I have written recently about places of interest in Darien, Brunswick, and St. Simons Island. Today’s column is about a small community about a dozen miles north of Darien, Eulonia.
I took a day trip yesterday down US 17 with a young friend from Savannah who I have been mentoring.
Like many folks in Savannah, he had no concept of the many interesting places south of that town along our coast.
My goal was to show him places of interest in Eulonia, Darien, and Brunswick. I had thought we might make it as far as the GA Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, but that was not to be, on this trip. My wife and I do this every year with international students on scholarship for a year at Armstrong, courtesy of area Rotary clubs, and they always thoroughly enjoy it.
I have an advantage over most folks, in that I worked for a number of years in my family’s wholesale hardware business in Savannah, in my younger days. I spent summers and Christmases there, during high school and college, working customer orders, filling inventory, helping deliver freight, etc., earning money to help pay for college.
After I got out of college and came back home, I was offered the opportunity to take on the responsibility of managing the credit and collections side of the business.
Despite misgivings, I eventually accepted that challenge, and was glad I did. I got to know a lot of very interesting people, and learned a lot.
One of the smaller customers we had was a fellow named Olney Jenkins, who had a small general store in the little crossroads community of Eulonia, a few miles south of Riceboro, on US 17, about a dozen miles north of Darien. He sold groceries and general merchandise, including what is broadly referred to as “hardware” – hammers and screwdrivers, lightbulbs and extension cords, etc.
He was not a big enough account to warrant our territory salesman calling on him on a regular basis; he normally just drove to our facility and paid cash for his purchases. That is how I came to know him the little bit that I did.
One day, in the late 1970’s, he showed up at our office in some distress.
It turned out that his wife had come down with cancer (of course they had no insurance), and he had gradually liquidated his inventory to raise the money to pay for her care. Sadly, she died anyway.
What he came to ask us for was an infusion of inventory, on extended terms, to rebuild his inventory. Of course we agreed. He had three sons (of six, plus a daughter) who had decided to go in together and apply for an SBA loan to build a new store, next to his old wooden one.
It was to be a Piggly Wiggly.
That Piggly Wiggly was funded and built, and is still going strong today. The original store was eventually demolished. I don’t know who owns that store today. The oldest of those three boys (Dale) later went to law school, settled in Darien, and had a law practice that he carried on until he died in 2025.
Every time I travel down US 17 on my way to Darien, Brunswick, or parts further south, and see that Piggly Wiggly, I think of Mr. Jenkins and his sons, who lived a simple life in a small community, but provided a useful service to those around them.
It is a small but nice facility.
“Shellman Bluff” next door is probably more well-known, these days.
One other nearby item of interest is the self-described, “Smallest Church in America,” which is a small chapel maybe 8’ x 10’. It only has three rows of four chairs each, and a pulpit, but lovely stained glass windows. Services and weddings are occasionally held there.
It was originally built in 1949 by a Mrs. Agnes Harper, when US 17 was still the main road between Florida and points north – long before I-95 was imagined or built.
She wanted to make a place where travelers could come and sit a spell, and they did.
It unfortunately suffered serious damage from a late-night fire, several years ago, and had to be torn down and rebuilt. Which it was -- all from donated materials and labor, provided by locals in the community.
Even the stained glass panels were recreated and donated, from England. A wonderful testament to the goodness of people.
I often stop by there on my way to points south, too, to drop a few bills in the donation box, and say a few prayers.
There is much good in the world.
Never forget that.
Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of (“the original”) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia. He and his wife are both longtime Rotarians, and live in rural eastern Liberty County with their various orphan felines. He writes on a variety of topics, and may be reached at rafe_semmes@yahoo.com.