Callawassie Island is one of hundreds of barrier and sea islands in the southeast corner in the outer coastal plain, making up a portion of Beaufort County, South Carolina.
Callawassie Island is centrally located southwest of Beaufort, South Carolina, northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southeast of Atlanta, Georgia. The island is ten to twelve miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean in the estuarial system of the Port Royal Sound and is entirely surrounded by salt marshes and tidal creeks. Access to Callawassie is by a half mile causeway, one mile south of SC 170, or by boat via the deep waters of the Colleton River. The island's are nestled at the confluence of the Callawassie Creek and the Little Chechessee, Okatie, and Colleton Rivers.Michie, James L., "An Archeological Investigation of the Cultural Resources of Callawassie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina" (1982). Research Manuscript Series. Book 168. http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/archanth_books/168 With five miles of waterfront on the salt marshes of the Port Royal Sound Basin, Callawassie Island is a major supporter of the state-of-the-art Maritime Center, run by the Port Royal Sound Foundation located on Lemon Island.
Archeological and site surveys reveal that the island was inhabited approximately 4,000 years ago.http://www.bcgov.net/departments/Administrative/beaufort-county-council/comprehensive-plan/2010-comprehensive-plan.php (2010-2-2.1)Brooks, Mark J. "Preliminary Archeological Investigations at the Callawassie Island Burial Mound (38BU19). Beaufort County, South Carolina" (1982). Research Manuscript Series. Book 177. http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/archanth_books/177 In 1897, archeologists discovered prehistoric burial mounds. 102 sites have been identified and added to the National Register of Historic Places since then. The island is also home to the Callawassie Sugar Works (Sugar Mill Tabby Ruins), the only sugar mill ruins known to exist in South Carolina.Library of Congress (USA), Historic American Buildings Survey, Callawassie Sugar WorksMashaun, Simon, Sugar Mill's History Revealed, The Island Packet, July 8, 2002http://www.nwf.org/community. Action report: October/November 2006
In 2006, Callawassie Island was designated as South Carolina's first Community Wildlife Habitat (the 15th in the nation) with more than 200 residences being certified as Backyard Wildlife Habitats.
The owners of 717 homes and home sites have access to 33 lagoons, three parks, one butterfly garden, and three rookeries, as well as a 27-hole golf course designed by Tom Fazio, tennis courts, pickleball courts, two pools, two clubhouses, two kayak launch docks, and three community fishing/crabbing docks, which also provide boat slips for both long-term and daily dockage.
Geography and topography
The South Carolina coastal area known as the "Lowcountry" is geographically composed of: multiple sea islands, deep natural harbors, meandering estuaries which extend for miles inland, and tidal marshlands, populated by unique flora, as well as reptilian and aquatic ecosystems.
Adjacent islands include: Spring, Lemon, and Daws Islands which are settled as well as Wim's, Crane, and Rose Islands which are uninhabited. Surrounding waters include: the Colleton and Okatie Rivers and Little Chechessee and Callawassie Creeks.
History
First settlers The earliest history of Callawassie Island, dating back 4,000 years, is minimally revealed in multiple archeological and site surveys.Data Recovery Investigations in the Marsh Lots of the Callawassie Burial Mound and Village Site (38BU19), Callawassie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina . Bobby G. Southerlin, Dawn Reid, Christopher T. Espenshade, Thomas W. Neumann, Gary Crites. Brockington and Associates, Inc. 1998 (tDAR ID: 391048); doi:10.6067/XCV81G0N48 The Yamassee Indians gave Callawassie Island its name in the early 17th century and occupied the Lowcountry until their expulsion by the English. The first archeological survey was conducted in 1897–98, and subsequent archeological and site surveys were conducted between the 1970s and 1990s.University of South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Columbia, South Carolina, July 1991 Archeological discoveries of artifacts ranging from cooking utensils, hunting and construction implements, and human remains have been unearthed from 102 registered historic sites found on the island.Behan, William A., A Short History of Callawassie Island, South Carolina. The Lives & Times of Its Owners & Residents 1711-1985, iUniverse, Inc, 2004. book jacket.Data Recovery Investigations in the Marsh Lots of the Callawassie Burial Mound and Village Site (38BU19), Callawassie Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina . Bobby G. Southerlin, Dawn Reid, Christopher T. Espenshade, Thomas W. Neumann, Gary Crites. Brockington and Associates, Inc. 1998 (tDAR ID: 391048); doi:10.6067/XCV81G0N48 Multiple shell refuse mounds called "middens" provide evidence of one of the primary dietary items of early tribal settlers. Site survey discoveries of tabby constructed homes, farm houses, cabins, and a tabby works sugar mill built during the period between 1700 and the 1850s bear witness to early European settlers.Bense, Judy. Archeology of the Southeastern United States. Archeology of the Southeastern United States. Academic Press, San Diego, California, 1974
Historic documents now located in area museums, as well as historic societies and local historians, provide an early glimpse of settlement history along the South Carolina coast, beginning in the 16th century. Trading ships from European nations, including Spain, France, England, and the Netherlands, sailed with the trade winds, following routes to Central America where they would trade and return home with enormous riches. Eventually trading vessels found their way to the coasts of Florida and South Carolina. Minor settlements sprang to life. Hunting, farming, and trading with local Indian tribes were primary settlement activities. Many settlements did not survive due to warring between European nations, violent uprisings by Indian tribes, and an inability to cope with the hostile environment. However, with every setback, came new explorations, settlements, and governing European nations.Rowland, Lawrence S. The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1514-1861. University of South Carolina Press, 1998.Walter, Edgar. South Carolina: A History. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Callawassie Island, an 880-acre coastal island, received its earliest English settlers in 1711.Behan, William A., A Short History of Callawassie Island, South Carolina. The Lives & Times of Its Owners & Residents 1711-1985, iUniverse, Inc. 2004 p.1. Over the next 120 years, ownership of Callawassie Island changed hands mostly through inheritance among well-to-do English families named Cochran, Heyward, Rhodes, and Hamilton. All figured prominently in early America either as land barons, governing authorities, and/or military leaders. Callawassie Island's acreage, fertile for planting, was largely dedicated to farming and livestock during this period, making way for successive cash crop industries in indigo and sea island cotton, which were in high demand by European trading nations. A small crop of sugar cane was attempted but failed due to climate conditions. The island's population was sparse, consisting of owner families and slaves who worked the farms.
Antebellum and Civil War years
During the Antebellum years leading up to the Civil War, the island's owners, the Kirk family, continued to prosper because of cotton even as they became active in southern rebellion causes that led to Secession from the Union.The Civil War in South Carolina: Selections from The South Carolina Historical Magazine. edited by Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen G. Hoffius. Home Press. Charleston, South Carolina, p 3-18. The Secession Convention, "A Night of Bonfires and Music". In 1861 the Port Royal invasion by Union forces led to plundering and routine foraging for food and livestock throughout the Lowcountry, including Callawassie Island.Browning, Robert M. Jr. Success Is All That Was Expected: The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron During the Civil War. Brassey's Inc. 2002.
Post Civil War years
At the conclusion of the Civil War, the Union seized Callawassie Island's acreage, and remaining assets, for promised redistribution to freedmen.The Civil War in South Carolina: Selections from The South Carolina Historical Magazine. edited by Lawrence S. Rowland and Stephen G. Hoffius. Home House Press. Charleston, South Carolina, p. 113-140. The Occupation Of The Sea Islands, "Laura M. Townsend and The Freed People of South Carolina", 1862-1901 by Kurt J. Wolf. However, an elaborate scheme to take over ownership by William Wallace Burns, a prominent Union general, enabled him to maintain ownership for the next fifty years. Burns was motivated, along with other northern interests, by a vision of this area of the Lowcountry becoming "The Port Royal Railroad/Seaport" development complex, a vision that was put to rest only fifty years later by competing interests in Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina.
General Burns was an absentee landlord assigning multiple leasing rights for the island's acreage to local area farmers over the next fifty years. Farmers by the names of Hodge, Vaigneur, Johnson, and Pinckney raised families, maintained livestock, and grew a variety of subsistence crops and cotton as a cash crop. Life on the island was simple, but far from easy, often resulting in death at an early age caused by: polluted waters, epidemics of infectious diseases, and occasional natural disasters including storms, drought, and earthquakes.United States Census; Agriculture, Industry, Social Statistics and Mortality Schedules for South Carolina 1850-1880; Helen Craig Carson and R. Nicholas Olsberg. Columbia, South Carolina, Department of Archives and History, 1971.
The Great Storm of 1893
On August 27, 1893, "The Great Storm of 1893" (also known as the "1893 Sea Island hurricane") was a significant natural disaster striking near Savannah, Georgia, thus flooding Callawassie Island, destroying crops, livestock, and structures.Marscher, William. The Great Sea Island Storm of 1893. Macon: Mercer University Press 2004 Although there was no loss of life on the island, the Lowcountry area was less fortunate, with the storm claiming in excess of 2,000 lives as its waters covered nearly 80% of Beaufort County.Gibson, Christine, "Our 10 Greatest Natural Disasters" American Heritage Aug./Sept. 2006, Vol.57 Issue 4. After the Great Storm, Callawassie Island farmer Willie Pinckney secured loans to rebuild farms, maintain livestock, and grow crops. Willie became an area personality with leadership skills that were instrumental in reducing area disease through the construction of artesian wells that produced clear, unpolluted water, free of disease. Willie, then known as the "Sage of Okatie," continued to lease acreage and prosper from the island until 1917.
20th century