History
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In the mid-2nd millennium, the island now known as Jekyll was near the border between the Guale people and the Mocama people. Historians have debated whether the town of Guadalquini was on Jekyll Island or St. Simon's Island, and whether the people that lived there late in the 16th century were Guale or Mocama. By early in the 17th century Guadalquini was occupied by the Mocama. Both the Guale and the Mocama became part of the Spanish mission system. In the late 17th century the Guale and the Mocama were driven out of what is now Georgia by attacks from French pirates and from native allies of the English in the Province of Carolina. The survivors resettled in what is now Florida.
The men used spears to take fish from the surrounding creeks. The women were experts on the native vegetation, gathering nuts and fruit. They made a type of tea from parched holly leaves. These settlers were said to also have cultivated the three sisters: squash and pumpkins, beans, and corn (maize); as well as sunflowers and tobacco, which was used for many ritual purposes and celebrations.
Arrival of Europeans[edit]
In 1510 explorers from Spain were the first to land at Jekyll Island, naming it Isla De Ballenas (Whale Island). Later Juan Ponce de León was appointed as the civil governor of this and Spain's other claimed North American territories. In 1562 French explorer Jean Ribault claimed the island for France and renamed it as Ille de la Somme. Ribault later surrendered to the Spanish and was executed. The two countries engaged in competition and armed confrontations along the Georgia and Florida coasts. After his army swiftly defeated the French, Philip II of Spain immediately had a colony established on Jekyll.
More brief conflicts between these two countries along the coastline followed. Spanish priests established missions intending to convert Native Americans to Christianity. No mission is known to have been established on Jekyll; however, the Spanish influenced the island from their mission on St. Simons Island. After the Westo invasion on the mainland, they began destroying the missions and slaying the Spanish priests, traveling south along the coast. They spared Father Xander Davilla on Jekyll, keeping him as a slave. (He was later released to the Spanish in a prisoner exchange).
In 1663–65, England established grants to land stretching southward from their Jamestown colony to an area below St. Augustine, Florida. The English allied with the Cherokee people, Creek people, and Yuchi tribes. They armed the warriors, ordering them to raid the Spanish and Muskogean settlements on Jekyll in 1681–83. By 1702, the English had driven the Spanish from the entire area.
English occupation[edit]
Major William Horton's tabby-structure home. Structure built in 1742; this image taken in 1927.
General James Oglethorpe established Georgia as a colony in 1733. He renamed the island in honor of his friend Joseph Jekyll, who had contributed £600 towards the founding of the colony. For many years, including the "Club Era", the island was spelled as "Jekyl". The Georgia legislature in 1929 passed legislation to correct the spelling to "Jekyll", as used by the former sponsor of the colony.
In the late 1730s, General Oglethorpe appointed William Horton to set up a military post in the area to protect Fort Frederica on St Simon's Island. By 1738 Horton had set up permanent residence on Jekyll Island, near what is now called DuBignon Creek. At his residence, Horton established a plantation that was able to supply the population at Frederica with beef and corn; he depended on the labor of enslaved Africans.
Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island
Horton continued to develop his property on Jekyll Island. In 1742 his house was destroyed during Spanish attacks, but he had it rebuilt. He developed the cultivation of new experimental crops on his plantation, including barley and indigo. Horton had his house and outbuildings reconstructed after the attacks using the indigenous material, tabby. A mixture of lime, crushed oyster shells, and water, this strong building material has withstood the test of time throughout the Sea Islands. The external structure of William Horton’s two-story house, built from tabby, is one of two remaining two-story colonial-era structures in the state of Georgia. William Horton died in 1748–1749. His property on Jekyll passed through many hands until, just before the year 1800, Christophe du Bignon acquired all of the property of the island.
Plantation era[edit]
Inland marshes of Jekyll Island
Christophe du Bignon and his family arrived here from France in 1792 as refugees from the violence of the French Revolution against the elite. Du Bignon developed a prosperous plantation based on African slavery. After he died in 1825, his son Henri Charles Du Bignon inherited the property. Under the new ownership of Henri Charles the plantation continued to prosper, as evidenced by the 1850 census.
On November 28, 1858, fifty years after the importation of slaves to the United States was prohibited, the ship The Wanderer landed on Jekyll Island with 465 slaves. This was the next-to-last successful shipment of slaves to American soil from Africa.
By 1860, the plantations on Jekyll had declined in productivity, as the markets had changed and the soil became exhausted. By 1862 when Union Army troops arrived, the Du Bignon plantation was completely deserted. After the American Civil War ended, the Du Bignon family returned to the island. Henri Charles divided the island among his four children.
In 1875 John Eugene Du Bignon, a nephew, became owner of property on the island. He inherited the southern third of the island from his father and intended to build a house.
The Jekyll Island Club[edit]
Main article: Jekyll Island Club
DuBignon CottageRockefeller Cottage
Du Bignon purchased the rest of the island from his siblings, with the help of his brother-in-law Newton Finney and an investor. Their plan to market the island as a winter retreat for the wealthy came to fruition on February 17, 1886. They decided to construct a clubhouse which was completed in January 1888. Fifty-three members purchased shares for $600 each; a limit of 100 members was imposed to preserve the club's exclusivity.
From 1888 to 1942 the club opened every January for the winter season, except a few years when there were yellow fever outbreaks. It accommodated some of the world's wealthiest people. Members and their families enjoyed activities such as biking, hunting, horseback riding, and tennis, and frequented the north beaches. Some of the wealthiest members built their own "cottages", mansion-sized residences that are mostly still standing in the 21st century. Even the wealthy endured financial losses during the Great Depression, and the club had financial difficulties. World War II was the final blow to the life of the Jekyll Island Club. The club opened as usual for the 1942 season. However, by the beginning of March, it was announced there would be an early close to the season due to the club's financial situation and the strain the war had on the labor situation. U.S. Army troops bivouacked on Jekyll Island, manning observation watchtowers to spot German U-boats and using the club grounds for communications and a dining mess.
Planning of the Federal Reserve System[edit]
See also: History of the Federal Reserve System
At the end of November 1910, Senator Nelson W. Aldrich and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury A. Piatt Andrew invited five of the country's leading financiers (Frank Vanderlip, Henry P. Davison, Arthur Shelton, Benjamin Strong, and Paul Warburg) to a private meeting at the Jekyll Island Club to develop recommendations for a central banking system that could respond to financial panics like the Panic of 1907. They produced a plan for fifteen self-governing branches distributed over the country, overseen by a national commission that would coordinate policy. Aldrich later submitted this proposal to the National Monetary Commission without mentioning its origins, and a similar federated structure was included in the Federal Reserve Act. The Jekyll Island meeting was not disclosed until 1930, when Senator Carter Glass's claim of credit for the Federal Reserve's structure prompted rebuttals from Warburg and other banking experts.
Development of the Jekyll Island Authority[edit]
Under the administration of Governor Melvin E. Thompson, the state of Georgia gained control of Jekyll Island on October 6, 1947, for $675,000. The island was initially managed as part of the State Park system. However, by 1950, as costs associated with getting the island ready for tourists began to mount, the island was taken out of the state park system. It was organized as a separate authority with the goal of its becoming self-sustaining, considered achievable because of its resources and attractions.
The Jekyll Island Authority was created in February 1950 under the direction of Governor Herman Talmadge. It was designed to be a governing board. This board consisted of nine gubernatorial appointed members and was charged with the operation and care of the island. Black residents of Brunswick petitioned the state for access‚ and in 1950‚ a portion of southern Jekyll‚ renamed St. Andrews Beach‚ was designated for blacks‚ becoming the first public beach in Georgia accessible to African Americans. Five years later‚ the state erected the “Colored Beach House,” which now stands as a historic landmark at Camp Jekyll.
The authority placed a convict camp on the island in 1951. In an extension of the lease-convict system, compared to slavery in its abuses, the mostly African-American prisoners performed the manual labor needed to prepare the island for public use. They planted landscaping for drainage, dug and built the foundations of motels and neighborhoods, and built the perimeter road. From September 1951 to December 1954, the island was primarily closed to the public. Upon completion of the six-year causeway project and erection of the drawbridge on December 11, 1954, Jekyll Island officially re-opened for public use.
The Authority was criticized and received negative publicity in the mid-1950s. The Georgia Legislature restructured the Authority in 1957, requiring board members to be elected officials. The state attorney general, state auditor, public service commissioner, state parks department director, and secretary of state were all made board members.
In the next decade, the Authority directed development of motels, houses, the convention center, and a shopping center, as well as the towers at the entrance to the causeway. In the 1970s the Authority began renovating the historic cottages and club hotel in the historic district. During the 1980s, it supervised the construction of bike paths and the re-opening of the clubhouse in December 1987. The legislature reorganized the board membership in the 1970s and 1980s. Now it consists of the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and eight citizens of the state.
Some of the later construction projects have included the Soccer Complex, the Jekyll Island Tennis Center, gaining Historic District status and designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1978, and opening the Jekyll Island 4-H Center in 1983. Most recently, the Authority completed the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center aims to rehabilitate and return to nature cold stunned and other wounded turtles, the primary species impacted by cold stunning is the critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle.
Due to an increasing number of competitive sites, the island had suffered declining numbers of visitors since the late 20th century. In 2006, the Authority planned to revitalize the island. In 2007 it selected Linger Longer Communities LLC (through a competitive process) as its private partner to redevelop a portion of the Island. After a year of planning and hosting public forums throughout the state of Georgia, the Authority and Linger Longer developed a revitalization plan. It includes a renovated Convention Center, with construction of a mixed-use public Beach Village to increase the number and variety of attractions nearby. These will be oriented to pedestrian uses: an area for new retail shops and a public beach-side promenade. By legislative mandate, sixty-five percent of the island is and will remain in a mostly natural state (including parks and picnic areas).
A once-per-day toll has been charged for several decades to enter Jekyll Island. In 1985 the daily rate was $1, as of August 2009[update] it was $5, and later raised to $10, with an annual pass at $100. An annual pass may be purchased at the Guest Information Center before entering the island.
Georgia Sea Turtle Center
Guest Information Center
