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[NOTE by Webmaster]
Reader discretion is advised! This publication is rife with errors, one
of the biggest, and most inconceivable, is the photographs of men who
died before the advent of the camera. You will see “photographs” within
this text for General James Edward Oglethorpe (1696-1785), Sir
Francis Drake (1544-1596), and the Rev. George Whitefield
(1714-1770).
Another egregious
mistake is the correspondence from “Lady Dorothy Oglethorpe”
written from her home in the Georgia colony to her husband (General
Oglethorpe) , his parents, and others. As most any historian knows,
Oglethorpe’s wife never came to the American continent, not to
mention her name was Elizabeth Wright and not Dorothy and
they married in 1744, long after these “letters” were written. Of all
the photographs, however, the one of Lady Dorothy Oglethorpe is
actually a copy of a miniature carved on ivory and not an actual
photograph of a person.
Most all of the
information on Oglethorpe, the author gathered from the Georgia
Historical Society and then president of said society Col. Jefferson
Davis Twiggs who was never a president of the society, not to
mention that he didn’t even exist; he was purely fictional.
Further inanities
include reference to Rev. Whitefield and how he purchased a
plantation in South Carolina because slavery was illegal in Georgia.
This is not true because the reverend was a staunch advocate of slavery
and he lobbied to have it legalized in Georgia, and won the argument by
1744.
One quote inspires
riotous laughter when considering the reason for the Club members’
ignorance about Oglethorpe and Jekyll island: “…in conversation
with the members, I have found no one who had searched out, or was in
any way familiar with, the period of its occupation by Oglethorpe…”
Of course no one was familiar with this occupation, as it never
happened. Oglethorpe did not build his “mansion” on Jekyll
Island, nor did he ever reside here full time with his wife and
children. The chimney ruins on Jekyll Island are not part of
Oglethorpe’s former mansion from the 1730’s either (as quoted in
this publication).
I have no idea what
kind of reception this manuscript received in Brunswick; especially
among some of the most noted historians of Georgia’s Colonial history.
One would think it was confronted with laughter and ostracism of the
author. I’ve noticed one website online purporting to present an
accurate history of Glynn County, lists this manuscript in their
bibliography of texts used to build the site! It was also used by
Charles Lanier
to write his history of Jekyll Island merely two years later.
STUDIES
IN
EARLY AMERICAN
HISTORY
-----
THE
Legends of Jekyl Island
BY
FRANKLIN H. HEAD
-----
Magna est veritas, et prevalebit.
Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise
again,
The eternal years of God are hers,
But Error, wounded, writhes with pain,
And dies amid her worshippers.
CHICAGO
PRIVATELY PRINTED
---Next Page---
GEN. JAMES E. OGLETHORPE
By permission, from the original printing by Sir Joshua Reynolds, now
owned by Mr. Clarence King, of New York.
---Next Page---
TO MY VALUED FRIEND,
EDWARD G. MASON,
PRESIDENT OF THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY,
AND AUTHOR OF
“THE HISTORY OF ILLINOIS,”
NOT ALONE AS A MARK OF HIGH PERSONAL
ESTEEM, BUT
IN RECOGNITION OF HIS EQUALLY PAINSTAKING AND
ACCURATE LABORS IN SIMILAR FIELDS
OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH.
---Page 7---
The Legends of
Jekyl Island.
SOME years since, during the same week,
I heard Jekyl Island described from two standpoints. It was soon after
its purchase by an association of gentlemen forming the well-known Jekyl
Island Club. Two of my friends gave me a glowing account of this newly
found island of Atlantis. A semi-tropical island off the coast of
southern Georgia; 17,000 acres of beautiful land, mostly covered with
choice timber, 1,400 deer ranging the forest, green turtle marching in
uninterrupted procession along the silvery beach, a lake of 500 acres so
packed with terrapin as to resemble a cedar block pavement, flocks of
quail and partridge darkening the air, oysters of incomparable flavor
everywhere, and all purchased at an unheard of bargain, for the beggarly
pittance of $125,000.
Once in every man’s life comes to him his opportunity, and
my two friends felt and rejoiced that theirs had not passed unheeded by,
---Page 8---
for each had secured a share in this enchanted
island.
A few days later I met and chatted with a man whom many of
us in Chicago remember as Jim Kelly, who was on a visit to
Chicago from his Florida plantation. Said Jim, “I like Florida
just because I’m well there and am not well anywhere else. A man with
an orange grove can get a modest living, but when it comes to doing
business or making money, of course the chances in any part of the South
are comparatively small. Still,” continued Jim, “sometimes a man
gets struck by lightning even there. I have a cousin who owned an
island off the Georgia coast, 17,000 acres of sand and swamp. You
couldn’t raise anything on it; there was some scattering, but utterly
worthless, timber. He had tried for years to sell it, to trade it off,
or to mortgage it, but he couldn’t do either. In fact,” concluded
Jim, “the whole thing wasn’t worth a damn, but lately he picked up a
lot of rich suckers from New York, Boston and Chicago, and sold them his
Jekyl Island for $125,000.”
---Page 9---
I recognized with interest and delight,
as often before, the widely variant conclusions from the points of view;
and when, in the spring of 1892, my friends King and McCagg,
who were members of the club, invited me to visit the island as their
guest, I accepted with delight, eager to see for myself the picture
which had been before me in such contrasted lights.
I found the March climate of the island invigorating and
delightful; the bridle paths and roads through the forest wisely planned
and charming; the drives of a dozen miles along the firm and shining
beach the joy of a lifetime. The absence of the 1,400 deer, the quail,
partridges and terrapin was explained by the statement that the
committee of three who visited the island prior to its purchase, had
eaten them, although a tradition is still current that on a certain
remote and possibly mythical Sunday, terrapin soup was served to some of
the early inhabitants.
The club house was well planned for its purpose; the company
choice, intellectual and in
---Page 10---
every way agreeable. All members of the club
worthy of their exalted heritage were busily employed in doing nothing
and in doing it thoroughly and well. A few members who were looking
about for something to do, who watched anxiously for the newspapers and
sought to adulterate the atmosphere of the island with the airs and
cares of the outer world, were frowned upon, and their expulsion would
have been considered, except that the consideration of even so
self-evident a necessity would have required an effort. The Vice
President and acting executive, of dignified and stately presence, was a
man of abounding energy and fire, which was exercised daily and hourly
in the transferring until the day after to-morrow of the things which
should have been done yesterday. In a word, the island is an ideal
resting place for the man of affairs. The visitors during my stay were
largely of middle life, upon whom ease with dignity sat gracefully. Yet
even there, and among them, the sprightly arrow-shooting god played
havoc, and one of the loved and honored members, in
---Page 11---
sequence thereof, met there smilingly his doom, and
now wanders, no longer alone, in far away Cathay, hand in hand with his
happy fate, and renews under occidental skies the dreams of his golden
youth.
I found upon the island certain ruins, prehistoric, so far
as the present inhabitants were informed, but concerning which sundry
and contradictory legends were current. The general trend of the local
folklore was that the island had once belonged to General Oglethorpe,
the founder and governor of the Georgia colony. A solitary chimney was
supposed to mark the site of the gubernatorial palace. Certain mounds
and pits near the shore were, by the different schools of archaeologists
upon the island, variously claimed to represent the work of the Aztec
Mound Builders, diggings for the buried treasures of Captain Kidd,
and earthworks erected during the late war to protect blockade runners
escaping to the Bermudas. In view of these conflicting theories, and of
the lack of accurate information on the part even of the members of the
Jekyl Island Club,
---Page 12---
the antiquarian zeal, the frenzy, a la Herodotus,
which, radiating from the President of the Chicago Historical Society,
animates all its members, urged me to learn what I could of the history
of the island, and I place before my readers the results of much
painstaking research in this field.
The first mention I have been able to find of Jekyl Island
occurs in a report made to Queen Elizabeth in 1587, by Sir
Francis Drake. This gallant admiral had captured and mercilessly
plundered the Spanish towns of Saint Jago, Cartagena and Saint
Augustine, and after leaving the last named point, sailed northerly
along the coast for some hundreds of miles. His report to Queen
Elizabeth runs thus:
“On the 17th we took an observation, and found
ourselves in latitude 30 deg. 30 min. N., and near a large island, which
we felt sure was the land where we had information of a Spanish
settlement of magnitude. Seeing some log houses, we decided to make a
landing. We unfurled the standard of Saint George and approached the
shore in great force, that we
---Next Page---
SIR FRANCIS DRAKE
From the portrait by Titien now in the gallery of the Marquis of
Queensberry.
---Page 13---
might impress the enemy with the great puissance of
your Majesty. The accursed Spaniards, concealed behind the trees, fired
upon us, and a sore and cruel fight seemed pendent, when the enemy,
stricken with fear, incontinently fled to their homes, with their
habiliments of war. One of our men was sorely wounded by the Spanish
Captain, whom we presently made prisoner, and, having set up a gallows,
we there hanged him in a chain by the middle, and afterwards consumed
with fire, gallows and all.
To us was the good God most merciful and gracious, in that
he permitted us to kill eighteen Spaniards, bitter enemies of your sweet
Majesty. We further wasted the country and brought it to utter ruin.
We burned their houses and killed their few horses, mules and cattle,
eating what we could of the fresh beef and carrying the rest aboard our
ships. Having in mind the merciful disposition of your gracious
Majesty, we did not kill the women and children, but having destroyed
upon the island all their provisions and property, and
---Page 14---
taken away all their weapons, we left them to
starve.
In view was another considerable island, fifteen miles to
the northward, concerning which we asked of the women if any Spaniards
dwelt thereon. The women were most ungracious, sullen and obstinate,
perchance from their husbands having been killed before their eyes, and
wickedly refused to answer us, but after we had burned a hole with a hot
iron through the tongue of the most venomous of their number, they
eftsoons [sic] told us that there were no Spaniards upon the other
island; that it was the haunt of a solitary Frenchman named Jacques,
who claimed it as his own, and that from him it was known as ‘Jacques
Ile.’ Fearing that the women, instigated by the devil, were deceiving
us, we visited the other island, with the holy determination to
exterminate any enemies of your sacred Majesty thereon, but found the
story of the women was true. The Frenchman Jacques had a hut
near the water, where he lived with an Indian pagan as his wife. He had
a liberal store of turtle’s
---Page 15---
eggs, gathered in the sand, which we took from him,
as also his carbine and forty pounds of ambergris, which he had
collected from the sea, but did him no further harm. We took here
another observation, finding the latitude 31 deg. 10 min. N.”
The latitude mentioned by Drake indicates that he
visited first what is now known as Cumberland Island, and later, Jekyl
Island, the name by which the latter island is known being evidently a
corruption of its early cognomen, the transition from Jacques Ile to
Jekyl being easy and natural.
The next mention I find relative to Jekyl Island occurs in a
volume published by Wm. Dampier, in 1729, entitled, “Two Voyages
to the Bay of Campeachy.” This eminent navigator, author and pirate,
set out from Virginia in 1684, on a buccaneering expedition against the
Spanish settlements. He says:
“The next morning, being now nearly arrived at the Florida
coast, we landed upon an island in latitude 31 deg. 12 min. N. for a
supply of fresh water.”
---Page 16---
The latitude indicates the location of
Jekyl Island. Dampier continues:
“Near the spot where we landed we found an abundance of
fresh water and also a few huts, which were inhabited by peaceable
savages. Much surprised were we to find that they spoke a language in
which were found occasionally French words. We soon learned that they
were largely the descendants of a Frenchman who had long before lived
upon the island and married many Indian wives. From him the place was
called ‘Jacques Island.’ The natural depravity of the pagans appeared,
as we noticed that the French words were few in their usual
conversation, but that they had hoarded many French curses and bitter
profanities, which they heaped upon us as we left the island, for not
other reason, as we could ascertain, except that we had taken with us
their cattle, weapons, furs, provisions and other articles which might
be useful to us thereafter.”
After this landing of Dampier, I find scanty mention
of Jekyl Island prior to the founding of the Georgia colony under
General Jas. E.
---Page 17---
Oglethorpe, in 1733. The first settlement
was at the present site of the city of Savannah, but later, General
Oglethorpe determined upon Saint Simon’s Island as the most
advantageous location for a colony. There are three large islands off
the Georgia coast: Cumberland, already mentioned as the landing place
of Sir Francis Drake, is the most southerly; north of this is
Jekyl Island, and still further north is the Island of Saint Simons.
Both the other islands are plainly visible from Jekyl. To be near his
settlement of a large colony on Saint Simon’s Island, and still have the
isolation and dignity proper to the gubernatorial state, Oglethorpe
selected Jekyl as his own residence, and built there a commodious
mansion of logs. Lady Oglethorpe, in one of her letters, speaks
of having brought from the mainland and planted near the family mansion
some roots of yellow Jessamine, not indigenous to the island, and the
fact that a quantity of this Jessamine is still growing near the
solitary chimney already mentioned, although not found elsewhere upon
the island, is confirmatory of the
---Page 18---
legend that this chimney marks the spot where stood
the baronial log castle of the Oglethorpes.
General Oglethorpe was a soldier of tried and
unquestioned valor, an educated and accomplished gentleman of great
ability and pleasing address, to whose manly and martial figure scant
justice is done in the otherwise admirable statue belonging to the
Century Club of New York.
Prior to the founding of the Georgia colony the island
appears to have been only occasionally visited by hunters or fishermen,
and after this date the change of the original name, “Jacques
Isle,” to Jekyl, seems to have become generally recognized, the island
being always spoken of as Jekyl in the correspondence and documents of
Governor Oglethorpe.
After the founding of the Georgia colony, the records of the
island are for some time reasonably complete. For the data to which I
will have time to refer at present, I am almost entirely indebted to the
courtesy of Colonel Jefferson Davis Twiggs, the Secretary
---Page 19---
of the Georgia Historical Society, and a son of the
General Twiggs, whose gallantry and bravery were conspicuous in
the war with Mexico. The collection of manuscripts and public documents
relative to the early settlement of the State is large, and fortunately
escaped the destruction which befell so many similar collections during
the civil war.
The Georgia colony was originally organized as a home for
unfortunate but industrious and worthy people. The first prospectus
stated that, as colonists, all idle and vicious people would be
excluded, as also all married men disposed to leave their families
behind. Slavery was forbidden. Among the people afterward notable,
connected with the early settlement, were Charles and John
Wesley and George Whitefield. Charles Wesley was sent
as secretary to General Oglethorpe and John as a
missionary to the Indians. On the return of John to England, in
1737, Whitefield was sent by the trustees to take his place.
When General Oglethorpe established himself on Jekyl
Island with his family, secretary and servants, the island became
virtually the capital of the Georgia colony. Both General and
Lady Oglethorpe and the secretary often visited Savannah, which,
with the country about it, continued to be the principal center of
population as long as Oglethorpe remained in America, which was
for a period of ten years. This period, from 1733 to 1743, is the
romantic and picturesque period in the history of the island, as the
plan of General Oglethorpe to make Saint Simon’s Island the
principal settlement, and Jekyl Island the government headquarters, was
not carried out, and Jekyl Island, after his return to England, seems to
have been substantially abandoned. Nearly all evidences of the
occupation of the island were dissipated by time, and the island itself
was practically deserted for the greater part of a century.
Among the manuscripts preserved in the archives of the
Georgia Historical Society are various regulations prescribed by
General Oglethorpe for the government of the colony, and
considerable correspondence passing between
---Page 20---
LADY DOROTHY OGLETHORPE
Reproduced from the miniature on ivory [illegible] now in the
possession of Francis Bartlett, [illegible].
---Page 21---
himself, his secretaries and Lady Oglethorpe,
which are of interest as illustrating the experiences and hardships
connected with the period of this first occupation of Jekyl Island.
In 1734 Lady Oglethorpe writes to her husband, then
absent at Savannah. She says:
“Since your departure, my dearest husband, all the pigs have
escaped into the dreadful wilderness about us, and we fear daily that
they will be captured and eaten by the savages. The Chief, Altamaha,
and his band, are still upon the island, and yesterday he came and
begged tobacco and sugar, and also demanded of me our maid servant
Elizabeth as his wife, much to her astonishment and terror. He was
dressed in all his barbaric finery, painted and bedaubed in as many
colors as the coat of Joseph, and decorated with feathers, bears’
claws and bright colored shells, as befitted a man equipped for female
conquest. The wretched pagan has already three wives, whom he treats
worse than beasts of burden, and I think this somewhat influenced
Elizabeth, as, had he been unmarried, the prospect of being
---Page 22---
a queen, even of the wild and savage Tuscaroras,
might have moved her. These Indians are soon to return northward, as
the Choctaws claim the country hereabout, and the Tuscaroras, while
boasting to fear nothing, yet love their own scalps to remain where the
good God placed them.
During your absence I have again been troubled by a slight
but authentic attack of the gout, and long unceasingly for your return.”
In 1736, when Lady Oglethorpe was in Savannah,
Charles Wesley writes her from Jekyl Island thus:
“I have but this day returned from the trip to the Ogeechee
River, where I suffered many hardships and privations from the
inhospitable weather. With my brother John, I preached to the
Indians, whenever we could find them in any considerable numbers,
although I fear but little impression was made upon them. Their simple
and untutored minds find difficulty in comprehending the beautiful
doctrine of the Trinity, or in realizing the sublimity of a pure and
sinless Saviour suffering untold agonies
---Page 23---
for the crimes of wicked men. One of these pagans,
whose mind had been heretofore in total darkness, when urged to become a
Christian, retorted that Christians lied and cheated when buying furs
and were drunkards, and said that, as these men were Christians, he
would none of it, so hardened by the wiles of Satan are these
unbelievers against the truths of the gospel.
“Last evening I wandered to the north end of the island and
stood upon the narrow point, which your ladyship will recall as there
projecting into the ocean. The vastness of the watery waste, as
compared with my standing place, called to mind the briefness of human
life, and the immensity of its consequences, and my surroundings
inspired me to write a hymn, commencing:
Lo! on a narrow neck of land,
‘Twixt two unbounded seas I stand.
which I trust may pleasure your ladyship, weak and feeble as it is when
compared with the songs of the sweet psalmist of Israel. I feel that
here, like Moses, I am a stranger in a
---Page 24---
strange land, and I pray hourly that when the night
cometh, and when deep sleep falleth upon me, I may not be found without
a wedding garment.”
Extracts from a letter from John Wesley to General
Oglethorpe illustrate some of the early experiences of this noted
evangelist. He says:
“After leaving Jekyl Island came a most wearisome journey of
five days through swamps and forests, when we reached the place for the
annual council of the Choctaws, and found the savages gathered in great
numbers. As I gazed upon the multitude of idolaters, to whom I would
fain be the messenger bearing the good tidings of great joy, I was
filled with a deep pity for their unhappy state, and, as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, felt to gladly labor until I enter the
house appointed for all the living, to bring them within the fold
purchased for a sin-laden world. I had with me as interpreter the
half-breed, Mary Musgrove, and daily had meetings for instruction
and prayer, and trust that the future may show that some of the seed
thus sown has fallen upon good
---Page 25---
ground. One woman was baptized. She was of those
which come out of great tribulation, her husband and all her three
children having been drowned four days before in crossing the Ogeechee
River, and her happiness in the gospel caused me to feel that, like
Job, the Master had caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. She
was again married the day following her baptism, and when I suggested
longer days of mourning, she only replied that her first husband was
surely dead, and that his successor was of much substance, having a
cornfield and a gun. I have acquired sundry words of the language of
the Choctaws, and long to be able to speak to them in their mother
tongue. I doubt the interpreter, Mary Musgrove, who is yet in
the valley and shadow of darkness. To speak to the idolatrous Choctaws
in the English language is as the crackling of thorns under a pot; is as
one who would essay to draw out the leviathan with a hook; who should
seek to bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades, or loose the bands of
Orion.
Verily the flesh is weak, for I cannot but
---Page 26---
long for the day when again I may visit you and
enjoy the flesh-pots of Jekyl Island. I can with difficultly eat the
food of the savages. Insects bite and destroy my sleep. I am as a
skeleton, and the evil one continually suggests that I murmur at my lot,
and seek an easier way in which to serve the Lord.”
In 1736 came to John Wesley the experience of an
earthly love, but the woman who was its object married another, and this
disappointment caused the great evangelist to free his mind as to the
woman and her husband in such language that he was indicted for libel,
and fled to England to escape imprisonment, whereupon George
Whitefield was chosen by the trustees as his successor, and arrived
at Jekyl Island in 1737.
In further illustration of early life upon the island, I
copy one of the letters of Lady Oglethorpe to Sir Theophilus,
the father of her husband.
“DEAR AND HONORED PARENT:
I take my pen in hand to inform you that my dear husband and
myself are well and I
---Page 27---
hope these few lines may find you in the enjoyment
of the same great blessing. We are now established in our new home on
Jekyl Island, and I would fain give you a picture of this abode of the
Governor of this promising colony. The mansion is built of pine logs,
plastered, where plastered at all, with clay, and surrounded by a dense
forest. The house is very large and commodious, but lacking many of the
conveniences of our pleasant home in Surrey. We sleep on beds made of
pine leaves, which are most comfortable and exhale a balsamic fragrance
supposed to be conducive to health. Our floors are of split pine logs,
and about the walls are wooden pegs upon which to hang our gowns. Much
of our china was broken on our journey hither, and we use instead the
pewter mugs and plates brought for our servants. A few red savages are
near us, living in wigwams, who beg often for tobacco, but bring us in
return an abundance of venison and fish. The secretary of the colony,
Charles Wesley, dwells with us upon the island, and is zealous to
save the souls of the Indians who come hither to
---Page 28---
hunt and fish. He baptized a week since one Indian
and made him a part of Christianity, but later, for what reasons we
cannot divine, though certainly through evil temptations of the father
of idolatry, the devil, he suddenly cast off the Christian religion and
abandoned the true, divine worship. Mr. Wesley has also the gift
of verse, and has written many sweet hymns, which we sing in our family
worship. Last week came several cloudy and dismal days, which he
reported to us had inspired him to write a hymn contrasting the shadowed
life here with the brightness of that which is to come. It begins thus:
No need of the sun in that day
Which never is followed by night,
Where Jesus’s beauties display
A pure and permanent light.
A few days later he wrote another, after a most brilliant
sunset, which we had all surveyed with delight:
With glorious clouds encompassed round,
Whom angels dimly see,
Will the unsearchable be found,
Or God appear to me.
---Page 29---
From these lines you will see his
readiness to draw instructive lessons from all the incidents of daily
life, although, as you will see later, sometimes his hymns come near to
involve him in trouble.
He is of much self-denial and oftentimes of almost ascetic
life, as appears from one of his hymns commencing,
I do suspect some danger nigh
When I do feel delight.
From what I have written, you must not infer that we live
altogether a lonely and quiet life. We have twice visited Charleston,
the principal city of South Carolina, where we have been sumptuously
entertained by the governor and principal citizens, whom we have, of
course, invited to visit us in return. Recently we received word that
our invitations would be accepted. We had informed them of our
primitive mode of life, which they fully realized, having been in
similar conditions themselves. Last Wednesday we were startled by a
long blast from a conch shell, and on going to the beach saw a large
party approaching in a flat
---Page 30---
boat, men, women, negroes, horses and dogs. They
were soon disembarked and at the house, where General Oglethorpe
made them welcome with an abundance of rum made by the Puritans in that
part of America called New England. They then told us that not to
overtax our hospitalities, they had brought with them an abundance of
food and servants, and proposed to go at once to some suitable place
upon the shore and roast oysters. We set out for a cove about a mile
distant from our home. The progress towards it was a striking and
curious pageant. First, marched as trumpeter, a stalwart negro, blowing
a conch shell and producing a dismal and incessant blare. Then
General Oglethorpe on horseback, with myself behind him on a
pillion, and a negro on a mule, carrying my best hat in a box, lest it
be destroyed by the trees and bushes. Then our family coach, with one
wheel missing from an encounter with a stump, the axle being held up by
a pole, and within the family of Governor Pickens, his wife,
sister and niece, Miss Mercy Pickens. Then two open wagons with
the
---Page 31---
other ladies of the party, and some jugs of rum and
boxes of food. About these rode the gentlemen on horses and mules,
among them Mr. George Moultrie, a gallant young man who is soon
to wed Miss Mercy before named. Around the cavalcade swarmed the
negroes, shouting and laughing, rolling their white eyes, and showing
their white teeth in contrast to their shining black skins, and singing
songs full of melody and pathos. They seemed to bear the names of all
the heathen divinities and historic heroes. I recall Diana,
Flora, Phyllis, Caesar, Pompey, Hannibal,
Jupiter, and many more.
The road to the beach, while rude and rough for vehicles by
reason of roots and stumps, is of wonderful beauty, bordered with great
growths of evergreen oaks and magnolias, with thickets of myrtle and
bay, and a carpet of dwarf palmetto, all of most lustrous green, and the
trees often festooned or bound together with trailing garlands of pale,
gray moss. The most perfect art could devise nothing more beautiful
than the tropical glories of this forest
---Page 32---
drive. When we reached the cove the negroes waded
into the water and brought ashore great baskets of oysters, which they
roasted in a fire kindled from branches of the fragrant pine.
General Oglethorpe brewed a large tub of rum punch, while I made a
bowl of delicious sangaree with wine fro your own cellar, which has been
with us from the time of our leaving dear old England. No one neglected
these beverages, and with the oysters, the cheese and other viands with
which we were provided, a royal banquet was enjoyed. Many of the
gentlemen were nearly overcome with the rum punch, although insisting
that it was the roasted oysters which made their legs unsteady, and this
had nearly led Mr. Wesley into serious trouble with Mr.
Moultrie, whose almost maudlin attentions to his sweetheart, Miss
Mercy, were constant and even annoying to her.
As Mr. Wesley drank no punch, they insisted he should
sing, and he commenced one of his hymns which is a favorite with us:
“Depth of mercy, can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?”
---Page 33---
“Hold,” shouted Mr. Moultrie,
“none of your damned presumption. Mercy is not reserved for you
or any of your kind. She is mine and mine alone.” General
Oglethorpe interfered and endeavored to explain, but Mr. Moultrie
would listen to nothing, and proposed to give the Secretary a drubbing
on the spot. I succeeded in quieting him, and asked Mr. Wesley
to substitute another hymn, whereupon he commenced:
“The day of jubilee is come,
Return ye ransomed sinners home.”
“What!” shouted my husband, “are you ordering away my guests
on their very arrival? None of your foolishness.” “Sir,” said Mr.
Wesley, “I was not addressing your guests. I do not consider them
as ransomed sinners.”
“What do you mean?” said Governor Pickens; “go, and
drum your nonsense into the woolly head of the negroes.”
The riot was presently at an end, Mr. Wesley
returning to the house, and was forgotten after the gentlemen had slept
off their potations.
The party remained with us for three days,
---Page 34---
and until the rum was exhausted, the gentlemen
hunting daily and the ladies riding about the island and telling us all
the gossip and scandals of Charleston. The hunters brought in an
abundance of game, and this was cooked and served by the negro servants
brought with our visitors, whose skill made us almost regret General
Oglethorpe’s determination that no slaves shall be held in the
Georgia colony.
No more at present from your dutiful daughter.
DOROTHY OGLETHORPE.”
I will conclude with extracts from two letters of George
Whitefield to General Oglethorpe written with an interval of
about thirty years between, which illustrate a curious phase in the life
of this famous preacher. Whitefield, soon after his arrival in
Georgia, built what he called an Orphanage, an institution where poor
and neglected children could be cared for, educated and fitted for
useful lives. During his subsequent years this institution was his
constant care: he solicited money for it in all his fields of labor.
In 1739 he writes to General
---Page 35---
Oglethorpe thus, he being at that time in
Savannah:
“I have just this day reached Jekyl Island, after an absence
of three weeks, the most of which time was spent at the Orphanage and in
its vicinity. The dear children are well and happy. Last February I
decided to plant a farm, with the view of using the gain therefrom to
carry forward the work of the Orphanage. I am more than ever convinced
of the wisdom of excluding slavery from the Georgia colony. Slavery is
the sum of all villainies and abominations, and could I secure money in
other ways, I would never touch again the contributions from the
Carolinas and Virginia, made by the slave owners, whose wealth is gained
from the unpaid labor of wretched negroes or by the infamous traffic in
human flesh. Scarcely shall such men inherit eternal life. The gates
of the celestial city shall rarely open to those who traffic in the
bodies and souls of men. They have made a covenant with death and with
hell they are at agreement.
I hired several people who had no homes or
---Page 36---
employment to cultivate the plantation, and now
that the crops are gathered, I am in despair to find that there is no
gain, but a loss. The Master hath said, the laborer is worthy of his
hire, but the wages of the workman absorb the value of the harvest and
more. I entered upon the work with lofty hopes, but pride goeth before
destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Let not him that
girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off.”
Nearly thirty years after the writing of this letter, and
near the close of Whitefield’s life, I find another letter from
him to General Oglethorpe. The General had long before
returned to England. Whitefield had spent the intervening years
in public work, having seven times crossed the Atlantic, preaching with
wonderful effect in all parts of the New World, but having always in
mind his Orphanage, for which he constantly labored and solicited aid.
The letter runs thus:
“MY DEAR AND HONORED FRIEND:
I am but now returned from a trip through Virginia and the
Carolinas, during which I
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REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD
From the p??? Will of Ho???[illegible] Century Club [illegible] New
York.
---Page 37---
made short visit to the Orphanage, which is as ever
dear to my heart. The recollection of your encouragement and help in
this valiant work; of the pleasant years when I was often with you at
Jekyl Island, cheered by your wise and helpful counsel, have minded me
to again write you something of myself and my labors. I am come to the
time in life when the grasshopper is a burden; my strength is weakness,
my days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle. As William Shakespeare—a
man given overmuch to vain imaginings, yet whose lips oft-times are
touched with celestial fire, as he has said:
Like as to the waves make toward the pebbled
shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end.
I trust that my labors in the Master’s work have not been in
vain, yet, as I consider my days and their approaching end, chiefly do I
value myself upon the many children whom the dear Orphanage has
transformed from impending lives of vice and sin to faithful servants of
the Master. Three years since a Carolinian
---Page 38---
who at one of our meetings had found the pearl of
great price, gave me three healthy negroes, told me of the great gain in
the cultivation of tobacco, and that a tobacco plantation would of
itself nearly maintain the Orphanage. I took the money which had been
contributed for the good work, bought a small plantation in South
Carolina, as slavery was forbidden in Georgia, bought also nine other
strong negro men and women, and planted tobacco. My agent has each year
secured bountiful crops. The Lord has abundantly blessed our labors.
The negroes work from sunrise to sunset in the fields, and by moonlight
cultivate the maize, which is their food. The clothing for all costs
scarcely a pound in the y ear, and having to pay them no wages nor to
buy them food, the results are most hopeful. Daily and nightly do I
praise the Lord for these bountiful harvests, and pray that He whose
mercy endureth forever may continue to bless our fields, and to cause
the labor of these negro slaves to bear abundant fruit in the salvation
of the many little ones
---Page 39---
who are ready to perish. Verily the word fitly
spoken by my adviser of the tobacco plantation has been as apples of
gold in pictures of silver.
But, my friend, long and dearly loved, I must come to an
end. Perchance no more shall I gaze into thy eyes and grasp they hand
upon this earth; with me the fashion of this world passeth away, but the
love which is stronger than death is my stay and my comfort forever.”
It has been with me a labor of love to rescue from
undeserved oblivion some few of the incidents in what may be termed the
halcyon days of Jekyl Island. During my stay at the Club House, and
since, in conversation with the members, I have found no one who had
searched out, or was in any way familiar with, the period of its
occupation by Oglethorpe. Even the vague tradition that it had
been thus occupied was often questioned. But even the meager glimpse
which I have been able to afford of these picturesque ten years gives to
the spot a much needed historic interest. Instead of being,
---Page 40---
as generally believed, an island, dull and
uninviting, where a few negroes had cultivated and then abandoned small
cotton fields, and where a pleasant winter climate was its sole excuse
for being, it is seen to be linked with events romantic and far reaching
in our national life. We may in imagination picture General
Oglethorpe and his lovely wife entertaining with royal hospitality
the thirsty governors of North Carolina and South Carolina, with their
escort of fair women and brave men. Through the majestic grove of pine,
oak and magnolia, and across the broad savannas, we may see the
brilliant array of huntsmen gaily caparisoned, following their hounds,
while the cheering bugle blasts echo far and away through the forest.
We see the huntsmen returning home with brush and game, welcomed by the
courtly dames as became a gallant and victorious band of warriors; and
as the sun goes down we may see the powdered heroes leading through the
mazes of the stately minuet, on the floor of logs, the ladies, brave in
ruff, brocade and farthingale.
---Page 41---
Under the fragrant pines we may see the
council of war, as General Oglethorpe with his subordinates plans
the brilliant though unsuccessful campaign against the Spanish city of
St. Augustine. Here, too, we see the youthful Wesley, the
founder of Methodism, scarcely yet conscious of his mission and destiny
as he wanders dreamily along the shores of the sounding sea, brooding
the problems of profoundest moment, or shaping the sacred hymns, which
have since, in all climes and tongues, been the consolation of
humanity. And here, too, we see George Whitfield, the most
entrancing pulpit orator of the last two centuries, seeking often, after
his conflict with the hosts of sin, rest for body and mind in the
forests of Jekyl Island; and, among the same wide-spreading evergreen
oaks, gray with their trailing garlands of moss, under which we may
wander to-day, nursing for the life-long battle his fascinating and
magical eloquence. Surely, Prospero, waving anew his magic wand,
could never summon from the vasty [sic] deep an island more historically
picturesque.
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