The Coolidge examiner., 1934-08-24

midst OF a cathedral-like bower of
live oaks, with hoary boards OF
Spanish moss depending from their
outstretched limbs, stands a majes-
tic colonial home. Projecting from
the portlcoed entrance is cruel
form formal pool which catches
and tosses back the reflection of
messy oaks and vast white walls.
Since its reconstruction, two
Presidential parties have been
guests at the mansion. One day,
while one OF First Ladies was ad-
mirlng the nearby rock garden, her
cicerone was heard to remark,
They even used imported stone
for this rock garden"
The big house OF the South End
plantation was first built by Thorn
as Spalding In 1S00-1S02, after he
had returned from England to take:
up plantation farming on Sapelo.
AS noted n farmer as he was a
builder, SpaldIng cleared more than
thousand acres on his island
kingdom. and raised indigo. sea-is-
land cotton, sugar cane, and staple
foodstuffs.
He 1t was. in fact. who intro
duced cane cultivation and sugar
manufacturing into Georgia. The
live oaks which he cut while clear
Ing the forests TO make bigger
fields served to I'll large timber con-
tracts for the budding United:
States navy. He also supplied the
navy and merchant marine with
beef and hogs.
As n slave owner however. Spald--
ing came ultimately to suffer, even
though he treated his helpers
with such kindness that the plant
ers in the South dubbed Sapelo.
"Nigger Heaven"
Then came the Confederacy,
against every protest OF this aged
man. Shermans march to the sea
laid waste the big house and the
plantation developments. Fortu-
nately. Spaldlng did not live to see
that day OF ruin.
Vines and bramble claimed the
fre-smoked tabby walls Of the man
sion until the present owner cleared
them and rebuilt again in 1925.
Modern improvements.
Today, too, the old canals have
been redredged and new ones have
been cut In many places to supple
ment the drainage OF the island. An
adequate supply OF fresh water is
provided by 80 gushing artesian
wells. More than a thousand beef
cattle now Craze on the luxurlant
carpet grass, japanese clover, and
Bermuda grass that have been
sown In the one-time cotton and In
dIgo fields.
Delightful trails and motor roads
lace the island retreat. In many
places they wind beneath bewhis-
kered old oaks; elsewhere they
skirt the broad savannas and cross
between marshy ponds that TEEN
with ducks, teal, and other water
fowl.
On the west shore, commanding
the approach to the Florida Pas
sage, stand the tabby ruins of the
octagonal fort built by the Span
iards In 1880. Within its concen-
trio walls troops were stationed TO
protect the friars Of the Mission OF
San Jose de Zapala. Thomas
Spalding built a sugar mill on the
mission foundations, and within re-
cent years the Tong tabby" has
been converted into a guesthouse.
a portion of which Is now used as
a schoolroom for the nine white
children on the island.
A short ride farther north brings:
one to the ruins of lie Chatelet.
This old site recalls the colonial
efforts of five Frenchmen who"
bought the island and settled at
several places in their little haven.
The agreement which they made In
st. Malo, France, before the be-
ginning of their venture, Is one or
the treasures of the Sapelo library
Soon to disagree, four Of them
moved to Jekyl island. Later Le~
Chatelet passed into the hands OF
Marquis de Montalet, French
nobleman who had fed from Santo-
Domingo. where his whole family
had been massacred in a slave up
rising.
Many of the descendants of Spald-
ing's slaves still live on tiny farms
on the island. OF the three settle
ments-Raccoon Bluff. Hog Fam
mock, and Shell Hammock-the~
former is the largest.
At Hampton Point and Retreat
on st. Simon island the first sea
island cotton was grown from seeds
introduced from the island of An S
guilla, In the West Indies This'
remarkable long-fiber cotton Great
ed much comment among "ottoS
buyers whea the first crop. shipped,
from Hampton Point reached Liv--
erpool.