On This Day in Jekyll History…

May 22, 1792 - Christophe duBignon purchases ¼ interest in Jekyll Island, becoming a member of the Sapelo Company.

Having retired from a life a sea with the French India Company, Christophe Anne Poulain duBignon settled in his native Lamballe, France in 1784 with ambitions to grow his fortune. When Revolution began in 1789, Christophe began to look for a safer place to raise his growing family. An acquaintance, Franis Marie Loys Dumoussay de la Vauve, had just purchased four islands along the coast of Georgia and created the Sapelo Company. duBignon agreed to invest in the Company in 1790, and make plans to move his family to America. Upon arrival in 1792, duBignon learned that the Sapelo Company had purchased Jekyll Island, and because work on quarters on Sapelo had not progressed he took up residence in the former home of Major Horton. He purchased ¼ of the island as an additional investment.

This would mark the beginning of the duBignon presence on Jekyll, which would last for nearly a century.

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Tags: Christophe duBignon, history, jekyll island
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On This Day in Jekyll History…

February 1, 1930 Jekyll Island Club founder John Eugene duBignon dies in Brunswick, Georgia.

Best known as the owner of Jekyll Island who sold the property to the investment group that became the Jekyll Island Club, John Eugene was born to Joseph duBignon and Felicite Riffault.  John’s grandfather was Henri Charles duBignon and his great-grandfather was Christophe Poulain duBignon, who with other Frenchmen came to America to escape the French Revolution. They first settled on Sapelo Island and then Christophe bought out the other interests to own and settle Jekyll Island.

In 1876 John Eugene married Frances “Fannie” Schlater Westmorland, a widow. They had a daughter Josephine who married Jennings Butts. In 1879 he bought the southern third of Jekyll Island from his brother Charles’ estate. The other two-thirds of the Island had gone out of duBignon hands due to losses during the Civil War. He built the “duBignon Cottage” in 1884 and started raising cattle.

duBignon and his brother-in-law, Newton Finney, planned to acquire the entire island and sell it to a wealthy associate of Finney’s in New York. Finney had developed many contacts through his membership in the Union Club in New York. DuBignon borrowed $8,000 from John Claflin, one of Finney’s associates, to buy the remaining holdings on Jekyll Island. The intent was to sell the entire island to Claflin but the concept changed as Finney developed interest among other contacts. Claflin released them from the contract and agreed to buy shares in the Jekyll Island Club. In 1885 duBignon incorporated the Club and in 1886 sold Jekyll Island to the investors in the Club for $125,000.

John Eugene and Finney remained principal owners of the Oglethorpe Hotel in Brunswick, GA, the stopping off place for visitors to Jekyll Island Club prior to ferrying to the island. In 1896 duBignon bought an interest in the ship “Dauntless” to smuggle guns to Cuban rebels. He stood trial for defying U.S. neutrality and sold his club stock to pay the fine.

Enjoy History?  Visit the Jekyll Island Museum, 100 Stable Road, Jekyll Island, GA www.jekyllisland.com/history

or become a Fan of the Jekyll Island Museum on Facebook

Tags: Dubignon, history, jekyll island
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“What Woolworth was to the five-and-ten, what McCormick was to the harvester, Vail is to the telephone,” declared publisher B.C. Forbes.  “Bell invented it, but Vail put it on the map.”AT&T President Theodore Newton Vail also put Jekyll Island, Georgia onto the map when, thanks to his participation, it became a part of telephone history.

On January 25, 1915, the words “Hello, Jekyll Island,” reverberated across the phone lines, as Vail joined a party phone call with President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, DC, Alexander Graham Bell in New York, and Thomas Watson in San Francisco.  This thrilling moment marked the ceremonial grand opening of the first transcontinental telephone service.

In 1885, Vail had created the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) by connecting existing local companies into a long distance network.  Vail served as the first President of AT&T from 1885-1889.

Consolidating existing telephone companies into a single network required a great deal of money.  It was Vail who interested a number of financiers in his project, including Jekyll Island Club Members J.P. Morgan and George F. Baker.

In 1889, at the age of 44, Vail retired.  But in 1907, J.P. Morgan and other investors approached Vail to again take up the reins as president of AT&T.  The company was having difficulty facing off with competitors in Vail’s absence.

Vail developed a bold plan for a comeback.  In 1909, he announced that AT&T was going to provide nationwide telephone service through the creation of a coast-to-coast phone system.  This was an ambitious goal.  At the time, phone conversations were limited by technology to a distance of 2,000 miles.

Vail undertook a vigorous campaign of public relations.  Investors initially protested his investment of $250,000 for marketing, arguing that everybody already knew of the existence of the telephone.  He responded, “But everybody is not thinking about it.”

The telephone was certainly at the forefront of American consciousness in 1915, however, when Vail participated in the ceremony opening up the first transcontinental telephone line from Jekyll Island, and his vision of a coast-to-coast phone service became a reality.

Vail, a Jekyll Island Club Member from 1912-1920, had intended to return to New York in time for the important phone call marking the event, but a leg injury detained him on the island.

Although Jekyll Island’s phone service was spotty, Vail was not about to miss participating in the ceremony.  Jekyll Island had good connections to Brunswick, so new cables were laid from Savannah to Brunswick to ensure that the lines would function properly for the event.

Susan Albright Reed, visiting Jekyll Island that season with her family, recalled a worried Vail interrupting his dinner to test the phone lines and her father telling her, “It will be terrible if Mr. Vail can’t get through tomorrow. . . the President, Alexander Graham Bell, and Mr. Vail will all be on the line at once.”

On the day of the phone call approximately 1,500 AT&T employees stood by, ready to repair any problems along the 4,500 miles of telephone line from Jekyll Island, to New York, and across to San Francisco, in order to be sure the communications system functioned properly.

Their presence was fortunate, as a tree fall did interfere with service the morning of the call.  The problem was soon corrected, however, and on January 25, Vail was able to participate in the first transcontinental phone call from Jekyll Island.  Vail had a brief exchange with President Wilson in Washington, DC, who congratulated him on his great achievement.  Within a year, radio telephone service was also available to Europe.

In 1919, Vail retired from AT&T for the second time.  When he passed away a year later, on April 16, 1920, the telephone company he had raised from infancy owned more than 25 million miles of telephone wire and voices could carry around the world.

Enjoy History?  Vist the Jekyll Island Museum, 100 Stable Road, Jekyll Island, GA www.jekyllisland.com/history

or become a Fan of the Jekyll Island Museum on Facebook

Tags: AT & T, history, jekyll island, theodore vail, william rockefeller
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