The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-13
UNCLE SANS PURCHASE.
Government Has Authorized Pay
ment of $4,000 to Savannahians.

Government Has Authorized Pay
ment of $4,000 to Savannahians.
The United States government has
satisfied itself that the deeds to II
lots on Tybee Island, purchased a year
ago, are perfect, and has authorized
the payment of some $4,000 to the for
mer owners, in Savannah. The land is
adjoining Fort Screven and will be
used for officers quarters, becoming a
part of the reservation.
Last July the purchase was referred
to Assistant District Attorney w. r.
Leaken, who carefully went over the
papers and forwarded them to Wash
ington with his report. Mr.. Leaken re-
ceived notice yesterday from the Unit
ed States Attorney General that the
deeds had been approved, and that
Lieut.. Sylvanus Gibson Orr, artillery
quartermaster at the Fort Screven re-
serVation, will pay the purchase mon
ey. The deeds were filed with the clerk
OF the Superior Court and are now on
record. The purchase is the third made
by the government on Tybee Island
and the building of the quarters for
officers promises to add much to the
appearance of the reservation.
The government was furnished in
teresting abstract titles to the property
by Mr.. Leaken when he made his re-
port to Washington, and the papers
date back as far as 1856. The lots are
a part of what is known as the old
Screven and Tilton tracts. When the
War Department placed the matter in
the hands of Mr.. Leaken he took up
the work Immediately and made some
interesting discoveries, which were
embodied in his report to the Attorney
General.
The records show that at one time
there was a lighthouse some distance
from where the Martello Tower now
stands, and that there were five acres
Of land at that point According to
tnese records the place where the tower
is now located has been encroached
upon enormously by the sea. No trace
oil, the five acres can be found, and it
mas disappeared in the sea. While 1t
is true that land at this point has
been swallowed by the ocean, Just the
opposite is the case at the south end
OF the island, which has encroached
upon the sea. While the ocean has
eaten land on one part of the island,
the land has fed upon the water at
another point.
The deeds for the property date from
July 4, 1853 to the present time. Back
in the Colonial days and up to 1875
nearly all of the Island of Tybee was
owned by the Screvens. The Milledges.
Tattnalls, McKeys, Summervilles, and
other prominent Colonial families fig
ure in the titles. AS far back as III
1t is shown in the office of the Secre-
tary of State that a town was laid
out on the Savannah river side of the
island. The original owners were the
Jacksons apd Stirks, probably Tories.
for the reason that the grant to them
OF the land was made by the commits
sloners OF confiscated estates.
The fact that the attorney general
has approved Mr.. Leaken's report on
the titles means that the government
viii pay in the neighborhood of SIS 900
to the following Savannahians: H
w. Bond, John Byers, John G. But
Ter, Robert Hunter, j. j. Joyce. Car
RE Il. Lodge, Charles H. Madison. w
j. Moore, James NJ. Noble, F. f.
Rocker, Henry Solomon, the Tybee
Beach Company. the town of Tybee.
Mrs. Ellen Wall and the estate of Mrs,
Mary Anderson.