The dead towns of Georgia

by Jr. Charles C. Jones

Much incensed at the conduct of the Captains of the transports, and inconvenienced by the demurrage consequent upon their timidity, he was also indignant at the delay thus caused in the consummation of his plans, annoyed at the additional charges for transfer of passengers and cargo, and solicitous for the health of the colonists who would be exposed in open boats, at an inclement season, during the passage from Tybee roads to Jekyll sound.

It was not until the 2nd of March that the fleet of periaguas and boats, with the families of the Colonists on board, set out from the mouth of the Savannah river. Spare oars had been rigged for each boat. With their assistance,—the men of the Colony rowing with a will,—the voyage to Frederica was accomplished in five days. Mr. Oglethorpe accompanied them in his scout-boat, keeping the fleet together, and taking the hindermost craft in tow. As an incentive to unity of movement, he placed all the strong beer on board one boat. The rest labored diligently to keep up; for, if they were not all at the place of rendezvous each night, the tardy crew lost their ration. Frederica was reached on the 8th, and there was general joy among the colonists.

So diligently did they labor in building their town and its fortifications, that by the 23rd of March a battery of cannon, commanding the river, had been mounted, and the fort was almost finished. Its ditches had been dug, although not to the required depth or width, and a rampart raised and covered with sod. A store-house, having a front of sixty feet, and intended to be three stories in height, was completed as to its cellar and first story. The necessary streets were all laid out. “The Main Street that went from the Front into the Country was 25 yards wide. Each Free-holder had 60 Foot in Front by 90 Foot in Depth, upon the high Street, for their House and Garden; but those which fronted the River had but 30 Foot in Front, by 60 Foot in Depth. Each Family had a Bower of Palmetto Leaves, finished upon the back Street in their own Lands: The Side towards the front Street was set out for their Houses: These Palmetto Bowers were very convenient Shelters, being tight in the hardest Rains; they were about 20 Foot long and 14 Foot wide, and, in regular Rows, looked very pretty, the Palmetto Leaves lying smooth and handsome, and of a good Colour. The whole appeared something like a Camp; for the Bowers looked liked Tents, only being larger and covered with Palmetto Leaves instead of Canvas. There were 3 large Tents, two belonging to Mr. Oglethorpe, and one to Mr. Horton, pitched upon the Parade near the River.”

Such is the description of the town in its infancy as furnished by Mr. Moore, whose “Voyage to Georgia” is one of the most interesting and valuable tracts we have descriptive of the colonization.

That there might be no confusion in their constructive labors, Mr. Oglethorpe divided the Colonists into working parties. To some was assigned the duty of cutting forks, poles, and laths for building the bowers. Others set them up. Others still gathered palmetto leaves, while a fourth gang,—under the superintendence of a Jew workman, bred in Brazil and skilled in the matter,—thatched the roofs “nimbly and in a neat manner.”

Men accustomed to the agriculture of the region, instructed the Colonists in hoeing and planting. Potatoes, Indian corn, flax, hempseed, barley, turnips, lucern-grass, pumpkins, and water-melons were planted. The labor was common and enured to the benefit of the entire community. As it was rather too late in the season to prepare the ground fully and get in such a crop as would promise a yield sufficient to subsist the settlement for the coming year, many of the men were put upon pay and set to work upon the fortifications and the public buildings.

Mr. Hugh MacKay, about this time, arrived in Frederica and reported, that with the assistance of Messrs. Augustine and Tolme, and the guides furnished by Tomo-chi-chi, he had surveyed and located a road, practicable for horses, between Savannah and Darien. This information was very gratifying to the Colonists on St. Simons, assuring them, as it did, that their situation was not so isolated as they at first supposed.

Frederica was located in the midst of an Indian field[48] containing between thirty and forty acres of cleared land. The grass in this field yielded an excellent turf which was freely used in sodding the parapet of the fort. The bluff upon which it stood rose about ten feet above high-water mark, was dry and sandy, and exhibited a level expanse of about a mile into the interior of the island. The position of the fort was such that it fully commanded the reaches in the river both above and below. With their situation the Colonists were delighted. The harbor was land-locked,[49] having a depth of twenty-two feet of water at the bar, and capable of affording safe anchorage to a large number of ships of considerable burden. Surrounded by beautiful forests of live-oak, water oaks, laurel, bay, cedar, sweet-gum, sassafras, and pines, festooned with luxuriant vines, [among which those bearing the Fox-grape and the Muscadine were peculiarly pleasing to the Colonists,] and abounding in deer, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, wild-turkeys, turtle-doves, red-birds, mocking birds, and rice birds,[50] with wide extended marshes frequented by wild geese, ducks, herons, curlews, cranes, plovers, and marsh-hens,—the adjacent waters teeming with fishes, crabs, shrimps, and oysters, and the island fanned by South-East breezes prevailing with the regularity of the trade winds—the strangers were charmed with their new home. Within their fort were enclosed and preserved several of those grand old live-oaks which for centuries had crowned the bluff, and whose shade was refreshing beyond any shelter the hand of man could devise. The town sprang into being as a military post. It was ordered and grew day by day under the immediate supervision of Oglethorpe. The soil of the island was fertile, and its health unquestioned. Lieutenant George Dunbar, on the 20th of January, 1739, made oath before Francis Moore, Recorder of the Town of Frederica, that since his arrival with the first detachment of Colonel Oglethorpe’s regiment the preceding June, all the carpenters and many of the soldiers had been continuously occupied in building clap-board huts, carrying lumber and bricks, unloading vessels, [often working up to their necks in water,] in clearing the parade, burning wood and rubbish, making lime, and in other out-door exercises,—the hours of labor being from daylight until eleven or twelve M. and from two or three o’clock in the afternoon until dark. Despite these exposures, continues the Affiant, “All the time the men kept so healthy that often no man in the camp ailed in the least, and none died except one man who came sick on board and never worked at all; nor did I hear that any of the men ever made the heat a pretence for not working.”[51]

Beyond question Frederica was the healthiest of all the early settlements in Georgia, and St. Simon’s island has always enjoyed an enviable reputation for salubrity. Until marred by the desolations of the late war, this island was a favorite summer resort, and the homes of the planters were the abodes of beauty, comfort, and refinement. A mean temperature of about fifty degrees in winter, and not above eighty-two degrees in summer, gardens adorned with choice flowers, and orchards enriched with plums, peaches, nectarines, figs, melons, pomegranates, dates, oranges and limes,—forests rendered majestic by the live-oak, the pine, and the magnolia grandiflora, and redolent with the perfumes of the bay, the cedar and the myrtle,—the air fresh and buoyant with the South-East breezes, and vocal with the notes of song-birds,—the adjacent sea, sound, and inlets, replete with fishes,—the shell roads and broad beach affording every facility for driving and riding,—the woods and fields abounding with game in their season, and the culture and generous hospitality of the inhabitants, impressed all visitors with the delights of this favored spot. Sir Charles Lyell, among others, alludes with marked satisfaction to the pleasures he there experienced.