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St. Marys History
Take a Walk Back in Time and Explore our Roots.
From its Native American roots and exploration of the Spanish, the War of 1812 to the Civil War, and mill town to strategic military location, our rich and varied has shaped us into a community worth exploring.
Previously known as Buttermilk bluff, the plans to establish a city were conceived as early as June 1767 by a Colonial Council who decided this land, confiscated from Jermyn & Charles Wright (two brothers of royal governor James Wright), would be a great spot for a city. Their royal sympathies resulted in their banishment after the Revolutionary War. The city of St. Marys was then established in 1787 when the state of Georgia granted the Wright brothers land to Jacob Weed. In addition to Weed, 19 other men bought 4 blocks each, or squares of land (each block was 4 acres), at a cost of $38.00. The only requirement was that they build a wooden structure on their property. The Articles of Agreement were signed on Cumberland Island on November 20, 1787.
On December 5, 1792, St. Marys was officially established as a town by an act of the Legislature of the State of Georgia. Although St. Marys was established in 1792, the legislative act incorporating the town was not passed until November 1802. All the streets in the Historic District are named for those 20 founders. St. Marys was the first county seat of Camden County. In 1790 the first census was taken in Camden County and recorded 305 residents of St. Marys. 70 of those 305 were slaves, and 14 being “free persons of color.”
St. Marys became a bustling seaport because the St. Marys River was a natural deep-water harbor and protected from storms by Cumberland Island. Consequently, bad weather tends to miss St. Marys. The seaport lent itself to smugglers & pirates as well as legitimate citizens. Yellow pine was considered a very desirable construction material & so much of the pine was shipped that the yellow pine forests were wiped out in this area. If you notice the floorboards in the older buildings, you will see that one board will span the length of the building. Whole trees would be cut down just to get one board. By 1837, we boasted almost 1,000 residents, 9 grocery & dry goods stores, 5 churches, 3 schools, 3 ministers, 3 lawyers & 3 physicians. At one point St. Marys was the 6th largest city in Georgia. We continued to grow & prosper until the Civil War. Coastal towns were left unprotected & many inhabitants fled to safer more protected inland areas. St. Marys was occupied by the Ninth Maine Regiment led by Captain Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Upon leaving town, he stated if the citizens made a signal to the Confederates he would come back & burn the town. The 3 Seals Sisters went down to the waterfront waving their white handkerchiefs in a gesture of goodbye. Captain Higginson took this as a sign to the Confederates & came back and burned much of St. Marys, including the waterfront and the Episcopal Church.
After the Civil War, St. Marys was once again on the road to recovery. People returned to their desolate town and began rebuilding. In 1908, Lemuel Johnson built a rail line between St. Marys and Kingsland and the shipping industry shifted to shipping by rail because it was more efficient. Things continued to progress until the Great Depression. Once again people left town and businesses went under. In 1941, Gilman Paper Company
came to St. Marys bringing new industry and jobs (the plant closed in 2002 causing the loss of 900 jobs). In 1955, the US Army developed Kings Bay as an ocean terminal for ammunition shipments. The US Navy acquired the land and established Kings Bay Submarine Base covering 17,777 acres. This was the largest peacetime construction project the Navy had ever undertaken.
In 1996, John Kennedy, Jr. was married at Cumberland Island’s First African Baptist Church and St. Marys was named “the #1 small boomtown in America" by Money Magazine. In 2004, St. Marys was the site of the HGTV Dream House and garners many deserved accolades each year like one of Southern Living magazines "28 Best Small Towns in Georgia for a Quaint Escape" and USA Today's "Top 20 Best Small Towns in the South."
Early History
Prior to European settlement, Southeast Georgia was populated by Timucua Indians known as Mocama. Severely diminished by the 17th Century due to infectious diseases and conflict, the Mocama were evacuated to Cuba by the Spanish in 1763, prior to extinction. From roughly 1568 through 1684, 12 Spanish missions were established from St. Augustine to what is now coastal South Carolina. On Cumberland Island the Franciscan mission San Pedro de Mocama ministered to the Native Americans. 1597 brought conflict to what had been a congenial relationship. The Indians, killing all but one of the Friars, were eventually massacred by the Spanish, who abandoned the missions by 1685.
Articles of Agreement
Plans for the city of St. Marys, originally known as Buttermilk Bluff, were conceived by the British in 1767. The Articles of Agreement were signed on Cumberland Island in 1787 when the first American owner, Jacob Weed, sold 1,620 acres to 19 other men for $38 each.
The streets of downtown St. Marys bear these founders names. The founding fathers are Jacob Weed, Henry Osborne, Isaac Wheeler, William Norris, Thomas Norris, Nathaniel Ashley, Richard Cole, William Ashley, Lodowick Ashley, Robert Seagrove, James Seagrove, James Finley, Henry Osborne, Langley Bryant, Simeon Dillingham, Prentis Gallup Stephen Conyers, John Fleming, Jonathan Bartlett, John Alexander, and William Reddy.
African American History
The history of enslaved Africans and Africans Americans has been one of anguish, perseverance, recovery, and triumph. Slaves had been a part of the areas history from the Pre-Colonial era through the Civil War.
Gullah (the name given to the Islanders of South Carolina) and Geechee (the name given to islanders of Georgia) culture is linked to West African ethnic groups enslaved on island plantations to grow rice, indigo and cotton as early as 1750. In addition to music and art they brought farming and building methods. The Settlement, at the North end of Cumberland Island, was the first privately owned community of former slaves after the Civil War. Visitors to the island can see the remnants of this link to Africa and the earliest African-American struggles for freedom. In April, 1814, British Vice-Admiral Alexander Cochrane issued a Proclamation encouraging any person who wished to withdraw from the United States to board British ships ‘as freed men’ bound for British colonies. Hundreds of black slaves from southern plantations escaped to Admiral George Cockburn’s ships anchored off the Georgia coast and Cumberland Island. Many were transported to Nova Scotia or Bermuda where their descendants reside today. Some black males served as Colonial Marines in the British militia ultimately taking residence in Trinidad after service. An authentic Colonial Marine uniform is on display at our Cumberland Island Museum in downtown St. Marys. New Canaan Plantation (McIntosh Sugar Mill), Cherry Point Plantation, Harmony Hall Plantation, and Kings Bay Plantation were four of the largest slaveholders between the Crooked River and St. Marys River.
First African Baptist Church of St. Marys, Georgia is affectionately known as “The Mother Church” in the African American community in Camden County because many of the churches which now had their beginning through members who were once a part of this fellowship. The church was established in 1863 under the leadership of Rev. U.L. Houston and Rev. J. M. Sims with 45 members. Initially, church services were held in a building in downtown St. Marys.
200+ Years of Military Tradition
By 1740, English General James Oglethorpe had established two forts (Fort St Andrews and Fort William) on Cumberland Island to monitor the Spanish to the south. When the St Marys River separated nations, America’s military had an important strategic presence. Fort Tammany, built in the early 1790’s, near the corner of St Marys and Wheeler Streets, was staffed with Federal Dragoons and in service for about 20 years.
During the War of 1812 the British vessels, HMS Morgiana and HMS Majestic, were seen in the St. Marys River, and the Georgia Militia was immediately activated. On January 10th, 1815, the British fleet commanded by Admiral Sir George Cockburn (Coburn) that had burned Washington, D.C., put troops on Cumberland Island, commandeering Dungeness, the home of Mrs. Shaw, the widow of Revolutionary hero Nathanial Greene. On February 24, 1815, British sailors, trapped on their barges in the middle of the St. Marys River, lost 29 men to American forces firing from the shore; the Americans lost two. The Battle of the St. Marys, was on of the Last Battles of the War of 1812. The town was looted, many citizens sought refuge upriver; the population of St. Marys was reduced from 800 to 600. Finally, on March 15th, 1815, the Treaty of Ghent having been ratified by both parties, the British withdrew from Cumberland Island.
In January 1861, at Milledgeville, Georgia , St. Marys’ representatives voted for secession from the Union and formed the “Saint Marys Volunteers,” later called the “Camden Chasseurs.” All able-bodied men were sent to join the fight, which left the town vulnerable to Union raiding from Amelia Island. In November 1862, the steamer Neptune and gunboat Mohawk, under the command of Col. Ritch with the 9th Maine Regiment, invaded St. Marys. Their troops were immediately fired upon by local forces and they fired back in retaliation. Folklore says firing continued until the Seal sisters came toward the waterfront offering surrender. A Captain Hughes had decided to leave in favor of returning to Fernandina, but when shots were fired, Union forces descended upon St. Marys and much of the town was left to ashes. April 10, 1863 Edition of the Savannah Daily News: Federal troops “committed havoc” in St. Marys. They “gutted every house abandoned by its owner, carried off everything movable, and destroyed the remainder.”
During WWII Cumberland Island inhabitants watched for German submarines operating off shore. During the Cold War, the Army established Kings Bay Army Terminal allowing for rapid movement of forces and supplies in a national emergency. In 1976, it became Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, home to America’s ballistic missile submarines for the Atlantic Fleet, part of the nation’s strategic defense.