Christ Church

A decade was to pass after the war's end before economic stability returned to St. Simons, and the island's revitalization ironically sprang from the source of its downfall - the North. The attention of the Dodge-Meigs Lumber Company, of New York, was drawn to St. Simons for its ideal location to process the vast stands of eastern Georgia timber, easily obtained from destitute owners at little cost.

The Dodge-Meigs Company purchased Hamilton Plantation in 1876, and built a large mill on upper Gascoigne Bluff. The northern firm became associated with the Georgia Land and Lumber Company, which owned five hundred square miles of virgin yellow pine timber in tracts located between the Ocmulgee and Oconee Rivers, which joined to form the Altamaha River. The timber was rafted down the Altamaha to the mills at St. Simons, where it was cut into lumber and shipped all over the world.

Christ Church Stained Glass

In addition to the "big mill," the Dodge-Meigs Company eventually added a planing mill, cypress mill, holding basin, and acquired the lower mill built by local businessman Urbanus Dart in 1874 located near the present-day bridge over the Frederica River. It was here that the timbers were sawn for the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Soon the mills developed a cutting capacity of approximately 125,000 feet per day. It was not unusual to see as many as twenty ships from Atlantic and European ports anchored in the Frederica River, guided there by the new lighthouse, rebuilt in 1872. Ballast rocks were frequently deposited in the marsh opposite Gascoigne Bluff, and formed a rock island known as "Little Europe."

The mills offered, for the first time since the war, regular employment for the islanders, both black and white. Sons of the old plantation families became foremen and managers; former slaves provided an excellent labor force and by 1880 were earning up to a dollar a day. These black workers settled on both sides of Demere Road, which ran from the wharf to the lighthouse. Two enterprising Brunswick merchants, the Levison brothers, who happened to be Jewish, opened a store to serve them. Soon the blacks were calling their community Jewtown, and so it is known to this day.

St. James Union Church

But the nucleus of the growing community was at St. Simons Mills, as it was known, on Gascoigne Bluff. This busy center soon boasted a post office, the company store and offices, telephone and telegraph services, and a water system fed by artesian wells. A public wharf called "Steamboat Landing," located at the old Hamilton Plantation dock, is still used as a marina today. With as many as three hundred workers employed at the mills, the Brunswick Advertiser in 1880 noted, "one thousand persons received their means of sustenance either directly or indirectly from the St. Simons Mills."

Christ Church Cemetery

The success of the mills prompted one of the owners, Anson G. P. Dodge, Sr., to build a handsome home on the river, called "Rose Cottage," surrounded by beautiful grounds and a lovely arbor. It later was the home of the mill superintendent until destroyed by fire in 1884. A large white boarding house, "Ivy Manor," was built near the old Hamilton Plantation house. As the needs of the community increased, St. James Union Church was erected nearby in 1880, as was a school two years later.

The Oaks of Gascoigne Bluff

The coming of the mills brought changes other than industrial activity at Gascoigne Bluff. A principle contribution to the spiritual life of St. Simons was made by Anson Dodge's son. Anson, Jr., came to St. Simons to visit his father, and the wealthy young man was enchanted by the island. He was moved to devote his life to God and to the people of St. Simons, and returned north to begin his preparation for the ministry. He married his childhood sweetheart, but his bride died in India on their wedding trip. Devastated by his loss, young Anson returned to St. Simons, and in 1884 built the present-day Christ Church in her memory on the site of the original planters' chapel. Reverend Dodge spent the reminder of his years attending to the spiritual needs of the islanders, and his final resting-place is in the shadow of the church to which he dedicated his life.

The feverish activity of St. Simons' lumber industry only spelled out its doom, for in the early 1900s most of the available timber had been cut, and the days were numbered for the St. Simons Mills. By 1908, the machinery had been dismantled. The Hilton-Dodge Company, as it was now known, had moved elsewhere, and the passing years would soon erase most reminders of its brief presence.

The Resort Era

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