What does a
sixteen year old do when he inherits $330 million dollars? Slide into a life of luxury? Ruin it through self indulgence? Not Tom Yawkey. In 1919 he suddenly became heir to a fortune
in mining, timber, tin and oil and the owner of South Island Plantation near Georgetown , S.C.
The Native
Americans who’d given their names of Pee Dee, Santees, Sampits, See Wees,
Waccamaws and Winyahs to the nearby waterways were displace by the Spanish who
came in the 1700’s looking for gold and slaves.
Then the English, Scots and French started the indigo trade there
followed by the next great industry: wealthy Northerners. William Yawkey bought
it as a hunting preserve. When he died
at 43, Tom said of his inherited plantation “I hope I’ll be able to do some
good with it; I hope I’ll be as good a man as my dad”.
Tom Yawkey
is as captivating as the land he preserved.
He was a rich man who chose to live without grandeur. Unlike aristocrats living majestically nearby,
he replaced his modest, burned down house in 1955 with a trailer and lived
there until he died in 1976. During his months up North each year he stayed in
a hotel.
He kept to
himself. Unlike his father who had
invited President Grover Cleveland to come and hunt, Tom scorned visitors. He
didn’t socialize with Bernard Baruch or other wealthy neighbors, preferring to
spend time with the people who worked for him.
He had a
tremendous work ethic. Days were spent beside
his employees on land management, surveying and production. Three generations later, some of those same
families continue to follow his example of being dedicated stewards of the
land.
He was
insatiably curious and inventive. Through diversion of the Santee
River , fresh water ponds were created; he grew shrimp, became a
self-taught ornithologist and developed waterfowl management. He supervised staff and wildlife biologists
and provided funding that will perpetually support their research. Our
guide Jim Lee spoke with reverence of Yawkey’s vision, “As. …the sea levels
rise, these managed wetlands will become more and more important.”
He was
exceedingly generous but shunned acclaim.
Hospitals and scholarships benefitted from his largesse, often
anonymously. He built St. James AME
Church for the islanders in 1928 where “if the spirit didn’t move you, you were
already dead”. Today the 80 island
residents continue to praise, stomp and clap in it.
His one
extravagance was baseball. Like his
father who had owned the Detroit Tigers, Yawkey bought the Red Sox when he was
30 years old. They’d just completed what
is still a record for the franchise’s worst season ever, a 111-game losing
streak, but he optimistically set his sights on winning the World Series. He poured millions into talent, coaching and
the renovation of Fenway
Park
And he gave
people something to talk about. When
community leaders warned that the town’s daughters wouldn’t be safe from the
sailors returning to port in Charleston ,
he invited the madam Hazel Weiss to open the infamous Sunset Lodge. From 1936-66, it was the most visited
attraction in South Carolina second to Fort Sumter and a boon to the local
economy. Some called him a racist. Jackie Robinson said he was “one of the most
bigoted men in baseball” because of his treatment of African Americans players. Our guide called him “a misunderstood and
private person.”
The legacy of this
independent, curious, hard-working, generous and complex man is the Yawkey Wildlife
Center Winyah
Bay in Georgetown County Intracoastal Waterway ,
time slows down. There are pine trees
over 100 years old; some are still leaning from Hurricane Hugo; a huge insect
population that “reaches a crescendo in June”, ancient Indian shell mounds and
cemeteries hidden in the foliage. It’s a
wild, minimally managed place and a magnificent gift to South Carolina from an extraordinary man.
If You Go:
Free tours are offered from Sept. to May by
reservation: 843-546-6814
More photos are here: Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center
