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History

Main article: History of Brunswick, Georgia

The area's first European settler, Mark Carr, arrived in 1738. Carr, a Scotsman, was a captain in General James Oglethorpe’s Marine Boat Company; upon landing, he established his 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) tobacco plantation along the Turtle River. The Royal Province of Georgia purchased Carr’s fields in 1771 and laid out the town of Brunswick in the grid style following Oglethorpe’s Savannah Plan. The town was then named after the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Germany (the ancestral home of King George II of Great Britain).

The Fifth Act of the First Congress proclaimed Brunswick one of the original ports of entries for the thirteen states in 1789. Signed by President George Washington, this act authorized Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Savannah, and Brunswick seaports of the United States. In 1797, the Georgia General Assembly transferred the county seat of Glynn County from Frederica on St. Simons Island to Brunswick.

Glynn Academy received its charter in 1788 and was constructed in 1819. Throughout the former part of the nineteenth century, Brunswick gained a courthouse, a jail, and about thirty houses and stores. The town was officially incorporated as a city on February 22, 1856.

History

Main article: History of Brunswick, Georgia

The area's first European settler, Mark Carr, arrived in 1738. Carr, a Scotsman, was a captain in General James Oglethorpe’s Marine Boat Company; upon landing, he established his 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) tobacco plantation along the Turtle River. The Royal Province of Georgia purchased Carr’s fields in 1771 and laid out the town of Brunswick in the grid style following Oglethorpe’s Savannah Plan. The town was then named after the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Germany (the ancestral home of King George II of Great Britain).

George Washington proclaimed Brunswick one of the five original ports of entry for the colonies in 1789, and in 1797, the Georgia General Assembly transferred the county seat of Glynn County from Frederica (on St. Simons Island) to Brunswick.

Glynn Academy, the first public building in Brunswick and the second-oldest high school in Georgia, was constructed in 1819. Throughout the former part of the nineteenth century, Brunswick gained a courthouse, a jail, and about thirty houses and stores. The town was officially incorporated as a city on February 22, 1856.

Brunswick was abandoned during the Civil War when citizens were ordered to evacuate. The city, like many others in the South, suffered from post-war depression. After one of the nation’s largest lumber mills began operation on nearby St. Simons Island, economic prosperity returned; rail lines were constructed from Brunswick to inland Georgia, and the area started to see national recognition.

An 1864 map of Brunswick and the surrounding area.

In 1878, poet and native Georgian Sidney Lanier, who sought relief from tuberculosis in Brunswick’s climate, wrote his poem “The Marshes of Glynn” based on the salt marshes that span across Glynn County. Years later, some of the era’s most influential families (Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Pulitzers, and Goodyears) began to come to Jekyll Island which became known as a posh, exclusive getaway.

A yellow fever epidemic began in 1893 which heralded a decade of hardships for the city; it was flooded in 1893 when a modern-day Category 3 hurricane (today known as the Sea Islands Hurricane) paralleled the coast of Georgia before hitting South Carolina. The storm left the city under six feet of water. A Category 4 hurricane hit Cumberland Island just south of Brunswick in October 1898, which caused a 16-foot storm surge in the city. As a result, 179 were killed.

Construction of an electric streetcar line began in 1909 and was completed in 1911. Tracks were located in the center of several city streets. An electrical line, running directly above the tracks, supplied power to operate the streetcar engines. African Americans were unable to ride on the streetcars because of segregation and instead had to rely on taxis. In July 1924, the F.J. Torras Causeway, the roadway between Brunswick and St. Simons Island, was completed, and passenger boat service from Brunswick to St. Simons Island was terminated. By 1926, the electric streetcar line in Brunswick was discontinued; the decline of the streetcar systems coincided with the rise of the automobile.

In World War II, Brunswick served as a strategic military location. German U-boats threatened the coast of the southern United States. Blimps became a common site as they patrolled the coastal areas. During the war, blimps from Brunswick’s Glynco Naval Air Station (at the time, the largest blimp base in the world) safely escorted almost 100,000 ships without a single vessel lost to enemy submarines.

Liberty ships

A Liberty Ship is launched from Brunswick.

In World War II, Brunswick boomed as over 16,000 workers of the J.A. Jones Construction Company produced ninety-nine Liberty ships and "Knot" ships (Type C1-M ships which were designed for short coastal runs, and most often named for knots) for the U.S. Maritime Commission to transport war matériel to the European and Pacific Theatres.

The first ship was the SS James M. Wayne (named after James Moore Wayne), whose keel was laid on July 6 1942 and was launched on March 13 1943. The last ship was the SS Coastal Ranger, whose keel was laid on June 7 1945 and launched on August 25 1945. The first six ships took 305 to 331 days each to complete, but soon production ramped up and most of the remaining ships were built in about two months, bringing the average down to 89 days each. By November 1943, about four ships were launched per month. The SS William F. Jerman was completed in only 34 days in November and December 1944. Six ships could be under construction in slipways at one time.

Most of the Liberty ships from Brunswick were assigned to U.S. shipping companies and most of them were named after famous Americans (starting with U.S. Supreme Court Justices from the South). However, numbers 19, 29, and 31–40 went to Great Britain (Ministry of War Transport) under the Supplemental Defense Appropriations Act of 1941 (see Lend-Lease) and were given one-word names starting with "Sam" (e.g. Samdee). Number 73 went to Norway.