On my father's side, not much is known. They may have been here for a long time, but there are no documents. Certainly the family was widespread throughout the 30 miles allowed by Mr. Cash. The German immigrants settled in Georgia and Alabama. My father's father was named Jefferson Davis M_ and he named his firstborn son Jefferson Davis M_, Jr. My father was named Bill, as am I, and the family's one-eyed mule was named Bill, too.

My father married into a family with direct links to the Revolutionary era, however.

My mother was a direct descendent of the last family to occupy the Kelvin Grove Plantation on St Simons Island.

Kelvin Grove is situated at one end of the old Military Road that connected the two forts, Fort Frederica and Fort St Simons, and the scene of one of the most important battles between the English and Spanish, which settled once and for all that the language and customs of the region would be English.

The Battle Of Bloody Marsh pitted James Oglethorpe's Highland Scots against the Spaniards who had landed in St Simons Sound:

"Gov. Montiano took the offensive on St. Simons Island, but did not commit his entire invasion force against British forces at Fort Frederica. He sent two infantry columns to check out the fort's defenses.

About a mile from Frederica, a small contingent of Oglethorpe's rangers encountered the advancing Spaniards. The two sides exchanged fire, and then the rangers hurried to Fort Frederica to tell Oglethorpe, who quickly assembled a force of soldiers from his regiment, Highlanders, rangers, and Indian allies.

He led this diverse military force to attack the Spaniards in what was later known as the Battle of Gully Hole Creek, where Oglethorpe's men were victorious. The routed Spanish columns retreated southward down the Military Road towards Fort St. Simons and the safety of Montiano's main forces.

Oglethorpe pursued them until reaching the edge of a clearing where the road crosses the western edge of a marsh. A brief and heavy fire fight followed. Eventually, the Spanish fell back, and so do some British soldiers who think the Spaniards had prevailed. Hearing the gunfire from Frederica, Oglethorpe rode as fast as he could to reach the battle. He saw the retreating British soldiers, who told him the Spanish had been victorious.

Nevertheless, he turned them around and they hastened to join the battle. By the time he arrived, the Battle of Bloody Marsh was over, and the Georgia defenders held the day."

That this whole area has a magic and mystical attraction to all who visit is certain. Sidney Lanier says it best.

If rural homes along the coast had one book, it was of course, The Bible. If the home was fortunate enough to have two books, the second volume is almost certain to be a collection of Sidney Lanier's poems.

The Marshes of Glynn

Glooms of the live-oaks, beautiful-braided and woven
With intricate shades of the vines that myriad-cloven
Clamber the forks of the multiform boughs,
    Emerald twilights,
      Virginal shy lights,
Wrought of the leaves to allure to the whisper of vows,
When lovers pace timidly down through the green colonnades
Of the dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods,
Of the heavenly woods and glades,
That run to the radiant marginal sand-beach within
The wide sea-marshes of Glynn . . .

Sidney Lanier  1842–1881