I’ve been sorting through some 3000 images for an upcoming book about Sapelo Island and came across these shots of the Katie Underwood at the confluence of the Duplin River and Doboy Sound.
As one who always chooses to ride on the outside upper deck of the boat to take in the scenery and the salt air, I can attest that these hard metal benches inside can be very useful when it’s raining, especially in winter.
Sapelo Island, Georgia
This important historic house is a remnant of a lost era on the coast. It was built by the Atwood family, who operated the nearby Cedar Point Seafood Company, a local icon for many years.
It was an instant favorite and its charm is barely expressed by something as simple as a photograph. It’s part of a tight-knit neighborhood that keeps a watchful eye on it, but luckily, it’s also video-monitored just in case. I’m unable to give directions to the house, out of respect for the neighborhood and the owners. Thanks to Bill Bolin for the background information and to Quincy Roberts for bringing it to my attention.
Cedar Point, Georgia
Now known as The Ashantilly Center, a non-profit educational and cultural historic site, the focal point of this property is “Old Tabby”, which was the mainland home of early Georgia planter and legislator Thomas Spalding. Originally built around 1820, the home burned in 1937. The present structure was built by William G. (Bill) Haynes, Jr., incorporating what remained of the original structure. I made these photographs in 2011 at the invitation of Harriet Langford, Ashantilly’s most ardent advocate and chairman of its board of directors.
This is a section of the original tabby.
Bill Haynes worked hard to preserve the historical integrity of the property, though additions were necessary to make the house livable.
Period furniture collected by Haynes over the years can be seen in the parlor and in other areas of the house, like the dining room, seen below.
Bill Haynes was a man of many talents. He made the oil painting below in which Old Tabby can faintly be seen in the background, as it appeared before the fire of 1937.
His interest in Southern subjects is evident in this watercolor of a sweet potato harvest.
An avid bibliophile, Haynes’s collection fills library shelves throughout the house.
The attic served as a workshop for Haynes. It’s presently being cataloged and organized.
Because the house faces Black Island Creek, the rear elevation is what many people see first.
National Register of Historic Places
http://ashantilly.org/blog/?page_id=2
This was home to Bill Haynes’ Ashantilly Press, located on the grounds of the Ashantilly Center near Darien. The well-stocked print shop produced fine letterpress books and other ephemera in Haynes’ lifetime and today continues his legacy with ongoing projects.
As a lifelong bibliophile, I was honored to tour Mr. Haynes’s print shop. Harriet Langford is optimistic about future use of the press,
Bill Haynes used this Chandler & Price platen press in the production of limited edition books and ephemera.
Check with the nice folks at Ashantilly about letterpress printing workshops and demonstrations. Better yet, buy some of their delightful Christmas cards to wow your friends!
http://ashantilly.org/blog/?page_id=2
Jake’s Places has been an important cultural center in Darien’s historically black Mentionville neighborhood for decades. It was a once a stop on the Chitlin’ Circuit and legends like B.B. King, Little Richard and James Brown all played here. I believe it is presently closed due to a recent history of violent incidents.
This tiny cottage/cabin has Queen Anne posts but beyond that is wholly vernacular. It’s an interesting structure, perhaps a guest house at one time.
This house has been modified from its original shotgun style but retains the shotgun appearance from the front.
Though obscured by landscaping today, Raymond Clancy’s Georgian cottage, built a few years after the Civil War, is one of Darien’s nicest surviving 19th-century homes.
West Darien Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This is one of numerous vernacular houses that’s recently been restored in Darien.
William H Davis writes: This is the Thompson family home. My great-great grandmother bought the lot behind this house from the Thompsons in the 1880s. The home is still in her estate but is abandoned. I spent many happy summers there on The Ridge.
The present owner, Virginia Hames Troy, is restoring the house. She writes: The first owner of our 1870 house, Moses H. Thompson, sold an adjoining lot to Mr. Davis’ great-great-grandmother (a friend of Mrs. Thompson’s) and also a few acres further back to James Cromley, who was Sapelo Island’s lighthouse keeper from 1873 -1889. Moses Thompson was a manager for Hilton Lumber Company’s sawmill on Union Island which was located near the site of Blue N Hall Marina. There are interesting stories about Thompson and 19 other men who were captured by Union soldiers while trying to run a Union blockade of Doboy Sound. Most were taken to a prison in Philadelphia and had to walk home to Georgia at the end of the Civil War.
The Ridge Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
James Cromley, who was the keeper of the Sapelo Island lighthouse between 1873-1889, and the first of several Cromleys to hold that position, built this home in the mid-1870s. It is also known as the Cromley-Waters-Brandt House, for later owners. Thanks to Missy Brandt Wilson for the historical background.
The Ridge Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
First opened at a nearby location in 1940, and once known as the Shrimp Boat Restaurant, Archie’s was a longtime Darien landmark and a favorite stop for travelers along the busy Coastal Highway (US 17).
As traffic moved off 17 and onto nearby I-95, business slowed and the restaurant was closed by 2006. The structure seen here opened circa 1975 and was demolished in 2015.
The Ridge Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This has been remodeled and now serves as the Darien firehouse. Its Streamline Moderne architecture suggests it was likely built from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s. The ‘modern” tabby walls have been replaced by stucco. In transferring materials from one website to another, I have lost the comments, but someone noted that the dealership had another owner besides Jack Nelson. I’ll add that information, as well as photo of its present appearance, as soon as possible. (These photographs were made in 2011).
Plantations growing Sea Island cotton on Harris Neck as early as 1787 (Julianton was the first) ensured the presence of a large population of enslaved Africans, who were also essential to rice, cattle, and timber production. By the early 19th century the Gould family was one of several who owned large tracts of land here. Contemporary maps show Gould’s Landing (today’s Barbour River Landing) and an adjacent Gould’s Cemetery. This was undoubtedly the one we see today, a slave burying ground, though no graves from that time were formally marked nor recorded, to my knowledge.
To me, this is one of the most magical places on the entire coast. It’s a place of quiet refuge and subtle beauty that speaks not only to the sad history of slavery but to the evolution of enslaved people in the years following emancipation. It’s somewhat protected by its location within the boundary of a National Wildlife Refuge but it definitely bears further research and listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Gould Cemetery is significant partly because so many formerly enslaved persons are buried here, but also for the the large number of headstones featuring a star motif. The star is a long-employed Christian icon, somewhat common among African-American burials in the years after slavery. It’s my belief that most of these were done by the same artisan, though the range of dates suggests that perhaps an apprentice to the original carver may have completed some of the later ones. I have no way to confirm it but feel certain the carver was a member of the community.
I’m presenting this as a photographic guide to these headstones (though not yet complete nor in any particular order) including names and dates with the hope that it will be helpful to genealogists and historians. Names are carved in simple block lettering. At first glance the phonetic spellings that characterize these markers can present a bit of a challenge, so I have shown the original spellings and placed what I believe to be the correct names in parentheses.
Unknown Burial (likely an infant child of Martha Thorpe)
Catharine Golds (Gould?)- Wos bon Oct. 17 1889. Died August 25 1927.
W. M. Thorpe- Sacred to the memory of W. M. Thorpe. Born Feb 6 1861. Died Jan 27 1936.
Reverend C. C. Dawley- Was born Feb 11 1855. Died Oct 1 1923.
Nethelea Hages (Hodges?)- Born Aug 8 1905. Died July 13 1923.
Nancy McAntosh (McIntosh)- Died Dec 7 1922. Ag (Age) 66
Mary Jane King- Was born Sept 1889. Died Augest (August) 2 1933. Sleep On.
Margret Procter (Proctor)- Born Feb 12 1862. Died Sept 26 1930. In memory of our loveing (loving) mother. Gone but not forgotten.
Rosa L. Simmons- Born Nov 31 1896. Died Dec 23 1923. Age 27.
Judge E. W. Lowe- Was born 1855. Died Nov 6 1927.
James King- Was bond October 15 1888 Died May 25 1922. Age 33. At Rest.
Eunice Stevens- Was born March 14 1906 Died Nov 6 1921. Asleep in Jesus Peaceful Sleep
Annie Bell Salins (Sallins)- Was born Oct 15 1818. Died March 13 1918.
Thomas Butterfieald (Butterfield)- Born 1879 Diede (Died) Dece 9 1918. Oct 16. This headstone is a bit puzzling at first, but I believe the October 16 is likely an indicator of the the birth date, discovered after the process of carving the headstone had begun.
Elliott Miflin (Mifflin)- Was born March 22 1886. Died May 28 1928.
Rosa Mifflin- Was Born May 23 1884 an Died Jan 6 1930
Elkeno Mifflin- Wos Born Aug 15 1880. Died June 20 1923
Daniel Mifflen (Mifflin)- Born March 16 1856. Died Nov 1 1942. This is one of the newest of the star headstones and the only one to feature a Masonic cypher.
James Miflin (Mifflin)- Born July 17 1901. Died Aug 1 1928. Ocean Breeze Chamber 4541-Townsend Ga. The Ocean Breeze Chamber in Townsend was likely one of the numerous fraternal lodges for African-Americans common on and near the Georgia coast in the last decades of the 19th and first decades of the 20th centuries. Other than churches, these were about the only places blacks could gather in the Jim Crow era and were centers of fellowship and community. They were also practical, as most provided members the opportunity to purchase burial insurance. Townsend is about 20 miles inland, in McIntosh County.
Marian Dawley- Born 1823. Died April 27 (?) 1886.
Calvin Stevens- Born May 28th 1903?. Died Feb 25th 1921. At Rest.
Eleza Stevens- Born Oct 24 1875. Died Aug 11 1928. Ocean Breeze Chamber 4541-Townsend, Ga.
Henry Stevens- Farther (Father). Born Mar 10 1840?. Died Dec 1 1919. Asleep.
Morris Jenkins- Born Nov 28 1807. Died May 26 1900. At Rest.
Corporal Jack Thompson was an African-American with ties to the Gould plantation. He served with Company E, 33rd U. S. Colored Infantry. This regiment was organized 31 January 1863 or 8 February 1864, as 1st South Carolina Volunteers Colored Infantry. Attached to U. S. Forces, Port Royal Island, South Carolina, 10th Corps, Department of the South, to April, 1864. They were mustered out on 31 January 1866. I’ve been unable to find any other information on Corporal Thompson.
Private Edward Stevens- June 5 1896-September 4 1947. 567th Service Battalion Quartermaster’s Corps, World War I
Private Jasper Hillery- d. 29 May 1940. Florida. Private Hillery served in the 151st Depot Brigade.
Jesus Statue near Dawley gravesite.
Reverend B. H. Renear- Died Lacey Ga. Mar 20 1904. Age 40 yrs. Lacey was the name of the post office at Gould’s Landing. It operated near the cemetery from 1896-1914, replacing the Bahama post office which operated from 1891-1895.
Palm trees and old-growth oaks characterize this space.
The Barbour River passes near the perimeter of the cemetery.
