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Island Time: An Illustrated History of St. Simons Island, Georgia
Eighty miles south of Savannah lies St. Simons Island, one of the most beloved seaside destinations in Georgia and home to some twenty thousand year-round residents. In Island Time , Jingle Davis and Benjamin Galland offer a fascinating history and stunning visual celebration of this coastal community.
Prehistoric people established some of North America's first permanent settlements on St. Simons, leaving three giant shell rings as evidence of their occupation. People from other diverse cultures also left their Mocama and Guale Indians, Spanish friars, pirates and privateers, British soldiers and settlers, German religious refugees, and aristocratic antebellum planters. Enslaved Africans and their descendants forged the unique Gullah Geechee culture that survives today. Davis provides a comprehensive history of St. Simons, connecting its stories to broader historical moments. Timbers for Old Ironsides were hewn from St. Simons's live oaks during the Revolutionary War. Aaron Burr fled to St. Simons after killing Alexander Hamilton. Susie Baker King Taylor became the first black person to teach openly in a freedmen's school during her stay on the island. Rachel Carson spent time on St. Simons, which she wrote about in The Edge of the Sea .
The island became a popular tourist destination in the 1800s, with visitors arriving on ferries until a causeway opened in 1924. Davis describes the challenges faced by the community with modern growth and explains how St. Simons has retained the unique charm and strong sense of community that it is known for today. Featuring more than two hundred contemporary photographs, historical images, and maps, Island Time is an essential book for people interested in the Georgia coast.
A Friends Fund Publication.
Prehistoric people established some of North America's first permanent settlements on St. Simons, leaving three giant shell rings as evidence of their occupation. People from other diverse cultures also left their Mocama and Guale Indians, Spanish friars, pirates and privateers, British soldiers and settlers, German religious refugees, and aristocratic antebellum planters. Enslaved Africans and their descendants forged the unique Gullah Geechee culture that survives today. Davis provides a comprehensive history of St. Simons, connecting its stories to broader historical moments. Timbers for Old Ironsides were hewn from St. Simons's live oaks during the Revolutionary War. Aaron Burr fled to St. Simons after killing Alexander Hamilton. Susie Baker King Taylor became the first black person to teach openly in a freedmen's school during her stay on the island. Rachel Carson spent time on St. Simons, which she wrote about in The Edge of the Sea .
The island became a popular tourist destination in the 1800s, with visitors arriving on ferries until a causeway opened in 1924. Davis describes the challenges faced by the community with modern growth and explains how St. Simons has retained the unique charm and strong sense of community that it is known for today. Featuring more than two hundred contemporary photographs, historical images, and maps, Island Time is an essential book for people interested in the Georgia coast.
A Friends Fund Publication.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2013
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December 3, 2023
There is something enchanting about islands. Island Time is an illustrated history of charming St. Simons Island, Georgia. Author Jingle Davis and photographer Benjamin Galland, both island natives, have created this oversized coffee-table book, graced by photos of its people, scenery, wildlife and architecture. Some images are described, others just displayed for your admiration. The text presents snippets of life from prehistoric to modern times that blend into a coherent history.
Chapters are arranged topically and chronologically, beginning when Georgia’s lower coastal plan rose from a primordial sea. Rising and falling sea levels driven by ice ages of the Pleistocene, about two million years ago, caused Georgia’s sea islands to emerge. Prehistoric flora and fauna and, eventually humans, nomadic Paleo-Indians who followed their prey, populated the island, leaving their fossils and artifacts for moderns to discover.
1736-1775 was British and American Time, days when James Oglethorpe established the fortified town of Frederica to defend his new Georgia colony from Spanish Florida. Originally a free colony, slavery was adopted after Oglethorpe returned to England, setting up America’s first Underground Railroad as runaway slaves sought refuge in Florida. Though a minor theatre in the War of Jenkins’ Ear, two minor battles ended the Spanish threat. The beginning of the American Revolution intruded on St. Simons’ isolation with a naval engagement just west of St. Simons on April 18, 1778 after which the crew of Hinchenbrook appropriated three hundred uniforms intended for patriot soldiers. St. Simon’s live oak timbers were crucial to the development of the nascent United States Navy for their hardness and are seen in Old Ironsides to this day.
Chapter III chronicles Antebellum Time, 1751-1861 when St. Simons attracted planters from afar who established plantations to grow sea cotton, rice and other crops. The upper classes lived in luxury and participated in the commercial, intellectual and political lives of the nation, while the slaves cleared the delta, diked the fields and grew the rice. Biographical sketches of figures such as Anna Matilda Page King, owner and manager of Retreat Plantation, and her husband, Thomas Butler King, who served in Federal elected and appointed positions, link local economics with national politics.
Peace did not endure and Chapter IV is devoted to A Time for Civil War. The islands’ vulnerability to the Union Navy compelled evacuation during early days of the conflict. Though occupied by Union troops for most of the War, occasional Confederate raids, often directed toward kidnapping contraband, menaced St. Simons for the duration.
With the coming of peace St. Simons Moved toward Modern Time as landowners returned, reestablished relations with freedmen and adopted new technologies to raise crops, produce lumber and initiate tourism. Resort development of the 1920s was interrupted by the Great Depression. With the coming of World War II, U-boats sunk merchant vessels off-shore and Liberty ships produced in nearby Brunswick provided jobs for Islanders and visitors to St. Simons’ beaches, although the channel dredged for the Liberty Ships increased beach erosion.
The years since World War II have been a Time to Grow. Tourism has boomed, celebrities have vacationed, facilities have been integrated and environmentalism and conservation have become staples of island life. Right whales are no longer hunted and sea turtles’ eggs are protected, not harvested for dining.
St. Simons is depicted as a diverse community in which Gullah culture of African-American barrier island dwellers lives side-by-side with white southerners.
I was given this book in anticipation of a visit to St. Simons Island. The text is informative, the maps are helpful and the pictures, contemporary color and historic black and white are spectacular. I particularly like the sidebars that provide in-depth accounts of specific topics; Harrington Graded school, built for former slaves in a program founded by Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck, Susie Baker King Taylor, a former slave who opened an early school for liberated slaves, and artesian wells, to name a few. The Bibliography is a guide to further reading and the Index aids in finding what you remember, but want to check. Whether planning a visit, seeking a history of a multi-faceted sea-side community, or just a beautiful book for their coffee table Island Time is an excellent choice.
Chapters are arranged topically and chronologically, beginning when Georgia’s lower coastal plan rose from a primordial sea. Rising and falling sea levels driven by ice ages of the Pleistocene, about two million years ago, caused Georgia’s sea islands to emerge. Prehistoric flora and fauna and, eventually humans, nomadic Paleo-Indians who followed their prey, populated the island, leaving their fossils and artifacts for moderns to discover.
1736-1775 was British and American Time, days when James Oglethorpe established the fortified town of Frederica to defend his new Georgia colony from Spanish Florida. Originally a free colony, slavery was adopted after Oglethorpe returned to England, setting up America’s first Underground Railroad as runaway slaves sought refuge in Florida. Though a minor theatre in the War of Jenkins’ Ear, two minor battles ended the Spanish threat. The beginning of the American Revolution intruded on St. Simons’ isolation with a naval engagement just west of St. Simons on April 18, 1778 after which the crew of Hinchenbrook appropriated three hundred uniforms intended for patriot soldiers. St. Simon’s live oak timbers were crucial to the development of the nascent United States Navy for their hardness and are seen in Old Ironsides to this day.
Chapter III chronicles Antebellum Time, 1751-1861 when St. Simons attracted planters from afar who established plantations to grow sea cotton, rice and other crops. The upper classes lived in luxury and participated in the commercial, intellectual and political lives of the nation, while the slaves cleared the delta, diked the fields and grew the rice. Biographical sketches of figures such as Anna Matilda Page King, owner and manager of Retreat Plantation, and her husband, Thomas Butler King, who served in Federal elected and appointed positions, link local economics with national politics.
Peace did not endure and Chapter IV is devoted to A Time for Civil War. The islands’ vulnerability to the Union Navy compelled evacuation during early days of the conflict. Though occupied by Union troops for most of the War, occasional Confederate raids, often directed toward kidnapping contraband, menaced St. Simons for the duration.
With the coming of peace St. Simons Moved toward Modern Time as landowners returned, reestablished relations with freedmen and adopted new technologies to raise crops, produce lumber and initiate tourism. Resort development of the 1920s was interrupted by the Great Depression. With the coming of World War II, U-boats sunk merchant vessels off-shore and Liberty ships produced in nearby Brunswick provided jobs for Islanders and visitors to St. Simons’ beaches, although the channel dredged for the Liberty Ships increased beach erosion.
The years since World War II have been a Time to Grow. Tourism has boomed, celebrities have vacationed, facilities have been integrated and environmentalism and conservation have become staples of island life. Right whales are no longer hunted and sea turtles’ eggs are protected, not harvested for dining.
St. Simons is depicted as a diverse community in which Gullah culture of African-American barrier island dwellers lives side-by-side with white southerners.
I was given this book in anticipation of a visit to St. Simons Island. The text is informative, the maps are helpful and the pictures, contemporary color and historic black and white are spectacular. I particularly like the sidebars that provide in-depth accounts of specific topics; Harrington Graded school, built for former slaves in a program founded by Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck, Susie Baker King Taylor, a former slave who opened an early school for liberated slaves, and artesian wells, to name a few. The Bibliography is a guide to further reading and the Index aids in finding what you remember, but want to check. Whether planning a visit, seeking a history of a multi-faceted sea-side community, or just a beautiful book for their coffee table Island Time is an excellent choice.
Displaying 1 of 1 review