“At the inception of the Revolutionary War the coast defenses of Georgia were in a pitiable and dilapidated condition.”
—Charles C. Jones, Jr.
For Georgia history lovers, this book ranks as essential reading. Originally published in 1878, Charles C. Jones Jr’s The Dead Towns of Georgia documents origins of the state’s oldest towns and their disappearance. Jones, a Savannah lawyer born in 1831, wrote two other books, Antiquities of the Southern Indians and The History of Georgia. Elizabeth Josephine found this 1973 Cherokee Publishing Company edition for me on a family member’s bookshelf last weekend. It’s rare to discover a book one-hundred and forty-seven years after publication.
Jones details historic progressions mostly on–or near–the Georgia coast. Jones researched each town with forensic precision. Chapters based on old Georgia towns include “Old and New Ebenezer”, “Frederica”, “Abercorn”, “Sunbury” (now home of Sunbury Crab Co.), “Hardwick” and others. Dead Towns also contains illustrations dating back to 1729. Only naturalist William Bartram and British actress Fanny Kemble wrote about coastal Georgia villages with such vivid description as Mr. Jones. Dire tales of scalpings, pirates, fever, rattlesnakes, wicked heat and war propel Dead Towns.
The Dead Towns of Georgia certifies a brutal life in wild country. Jones wrote about Fort Frederica (a National Monument) on St. Simons Island, capturing an essence of these desolate towns:
“All efforts to revive the dead town, to perpetuate something like corporate existence, to realize a revenue by special taxation of abandoned premises, to maintain a semblance of public streets, commons, and private lots, to clothe water fronts with the dignity of commercial wharves, and transmit the physical impressions of the older days, proved utterly futile. Frederica lost its importance when it ceased to be a stronghold of the southern frontier. Its doom was pronounced in the hour of triumph.”
The Dead Towns of Georgia counts as high-grade time travel through the Peach State’s past.
(Sunbury, GA. Photo by James Calemine)
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