​Tybee Island was once upon a time referred to as Savannah’s Beach. But even before Savannahians made it their personal beach and even before Gen. Oglethorpe step foot in what is now Georgia the Guales were there. The Guale were a native American tribe.
Before Oglethorpe made developed it was called the ‘Debatable Lands”. The British in Charleston, the Spanish based in St. Augustine, and the French in the West pushing eastward all laid claim to this land. The Native Americans already here were not included in this discussion.
The Spanish tried to lay claim to the land did as they did on the West Coast with missions up the western coast from Mexico. On the East Coast they established missions up from St. Augustine in Florida. They worked with the Native Americans to establish missions some say all the way to Port Royal, South Carolina. One of the missions was on Tybee Island.
In Georgia the Spanish used the tribe Guales, whose territory ranged on the coast of Georgia, helped them establish missions on several of Georgia’s coastal barrier islands (Sea Islands, St. Catherine’s, Sapelo, Ossabaw, Wassaw, and Tybee Islands). By the mid-17th century, the Spanish had established six Catholic missions in Guale territory.
The Guales who were already established here since the 1130s at least would eventually be identified with the great Mississipian Culture. The Irene Mounds which I have written about in a previous blog were the central Mississippian city in the area. The Mississippians Indians had a chiefdoms and are known as the mound builders.
The French whose main mode of expansion was through the establishing of trading posts first met the Guales in 1562. The French established a small French village on Parris Island now a training center for the Marine Corps. This land would later be ceded to the British.
The Guales would be in partnership with the Spanish through most of the !7th century until the early 18th century. But with the strong British presence in North Carolina and the expansion of the British in what is now South Carolina, it was not long before they ran headlong into the Spanish and the Guales.
The Guales had their numbers decreased due to major epidemics in the late 17th century and 18th century. The British took notice of this. The British were uncomfortable with the Spanish population so close to their lands in South Carolina which they had designs to start colonies. So they joined with one of their friendly tribes: Westos to remove the Guales from what was Georgia. With the assistance of three hundred Westo warriors they attacked the Spanish missions on he coast of Georgia. Eventually, they were able to destroy the missions and accomplish their mission by 1702.
With the missions destroyed some Guale removed to Spanish territory in Florida. Many though dismayed that the Spanish in Florida had not given them adequate military support during this time stayed in Georgia joining up with other surviving tribes of the Westos military swoop in Georgia. They would later become known as the Yamasee.
The Yamacraws with their chief legendary Tomochichi with the land now open to British Native Americans would settle in what is now Savannah. Tomochichi and the Yamacraws and Mary Musgrove who had established a trading post next to the Yamacraw Village would be on hand to greet Gen. James Oglethorpe when he came in 1733 to establish the Georgia colony.
Today the Guales are a shadowy memory. But they are part of the story of Savannah.

​Savannah is known for its first. The first golf course, first black church, the third oldest synagogue, first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, first planned city in America, first art museum in the South, first girl scout troop, and the list could go on. So it is no surprise to find Savannah has the second oldest hospital in the nation: the Candler\St. Joseph’s hospital two hospitals that joined forces.

St. Joseph’s Hospital had its beginning in 1875 when the Sisters of Mercy reached out to help ailing seaman. Candler Hospital is the second oldest continuously operating hospital in the United States. It began in the 1730s when the Methodist missionary George Whitfield brought medicines to treat sick seamen and the poor. Whitefield would also start the oldest orphanage here in Savannah: Bethesda. His efforts would lead to a charter in 1804 as a seaman’s hospital and poor house known under the name of Savannah Poor House and Hospital Society.

In 1819, the hospital moved to Gaston Street where it remained for 160 years and is currently owned and used by Savannah College of Art and Design. During the Civil War the building served as a Union Hospital.  In 1872 it was renamed the Savannah Hospital. As they became larger they started the city’s first nursing school in 1902. The Methodist Church would purchase and continue the work of Rev. Whitefield with the guidance of Bishop Warren A. Candler in 1930. Candler would also become the name of the hospital. In 1960 it would join forces with the country’s oldest women’s hospital, Mary Telfair (the hospital was started with a bequeath of money from Mary Telfair one of Savannah’s greatest philanthropist who also started the oldest art museum in the South: Telfair Academy.  In 1997 Candler Hospital would take on its current organization by entering an agreement with St. Joseph’s Hospital.
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Today, Candler/St. Joseph’s Hospital centuries removed from its beginnings continues as one of Savannah’s oldest and proudest institutions.