About St. Simons Island

In the late 1600s, having recently established Charles Town (Charleston), the South Carolina colony recognized the need to protect their presence and holdings in the New World. To that end, they built the first English fort in Georgia in 1721. Fort King George was built at the mouth of the Altamaha River, near what is now Darien, Georgia. As the story goes, the soldiers hated their new assignment, and the fort was inadequately staffed. To protect the area from the Spanish who occupied St. Augustine, the colonists decided that the most prudent course of action was to establish a buffer colony. The trustees who chartered the new colony of Georgia chose the young James Edward Oglethorpe to oversee the area and its inhabitants. He proved to be an excellent choice. Interested in providing a sanctuary for those who had little chance to succeed in England, Oglethorpe landed his first group near Yamacraw Bluff in 1733 and laid out the town of Savannah.

With the colony underway, he began to look for a suitable site for a new fort. In 1736, near a curve in the Frederica River on St. Simons Island, he built Fort Frederica. Accompanying him were the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, who began their preaching under the oaks at Frederica. The brothers would later return to England to found the Methodist movement.

Today the river washes against the ruins of Fort Frederica, a fort that in its time was one of the largest erected in North America. Now a national monument, the fort is a testament to its British heritage.

Oglethorpe, wise in his decision to protect the town of Savannah, saw the merits of his fortifications tested when the Spanish attacked St. Simons in July of 1742. A series of strategic moves convinced the Spanish they were up against insurmountable forces. The Battle of Bloody Marsh established that Georgia would claim rights to all the land north of the St. Mary’s River. The land remained under English control until the Revolutionary War.

In the latter part of the 18th century, the fort fell into disuse. Planters who emerged after the Revolution used slabs cut from the tabby walls of the fort to rebuild their homes. Those who came to the island at this time were mainly large-scale farmers—immigrants from Eng-land and Scotland, as well as, colonials from South Carolina. With them came slaves to cultivate the land. Huge live oaks were felled to build the country’s first navy. About a dozen planters on the island cultivated a variety of long staple cotton known as Sea Island cotton with which they created the finest quality chambray and lace. These families gathered to worship at Christ Church on the north end of the island.

In the late afternoon, stroll through the cemetery located behind the church to revisit the plantation period. The gravestone inscriptions document the characters of the families of the time, including the Coupers, the Pages, and the Kings. The Episcopalian congregation at the church welcomes visitors to its weekly services.

For those interested in learning more about this time in St. Simons’ history, Eugenia Price’s trilogy provides a detailed insight into Christ Church and the story of the Reverend Anson Greene Phelps Dodge, Jr.