St. Simons Island

South of Savannah, along the picturesque and historic coastline of Georgia, lies a group of barrier islands known as the Golden Isles.

This collection of coastal sea islands has attracted people--Native Americans, European settlers and vacationing sun-seekers--throughout history, for the islands' bountiful resources and appealing climate. Perhaps the brightest jewel of these islands is St. Simons Island. The History Press is proud to re-issue St. Simons Island: A Summary of its History, by local resident and historian R. Edwin Green. Mr. Green has compiled an informative volume, which highlights the unique and developing history of one of Georgia's most popular sea islands. Spanning over three hundred years of island history, Mr. Green brings to life the day-to-day toils of the Native Americans and their interaction with Spanish missionaries, the hardships faced by James Oglethorpe during the early colonial period, the rise and fall of the antebellum plantation society and the twentieth century with the start of St. Simons as a vacation and resort destination. With a keen eye for the details, which imparts the reader with a true understanding of the island's people and history, Mr. Green offers both the visitor and resident the historical foundation to enjoy all that St. Simons has to offer.

R. Edwin Green is from Indiana where he served as a United Methodist pastor for many years. He is a graduate in history from Indiana University; holds a master's degree in church history from Boston University as well as a degree in theology. At Harvard University he studied "Philosophy of History" with the Dutch professor, J.A.C. Fagginer Auer. After attending a world conference in Amsterdam in 1939, he was enrolled in the Summer Meeting at Oxford University in England studying the history and culture of "Europe Since 1914." He and Mrs. Green decided on St. Simons Island as the best place to live their retirement years, moving there in 1980. Mr. Green immediately plunged into a study of the history of this area, and soon desired to share and interpret this story to others. Within a year he was serving as a docent at the "Museum of Coastal History" at the lighthouse; as a volunteer at the Arthur J. Moore Methodist Museum at Epworth-by-the-Sea; and as an interpreter at Fort Frederica National Monument. Mary A. Green, wife of the author, is the former Mary Penrod of Marion, Indiana. She is an elementary school teacher, homemaker, mother of three sons and one daughter. In retirement she sketches, reads and talks about her delightful grandchildren.