Jekyll Island's Early Years

From the foremost authority on the famed Georgia barrier island, here is the first in-depth look at Jekyll Islands early history. Much of what defines our view of the place dates from the Jekyll Island Club era. Founded in 1886, the Club was the private resort of Americas moneyed elite, including the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Pulitzers. In this book, which ranges from pre-Columbian times through the Civil War and its aftermath, June Hall McCash shows how the environment, human conflict, and a desire for refuge shaped the island long before the Clubs founding. Jekylls earliest identifiable inhabitants were the Timucua, a flourishing group of Native Americans who became extinct within two hundred years after their first contact with Europeans. Caught up in the New World contests among France, Spain, and England, the island eventually became part of a thriving English colony. In subsequent stories of Jekyll and its residents, the drama of our nation plays out in microcosm. The American Revolution, the War of 1812, the plantation era, and the Civil War brought change to the island, as did hurricanes and cotton farming. Personality conflicts and unsanctioned love affairs also had an impact, and McCashs narrative is filled with the names of Jekylls powerful and often colourful families.