Little St. Simons Island
Little St. Simons Island lies in Glynn County across the north end of great St. Simons Island, Altamaha River and the Atlantic Ocean. The 8,840-acre island, consisting mostly of
Little St. Simons Island
Little St. Simons Island lies in Glynn County across the north end of great St. Simons Island, Altamaha River and the Atlantic Ocean. The 8,840-acre island, consisting mostly of low tidal salt marsh with forested upland tracts on its eastern (ocean) side, is privately owned and is accessible only by water.
Little St. Simons was awarded as a crown grant in 1760 to Samuel Ougspourger, a Swiss colonist who had migrated to Savannah. That same year the island was surveyed by William G. DeBrahm. Several years later Little St. Simons was purchased by two brothers, John and James Graham, who had plans to develop small-scale agriculture on the tract. The Grahams, who were British Loyalists, departed the colony for England during the American Revolution (1775-83).
Little St. Simons was acquired in 1774 by Major Pierce Butler of Charleston, South Carolina, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Butler also purchased Hampton Point, across the Hampton River rice tract in the Altamaha delta. Butler, one of the largest slave owners in Georgia by the time of his death in 1822, developed extensive