BGuthrie Photos: GA -- Darien

GA -- Darien:

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[1] DARIEN_150810_005.JPG	[2] DARIEN_150810_008.JPG	[3] DARIEN_150810_017.JPG
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. DARIEN_150810_008.JPG: Saint Cyprian's Episcopal Church Saint Cyprian's Episcopal Church in Darien was built "for the Colored People of McIntosh County," through the efforts of the Rev. James Wentworth Leigh, D.D., F.S.A., Dean of Hereford, England. It was named for the martyred African Bishop. Contributions toward the building of the church edifice were received from England, Philadelphia and from local citizens. Members of the congregation led by the Senior Warden, Lewis Jackson, gave devotedly of their time and labor. Saint Cyprian's church edifice was consecrated Sunday April 30, 1876, by the Rt. Rev. John W. Beckwith, Bishop of Georgia, and placed under the guardianship of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in Darien, of which the Rev. Robert Clute was then Rector.
2. DARIEN_150810_037.JPG: Fort King George <-- 1 mi. --< The site of fort King George, the first fort on Georgia soil built by the English. Erected by the Colony of south Carolina in 1721, 12 years before the Georgia Colony was founded. This fort served as a barrier against the Spanish in Florida, French in the interior, and their Indian allies for about a decade. Soldiers who died in service are buried nearby in a graveyard lost for 200 years. Some of the graves are marked now. Others are on the site of a 16th century Spanish Mission.
3. DARIEN_150810_040.JPG: Darien This is Darien, in the heart of the historic Altamaha delta region. Settled in 1736, by Scottish Highlanders under John McIntosh Mohr, it was named for the ill-fated settlement on the Isthmus of Panama. The first military parade in Georgia was held in Darien, February 22, 1736, when Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe reviewed the Highland Company in full regalia, with claymores, side arms and targes. The Highland Company supported Oglethorpe in all his campaigns, and won everlasting fame on the field of Bloody Marsh. During the Revolution, Darien men again came to the front -- Gen. Lachlan McIntosh, Col. Wm. McIntosh and Col. John McIntosh were among the heroes of that War. In 1818 the City of Darien was chartered, and became the County Seat. The Bank of Darien, chartered in 1818, was the strongest Bank south of Philadelphia, with branches in 7 Georgia cities. Huge mills sawed into lumber millions of feet of timber rafted down the river. Darien was one of the great ports of the Eastern Seaboard. It was burned in 1863 by northern troops stationed on St. Simons`s Island. Rebuilt in the 1870s, Darien again became a great port, and the mills sawed lumber to be shipped all over the world. Depletion of the forests brought this era to an end in the early 1900s.
4. DARIEN_150810_043.JPG: Fort Darien Fort Darien, laid out by General James Edward Oglethorpe in 1736, was built on this first high bluff of the Altamaha river to protect the new town of Darien. It was a large fortification, with two bastions and 2 half bastions, and was defended by several cannon. From the time of its settlement by Scottish Highlanders in 1736, until after the Battle of Bloody Marsh in 1742, the town of Darien was in constant danger from the Spaniards of Florida. Often for weeks at a time the Highland soldiers were absent from home on military campaigns, with only a few men left to guard the women and children who, for safety, lived within the walls of the fort. On several occasions the post was fired upon by Spaniards or their Indian allies. After the War with Spain was ended, the fort, no longer needed, fell into ruins, but was rebuilt and armed during the Revolution, when it again saw action, this time against British forces.
5. DARIEN_150810_047.JPG: Port of Darien Situated ten miles from the Atlantic near the mouth of the Altamaha River, Darien attained prominence as a seaport in the 1820s. Rice and upland cotton from Georgia`s interior were shipped from the waterfront. From 1870 to 1900, Darien served as the leading international timber center on the east coast through the milling and shipment of yellow pine and cypress rafted down the Altamaha River. With the decline of the timber trade, Darien turned to the commercial harvest of seafood and was homeport to one of Georgia`s largest shrimp boat fleets by the 1940s
6. DARIEN_150810_060.JPG: 1810 1830 Tabby Ruins Remains of warehouses, shops and taverns which served the timber and shipping industries of Darien
7. DARIEN_150810_107.JPG: Darien Waterfront Throughout the 19th century sailing ships docked at wharves along this waterfront on either side of the present bridge to load with plantation goods. Primarily rice and Sea Island cotton, lumber and naval stores. This activity made Darien one of the leading seaports on the southern coast. Port activity was interrupted for several years when the waterfront was burned during the destruction of Darien by Union forces in 1863.
8. DARIEN_150810_115.JPG: Darien waterfront and historic district pedestrian corridor and bicycle route. ... The Liz Lyon Award for an Outstanding Tea Project, November 2, 1995
9. DARIEN_150810_123.JPG: To the Highlanders of Scotland who founded New Inverness in 1736 AD Their valor defended the struggling colony from the Spanish invasion. Their ideals traditions and culture enriched the land of their adoption. The Georgia Society of the Colonial Dams of America presented by the St. Andrews Society of the City of Savannah, unveiled 1936 The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Georgia
10. DARIEN_150811_02.JPG: The Burning of Darien On June 11, 1863 the seaport of Darien was vandalized and burned by Federal forces stationed on nearby St. Simons Island. The town was largely deserted, most of its 500 residents having sought refuge inland. Lost were public buildings, churches, businesses and most private residences. Conducting the raid were units comprised of among the first African-American troops to serve the Union cause, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers under Col. Robert G. Shaw, and the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers under Col. James Montgomery. The burning of Darien, undefended and of little strategic importance, was one of the most controversial events of the Civil War.
11. DARIEN_150811_18.JPG: This building was remodeled and furnished through the efforts of Mrs. Talbot Smith and her committees as a service center in the year 1944.
12. DARIEN_150811_21.JPG: For the cool of the waters that run through the shadowy places I will give thanks and a ... thee god of the open air 1916 Erected in memory of the men who wore the gray 61-65 by the McIntosh Chapter UDC
Wikipedia Description: Darien, Georgia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Darien is a city in McIntosh County, Georgia. It lies on Georgia's coast at the mouth of the Altamaha River about 50 miles south of Savannah, and is part of the Brunswick, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of Darien was 1,719 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of McIntosh County. It is the second oldest planned city in Georgia and was originally called New Inverness. ...

History

Settlement of Darien

The British built Fort King George in 1721, near what would become Darien. At the time it was the southernmost outpost of the British Empire in North America. The fort was abandoned in 1727 following attacks from the Spanish. Its remains constitute the oldest fort on the Georgia coast.

The town of Darien (originally known as New Inverness) was founded in January 1736 by Scottish Highlanders recruited by James Oglethorpe to act as settler-soldiers protecting the frontiers of Georgia from the Spanish in Florida, the French in the Alabama basin, and the Indian allies of each colonial enterprise. On January 10, 1736, 177 emigrants, including women and children, arrived on the Prince of Wales to establish Darien, which was named after the Darien Scheme, a former Scottish colony in Panama. Among the initial settlers was Lachlan McGillivray, who became a noted trader with the Creek people, and Lachlan McIntosh, a leader during the American Revolutionary War.

The Scots originated mainly from around Inverness and consisted of both Jacobite- and Hanoverian-supporting clans, the majority of whom spoke only Gaelic. When visited by Oglethorpe in February, the settlers had already constructed "a battery of four pieces of cannon, built a guardhouse, a storehouse, a chapel, and several huts for particular people." Darien was laid out in accordance with the now-famous Oglethorpe Plan.

They showed similar progress in the construction of military forts: by March the Scottish settlers had begun work on two forts, Fort St. Andrews on Cumberland Island, and Fort St. George on the St. Johns River, 60 miles to the south of the territory claimed by the British government in the Georgia charter.

In 1736, the British abandoned Fort St. George by agreement with the Spanish officials in Florida. In 1736 Darien settlers began work on Fort Frederica, which is on St. Simons Island, a few miles south of Darien, between it and Cumberland Island. Scots settlers whose travel was paid for by the Trustees of the Colony were organized into two companies, the Highland Independent Company of Foot, an infantry force, and the Highland Rangers, a mounted force. By 1737 the constant military activity of the Darien colony was taking its toll. An additional 44 Highland settlers arrived to expand the town.

Initially the settlers' economy was based on the cultivation of crops; however, after the first year they suffered a succession of poor harvests. They concentrated on rearing cattle and harvesting timber for sale in nearby Savannah.

In 1739 eighteen of the most prominent members of the Darien colony signed the first petition against the introduction of slavery into Georgia, in response to pleas to Oglethorpe and the Trustees by inhabitants of Savannah to lift the prohibition of slavery. The Highlanders' petition was successful. But slavery was introduced ten years later in 1749 because the Proprietors could not attract enough laborers to make the colony profitable.

Conflicts continued with Spanish and Indian forces during this time. The War of Jenkins' Ear in October 1739. In November, in response to two Scots garrisoned on Amelia Island being killed in an ambush by Spanish-allied Indians, the Darien settlers mobilized and, together with forces from South Carolina, captured the Spanish forts of Fort Picolata, Fort St. Francis de Pupo, Fort San Diego, and Fort Mose, before attempting to lay siege to St. Augustine. The Spanish won the Battle of Fort Mose, resulting in the death or capture of 51 Darien settlers.

After the battle, a number of the settlers abandoned Darien for South Carolina. By 1741 another shipload of 43 colonists had arrived. These colonists received land grants from the trustees which specified that the land was to pass to the male or female descendants of the original recipients, in 'Tail General.' The trustees were trying to keep settlers in the colony. Previously, all land grants in the American colonies had been granted in 'Tail Male', descending to only the male children. The Highland Settlers objected to the change, as it went against their traditional patrilineal landholding and inheritance practices. In the future the majority of Georgia land grants were made in 'Tail General'.

Civil War and after

On June 11, 1863, Union troops stationed on St. Simons Island looted and destroyed most of the town, including the homes of black residents, mostly slaves. (It was not part of Sherman's March to the Sea, which occurred more than a year later. Confusion has arisen because the St. Simons Island troops were under the command of another General Sherman, stationed in the South Carolina Sea Islands). The destruction of the undefended city, which was of little strategic importance, was carried out by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers under the command of a reluctant Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers under the command of Colonel James Montgomery. Colonel Montgomery ordered that the town be looted and burned. Montgomery's troops broke ranks and looted freely, while Shaw ordered his to take only what would be useful at camp. (He later described the raid as a "Satanic action.")

The First African Baptist Church (claimed to be the oldest African-American church in the county) was destroyed along with the rest of the town. It was rebuilt and later some meetings of the 20th-century African American Civil Rights Movement were held there.

After the U.S. Army destroyed Darien, its gunboats were used to blockade the port. The troops plundered residents and plantations of McIntosh County for food, as armies lived off the land to a great extent. The only defenders left in the county were a group of white men too old for military service. On the night of August 3, 1864, the county's white defenders had met at the Ebenezer Church, nine miles north of Darien. Union troops found out about the meeting from the local enslaved people. The troops surrounded the church, opened fire, and captured 23 white men. These white men were marched to a landing near Darien, put on ships, and taken to prisons in the North.

Following the Civil War, Darien was rebuilt, with financial aid coming in small part from the family of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. He had been killed during the War but had written to his family of his shame in participating in the destruction of Darien.

Into the early 1900s, Darien was one of the largest Southeastern ports for shipping lumber. When the timber was depleted, Darien became a fishing village, known primarily for Georgia wild shrimp. It was once famous for its oysters.

In 1930, two African-American men, George Grant and Willie Bryan, were lynched by a mob of Darien's residents in the Darien Jail due to the death of Police Chief Robert L. Freeman and the wounding of Deputy Collins while trying to capture the two men after a robbery at the Darien Bank. The town was put under Martial Law by Colonel W.R. Neal with the Georgia Militia in response to the mob.

There are 32 markers of historic sites near Darien and 42 markers in McIntosh County. (See the external link for a list.)

Darien in the 21st century has shown signs of growth. With the formation of the Interstate Highway System, Interstate 95 was constructed and passes approximately a mile west of the city. This drew off businesses from the city center as development ensued near the I-95 interchange with GA 251. This has resulted in several chain restaurants, gas stations, and hotels, as well as a small outlet mall. But downtown Darien has flourished with an emphasis on its historic heritage and the waterfront. Many new businesses have opened as the city has reclaimed its walking center.
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