USA > Georgia > Glynn County > Annals and statistics of Glynn County, Georgia > Part 2
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fortune, removed to Philadelphia, and his estate was inherited by grandchildren, decendants from the female line. They are now represented by Mrs. Owen J. Wister, of Phlaidelphia, and the Hon. Mrs. F. B. Leigh, of England. Major Butler was one of the Ormond family of England, and took an active part in the revolutionary struggle. He was also a delegate to the conven- tion that framed the United States constitution and very promi- nent in the debates. In Madison's notes on the constitution his opinions are seen to have been often and forcibly expressed.
Separated only by a narrow creek from Maj. Butler's resi- dence was the home of John Couper, a man of as different a type as it is possible to conceive. Mr. Couper was born in Ren- frewshire, Scotland; came to America a lad of seventeen years of age; settled in Georgia; married early in life a Miss Rebecca Maxwell, of Liberty county; prospered in business, and having bought the place called Cannon's Point, removed to St. Simons' In 1792. There, for a life time extended to the age of 91, he kept a home, which became a resort for all who needed help or sought pleasure. Here was literally "A Liberty hall," and it is a truth that visitors have been known to stay not days or months, but years. His house became a rendevouz for every one, and it seemed as though no one could visit Georgia without partaking of his hospitality. His conversation was charming, enriched by anecdotes and sparkling with humor. He amassed what was at one time a large fortune, and, taking into partnership James Hamilton, he opened the Hopeton plantation of 1,000 acres of rice land, and the cotton place of Cabbage Bluff, but no fortune could withstand his lavish hospitality, and before his death he had sold his Interests to his partner, James Hamilton. His mem- ory, to the generation that preceded me, was full of pleasure, and he was looked up to as a type of integrity, kindness and genial humor. When appealed to, as referee by the Christ church con- gregation, in the great church war, known as "Organ or No Organ," he settled the matter by sending, on the following Sunday, his man Johnnie, with his bag pipes, to serve as a substitute for the desired instrument. Need it be said that he thought that in the screech of the pipes would be drowned all con- tending voices and creeds.
Five miles south of Cannon's Point resided the family of Capt. Alexender C. Wylly, at the plantation called the "Village," and it remained the home of the Wylly family until 1886, when sold by James Couper, to whom it was left by Miss Heriot
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Wylly, to the Brunswick Company. Capt. Wylly was educated at Oxford, England; became a captain in the British army; mar- ried a Miss Margaret Armstrong, of Nassau; retired from the army and returned to Georgia in 1808. His wife survived him many years, and was much esteemed and respected. Next to the Village southward was the home of the family of Demereys, known as The Hall, and also called Harrington. This family were sons of Capt. Raymond Demerey of H. M. A., who great- ly distinguished himself in active service, and especially at Bloody Marsh.
Southward still was the Abbot homestead, and still farther south came the plantation known as Hamilton, now St. Simon's Mills, belonging to James Hamilton Couper, son of John Couper, who had married Caroline G. Wylly, a daughter of Capt. Alex Wylly. A little to the east was the residence of the Cater family, whose decendants are now represented by the Postells of this day.
At the extreme southern point, called Retreat; was the seat of Maj. Thos. Butter King, whose only child, Ann, married the Hon. Thos. Butler King, Around this home hovers none but recollections of grace, beauty and courtesy. An indescribable air of refinement environed and encircled It. Thos. Higginson, who visited it whilst abandoned in 1863, writes-"The lovliest spot I have seen in the South, filled with hyacinthe odors." If with the goddesses absent he could thus write, what would he have written had he my memories to draw upon? Of the mother, Mrs. King, in the fashion of the day, had long been written In an old album, on her birthday anniversary-
"Good sense, good nature and good breeding. Went on a pilgrimage.
They visited the fair of every clime. But rested, upon meeting Ann Page."
In this home the visitor found all that could charm the eye, the ear and the heart. The master gave willingly from his stores of information, gleaned in almost every land. With a mind far in advance of his day, he had been the organizer and projector of the railroad from Brunswick to the Pacific, and in his travels had been intimate with all the great spirits of his country. His conversation was enriched with the great thoughts of others, and never palled upon a listener's ear. His was a chivalrous na- ture full of noble thoughts, nobly expressed, and to that was added a heart that pulsated with sympathy to all mankind. Be- fore death overtook him he had filled every office within the gift
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of his county or district. His sons were types of the best manhood of the South, and the home was endeared to all by by the grace, beauty and charm of the home circle. Certain it is that "to know some women is in itself almost an education." The face of one of the girls, to an artist, would have been a delight. Equally would it have been the dispair of the modern photo- grapher. In it shone a divine soul which God, in his gracious- ness, had vouchsafed to allow men of earthly mould to gaze upon.
At Hopeton, a very large plantation of the Tide Water dis- trict, Mr. John Couper and James Hamilton built a home and established a plantation, placing thereon, in 1805, 300 slaves. At first the lands were used for cotton culture, then for the sugar in- dustry, and finally it drifted into rice as the staple crop. Upon the retirement of Mr. Couper from the partnership, his son, Mr. James Hamilton Couper, was placed in charge by Mr. Hamilton. This son administered the estate for over fifty years, and brought the plantation to such perfection as to make it a model to all in- terested in scientific agriculture; he increased the acreage to 1,800, made enormous crops, and by skillfull diking and ditching, almost eliminated the element of uncertainty, which is now the bane of the rice planter. By a methodical use of his time, he found leisure to cultivate his scientific tastes, so much so as to cause his correspondence to be solicited by almost all the learned societies. He collected, at great cost, a library in which there was hardly any valuable work found wanting, and there was no branch of knowledge that he did not, in some measure, ex- cel in. He was recognized as the best planter of the district, as a most humane and successful manager of slaves, as the leading conchologist of the South, and as a microscopist, whose research- se into the then new field of germ life attracted attention in the laboratories of all the universities.
Immediately adjoining the Hopeton plantation is the "Altama" homestead, now the property of the Corbins of Paris. Once it was the winter home of Mr. James Hamilton Couper, but was lost to the family by the financial deluge of 1865. The house is a fine example of the advantages of tabby as a building material. It shows that for durability that that material cannot be excelled, while yet the graces of architecture can be blended into its rough exterior. Southward we reach the Eliza- fleld, Grantley and Evelyn plantations. The three were once, and until after 1865, the homes of the Grants. To those who visi-
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ted their residence in olden times, there can be none but pleasant memories. And now we come to the seat of a family whose very name should be dear to every Georgian. Dr. James McGilveray Troup was born in Savannah, August 31st, 1786. He studied medicine, became a most successful practitioner, and later, having married Miss Camilla Bailsford, retired from the active pursuit of his profession to enjoy a well-earned rest and to exemplify to a younger generation the virtues, and pleasures of integrity, in- dustry and hospitality. His lands covered the Broadfield, Hofwyl and New Hope tracts, and were brought to the highest state of cultivation. He and his distinguished brother, George Michael Troup, were sons of George Troup, Esq., and Katherine McIntosh, who were married in London, 1776. George Michael Troup was born on the Tombigbee river, Alabama, (then Geor- gia) Sept. 8th, 1780. Coming, on his father's side, of the best English stock, grafted on to the sturdy clan of McIntosh, it might be expected that their issue would show the value of
ancestry. John McIntosh, captain in the British army and Indian agent of his majesty, in western Georgia, now Alabama, was the honest soldier who answered his kinsmen of McIntosh county when entreated by them to lend his aid to the revolutionary movement, "Having eaten the king's salt I cannot take sides against him." His wife was a McGilveray, and through her family he was connected with the famous half breed Alexander McGilveray. Geo.M. Troup was educated I think at Princeton: studied law, and brought a keen intellect to bear in the practice of his profession, and on the political questions of the day. He soon rose to prominence, and when elected governor of the state in 1824 he had to meet the delicate question of state sovereignty versus federal power, in the newly acquired lands of Cherokee Georgia. To the solution of this problem he brought strong arguments, and above all an unyielding will; and when, at last under the administration of John Quincy Adams, he found him- self and his state confronted with a letter which conveyed to him a threat, he, in his message to the legislature, used the words now carved on bis monumental stone. "I entreat you therefore, now that it is not too late to step forth, and having exhausted the arguments to stand by your arms." His remains lie in Mont- gomery county, on the plantation, known as the Mitchel place. He died April 20th 1356. His descendants are represented by a grandson, John S. Bryan and the families of Mrs. Robert Wayne, and Mrs. Holmes Conrad. He was the John the Baptist of
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state rights, the forerunner of principles which were In after years to stir the country to its very heart. In his day the inde- pendence of the south would have been conceded with scarce the admonition of "wayward sisters depart in peace." He, with Gen. Quitman for vice president, was nominated for the presi- dency at Montgomery. Not however with the hope of election but as an assertion of the undying principle of state sovereignty. At "Hofwyl" his grand nephew, a grandson of Dr. James Troup, still resides. Here we find repeated the life, both mental, and physical, which once made Broadfield famous. Its large sur- roundings are suggestive of olden days, its owner contributes in his conversation the latest views of the best thinkers and writers of the present age, leavened by a sound judgment, that has not forgotten the work and glories of the past, visitors are constant and frequent. Each winter Savannah sends the chatelaine to light up the house, and add the grace and courtesy of her presence to this country home. There were, once, many such homes in the county of which I speak. Ah me! that I should write of them all-this one alone remains.
Carterets Point was one of the outposts established by Ogle- thorpe. In time it became the homestead of the Wright family and was the residence of the late George W. Wright. The Lambs also settled on this point and from these two families have sprung a large number of Glynn's most honored and useful citizens. In the days of reconstruction both of them were potent factors in the re-establishment of white supremacy, and it is to their courage and energy that the rescue of the county is largely due. At Carterets Point also was situated the "Parsonage." In August 1897, at the meeting of the Rhode Island Historical Association, the Rev. George F.Clarke once pastor of this church thus spoke. "In his opening he referred to this charge and said that it contained five white families and a thousand slaves." The happy and hospitable life of the Southerner was described. Continuing, he said, "my evenings were delightful, not only delightful, but instructive. My host, Mr. Couper, at Hopeton, was a man of most uncommon ability and attainment. His library was the largest and best selected I have ever seen in pri- vate ownership." Then in a reminiscent vien, Dr. Clarke told of the desolations of the war, and said. "I wonder how many of the wealthy men, who now own these lands, would rise from their dinner tables to shake the hand of an aged servant, a sight I once witnessed at Hopeton." He closed by saying.
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"The memory of those days and of those people has not faded away. The majestic oaks with leaves green throughout the year, the magnolia with its blossom lifted high to the heaven, the jessamine perfuming the air, the rice birds clouding the very sky, the buzzards slowly sailing in the blue heights, these form the physical aspects of the scene and he added "I was acquainted with the more cultivated class of Southerners, they had inherited their slaves from their fathers or grand fathers who had bought them from merchants of Boston or New Port. I saw no cruelty and the servants did not work so hard as the wives of our north- ern farmers." As I read the words quoted, memory asserts itself and I see Glynn county as it was, with a dominant class who were men of culture, travel and means, conservative in opinion and politics and of unblemished integrity. It has become a fashion to cry we are of the New South. It might be well to think before we speak. It would be well to know, that there is not one road to honor that was not blazed out by them of the old south. It would be well to know that there is not one indus- try which leads to wealth, the foundations of which were not laid by those that are dead and gone. It were well to think, who re-claimed a wilderness and conquered a country, and it is tut right, for that youth, exultant in his young manhood to know that "the older forms now bearing the scars and deformities of age and labor, bear them and wears them on his account," that for him were those defacements of exposure and toil taken on to that frame "once God like" that on his account was the drum roll not sounded in vain, for him was the mustering of men, and the trembling farewells of women uttered, which once echoed from the ocean beaches to the mountains of Georgia, and with that thought the youth of our Hand should hardly say "oh he is of the old south and is now but a back number."
Jekyl Island remained a government reservation or military post from 1736 to 1766. In the latter year it was granted by the Crown to Clement Martin, and was afterwards sold under a decree of court to four French gentlemen and finally it passed into the possession of Capt. Poulain duBignon. In his family it re- mained until the organization of the Jekyl Island Club In 1886. The club has spent hundred of thousands of dollars in buildings and improvements. Many of its members have built winter re- sidences of the most costly character, and the whole island now presents a most beautiful aprearance. Shelled roads and the beautiful beach offer drives that can not be excelled. While
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everywhere, bridle and bicycle paths wander amid the oaks and sink into the dells that border the ocean. Game of every kind abounds and under the "strict preservation" rules of the club multiply to an extent elsewhere unknown. A palatial club house offers accomodations to members and their families and in its management and cuisine it is not excelled even by the Wal- dorf or Netherlands. The owners of the island are the capital- ists of the country and no money is spared towards making of it an ideal Southern home. But a great noveliest has written in "Endymion." "In nature the insect world is strongest" and here in this delta of the river of wealth, we find a Rockafeller, a Flagler and a Lorilliard just as their Island Eden is most at- tractive, when the jessamine scents the air, when the crab apple and dog wood begin to illustrate the winters woods, driven from their homes and fleeing before the tiny sand fly, native and sprung from Southern soil, neither wealth, position or art can secure immunity. The war of the rebellion was largely won by numbers and money, but here like ghosts at even tide, the reserves of the south arise and declare that in their land no per- manent home shall be made. In millions the "little people" come and before them the four hundred flee away.
On the mainland west of Jekyl Island we find the home of the Scarlets; the place was, is still called Fancy Bluff. Here the founders of that family lived, they were allied by marriage to the Parlands of Blythe Island and have always exercised a large in- fluence in county and district affairs. Bethel was the seat of the Tisons. One of the brothers removed to Savannah, acquired, or rather, increased his wealth and gained a large influence in his adopted city. His descendants are now married into the Mercer and Dunwody connections. The brother remained at Bethel, his daughters are united to the Wright and Branham families; his son built a home in a most beautiful situation on Turtle River called it "The Hermitage," but has died leaving one daughter.
At "Anguilla" we reach the Hazlehurst homestead. Mr. Robert Hazlehurst owned this place. From his marriage with Miss Wilson, of Philadelphia are descended the Plants, of Macon, Ga. From his second union with Miss Nicolai are descended sons and daughters, who have married into the families of Nightengale, Huger and Habersham.
Marengo was the Nicolai home, a French family who settled at an early date in the county. They are allied to the duBignons and Hazlehursts of this county.
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Waynesville was once the summer home of a number of the planters of swamp and rice lands. The Coupers, the Tunnos, the Kings, the Grants and many others here spent the hot months of the year creating quite a society of their own. It was also the home of the McNish and Johnson families, and in later times of the Layton Hazlehurst family, the Armstrongs, Nicolai's and many planters from the Buffalo added their presence to the little circle of home residents.
The North Western part of the county was more sparsely settled and offered fewer inducements to the prospector. At present it is in a large measure given over to the worker in naval stores and to those engaged in the lumber, cross tie and cypress industries.
Until 1868 Glynn county was first in rank as regards wealth and progressive agriculture. Nor was the manhood of the county slow in asserting itself at the breaking out of the war, be- tween North and South. The Glynn Rangers organized and commanded by George C. Dent, Esq., was the the first com- pany to be equipped and take thefield. This company, forming a part of the 4th Georgla cavalary did good and efficient service on the coast of Georgia and Florida, greatly distinguishing itself for vigilance and daring. The Brunswick Riflemen was the next company to organize. In our appendix its original muster roll is given, with the names of the battle fields in which it participated. Its service was chiefly in Virginia, it (forming Company A 26th Ga. Regiment, Lawton's Brigade.) Of the sixty-four companies which composed that brigade, the Riflemen alone preserves its organization. It's dead fell on every battle field of the army of Northern Virginla, and their graves were dug on the soil of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. At the annual meetings of the company the muster roll of the Veterans, yearly grows smaller. In 1897 but 14 answered to their name. A few more years, and the muster will be complete when on the shore "across the river" the final "here" shall be the answer in the "stone wall" roll call.
In closing this short and geographical sketch of the county, I trust I may be pardoned a digression as to the characteristics of the people who here made and established their homes. If great generosity of heart, great honesty of purpose, unbounded sym- pathy with the oppressed and unblemished integrity in life can outweigh the faults arising from impulsiveness and excesses, in a great measure, attributable to the habits of the day,
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then the men of past ages have but little to fear in the judgment yet to be meted out. Charles the fifth, Emperor and absolute ruler over one half of Europe, said to Titian the great painter, as he seated himselt for portraiture. "Paint me not as I am, but as what I might have been. Think not what evil I have committed, but (rather with my power) what tempta- tion I might have yielded to." So with many of these men, brought up from childhood with the belief in their own superiority over all of an inferior race. Think rather of what they refrained from, than of sins committed. "Lead me not into temptation" the child of to-day lisps at his mother's knee, far more did those of a pastage, need that that supplication should have come from the inner heart. In time providence rights all wrongs, and in my judgment the expiation has been full and complete.
No where was slavery less objectionable to the humanitarian than on the coasts of Georgia, and to the truth of this fact many visitors have testified. Sir Charles Lyle the geologist, Basil Hall the traveller, the Hon. Miss Murray, Miss Bremer, the Swedish writer, besides clouds of witnesses less noted, visited the county, and in their writings spoke boldly on this subject. The institution as it here existed, more nearly resembled a patriarchial bondage, than the slavery of the chattel and mort- gage type.
The race themselves took a curious pride on being of such and such a family, and frequently called themselves by what to them was almost a tribal name. Their language was a mixture of the African and pure Saxon, uncouth as it was in sound, it had the merit of great strength and vitality. Often have I thought that as a language becomes refined, and capable of accurately defining differences, so in equal measures is it emasculated of its pristine strength and power.
No great Epic has been written save of primal eras, and in the tongue of a youthful and yet simple language; in the negro's speech, the word used would be strongly descriptive of the wished tor idea, but no white man would have thought of it or ventured on its use.
One negro in this county when objecting to the encroach- ment of a head right answered the surveyor's declaration of its being "vacant land" by an indignant denial that there could be in 1886, "any modderless land, in de state of Georgia, aint you know buckra would a tek hi:n." Every plantation had its pro- fessional story teller, and tales weird and quaint enough to some
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times chill the blood, and 'then again to provoke to laughter were part of the traditional lore, always however a moral was inculcated, and in the "why the buzzard's head was bald," as well as in the adventures of the "wise bud," and the "stupid bud;" was honesty declared to be the best policy, the stories were always given in "recitation" and the words were allied to some melody, most often of African birth.
The men who lived in the times that are gone, differed much from those who now fill their places. An absolute horror of any pretense to puritanism was the silent feature in their lives.
A brave, honest and truthful race, in whom great manliness of character and honesty of heart was almost universal,
The duelling pistol was the supreme court to which all per- sonal difficulties were referred, and the course of settlement was short and decisive. General Charles Floyd, before whom many of these cases were adjudged, called himself the "Peace Maker," for, said he, "I have settled more disputes than any judge in Georgia, either by the removal of one or both of the disputants, or else by an amicable and thorough reconciliation,"
As I think back, I wonder if the holding of Gen. Floyd's court did not conduce to the courtesy in language and manner, that was so marked in the manners of his day.
A man whom I greatly honored once said to me, "my son, never take to your heart him whom the world calls a saint, be assured such a person has but succeeded in hiding his vices," to me the repentant sinner appeals much more strongly than one whose virtues are but negative, for what makes a healthy heart?
A healthy heart is one that strongly feels The pulse of passion and the throb of pain But asks assistance from a healthy brain, To stem a morbid current, when it steals Into the veins with darkening stain.
A heart light heating, which oft reveals. The touch of sin ; but struggles free again, Repentant, looking to the lamb who heals.
Not such man's heart a football for the crowd Now high in air, now trampled on the ground And steeped anon, in sorrow most profound,
Till bruised, benumbed and ossifled it lies,
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