Darien High School - Highlander Yearbook (Darien, GA)

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History Of Butler Island Plantation Butler Island Plantation, originally developed by Major Pierce Butler, was one of the richest plantations in the world. Its heyday was during the ante bellum days in Georgia when Fanny Kemble Butler lived there and started writing her Journal of a Residence on a Georgia Plantation. During the war Butler Island was deserted except for some of the slaves. In 1866 Pierce Butler and his daughter returned to attempt restoration of the plantation to a profitable status. He died suddenly in August 1867, the same year that the fields again produced the best rice crop in the region. After the winter of 1876 Butler was placed in the hands of a manager while the owners went to England to live. After lying untended for years it was purchased in the 1920’s by Colonel Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston, who built a two-storied white house and developed a dairy farm with experimental acres of vegetables and fruits. Later iceberg lettuce was raised experimentally and was established as Butler's main product. In 1949 Richard J. Reynolds bought Butler Island and continued the cultivation and shipping of lettuce. The historic island became the property of the state of Georgia in 1954 and was developed as a wildlife and duck hunting preserve. The chimney of the old rice mill and a remnant of the old kiln are landmarks of the days of the famous Butler rice plantation.