Altamaha Echoes Lower Altamaha Historical Society Newsletter April 2007 LAHS MEETING, April 19, 2007, 7:00 p.m. – Fort King George Historic Site Dutch treat supper, 5:45 p.m. at B&J Pizza ________________________________________________ "The Special Interrelationship of Georgia's Coastal Environment and the Evolution of Its History and Culture" will be the program presented by Laura and Meredith Devendorf, noted coastal conservationists and recipients of the National Arbor Day Foundation's Good Stewardship Award. After an overview of coastal environmental history, Laura will focus on the role of the live oak in Georgia and the world. Together, mother and daughter manage land granted to their Puritan antecedents in 1755 and are passionate stewards and advocates of the natural and human history of the Georgia coast. Meredith earned an honors degree in history from Amherst College and a Masters in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi where she was a University Scholar and a graduate fellow at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture; she is currently working toward her Masters of Environmental Management at Duke University. Laura attended the University of Wisconsin where she was selected for the elite Integrated Liberal Studies honors program, and she returned to her native coastal Georgia after a successful career in the arts in San Francisco. Georgia's Tree Farmer of the Year in 2000, Laura opened Melon Bluff Nature and Heritage Reserve with her late husband Don and daughter Meredith. She also founded Seabrook Village, the nation's first African-American living history museum devoted to post-Civil War freeholders. _______________________________________________________________ LAHS Board of Directors meeting, May 19, 2007, 4:30 p.m. Fort King George Historical Site LAHS members are always welcome ________________________________________________________ LAHS meeting, May 19, 2007, 7:00 p.m. Fort King George Historical Site Dutch treat supper, 5:45 p.m. at B&J Pizza "A Look at the Life of the Common Soldier of the American War for Independence" will be presented by Robert K. Weber, Special Collections Librarian at the Georgia Historic Society, and will include a brief outline of Georgia’s military history during the war. Robert’s portrayal as an 18th century re-enactor is of a militiamen, thus his clothing is civilian and his equipment is a mix of military and civilian items. He will have a "show and tell" of items a militiaman would carry and how they are used. The election of 4 members to the Board of Directors of LAHS will be held at the April 19, 2007 meeting. Those elected will take office in May for a term of two years. Proposed slate is Jim Bruce, Mary Evelyn Hoffhaus, David Miller, and Chris Milner, as submitted by the Nominating committee: Jack Godfrey, chairman, Kaye Traer, and Lamar Williamson. Nominations from the floor will be accepted for any LAHS member that has given their consent for the nomination. ____________________________________________________________ COMING EVENTS: A field trip has been planned for April 23, 2007 for a walking tour of Civil War sites in Savannah and lunch at The Lady & Sons restaurant. Cost for the tour is $10.00; lunch cost is $19.23, which includes beverage, gratuity and tax. There will be an additional charge for bus transportation with a late morning departure anticipated. Please let Jean Hawkins (832-6588) know by the April 19 meeting if you wish to participate. Our summer picnic will be held on Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 5:30 p.m. at Fort King George. Please note that this is a change from previous years. Please make plans to attend and bring a dish to share. LAHS provides drinks and the meat. Come and enjoy great fellowship! REMINDER: Membership dues are due January 1 of each year: Life $250.00 - Corporate $100.00 annual - Libraries $25.00 - Family $20.00 Individual $15.00 - Student $5.00. If you haven’t already done so, please send your check to LAHS, P.O. Box 1405, Darien, GA 31305 or give to Jeanne Klippel, Membership Chairman, at the April meeting. LAHS values your support. ●●●●●● Confederate Memorial Day, April 26, 2007 ●●●●●● (Georgia Historical Marker, located on Ga. 99 one mile east of U.S. 17 near Fort King George) - "Birthplace of John McIntosh Kell. Laurel Grove, at the end of this avenue, was the birthplace of John McIntosh Kell, 1823-1900, distinguished Naval officer. He was a member of the expedition of Commodore Matthew C. Perry to Japan in 1853, and was Master of the flagship Mississippi on the homeward cruise. When Georgia seceded from the Union, John McIntosh Kell resigned his commission to join the Confederacy. He was Executive Officer of the Sumter, then of the Alabama throughout her brilliant career on the seas, and in her final battle with the Kearsarge off Cherbourg. Later in life, John McIntosh Kell served for several years as Adjutant General of the State of Georgia." Living on the Georgia Tidewater - John McIntosh Kell (1823-1900) was McIntosh County’s most celebrated participant in the Civil War, and one of the most distinguished officers of the Confederate Navy. Below are excerpts from Early Days on the Georgia Tidewater by Buddy Sullivan. Born January 23, 1823 at Laurel Grove plantation near Darien, Kell was a descendant of the founding Scottish Highlanders, being the son of John and Margery Spalding Baillie Kell. John McIntosh Kell’s closest friend was his cousin, Randolph Spalding. In 1841, Kell received an appointment as a midshipman in the United States Navy and, by 1855, had advanced to the rank of lieutenant. His 20-year career in the U.S. Navy was one of distinction, highlighted by his participation in Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s expedition which opened Japan to American trade in 1835 and the Paraguay expedition of 1858. On Perry’s voyage to the Far East, Kell served as Master of the steam flagship Mississippi. In 1856, John McIntosh Kell married Julia Blanche Munroe. He returned with his bride to McIntosh County that year and was entertained by Randolph Spalding at South End House on Sapelo Island. Kell resigned from the United States service on the day Georgia seceded from the Union in January 1861. He served briefly in the tiny Georgia navy under Commodore Josiah Tatnall at Savannah until April 1861, after which he received orders to report to Commander Raphael Semmes, CSN, at New Orleans. Kell biographer Norman C. Delaney notes that Semmes "personally selected Kell to be his Executive Officer aboard the Sumter," one of the first Southern commerce raiders. Sumter was decommissioned in 1862 after which Kell joined Semmes, again as second-in-command, of the new Confederate raider Alabama which had been secretly built and fitted out at Liverpool, England. Kell provided outstanding service aboard Alabama, and Semmes and other Confederate officers praised Kell for his efficiency in managing the ship and its crew of mostly English sailors. After the Alabama sank USS Hatteras in a gun-duel off Galveston, Kell was promoted to Commander. Alabama went on to become by far the most successful of all Confederate commerce raiders, accounting for sixty-five Union vessels captured or sunk in less than two years. His ship worn and in need or repair, and his crew tired and battle-weary from the constant attrition of time spent on the high seas, Semmes brought his ship into the French port of Cherbourg on the English Channel where the U.S. steam sloop Kearsarge finally caught up with him. Although the two ships were almost evenly-matched, Alabama with eight guns to Kearsarge’s seven, the Yankee vessel had the heavier armament, including two 11-inchers. In addition, Kearsarge’s guns would be better served: she was a fresh ship with a crew at peak efficiency. Semmes would have been wise to seek accommodation with the French as long as possible and remain in port at Cherbourg. Nonetheless, he accepted the challenge of Winslow of the Kearsarge, and steamed to the outer harbor to do battle. For just over an hour the two wooden steam warships maneuvered in concentric circles about 900 yards apart, firing broadsides at each other. The marksmanship of the Kearsarge, as expected, proved to be the most effective, and the Northern vessel began landing shots with telling effect on Alabama. The Confederate raider, holed several times below the waterline, sank, and Kell, Seemes and other survivors were plucked out of the water by a nearby English yacht and transported to England – much to the disappointment of Winslow who was hoping to capture Semmes and Kell and take them to the United States to stand trial for what many Northerners were convinced was piracy on the high seas. After the war, Kell retired to a life of farming at his Sunnyside, Georgia home in Spalding County near Griffin. In 1886, he was appointed Adjutant-General of Georgia by Governor John B. Gordon, an event which focused new attention on Kell as a Confederate naval hero. In his memoirs, published just before his death in 1900, Kell described the satisfaction of a man who has reached the end of a productive and fulfilling life: "I have reached three score years and ten (the allotted life of man). My life has been long, happy and eventful. Of course it has been checked with the grief and sorrows that fall to the lot of all, but nearing the sunset of my days, beyond which are the ‘hills of light,’ I can look backward into the past of holy memories without regret, and hopefully into the future, my lifeboat gliding on, no anchor dragging, Christ’s love at the helm, and God aloft." LOWER ALTAMAHA HISTORICAL SOCIETY P.O. Box 1405 – Darien, GA 31305 www.loweraltamahahistoricalsociety.org LAHS Officers 2006-2008 President Harriet Roberson 912-265-6729 Vice-President Jack Godfrey 912-832-5622 Secretary Elizabeth A. Ewing 912-832-5089 Treasurer Kaye Traer 912-832-5150 2006-2008                   2005-2007 Harry Clark                  Jim Bruce Howard Klippel            Bob Durden Myrtle Newberry            Dave Miller Lamar Williamson         Chris Milner Past-President         Peyton Lingle Director Emeritus    Buddy Sullivan   LOWER ALTAMAHA HISTORICAL SOCIETY Life Memberships: Muriel Bell Darien Telephone Co. Mrs. Caroline B. Davis Gus & Marg Hallam Alfred W. Jones Chris & Ward Milner John Reehling Enterprise Rent-A-Car  Jeff & Kelly Spratt Lloyd Flanders David Miller Bill & Sherry Minnich Corporate Memberships: Sapelo National Bank, William Parker, President The Book Shop, Inc., Harold &Virginia Hicks Coastal Georgia Historical Society "The Lodge," Little St. Simons Island     FORT KING GEORGE STATE HISTORICAL SITE P.O. Box 711 – Darien, GA 31305 ---- 912-437-4770 www.gastateparks.org/fortkinggeorge Living History Programs for students and guests are a daily activity at the Fort. Reenactors allow an eighteenth century experience for the observer. _______________________________ GARRISON WEEKEND Saturday, April 21, 2007 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm Join the Garrison for a workshop devoted toward nautical skills on the colonial coast. _________________________ GARRISON WEEKEND Saturday, May 26, 2007 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm Join the Garrison for a day of artillery drills, musket firings, and soldiers’ life activities in commemoration of Memorial Day.

Altamaha Echoes

___________________________________

LAHS MEETING, Thursday, September 20, 2007, 7:00 p.m.

Fort King George Historic Site
Dutch treat supper, 5:45 p.m. at B& J Pizza

 Our speaker, Dr. George A. Rogers, will be presenting a program on the Bartram Trail, and the travels of one of the first naturalists, William Bartram.  In the 1770s, Bartram conducted an extensive survey through the southeast and Georgia in particular.  One of his significant findings was the flowering evergreen shrub on the Altamaha near Fort Barrington. 

Dr. Rogers has a Ph.D. from University of Illinois and taught at South Georgia Teachers College (now Georgia Southern College) for more than 30 years.  He also taught one summer at Peabody College, Nashville, TN.  He retired in 1983.  His military service with the United States Army included First Army Combat service under Courtney Hodges and Occupation service with Fifteenth Army under George Patton.  His research interests include Plant Hunters, Botanists and Their Plants in southeastern United States.  Of particular interest to McIntosh County residents are two articles in his publication, “Swamp Water and Wire Grass” – 10. “Charging Head and Ring: Martial Spirit and Chivalry in Coastal Georgia,” and 13. “The Mighty Altamaha River.” 

______________________________________________________________________________

 LAHS MEETING, Thursday, October 18, 2007, 7:00 p.m.

Fort King George Historic Site
Dutch treat supper, 5:45 p.m. at B&J Pizza 

R. D. Gardner will be speaking on “The Preservation of Historic Sites in McIntosh County - the current pressure by developers has increased the need for the identification of hundreds of historical sites in the county and the establishment of enforceable guidelines to preserve these sites as well as our natural resources.”  

Mr. Gardner was born in McIntosh County and is a descendant of the McIntosh family clan.  He served with the military in Europe during World War II.  He served two terms on the Darien City Council, two terms as County Commissioner, and an interim term on the Board of Education.  For a number of years he was president of the Chemical Workers Union and was involved in the contract negotiations between the Union and the Corporation.  He resides in McIntosh County with his wife Lavern Aldridge Gardner, housewife and writer of a book on McIntosh County.  They are the parents of 6 sons.  Mr. Gardner is currently working with Patricia Barefoot on the Chapman Report on Historic Sites.

LAHS BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

Thursday, November 15, 2007 – 4:00 p.m.
Fort King George Historic Site

LAHS members are always welcome
___________________________________________________

LAHS MEETING, Thursday, November 15, 2007 – 7:00 p.m.
Fort King George Historic Site

Dutch treat supper, 5:45 p.m. at B&J Pizza 

Jim Jordan’s topic will be “November 1860 Through January 1861:  Georgia Steps Lightly Into Secession,” a look at the political and economic factors in the south, and particularly Georgia, leading to secession. 

We welcome back Jim as our speaker (Saga of Slave Ship Wanderer, March 2007).  Jim is a member of LAHS as well as the Georgia Historic Society.  He lectures at various historical societies and other organizations and recently published “Savannah Grey,” an historical novel about antebellum Georgia.  Before moving to the low country some dozen years ago, he was a financial systems consultant in New York.  He is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a Master’s degree in Finance and a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Pace University in New York.   Jim and his wife Kathleen live in Okatie, SC. 

______________________________________________________

LAHS CHRISTMAS COVERED DISH DINNER PARTY

Wednesday, December 12, 2007, 5:30 pm
Belvedere Island Plantation Clubhouse

Decorated for Christmas, the Belvedere Island Plantation Clubhouse will be the setting for the 2007 LAHS Christmas celebration.  Howard and Jeanne Klippel will be our hosts for the evening.  Maps will be available at the next three meetings with directions to the Clubhouse.  You may also call the Klippels at 912-832-3318 for directions. 

The entrée, table set-up, and drinks for the celebration will be provided.  LAHS members are asked to bring a covered dish.  Please come and enjoy great food and fellowship! 

Darien Days, Saturday, November 10, 2007

NEWS FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

·         Because attendance has been so good in past months and seating has been scarce, the Board voted to purchase 10 more chairs for the Fort. 

·         For those members that do not drive or have difficulty getting to the meeting, please call Harriet Roberson (912-265-6729) a couple of days prior to the meeting and she will arrange transportation to and from the meeting. 

·         WANTED:  Anyone who has had experience in writing grants and would be interested in pursuing a grant possibility for LAHS, please call Harriet Roberson. 

≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠≠

(Georgia Historical Marker located on U.S. 17, 1.7 mile south of the South Newport River in South Newport, GA)  - “William Bartram Trail Historical Marker.”  Deep South Region, William Bartram Trail, Traced 1773-1777.  Donald McIntosh Welcomed William Bartram to his home in 1773, giving him shelter from ‘A Tremendous Thunderstorm.’

Living on the Georgia Tidewater – Excerpts from Early Days on the Georgia Tidewater by Buddy Sullivan:

In 1773, William Bartram embarked on a series of investigations that carried him through coastal Georgia and northeastern Florida.  In his Travels, Bartram offers some notes on his exploration of the area that would become McIntosh County.  The passage following relates to a visit by Bartram in the spring of 1773:  “The next morning . . . I set off for the settlements on the Alatamaha, still pursuing the high road for Fort Barrington, till towards noon, when I turned off to the left, following the road to Darien, a settlement on the river, twenty miles lower down, and near the coast.  The fore part of this day’s journey was pleasant, the plantations frequent, and the roads in tolerable good repair.  But the country being now less cultivated, the roads became bad, pursuing my journey almost continually, through swamps and creeks, till night, when I lost my way; but coming up to a fence, I saw a glimmering light, which conducted me to a house, there I stayed all night . . . Early next morning , I set off again . . . towards Darien.  I rode several miles through a high forest of pines, thinly growing on a level plain, which admitted an ample view, and a free circulation of air, to another swamp; and crossing a considerable branch of Sapello river (actually South Newport River), I then came to a small plantation by the side of another swamp:  the people were remarkably civil and hospitable.  The man’s name was M’Intosh, a family of the first colony established in Georgia, under the conduct of General Oglethorpe . . . I was treated there with some excellent venison, and here found friendly and secure shelter from a tremendous thunderstorm….

“The tempest being over, I . . . took leave of my friends, and departed.  The air was now cool   and salubrious, and riding seven or eight miles, through a pine forest, I came to Sapello bridge, to which the salt tide flows.  I here stopped . . .  (then proceeded) to Mr. L M’Intosh’s near the river . . .” 

LOWER ALTAMAHA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

P.O. Box 1405 – Darien, GA 31305

www.loweraltamahahistoricalsociety.org