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In last week’s column, we started unpeeling the layers of life that makes up the Okefenokee Swamp, its land, animals and the folks that live there. Today, we will go more in depth in to the life of those who originally started a way of living that was like no other, in any state. You may want some sweet tea or a cold beer because it is going to get hot in the swamp.

It is amazing that the swampers existed at all. These original pioneers possessed an unending amount of courage. They were as stubborn as they were strong. However, in Georgia’s backwoods, they were not that unique as they belonged to that growing number of frontiersmen that swept across the land, populating the South in the early 1800s. The fact that they chose the rustic beauty of Okefenokee Swamp proves a deep respect for nature that made the swamp what it was. The folks of the Okefenokee, lived for decades, untouched by the changes that reshaped the whole nation after the War Between the State. They were the last remnants of the original Georgia pioneers. Let me acquaint you with some of those early settlers and their lives.

Robert Allen Chesser was born in 1859. He was known as a mighty hunter, a philosopher, a fiddler, a banjo picker and a renowned maker of cane syrup, and this is just for starters. He was famous for saying, “Thanks to the Lord for what we have to eat”.

In the days before the War Between the States, the Chessers lived in Long County, Georgia. Like most who lived in the out of the way places of our state at this time, they had a small farm and were woodsmen and hunters. When the family moved to where the Okefenokee Swamp is, they inhabited a whole island, with the brothers picking where they wanted to put their homesteads. It was common that at some time during the day, the brothers would walk through the paths that they had cut through the underbrush and visit with each other.

The Chessers were known as great hunters and used every part of the animals they shot. One thing that Robert Allen bragged about a lot was how he made shoe laces from fox squirrel hides. He would tell how you can go into the water or the dew with them and they would never get hard and they lasted a long time. Many a time, they lasted longer than the shoes. Then, he would tell you his technique of how you would dress the hide to make it as soft and as durable as it was.

“First, you put it in water soaking this for three or four days or a week. Then, take it out and pull the hair off and cut the fat off the inside. Boil some beef brains and put the hide to soak in them. Leave it there for two or three hours. Then take it out and pull to stretch it until it’s dry. You can dress a deer hide the same way.”

When Robert Allen went to town for supplies, his schedule never varied. He would drive a pair of oxen from his Island to the county seat, a round trip of twenty miles. When he left home, his cart was full with furs, wild ducks and cane syrup. On his first night from home, he would spend this with his neighbor, David Mizell, who lived four miles out on the “hill”. Then Robert would continue on and complete his business in three days, then be home.

When returning to his farm, his cart would be packed with powder and shot for his sons and himself. For his wife, he would bring cloth that she would turn into new clothing for the whole family. Now and then, he would bring back such items as flour, salt and other things that you could not get in the swamp. Robert Allen Chesser passed in 1929.

Another one of the original settlers in the Okefenokee Swamp was Josiah Mizell. This family lived on the east side, near the edge of the swamp. Folklore says that he never moved from his original homestead, never swapped horses, never was arrested, and never had a case in court. He reared his family of eight children and never had a doctor in his home until all his children were grown.

Josiah served as a member of the Okefenokee Rifles in the Confederate Army. In 1866, he married Martha Johns. The crops they grew on their farm were corn, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and watermelons. These, along with deer, ducks,  wild turkeys, and fish provided the whole family with enough food, all year round. They also made money from the sale of alligator hides and bear furs as well as raccoon, and otter pelts.

In family life, there was always time to sing and write songs, play their instruments, as well as dance, tell stories and go to church. Most of all, they were known for the help that would give to those who needed it.

Josiah’s descendant, Hamp Mizell continued to live as a swamper for nearly twenty years after the wildlife refuge was created. Hamp’s wife, Rhode, was a woman who was an original settler on Billy’s Island. She was born in 1876 and passed in 1948. Rhode was known for her kindness and sharing what she could with those in need. She loved to sing. She also was knowledgeable of what to use to cure an ailment.

Her most popular cure was for a bad cold. You would take leaves from the catnip plant and boil them into a tea. Rhode said that this was good for you because it caused you to sweat out the germs. If you were having kidney trouble, she would make a special tea from the pennyroyal plant.

Measles was cured by sassafras tea because it caused the measles germ to come out of your blood and on to your skin. After this, you would let the disease take its course. It is bad when measles stayed in your body because they would affect other parts, most likely the eyes.

Hamp’s daughter, Rhode, who was named after her mother, married Leo Barber, grandson of the legendary Obadiah Barber. This family remained on her father’s land which bordered that of the government. Eventually, the Barbers found it difficult to maintain their old methods of farming. However, with pride, they kept on going and eventually gave birth to another generation of swampers. Rhode and Leo Barber stayed at Suwannee Lake, inside the swamp, until 1955. They were victims of the great fire that year and had no choice but to leave.

Lone Thrift was another original settler of the Okefenokee. In 1869, he was born and was raised up on the large end of a watery place called Cowhouse Island. He had a reputation for being able to tell great stories and was looked up to as a born leader. He also would fight a bear with nothing but a heavy pine bough. He was called Uncle Lone by everyone and was a good friend to all. His skills were those of a hunter, a crafty fisherman, a steady boatmen and a good carpenter.

In his later years, he loved to pass his time setting and swapping stories with the other men and sharing them with his grandchildren. A superstition that Lone Thrift believed in was that if a bird came and pulled on your hair, there would be a death in the family. This came about because of his brother, who had a bird take his hair and a couple of days later, his son died.

Lone Thrift was an excellent guide and ran a business on Suwanee Lake. This was a lake that was on his property and he would take men fishing there. He passed in 1951.

An unfortunate incident which took place shortly after Lone’s death involved one of his kin, Oliver Thrift. This happened after the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge was created. It is something that is not forgotten in swamp history.

The story goes that Oliver Thrift was a swamper his whole life on Cowhouse Island. He had a two-room cabin with a picket fence around it. On its posts were the bear skulls of those that he had killed in his many years of living there.

A young ranger, Bryant Crews, was also living on Cowhouse Island. At this time, he was working with another ranger named Joe Martin. Martin didn’t understand the thought processes of a man like Thrift, who had been bear hunting and selling the furs for a livelihood his whole life. Martin seen the bear skulls and threatened to report Oliver to the authorities. This is when Oliver shot him. When he killed Martin, Oliver knew that Crews probably would know what he had done. Therefore, he had to kill Crews, too.

When the Sheriff came to get Oliver, he came right out of the house. He could have easily slipped into the swamp and disappeared forever. However, to Oliver, he was just doing what his ancestors would have done to protect his way of life, for the bears were taking away his livelihood by killing his cattle.

After the trial, Oliver was sentenced to life in prison, where he died shortly after.

Jackson Lee was the man that settled Billy’s Island, which is in the heart of the swamp. He was a master at handling both paddle and pole boats. He really had to be because it was a journey of some eighteen miles and it took twelve hours to paddle out to Billy’s Island from the mainland part of the swamp.

To get there, you had to go through what was called Cowhouse Run. The beauty here was exquisite and sort of surreal. It snaked its way between the cypresses that lined the waterway like banks. Along this waterway, every opening and small pond was also full of foliage, especially the thick undergrowth of the pitcher plant.

Jackson’s brother, Dave, was born in the swamp and never traveled out of it nor along its borders. He was comfortable in the watery surroundings and he knew every pine tree. These were his landmarks, so he never got lost in a place where someone else could easily be a goner. He never marked his trees because he did not want to make it easy for strangers to go through the swamp and find his homestead.

At nineteen, he was an experienced bear hunter and a natural at alligator hunting. He was well versed in the ways of the swamp and knew how to find cool drinking water. He knew the name of every animal and bird in the swamp.

Jackson’s other brother, Ralph Davis Lee was born and raised on the edge of Okefenokee Swamp. He would tell of how he remembers that about every mile and a half, there was a family of people living around the swamp. Before the government took it over, they made a living taking people out to the hunting and fishing spots.

The last to leave Billy’s Island was Harrison Lee. He had an understanding with the government that the old family graveyard would be preserved and protected. This graveyard dates back from the 1850s when Jackson Lee and his bride settled where they lived until 1937. The government kept its word. A chain link fence still surrounds the plot.

In what is now Waycross is the restored home of Henry Obadiah Barber. Obadiah was born in 1825, in Bryan County and moved to Ware County in 1854. He and his first wife, Nancy, had eleven children. After Nancy passed, he married Matilda Tatum, with whom he had nine children. After Matilda passed, he married a third time at the age of 73, to 26-year-old Martha Ann Knight, whom he divorced in 1907. He died in 1909.

At one time, Obediah was a farmer, a land owner, a soldier in the War Between the States, a justice of the peace, a surveyor, a tracker, and eventually owned more than fifteen hundred acres around the swamp. His twenty children grew up on his land. Called Uncle Obediah by everyone, he was considered the King of the Okefenokee. There are many legends about him. Apparently, he wasn’t afraid of anything that came roaring, crawling or slithering out of the deep, dark woods and swamps of Okefenokee.

One famous story tells about the time that he killed a full grown, black bear single handed. According to the local legend, Uncle Obadiah was tending his farm, when the hungry, man eater came charging out of the woods with loud grunts and groans, huge, razor-sharp claws wide open and was ready to jump on him. The bear wanted one of Obediah’s cows to be his meal. Even though he was unarmed and not even thinking twice, Obadiah decided he was not putting up with any of the bear’s ideas of what was for dinner. He was going to protect his live stock from this intruder. Obadiah grabbed a big pine limb and commenced to beat the daylights out of the bear, before it scurried in retreat into the safety of the forest. After that, word of the battle between the bear and Obediah got around and he was pretty much crowned King of the Swamplands.

Some of the stories of Obediah are told by the descendants of his twenty children, many of whom still live in the area. They love living off the land and keeping peace with nature. It brings them a sense of pride and independence. Their stories are favorites in Folkston and Waycross.

Restoration of Obadiah’s cabin, that is thought to have been built in 1870, makes it the oldest swamp home remaining around Okefenokee Swamp. Obediah’s descendants have reconstructed the pioneer homestead as a tribute to frontier agriculture and the backwoods way of life that has long since passed. Enjoyed by the many visitor’s, Obediah’s cabin along with other buildings that are scattered about, was his homestead and shows the way of the swampers life. There also is a turpentine exhibit, a moonshine still, a sugar cane mill, a replica of a wooden bridge, and an outhouse. Orphaned or injured animals also find a home on the compound. Some of Obadiah’s descendants still live on the homestead.