Greenwood Plantation
made in this rich and untapped land that Jean Francois and Suzanne even bought an additional 4,500 acres.
Following our War of Independence, Jean Francois' grandson, James and and wife, Charlotte Pepper Gignilliat, moved to McIntosh County, Georgia, and established Contentment Plantation, which was located in the present day Shellman Bluff area. If you carefully search and ask permission, you can visit the family cemetery there.
During the following years, the Gignilliat descendents - of which there were many - contributed to the communities of McIntosh as patriots, clergymen, educators, doctors, lawyers, statesmen, soldiers and planters. They were contemporaries of the Spaldings of Sapelo, the Cannons of St. Simons, the Butlers of Butler Island and the Dents of Hofwyl Plantation.
Greenwood, just one of many other McIntosh rice and cotton plantations owned by the Gignilliat family, was granted to William R. Gignilliat sometime prior to the 1830s and remained in the family until 1923.
Over the years the Gignilliats acquired and developed, either by purchase or marriage, other plantations in McIntosh.
Woodville, Ceylon, Oasis, Windy Hill and Texas - because they have become place names in the County. Their historical significance is oftentimes forgotten.
You will recognize most of the names - Contentment, Manchester, Ardoch, Mallow,
Portrait by Henry Benbridge and
James Gignilliat, 1746-1794.
Only through arduous and persistent searching of county and state archives, out-of-print books (available in Savannah at the Georgia Historical Society Library) and by interviewing folks
The economy and need for food, coupled with the natural hydraulics of the tides, created the many, many rice plantations in the Altamaha Delta region.
growing up near Greenwood, did the accurate history of Greenwood emerge for the telling today.
Greenwood's marshes, located on the tidal, brackish Cathead Creek, were actually the ideal environment for rice production. Its rice fields, named for their attributes, were legally known and described in McIntosh County courthouse documents as follows: ". . . five rice fields consisting of 100 acres more or less and named as follows. The Upper Barn, the Lower Barn, Twenty Acre, The Middle Square and The Bridge." Eventually The Bridge Square or Field became to be called "The Old Bridge".
Today, the marshes, ditched and diked for more than a century and now redeemed by nature, function both as a silent reminder of the rice culture era, as well as the permanent domain for all those creatures dictated by nature to be there. In the present day respect for our marshes, it is possible to coexist so that both man and beasts equally enjoy the continual serenity offered by McIntosh County's marshes.
The new Greenwood is designed to provide six cul-de-sac neighborhoods. Families who choose to live there will
not lack in amenities. The clubhouse boasts two guest rooms, a game room, a common area, a workout facility and definitely a splendid view of the marshes. Not only is there a full kitchen indoors, but also outdoors beside the oyster roasting pit. Beyond the rear screened porch and pool deck is the gorgeous marsh and the 800-foot raised marsh walk (the restored timbering tramway and rice field bridge) that leads to the Observation Deck on Cathead Creek.
Strolling down Greenwood's private marsh walk is a bit like hovering over and above the marshes. Simply stated, it is a wonderful area to relax with something cool to drink in the evening or take a grandchild for a walk to Cathead.
If you should happen to visit Cathead at low tide, you will see more remnants of bygone days. An extensive array of pilings on the opposite side of Cathead suggests either a wharf or the remains of the bridge that lends credence to the local folklore that Cathead was bridged at this point during the rice growing days. It must be true because it is a fact that Greenwood's rice fields spanned on both sides of Cathead. And, remember, "The Bridge Square" eventually came to be called "The Old Bridge Square."
Greenwood, a green community, feels a world away, yet, it is never far from where you want or need to be. ≈