Chesser Island Homestead

As I mentioned in my last post, Bill and I were guides at the Chesser Island Homestead today. The weather was not great, rainy and cold, but we still had quite a few visitors including an Elderhostel Group Tour.

A little background…….William T. Chesser homesteaded on Chesser Island (then called Little Cowhouse Island, as it was a great place for rustlers to hide cattle!) in 1857. He and his wife had 8 children, 7 of them boys. They lived in a cabin that W.T. built, cleared the land and either grew, hunted or raised all their food. Only 2 of their sons, Samuel and Robert Allen, stayed on the island and started families and farms of their own. Samuel and his wife, Sarah, raised 9 children and of these only Tom stayed on the homestead and continued to live as his grandfather, W.T., had lived.

In 1927, Tom and his wife, Iva, built this house of heart of yellow pine and Cyprus that was harvested in the area and milled on site. The carpenter who assisted Tom was reportedly paid $150 and the house was raised in 21 days! They left Chesser Island and moved into Folkston, GA in 1957. As Chesser Island is part of the Okenfenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the house was purchased by Fish and Wildlife Service and has been maintained as a fabulous example of how people lived in and around the swamp.

Welcome to Chesser Island Homestead

   

     

(note the counter-weight on the gate chain)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Corn Crib

 

 

 

 

Grape arbor.

 

 

 

In addition to growing vegetables and corn they also grew sugar cane to make cane syrup which they sold in town to buy flour, cloth and other things they could not grow or make themselves.

 

 

The sugar cane mill to press the juice from the cane.

 

Then the juice was boiled to evaporate  all the water to make cane syrup in a huge wood-fired vat in the syrup shed.

 

Just a few pictures of some of the items you would have found in this homestead that would have been used daily.

  

Wash Tub                                                    Pitcher Pump

 

      Clothes scrubber                                 Wheelbarrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vise, tools, and grinding wheel (below)

 

The hollow tree well is unique….as the water table in the swamp is very shallow, a hole as dug in the sand and a hollowed-out log is set down into the water table……….and, woo hoo, a well!!!

The original house was 3 bedrooms, a parlor, and the large front porch, but as the family grew, 2 more bedrooms were added. Then the kitchen was moved indoors and the back porch was added with a pitcher pump. Check out the bathtub on the screened back porch and the sink drain to the outside.

 

Next time…….the interior of the house!

Just Us Kids…….guiding folks through a piece of history!