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Move Over, Boys

Kate Papin was the first female member of the Jekyll Island Club

BY JENNIFER SENATOR

While the original Jekyll Island Club was plenty progressive for its time—women and children could join men in a number of island activities—when Kate Allerton Papin became the club’s first full-fledged female member, it made national headlines.

"Clubs and clubmen will be interested in the decision of the Jekyll Island Club to admit women to full membership, with all the club rights and privileges accorded to men," said The New York Times of June 3, 1893.

"This was unique," says Andrea Marroquin, Curator of the Jekyll Island Museum, "as many private clubs were exclusively for either men or women."

Papin, a widow, inherited her membership from her father, Samuel Waters Allerton, a banker considered the third wealthiest man in Chicago. She was granted access to the island, accommodations at the Jekyll Island Club, hunting privileges ("Women were very involved in hunting," says Marroquin) and was permitted to participate in activities such as golf, tennis, croquet, lawn bowling, and horseback riding.

But there were limits, says Marroquin.

"She expressed interest in buying into Sans Souci, the apartment complex built on the island in 1906," Marroquin explains, "but the club objected because she was a widow. J.P. Morgan ended up with that apartment."

When Papin married Hugo Richards Johnstone, she transferred her membership to him. After Johnstone died in 1907, she retained her membership.

Over the nearly five decades beginning with Papin's admittance into the Club, 31 women became full members and, as a result, the club’s priorities expanded. The women, involved in philanthropic efforts in their home cities, were very interested in the social welfare of the area. "That was new for the club," says Marroquin.

The women introduced balls and galas. They helped establish a school for children of club staff, spearheaded the opening of a hospital in Brunswick, and were involved with the chapel and other projects. The ladies also made time for less serious activities, too.

"They created a society of spoon and egg races on bicycles, known as the Ladies Rough Riding Obstacle Bicycle Society," Marroquin says with a laugh. "The club had so much to offer, and they got a chance to enjoy it every bit as much as the men."

Josh Rachel believes that every brewer falls in love with a certain aspect of the beer-making process. Some are obsessed with the chemistry involved. Others are gearheads when it comes to the equipment. Rachel gets wrapped up in the history of his craft, a seemingly magical ritual of fermentation that has remained largely unchanged since it was brought to this continent by its earliest European settlers. History is also why Rachel’s company is called Jekyll Brewing.

The full name of the brewery is Jekyll Brewing of Alpharetta, Georgia. Though the actual beer is made some 350 miles northwest of its namesake isle in an Atlanta suburb, every bottle, can, and keg is infused with the spirit of Jekyll Island. "We’re based in Alpharetta," says Rachel, "but we wanted to pay our respects to where beer developed in Georgia and the Southeast."

Rachel is referring to what is believed to have been the first brewery in the Deep South, started on Jekyll Island by Maj. William Horton, friend and military aide to Georgia’s founder, Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe. Horton was granted rights to Jekyll Island by the trustees of the Colony of Georgia in 1735, and years later purchased a "Great Copper" pot to brew barley into beer—considered the beginning of the region's first brewery.

In those days, alcohol was used less as a refreshment or intoxicant and more as a clean source of hydration. Water drawn from local streams and lakes was teeming with bacteria and could cause illness or death. But when it was boiled into wort for beer, the malignant microbes burned away.

Horton’s brewery helped to sustain an entire island of troops and colonists. When settlers arrived from Europe, they were issued a plot of land, some farming tools, and 44 gallons of beer. "Beer was part of what their survival was based around," says Rachel. "That’s where it all started."

For Rachel, it started about 260 years later when he came home from the University of West Georgia for Father’s Day and agreed to help his dad brew a batch of beer. Rachel’s father was a longtime home-brewer, and the knack proved hereditary—so much so that, after college, Rachel went to work in a homebrew supply store. Meanwhile, he honed his own takes on traditional styles of beer while being careful to stay true to their history.

By 2013, his recipes were ready for public consumption, and with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, Rachel and business partner Mike Lundmark launched Jekyll Brewing. When it came time to name each beer, the pair doubled down on their regional heritage with Hop Dang Diggity Southern IPA, Cooter Brown American Brown Ale, and, of course, the Major Horton Export Stout. Today on Jekyll Island, the tabby remains of what is now referred to as the Warehouse Ruins—what some still call "The Brewery"—are still visible across from Horton House on Riverview Drive. Meanwhile, at bars and restaurants all over the island and all over Georgia, thirsty residents and travelers can order a beer from Jekyll Brewing, toast Rachel and his muse, Maj. Horton, and taste a modern spin on a crucial part of Southern history.

“Everything took on a new perspective, since this was the first time in my life I was unable to walk. I looked at every building and event with a new eye to how I was going to get in and out. But I enjoyed my time at Jekyll immensely. I could access everything—the beach, restaurants, the new museum [Mosaic], mini-golf, the trolley tour, and especially the water park. I rolled my chair right into the pool! I floated for a long time down the lazy river on the tube, which was very liberating. And my family was together the whole time.

I didn’t feel as if there was a divide between them and me. I felt a part of everything that we did.”

—debra hughes

As told to JENNIFER SENATOR Photograph by KATIE BOWER, BOWERPOWERBLOG.COM debra hughes, of snellville, georgia, broke her leg before a planned trip to jekyll with her family of nine, including five grandchildren. while hughes considered skipping the trip, she says her daughter, katie bower, convinced her that she could still enjoy jekyll because of the island’s attention to accessibility, and the improvements that are continuously being made to provide access to all.