HISTORY MATTERS by T. M. Brown

What is the correct name of the Geechee Community pushing back on zoning changes on historic Sapelo Island?

Most people note the variety of spellings of the community on Sapelo Island. The name and spelling are points of contention between the residents and the county. Residents call the area Hogg Hummock. The county installed signs that say Hog Hammock, and that’s been a complaint by residents for some time.

First, a hammock derived from a Spanish term and refers to a bed made of canvas or of rope mesh and suspended by cords at the ends, used as garden furniture or on board a ship.

Second, a hummock is the proper term that describes the community and its location on the island. A hummock refers to a hillock, knoll, or mound; a piece of forested ground rising above a marsh.

Somewhere in the past, the government identified the community as Hog Hammock, but it originally held the name of Hogg's Hummock, and for good reason. But also note that prior to R. J. Reynolds owning the island for several decades in the 20th Century, Hoggs Hummock (Hammock) was but one of up to a dozen separate Geechee descendant communities on Sapelo Island established by the Spalding family during the antebellum era. Sadly, Reynolds decided it suited him to merge all the Geechee communities to Hoggs Hummock... and their decline on Sapelo dwindled rapidly ever since. In 1976, Reynolds' widow gave the island to the State of Georgia. Georgia's Department of Natural Resources maintains control of the island and operates the ferry service.

Since HISTORY MATTERS we should preserve and protect the Geechee legacy, heritage, and history on Sapelo Island at Hogg's Hummock (Hammock).

I personally can only hope the State of Georgia will better maintain the buildings and historic ruins on Sapelo so that future visitors to the island can know the story of the Geechee who made Sapelo their home.

The Last Laird of Sapelo offers insight into the origins of the Geechee on Sapelo during the Spalding era on the island beginning in 1800, when Thomas Spalding brought the first enslaved workers onto the island to clear the ancient woodlands on the island to cultivate the land.

If want to know more, I recommend seeking history books by Buddy Sullivan, the Tidewater's foremost historian.

T. M. Brown, simply Mike to friends and family, embraces his Georgia heritage, thanks to the paternal branches of his family tree. Mike recalls his childhood when on many warm Sunday afternoons his father drove the family beyond Stone Mountain to his Great-Uncle’s farm. Though the dust-filled, red clay back roads of Snellville, GA, are now widened and paved, Mike fondly recalls getting bitten by barb-wire pasture fences, sipping cool well-water from a ladle, and getting scrubbed in a washtub near the front stoop of Uncle Kerry’s and Aunt Monk’s old farmhouse.