ooking Back:
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Kiawah's Early Settlers
By Shauneen Hutchinson; photos provided by
Bill and Betty Cobb and prepared by Jack Kotz
A
Above: With friends on the beach including Denny Royal in
the middle. Below: Bill and Betty, 1962.
40
lthough Whit Gibbons and his team were
among the first individuals who explored
Kiawah Island with a view to discovering
important habitat and wildlife information,
a hearty band of “explorers” had been enjoying the special
island for over two decades before Whit arrived.
Their story begins with the acquisition of Kiawah by
the C. C. Royal Lumber Company from the Vanderhorst
family on November 25, 1950. The purchase of Kiawah (for
$125,000) marks the beginning of the modern era of the
Island. Details of the Island’s earlier history are found
in Kiawah Island: A History by Ashton Cobb published
in 2006 by The History Press.
C.C. Royal was a businessman who eventually settled in
Aiken, Georgia. He was born and raised in Douglas, Georgia,
located in the southern part of the state. When he was 11 his
father died, and his mother moved the family to Augusta to
be closer to her family. His business manager was a woman
named Margaret B. Johnson (always called “Maggie” by Mr.
Royal), who bought a beachfront home on Eugenia Avenue
in the summer of 1955 for $55,000. Her grandson, William
Singleton Cobb together with many of his friends, including
Mary Elizabeth Farr, whom he would later marry, enjoyed
weekends and summer on the Island.
The trip from Augusta where they lived entailed making a
stop in Walterboro, the last place they could find staples on
the way, for milk and butter. They brought huge quantities
of water with them because the water then available on the
Island looked more like lemonade when it came out of the
faucet. The sale of the Island by the Royal family to Coastal
Shores, a subsidiary of the Kuwait Investment Company, for
$17,385,000 signaled a completely new era as the Island was
transformed into an internationally recognized resort.
Bill recalls that during those early days of vacationing he
always thought that one day, if he were lucky, he would live
on Kiawah. Happily, that dream came true. He and his sister
Bettye learned to drive on the beach and the then-empty
streets. The Cobbs have since moved to their home on
Broomsedge Lane, where they continue to live and count
their blessings as residents of Kiawah Island. NK
Naturally Kiawah