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Marking history
Wed, Apr 20, 2005
Descendants, community honor patriots' services By AMY HORTON CARTER The Brunswick NewsMaryann Moore wandered the churchyard cemetery at Christ Church Frederica searching for men and women wearing the same name tag as she.She presented each "Samuel Wright" she found with a red, white and blue business card imprinted with the words "Hi Cousin!" and the line of descent from their common ancestor.If the past does indeed live, as various historians claimed during Georgia's first observance of Patriot's Day Tuesday, Moore and a gaggle of cousins long-known and new-found are the proof."This is probably the closest to a reunion we've ever had," Moore said as introductions and reminiscences were shared all around.Samuel Wright, an Englishman who served as an officer in the Georgia Militia during the Revolutionary War and served Glynn County in the state legislature through 1798, was honored along with three other Glynn County Patriots during a two-part observance of Patriot's Day hosted by the Georgia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution at Christ Church and Fort Frederica.Several dozen of the descendants of the four patriots — Samuel Wright, Cyrus Dart, William Page and Robert Grant — gathered at Christ Church in the morning to unveil gravemarkers honoring their ancestors' service to the nation way back when it was new. All but Dart are buried in the cemetery. A marker honoring him was placed near several family graves at the cemetery.The number of unrelated spectators attending the cemetery ceremony in the morning easily matched the numbers of descendants who gathered to pay homage to their forefathers.The crowd swelled even larger for an afternoon ceremony dedicating a historical marker near the gate at Fort Frederica to the efforts of the Georgia Navy, which scored an important victory against the British in a skirmish that took place April 19, 1778, on the Frederica River in the shadow of the Fort Frederica powder magazine.King Aiken Sr., who grew up in Brunswick and now lives in Cumming, attributed the turnout to a renewed interest in history and the people who made it happen."I think there's a lot more interest in history and tracing one's roots," Aiken said. "I think people just enjoy learning about history and what might come out of their own roots."Aiken described himself as "double-dipped" in patriotism Tuesday, since he can trace his lineage back to two of the patriots honored — Robert Grant, a Scottish surgeon and master of Oatlands and Elizafield plantations, and William Page, a South Carolinian who joined the fight against the British at age 16 and later founded Retreat Plantation on the south end of St. Simons Island.Fraser Baker of Quitman, another descendant of William Page, has been an avid student of her family's history since childhood. Her name pays homage to that history, as does the name of her son, John Audley Couper Baker."I've always told my children, 'You have been given a good name, and it's your responsibility to keep it a good name,'" Baker said.Baker likened the search for one's roots to a real live mystery, in which the pursuit of a single date in history can consume hours and even days of research time. The feeling of elation at finding it is indescribable."It's an addiction," she said of genealogy, but the information it yields is both "a comfort and comforting."Rebecca Symons Lovett of Blythe Island began telling her 14-year-old grandson, Daniel Thomas, about Dr. Cyrus Dart when he started showing an interest in the family's history two years ago.Dart was a native of Connecticut who moved to Glynn County after the war and established a medical practice at the town of Frederica. Dart was later appointed quarantine officer for the Port of Brunswick, serving until his death at age 53 in 1817.The marker dedicated to Dart on Tuesday was the first ever erected in his name. Dart drowned when his rowboat capsized as he and his son, Urbanus, were en route to inspect an incoming vessel.The stories Lovett tells her grandson about Dart and the family he begot are drawn from research done by her own brother, Ray Symons."I just wish he could be here today," Lovett said.Ray Symons died four years ago.
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