The Indians being in the vicinity, and at times indulging in acts of hostility, some of the houses of these early settlers were made of hewn cypress logs after the fashion of block houses, and were bullet proof.
The style of agriculture in vogue was of the most primitive sort. The ground was tilled with hoes only. Ploughs were not in use. All rails for fencing were carried on the heads and shoulders of the negroes, and in the same manner was rice transported from the fields. This grain was not only threshed but also beaten by hand: and thus was the crop prepared for market. At first some of the planters sold their crops in Savannah. A trip to that place was the event of the year, and the anticipated journey was talked of in the neighborhood for some time before it was undertaken. Horses were specially fed and carefully attended for a week or more preparatory to the jaunt. Ordinary journeys to church, and of a social character, were performed on horseback. Hence horse-blocks were to be seen at every door. When he would a-wooing go, the gallant appeared mounted upon his finest steed and in his best attire, followed by a servant on another horse, conveying his master’s valise behind him.
Shortly after the Revolutionary war stick-back gigs were introduced. If a woman were in the vehicle and unattended, the waiting man rode another horse, keeping along side of the shaft horse and holding the check rein in his left hand. When his master held the lines, the servant rode behind. Men often went armed to church for fear of the Indians.
The country was filled with game. Ducks and wild geese in innumerable quantities frequented the rice-fields. Wild turkeys and deer abounded. Bears and beavers were found in the swamps, and buffalo herds wandered at no great remove to the southward and northward. There was no lack of squirrels, raccoons, opossums, rabbits, snipe, wood-cock, and quail. Wildcats and hawks were the pest of the region, while the cougar was sometimes heard and seen in the depths of the vine-clad swamps. The waters which they held were alive with fishes, alligators, terrapins, and snakes.
Such, in a few words, was the condition of the swamp region of the Midway District when the town of Sunbury was located. Responding to the trust reposed in them by the conveyance from Mark Carr, Messrs. James Maxwell, Kenneth Baillie, John Elliott, Grey Elliott, and John Stevens, with due dispatch set about laying off the town upon the “westermost bank” of Midway river. The plan, as matured and carried out by them, embraced three public squares,—known respectively as King’s, Church, and Meeting,—and four hundred and ninety-six lots. These lots had a uniform front of seventy feet, and were one hundred and thirty feet in depth. Lots numbers one to forty, inclusive, fronting on the river, were denominated Bay Lots, and carried with them the ownership of the shore to low-water mark. Four lots constituted a block, bounded on three sides by streets, and on the fourth by a lane. The streets were seventy-five feet broad, and the lanes twenty feet wide. The plan of the town was entirely regular. The streets in one direction ran at right angles to the river, and were, at right angles, intersected by the cross streets and lanes. From north to south the length of Sunbury, as thus laid out, was 3430 feet. Its breadth on the south side was 2230 feet, and on the north, 1880 feet.
Within a short time substantial wharves were constructed, the most marked of which were subsequently owned and used by the following merchants: Kelsell & Spalding, Fisher, Jones & Hughes, Darling & Co., and Lamott.
That Sunbury must rapidly have attracted the notice of the colonists and quickly secured a population by no means insignificant or destitute of influence in that day of small things, is evidenced by the fact that as early as 1761 the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of his council, established and declared it to be a port of entry, and appointed Thomas Carr, Collector, John Martin, Naval Officer, and Francis Lee, Searcher. These appointments were confirmed by the Commissioners of his Majesty’s Customs.[178]
By deed prepared by Thomas Bosomworth, Malatche Opiya, Mico, Emperor of the Upper and Lower Creeks, in consideration of ten pieces of stroud, twelve pieces of duffles, two hundred weight of powder, two hundred weight of lead, twenty guns, twelve pairs of pistols, and one hundred weight of vermilion, on the 14th day of December, 1749, conveyed to Thomas and Mary Bosomworth [formerly Musgrove] Hussoope or Ossabaw island, Cowleggee or St. Catherine island,[179] and Sapelo, with their appurtenances, warranting the same to them, their heirs, and assigns, so long as the sun should shine, or the waters flow in the rivers.[180] This claim to the ownership of these valuable islands proved a very annoying one to the colonists. After years of litigation, the dispute was finally settled in 1759, by Royal command, by admitting a demand of Mrs. Bosomworth for £450 for goods alleged to have been expended by her in his Majesty’s service during the years 1747 and 1748, by allowing her a back salary at the rate of £100 per annum for sixteen years and a half, during which she had acted in the capacity of government agent and interpreter, and by confirming to her and her designing husband full right and title to St. Catherine island, in consideration of the fact that they had fixed their residence and planted there.[181]
St. Catherine island was the home of the Bosomworths when Sunbury was settled. Some fourteen years afterwards it formed the residence of the honorable Button Gwinnett, who, having disposed of his stock of merchandise in Charleston, South Carolina, with the proceeds purchased some negroes and a tract of land on St. Catherine, where he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits until, on the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, he was summoned from his retirement by the voice of his fellow-citizens.[182]