts to invade Georgia during the War of Jenkins' Ear.^[4]

[edit] American Revolution

An important naval battle in the American Revolution (the Frederica Naval Action) was won by the American Colonists near St. Simons on April 19, 1778. Colonel Samuel Elbert was in command of Georgia's Continental Army and Navy. On April 15, 1778 he learned that four ships (including the Hinchinbrook, the Rebecca, and the Galatea) from British East Florida were sailing in St. Simons Sound. Elbert commanded about 360 troops from the Georgia Continental Battalions at Fort Howe to march to Darien, Georgia. There they boarded three Georgia Navy galleys: the Washington, commanded by Captain John Hardy ; the Lee, commanded by Captain John Cutler Braddock; and the Bulloch, commanded by Captain Archibald Hatcher. On April 18 they entered Frederica River and anchored about 1.5 miles (2 kilometers) from Fort Frederica. On April 19 the colonial ships attacked the British ships. The Colonial ships were armed with heavier cannons than the British ships. The galleys also had a shallow draft and could be rowed. The wind died down and the British ships had difficulty maneuvering in the restricted waters of the river and sound. Two of the British ships ran aground and the British escaped to their other ship. The battle showed how effective the galleys could be in restricted waters over ships designed for the open sea. The Frederica Naval Action was a big boost to the morale of the Colonists in Georgia.

[edit] Lumber for ships

Saint Simons' next military contribution was due to the Naval Act of 1794, when timber harvested from two thousand Southern live oak trees from Gascoigne Bluff was used to build the USS Constitution and five other frigates (see Six original United States frigates). The USS Constitution is known as "Old Ironsides" for the way the cannonballs bounced off the hard live oak planking.

[edit] Wesley brothers

During the colonial period, Saint Simons served as a sometime home to John Wesley, the minister of the colony who later went on to found the Methodist Church. Wesley performed missionary work at St Simons while he was still in the Anglican Church, but he felt despondent over his inability to bring about revivals (writing that the local inhabitants had more tortures from their environment than he could describe for Hell). In the 1740s John Wesley's brother Charles Wesley did missionary work on St. Simons. ^[5] On April 5, 1987 fifty-five members from St. Simons United Methodist Church were commissioned with Bishop Frank Robertson as first pastor to begin a new church on the north end of St. Simons Island where John and Charles Wesley preached and ministered to the people at Fort Frederica. The new church was named Wesley United Methodist Church at Frederica.

[edit] Christ Church

In 1808 the State of Georgia gave one hundred acres (0.4 km²) of land on St. Simons to be used for a church. The church was called Christ Church, Frederica, and was finished in 1820. During the Civil War, invading Union troops commandeered the small building to stable horses and nearly destroyed it. The church was rebuilt in 1889, and this historic building is still in use as of 2007.^[6]

[edit] Cotton production

During the plantation era, Saint Simons became a center of cotton production known for its long fiber Sea Island Cotton. Nearly the entire island was cleared of trees to make way for several cotton plantations. One of the last slave ships to bring slaves from Africa docked at St. Simons Island, but the slaves marched off the boat into the water, dragged down by their chains, and drowned themselves rather than becoming slaves. An original slave cabin still stands at the intersection of Demere Rd. and Frederica Rd. at the roundabout.

[edit] St. Simons Island lighthouse

St. Simons Island Light is a lighthouse near the entrance to St. Simons Sound in United States Coast Guard district number 7. It is 104 feet (32 m) tall and uses a third order fresnel lens. The light keeper's residence is a two-story Victorian brick structure.

The original octagonal lighthouse was established in 1811, but destroyed in 1861 during the Civil War by Confederate forces to prevent its use by Union forces. A replacement was completed in 1872, electrified in 1934, automated in 1954, and is still operational.

The current structure is an active lighthouse for navigational purposes and a museum. It is on lease from the United States Coast Guard to the Coastal Georgia Historical Society and is open to the public.

[edit] Coast Guard Station and World War II

The historic Coast Guard station is one of some 45 such stations of the same design started in 1935 under the WPA program. The station was commissioned in 1937 and was decommissioned in 1995. The building is one of only three remaining stations built at the time and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It houses the Maritime Center, a small museum run my the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. A new Coast Guard station was built and is currently in use.

On the night of April 8, 1942, the German submarine U-123 was positioned off the shores of St. Simons Island. It chased and torpedoed two tankers, the S.S. Oklahoma and the Esso Baton Rouge. Both ships sank and twenty-two crew members were killed. Survivors were rescued and brought to the Coast Guard station on St. Simons for debriefing. Both ships were raised and towed to the port at nearby Brunswick for repairs. Both ships reentered service but were sunk in the Atlantic Ocean before the end of World War II. Five of the sailors killed were buried in Brunswick as "unknown seamen", but they were positively identified in 1998.^[7]

[edit] King and Prince Hotel

The King and Prince Hotel on St. Simons Island was built in 1941. It is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

[edit] See also

• Hurricane Dora
• Tropical Storm Fay

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Website for Glynn County government
• Page about St. Simons Island maintained by the state government of Georgia
• MyGoldenIsles
• History of St. Simons Island (entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia)
• Sherpa Guide entry on St. Simons Island
• The National Park Service maintains a page for the St. Simon's Light Station
• More about the St. Simons Lighthouse
• List of historical hurricanes to affect the area, from 1565 to 1899
• Frederica Naval Action

• St. Simons, Georgia is at coordinates 31°09′41″N 81°23′13″W / 31.16125°N 81.386875°W / 31.16125; -81.386875 (St. Simons, Georgia)Coordinates: 31°09′41″N 81°23′13″W / 31.16125°N 81.386875°W / 31.16125; -81.386875 (St. Simons, Georgia)
• History of St. Simons Island Plantations

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