Hilton Head Town Seeks to Honor Native Islanders

Article courtesy of Islandpacket.com - a complete news resource for Hilton Head Island.

Town seeks way to honor native islanders
Ferrymen Simmons, Frazier among first Councilman Ferguson would like to recognize

By DANIEL BROWNSTEIN
dbrownstein@islandpacket.com
843-706-8125
Published Monday, September 7, 2009
Well before the first bridge to Hilton Head Island was built in 1956, two native islanders helped connect the remote barrier island with the rest of the world.

Many in the native island community would like the Town of Hilton Head Island to memorialize Charlie Simmons Sr. and Arthur Frazier, two men who worked around the clock to ensure islanders had the supplies they needed to survive on an island far from the nearest department store or hospital.

Both ran ferries and filled countless other roles, such as merchant, banker, public works department and ambulance service before development brought those modern institutions to the island.

Bill Ferguson, who represents the native island communities on Hilton Head Town Council, wants to build a monument honoring the contributions of native islanders -- beginning with Simmons and Frazier -- at Mitchelville Beach Park.

Ferguson said the entire community owes a debt of gratitude to the two men, not just the dozens of native island families and affluent visitors who used their services.

"Without them, Sea Pines and Port Royal wouldn't be here as it is today," he said, "because (the developers) used these fellows as an instrument of transportation before the bridge was built."

Ferguson's idea involves renaming the park to something like "Mitchelville Memorial Park for Native Islanders." Last week, Mayor Tom Peeples asked for Ferguson's help to build consensus among the island's black community for a potential name.

"It's a sublime piece of property with a generic name on it," Ferguson said of the park.

The town built Compass Rose Park in 2008 as an homage to Sea Pines founder Charles Fraser and others instrumental in making Hilton Head a premier resort.

But some believe not enough is being done to highlight the history of native islanders, many of whom are the direct descendants of freed slaves, said Emory Campbell, former director of the Penn Center and owner of Gullah Tours.

"Despite what National Geographic says, this island does have a soul," Campbell said referring to the magazine's 2007 ranking of beach communities that slammed the island. "It goes back a long way to even the Indians. History is so important. Folks who are coming in now are looking for history and unfortunately don't know how important this island is to United States history."

Hilton Head was home to the South's first freed slaves, and Mitchelville, a fully-functioning village for those released from bondage, was the nation's early experiment at Reconstruction.

After the Civil War, the island was a close-knit agrarian community. Families were rich with land that produced crops and estuaries that provided a bounty of shellfish, but were cash poor and largely disconnected from the mainland.

Simmons, who worked on ferries as a young boy, began his own service in the 1920s using a sailboat to get between Hilton Head and Savannah. In 1927, he upgraded to the Lola, a 33-foot boat with a 15 horsepower engine.

He transported wealthy northerners to Honey Horn, then a hunting preserve, and helped islanders haul their produce, seafood and livestock to Savannah, where he sold the cargo at City Market and use the proceeds to fulfill families' shopping lists.

Simmons died in 2005 at the age of 99.

Frazier came along a bit after Simmons. In 1944, he began operating a boat service between Jenkins Island -- near where the J. Wilton Graves Bridge today connects to Hilton Head Island -- to Buckingham Landing, where the Sea Trawler restaurant recently opened. He also owned several trucks and a barge that could carry cars.

When he was drafted for World War II, residents successfully lobbied the government to give him a waiver because his services were so vital to their way of life.

In 1968, Frazier lost a leg in an automobile accident, and in 1985, he was shot in the face during the robbery of his convenience store along William Hilton Parkway. The cream- and rust-colored commercial buildings he owned still stand and are home to a produce market and a massage parlor. A wooden, homemade sign still marks Frazier's Holiness Temple.

He died in 2003 at the age of 89.

"I knew them both," Campbell said. "They were outstanding men."

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