Camden and Glynn Counties, Georgia History from: The Story of Georgia and the Georgia People 1732 to 1860 by George Gillman Smith, D.D.  Originally published c. 1901  Submitted by K. Torp, ©2007 CAMDEN AND GLYNN. The county of Camden was on the extreme southern border of the State, and was at the time it was made a county very sparsely settled and by very poor people. In 1790 there were in the large area which was then embraced in it two hundred and thirty-five white people and seventy negroes. Many of those who were scattered over these pine hills were that class who were impatient of the restraints of civilized life and had gone into the wilds for greater freedom. There was not a church south of the Altamaha, and not a single public school in the beginning of the century in all the section. There were doubtless in the homes of the Spaldings, the Mclntoshes and the few families of wealth around Darien, St. Marys and on the Islands, private tutors; but the people who were scattered through the pine forests were without any religious and educational privileges, and when in 1799 the Methodists decided to establish a mission at St. Marys, and Jesse Lee rode from Charleston to that village on horseback to see after the mission, he said: The country is very level and very poor except near the watercourses, being mostly a low pine-barren, and almost covered with what is called saw-pimento; but on the river Satilla and a few other places the land is good. The county is no doubt very sickly, except on the Satilla and at St. Marys, which is open to the sea and situated on a dry, sandy bluff. The country is very good for cattle, but it is at present a poor place for piety or morality, few people making any profession of religion and many who are addicted to bad habits find a dwelling in these parts. Drunkenness is very common amongst the people. Persons who violate the laws of their country find it convenient to flee from justice, either to the Indians on the west or the Spaniards on the south, and thus get out of the laws of the United States. I heard of some people in those two counties, Glenn (Glynn) and Camden, that were grown up, and some had families who had never heard a sermon or a prayer in all their lives till last summer, when George Clark first came among them. This picture of an expanse of country which stretched back from the coast as far as the Georgia line extended was a true picture of much of all this section for years after this. The inhabitants were cattle-raisers, who drove their cattle to the little city of St. Marys, whence they were shipped to the West Indies. When Dr. Lovick Pierce was quite a young man he was presiding elder in this section, and such was the state of society that he found a local preacher of mature years who had never been married legally to the mother of his children. There were neither magistrates nor parsons in these wild woods, and young people, ignorant of the laws requiring a license to marry or the need of an officiating priest, paired like wild doves. The rich lands on the rivers were opened early in the century, and the sea islands were planted in cotton and there were rice plantations on the main, and nowhere was there to be found a society more elegant than was to be found in this section near the seashore. St. Marys, in Camden, has a commanding position, as it was the extreme southward town on the Atlantic coast, only separated from Florida by a river. It has had varied fortunes. Sometimes it was a place of importance, and then declined and then revived. For years it was an im pottant shipping point for lumber, and at one time it commanded a large trade in hides, tallow and wax, which came to it from the pine woods lying west. General John Floyd, the famous Indian fighter, lived in Camden, and General Duncan L. Church, a candidate for governor, had a rice plantation in this county. The county has never been thickly settled, but in St. Marys there have been good schools and churches for over a hundred years. Glynn, apart from the sea islands and Brunswick its chief city, has never had any marked features. The land is low and very poor and the inhabitants few. The sea islands, which before the war between the States were the homes of men of means, were abandoned during the war, and after the overthrow of slavery were not reoccupied, and were no longer cultivated on any considerable scale; and one entire island, Jekyl, has been purchased by a body of wealthy men of the North as a seat for a club-house and as a peat game preserve. Brunswick has, however, become a city of very considerable importance. The country tributary to it has been very rich in its pine forests, and great quantities of lumber and ship stores have been shipped from this port to North American and European cities. There have been in Glynn and Camden from the first settlement two very different classes of people the poor and the wealthy; but the wealthy have been very few, and the entire population at no time has been considerable. "Georgia: Comprising Sketches of counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and..." by Allen Daniel Candler, Clement Anselm Evans, 1906 Submitted by Dena Whitesell   pg 302 - Camden County, which was once included in the parishes of St. Thomas and St. Mary's, was formed in 1777 and was named for the Earl of Camden, a champion of colonial rights in the English Parliament.  It was enlarged by the addition of a part of Wayne in 1805, and a part was added to Wayne in 1808.  At the conventin, which met at Augusta in 1788 to ratify the Federal constitution, Camden county was represented by Henry Osborne, James Seagrove and Jacob Weed.  It lies in the southeastern part of the state and is bounded on the north by Wayne and Glynn counties, on the east bythe Atlantic ocena, on the south by the State of Florida and on the west by Charlton county.  The St. Mary's river skirts the southern border, separating the county from Flordia.  Several islands form a part of Camden county, the most important being Jekyl and Cumberland.  The government has erected a lighthouse on Little Cumberland island, the revolving light of which may been seen many miles at sea.  The soil is quite fertile and the principal productions are cotton, corn, rice, sugarcane, sweet potatoes and vegetables.  Fish, both fresh and salt water varieties, are abundant, and oranges, lemons, figs, olives, pomegranates, melons and grapes are shipped to Fernadina, Jacksonville and New York.  The navigable rivers, the Seaboard Air Line and the Atlantic Coase line railroads, and the Atlantic ocean, furnish unsurpassed facilities fro transportation.  St. Mary's the county seat, is situated on St. Mary's river, nine miles from the ocean.  Its harbor is excellent, and it has a large trade especially in lumber.  In 1900 the whole county contained 7,669 people, a growth of 1,191 since 1890.  Camden county was the home of Gen. John Floyd, the noted Indian fighter. HAMLETS, SETTLEMENTS, TOWNS AND VILLAGES Flatland, a post-settlement of Camden county, is a station on the Seaboard Air Line railway, a short distance south of the Little Satilla river. [Source: Georgia: Sketches, Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions & People, Vol. 2, Publ. 1906 Transcribed By:  Maggie Coleman] Mabel, a post-hamlet of Camden county, is on the peninsula between the Satilla and Little Satilla rivers, about seven miles east of Waverly, which is the nearest railway station. (Source: Georgia Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, VOL II, by Candler & Evans, Publ. 1906. Transcribed by Joanne Morgan) Midriver, a post-hamlet of Camden county, is in the middle of the big bend of the Satilla river. Gross, on the Atlantic Coast Line, is the nearest railroad station. [Source: Georgia Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons,  Vol 2, Publ 1906. Transcribed by Tracy McAllister] ©2007 Genealogy Trails