GAIL DRAKE: Pedal through 400 years of history

In April 1942, German submarines were sighted off the coast of Georgia. President Roosevelt dispatched U.S. military officers to the island’s winter residents to alert them. The residents packed up and left their luxury cottages that night, their closets still full of expensive clothes.

Why were German U-boats drawn to this Georgia beach? Because one-sixth of America’s wealth was living on that island at that season. For nearly 60 years, Jekyll Island hosted a private club for America’s richest families, including J.P. Morgan, William Rockefeller and William Vanderbilt.

Jekyll Island’s rich history began long before the millionaires took up residence. For 400 years, this little Georgia island was home to at least four different cultures and language groups. The earliest residents were Guale and Mocama, Native Americans who became part of the Spanish mission system. In the 17th century, they were run off the island by French pirates, who spared Father Davilla and kept him as a slave. In 1663 England established land grants, eventually pushed the Spanish into Florida, and in 1733 Gen. James Oglethorpe established Georgia, naming the island after his friend and financier, Joseph Jekyll.

Every summer, I drag my brood on a bike hike around Jekyll, travelling through 400 years of history. We cruise boardwalks through acres of tidal marshlands and sidewalks covered with moss-dripping oaks. If only the trees could talk. We bike past the ruins of the tabby Horton House, home of Major William Horton, appointed by Oglethorpe to protect Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island next door.

Horton established a plantation that grew barley, corn, beef and indigo. The property passed to the Du Bignons, aristocrats who escaped the French Revolution — and the guillotine — running a plantation through five generations of French speakers. Their walled cemetery lies near the Horton House.

We pedal to the fishing pier, then detour to Driftwood Beach with its wind-blown twisted trees and trunks. Then miles of sidewalks that front private homes, pristine beach, dunes and palms. And finally to the historic district, with its grand hotel from the American Gilded Age, registered as a National Historic Landmark.

The “Jekyl Island Club” was incorporated in December 1885 by founders John Du Bignon and Newton Finney, who quickly sold shares for a secluded, elite, winter hunting club — to a limited membership of 100. It was labeled “the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world.” President William McKinley was invited as a guest — but not as a member.

Chicago architect Charles Alexander designed the five-story clubhouse, a Queen Anne style with the famed turret. The clubhouse contains an elegant dining hall, where families gathered daily to enjoy sumptuous dinners prepared by New York chefs. Members also enjoyed boating, biking, swimming, bowling, tennis and golf.

In 1896, banker and steel magnate Morgan constructed the first U.S. condominium, “San Souci,” with six suites. Over the years, 18 “cottages” were built by the wealthiest patrons.

Several were constructed in the New England shingles style, such as Moss Cottage, built by Philadelphia marble works propriater Williams Strothers and later occupied by the Macy family of New York. Crane Cottage, an elaborate Italian villa, boasted 26 bedrooms and 17 modern bathrooms, showcasing Robert Crane’s exploding plumbing business. The villa features a sunken garden, fountains and piazza courtyard, today a popular venue for weddings.

Some of the mansions remain today and some lie in ruins. Each has a family tale to tell. The sole Democrat in a club of Republicans, Joseph Pulitzer built his winter cottage at the far end of the 240-acre district. He was the only member of the press permitted on the island. However, his wife hated the gnats and refused to return. Edwin Gould, son of railroad financier Jay Gould, built a villa named “Chichota” with an indoor swimming pool. In 1917, Edwin Jr. was tragically killed in a hunting accident, and the grieving Goulds never returned. The home was later demolished, leaving the empty pool and two stone lions to guard the home entrance.

Frank Goodyear built his own three-story mansion — but died two years later.

Two national events occurred on this remote location. In 1910, under cloak of darkness, five financiers traveled by train under their first names only to Jekyll, formed a study group to reorganize existing U.S. banking laws, and forged the foundation for the Federal Reserve. In 1915, the first transcontinental telephone call connected Alexander Bell in New York, Thomas Watson in San Francisco, President Woodrow Wilson in Washington — and Theodore Vail, president of AT&T, at Jekyll Island Clubhouse.

Truly a Golden Isle, Jekyll Island remains a Georgia treasure to be enjoyed by lovers of history, nature and sports. Bring your bikes — or rent — and pedal your way through history.