St. Simons, Georgia

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St. Simons, Georgia
Location in Glynn County and the state of Georgia
Coordinates: 31°9′40″N 81°23′13″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." 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 Spanish Florida 3.2 Fort Frederica 3.3 American Revolution 3.4 Lumber for ships 3.5 Wesley brothers 3.6 Christ Church 3.7 Cotton production 3.8 St. Simons Island lighthouse 3.9 World War II 4 Haunted History 4.1 Bloody Marsh 4.2 St. Simons Island Lighthouse 4.3 Ghost Pirates 4.4 Ebo Landing 4.5 Fort St. Simons 4.6 Eternal Flame 4.7 Calling Out The Dead 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Geography

St. Simons is located at 31°9′40″N, 81°23′13″W (31.161250, -81.386875)^[3], approximately 12 miles (19 km) inland from Brunswick, Georgia, the sole municipality in Glynn County and the country 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] 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.

[edit] Fort Frederica

Main article: Fort Frederica National Monument

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]

[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 in one location.

[edit] St. Simons Island lighthouse

Main article: St. Simons Island Light

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 during the 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] World War II

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, killing twenty-two crew members. Survivors were brought to the Coast Guard station on St. Simons for debriefing. Both ships were raised and towed to the port at nearby Brunswick, Georgia 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] Haunted History

[edit] Bloody Marsh

There is a legend involving the Battle of Bloody Marsh, a 1742 conflict on St. Simons Island between English, Scottish Highlander and Indian (Native American) forces and a Spanish invasion force. The legend states that one might hear bagpipes at midnight on any battlefield in which Scottish soldiers fought.

[edit] St. Simons Island Lighthouse

In 1810, at Couper’s Point on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, James Gould finished the construction of the first, 85-foot St. Simon’s Island Lighthouse that began in 1804. In May of 1810, President James Madison appointed Gould as the first keeper of the lighthouse until he retired in 1837. During the Civil War, Union soldiers invaded Georgia, forcing the Confederates to evacuate St. Simon’s Island. Before they left in 1862, the Confederates destroyed the lighthouse on St. Simon’s Island so that the Union could not use it for navigational purposes. In 1874, the U.S. Government had Charles Cluskey build a second St. Simon’s Island Lighthouse that was to be built on top of the ruins of the destroyed one. In 1880, head keeper, Frederick Osborne, and assistant, John Stevens, got into a serious argument about Osborne’s wife that ended in Osborne being by Stevens. Stevens was acquitted of the murder charges an indication that jurors felt he was justified in shooting his boss. He then became head keeper of the lighthouse. Years later, Stevens would be haunted by the sounds of ghostly footsteps going up and down the staircase in the tower. Some say that Osborne’s death came so suddenly that he never stopped his nightly routine of inspecting the lighthouse. The families of later keepers and residents of the Island in general claim that strange footsteps can be heard echoing from inside the lighthouse at night, as if someone is walking up the spiral staircase to the top.

[edit] Ghost Pirates

Supposedly doomed ghostly pirates sail the creeks and inlets of St. Simons Island forever without rest.

[edit] Ebo Landing

The chanting of the African Ibo Tribe can still be heard at the mouth of Dunbar Creek. The creek is near Sea Island on the southeast coast of St. Simon Island. In the 1850s a group of chained slaves were being held on the beach. They had just arrived to America on board the slave ship, The Wanderer, which crash when the vessal ran ashore. While being held on the beach, the slaves made a suicide pact. Instead of living the rest of their lives in chains, the ran chained to each other into the water and drowned. The site is supposedly haunted by their ghosts. People have reported hearing the sound of irons chattering as the slaves ran from the beach into the water.

[edit] Fort St. Simons

These ruins are located at the Fort Frederica National Monument on the St. Simons Island, It is said that there is an unseen spirit has been heard speaking in Cherokee, German, Spanish, and Latin. ^[8]

[edit] Eternal Flame

At Christ Church Cemetery in Frederica visitors would make midnight trips to see a flicker of candlelight above a woman's grave. The legend say that the woman who lived on the Island was so afraid of the dark that she kept a candle by her bed. So once she died her loving husband brought a candle out to her grave every night, for the rest of his life, so she wouldn't be frightened and placed it at the top of her tombstone.

[edit] Calling Out The Dead

At night, along the beaches a ghostly woman whose husband was lost at sea has been reported calling his name.

[edit] See also

• Hurricane Dora

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Website for Glynn County government
• Page about St. Simons Island maintained by the state government of Georgia
• 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, -81.386875 (St. Simons, Georgia)Coordinates: 31°09′41″N 81°23′13″W / 31.16125, -81.386875 (St. Simons, Georgia)

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