I made these photos in 2009; no one was living here when I was in the neighborhood earlier this summer. As a self-service ice house, and home to a welder, it served an important purpose in this community of fishermen. The owners were obviously on the honor system, but to make sure customers were honest, a decorative skeleton kept an eye on things. The “answers” part of the sign always got my attention. I imagine it had something to do with the telling of fortunes. This is a bigger deal in these parts than many like to admit.
This photo was made circa 2011. The shrimp boats are still the biggest attraction for visitors to Darien. The Gale family has been involved in shrimping these waters for generations.
Our Top Ten post was so popular that I’ve decided to try to do one of these each month. For Black History Month, I thought these would be timely. There may be a greater concentration of historic African-American-related sites on the coast than anywhere else outside Atlanta, but like all history on the coast, they are under constant threat from population growth and changes in land use and land value.
Though the headstone pictured above is the most unique in the cemetery, I have chosen to document the site due to its considerable collection of vernacular headstones. Ebenezer (spelled Ebernezer on the sign) is actually two cemeteries, located off Churchill Road near I-95. A fenced section is the white cemetery while the surrounding larger cemetery is the domain of African-Americans, a few of whom were born into slavery and others who represent the first generation after emancipation. The African-American section is what is represented here.
Charlie Ifield Thorpe [Circa 1877-1914]
The predominant vernacular form in this cemetery is the homemade star-adorned headstone, a locally made type that is well-represented in the nearby Gould Cemetery at Harris Neck. It’s possible that all of these were the work of the same maker. They follow in no particular order but many of the examples are memorials for the Thorpe family.
Thelma B. Thorpe [Unknown-18 November 1941]Alice Thorpe[5 December 1851–16 September 1923]Eddie Thorpe [Circa 1880-1922]James C. Thorpe [20 August 1847-16 March 1939]Affie White [1842-16 August 1931]Ida Leake [Circa 1885-1921]Irvin Weldon [16 August 1909-19 February 1936]Rachel (York) Shellman [1881-6 October 1923] Born at Broxton GASusie G. Ross [25 September 1855-6 April 1943]Reverend Pompie Anderson [12 September 1870-7 May 1949]James B. Churchill [17 January 1897-19 February 1951] J. C. Churchill [22 May 1867-16 May 1951] This stone features an O. E. S. Masonic emblem but is eroding quickly.Mary E. Churchill [5 July 1879-17 July 1968] Wife of J. C. ChurchillMary J. Jackson [Unknown-9 September 1925]Proverb R. Roberson [6 June 1910-18 December 1955] Private 548 Quartermaster Service BN World War IIPernellar Roberson [Unknown-3 January 1925] Born in Buckville SC, Died in ChristThe headstone for Brother Willie N. Alston is professionally made, but his footstone (below) and those of two other family members are more modern interpretations of vernacular types common in African-American cemeteries of the early 20th century. Brother Willie N. Alston [15 January 1895-December 1974] FootstoneBrian Keith Alston [1 September 1975-6 December 1983]Jessie Alston [29 July 1941-14 July 1968]Hattie Hillery [15 September 1881-10 January 1928] This stone is the same style as two found in Behavior Cemetery on Sapelo Island and may have connections to those.
During the first week of April 2020, the LaRoche House, one of the most iconic 19th-century houses in McIntosh County, was razed.
I’ve been photographing the house for nearly a decade. These images were made in the months leading up to its demise.
It has been difficult to track down the early history of the house, but whatever it may be this is a significant architectural and historical loss for McIntosh County.
Wayfair Primitive Baptist Church is the only representative congregation of the Alabaha Association Crawfordites in McIntosh County. It was established in 1873 but little else is known about it. It is no longer active but the cemetery is still used for burials.
Like all of the Crawfordite meeting houses, Wayfair is free of ornament and any modern creature comforts.
Members of this faith believed that such enhancements distracted from worship.
The carpentry skills of the members are on full display in each of these meeting houses, and Wayfair is no exception.
These photographs were made in 2012; they were originally posted on Vanishing South Georgia.
Thomas Landing, on the South Newport River, has been occupied since the early days of Colonial Georgia and its history is indelibly linked to the hundreds of African-Americans who resided here. They first landed here against their will but after Emancipation chose to remain, only to have their land taken from them by the United States government in the 1930s.
The following history of the site is taken from the interpretive panel at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge: “Various plantations occupied this site from the 1740s through the 1870s. One of the earliest Harris Neck landowners was a man named Dickinson, and his property was known as Dickinson’s Neck. John Rutledge owned fifty acres on neighboring Bethany Plantation. He sold the tract to Ann Harris, who married Daniel Demetre in 1752. Her son, William Thomas Harris (Demetre’s stepson), acquired 350 acres on Dickinson’s Neck in 1758, and in 1759 he inherited an additional 750 acres on the “Neck” from his stepfather. Demetre’s will identified Williams’s residence as Bethany. This reference is the first documentation of a white landowner’s dwelling on the “Neck”.
Ruins of wading pool at Lorillard Estate
“Early in the 1830s, another family gained prominence on Harris Neck. Jonathan Thomas acquired most of the Demetre-Harris holdings. Thomas’s 3000-acre Peru Plantation covered the eastern half of the present Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. The plantation produced sizeable cotton crops.
Ruins of wading pool at Lorillard Estate
“The Civil War ended the plantation era on Harris Neck. The Thomas family subdivided Peru Plantation. Many small tracts were sold to former slaves or their descendants. From the 1870s through the 1930s, a community of primarily African-American developed on and near the current refuge land. By the 1940s, 171 tracts existed in the area now managed by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Details of a painting of the Lorillard Lodge: Courtesy Leftwich D. Kimbrough
“During the 1880s, several large tracts bordering the South Newport River (the site of one Peru Plantation home) were acquired by Pierre Lorillard, the tobacco magnate, Eleanor Van Brunt Clapp, and Lily Livingston. Lorillard’s estate featured a lavish lodge, an indoor swimming pool filled from an artesian well, and formal gardens with reflecting pools and fountains.
Fountain at Lorillard Estate
“The lodge was used during World War II as the officers’ club for Harris Neck Army Airfield. The deteriorated building was sold at auction, when Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1962.“
This structure served as the munitions bunker for Harris Neck Army Airfield. Earthworks surround three sides. A review of contemporary U. S. Geological Survey maps indicates that this was likely the only one ever built on site. It’s a fascinating relic of World War II.
