The Bluffton Eccentric was the first and only newspaper the town of Bluffton has had in fifty years. We felt such a kinship with them that we asked Graham Bullock, publisher of The Bluffton Eccentric, if we could resurrect articles from previous issues and republish them. Graham graciously gave his permission and loaned us volumes of old papers. It has been a treat for me to read them and it is with great honor that I get to share them with everyone again. So, kick back, relax and get ready for a blast from the past.

Jessie and Boonie Hancock

Written by Betsy Thayer

he Spanish moss fluttered from the branches of the giant oaks and the marsh grass rippled in gray waves as the cold January winds swept in from the May River. “The oyster house was on the point of the island which jutted out into the river. The only heat was from a small pot-bellied stove and we wore so many layers of clothes that it was spring before I realized that the women who shucked the oysters weren’t as big and heavy as I had imagined them to be,” Jessie Hancock explained. “One of the ladies had a square chest, I discovered later that she was padded by two half pints which she explained away as the only thing that took the chill off.”

The Hancock family lived in Savannah, but like so many others, fled the city during the hot summer months for the cooler breezes and social life of the small resort on the May River. Arthur D. Hancock, II, (Boonie) was six months old when he spent his first summer in Bluffton. In 1940, the Hancock’s bought the 36 acres of land known as Doe Island for a summer home. They continued to let Mr. Eddie Mulligan use the building on the point of the land as an oyster factory during the winter months and to process crabs in the summer.

Boonie grew up with summers “on the river” and chose to join the U.S. Coast Guard during the Korean conflict. Stationed in Virginia, he met Jessie Hazlet Friedrichs who was in boarding school at Holton Arms in Washington DC. After the war, Bonnie finished college and graduated as a civil engineer. He and Jessie married and moved back to Savannah where Bonnie became the chief engineer for the Diamond Construction Company, which specialized in heavy marine construction. But the simple natural beauty of Doe Island compelled them to decide that it was the only place to raise Douglas and Katherine, their two small children.

Boonie and Jessie designed and built their home in 1960. The house reflects their lifestyle and encompasses a sweeping view of the river. Most of the rooms open onto a large screened porch which they “live on” in the warmer months.

Two years after the island became their permanent home, Mr. Milligan retired and Jessie decided to try something unheard of for a woman in this area. Jessie reopened and managed the oyster factory on the point. “The first year was the hardest,” she remembered. “I hired a housekeeper, because I had to get up at three in the morning to pick up the six women that shucked the oysters. Each woman had several oystermen that she would shuck for, usually her husband and a relative or friend, but they would not work for anyone else. Sometimes they would bring along one of their children to apprentice and to learn the trade, but the laws concerning minimum wage put an end to that.”

“State and federal regulations were very strict and I was the only one that washed and stored the oysters which were then packed on ice for shipment to Savannah. Once there, our broker sent them north to Baltimore and to the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. The oysters were plumper and bigger back then, almost all selects, and the Doe Island oysters became famous for their quality.” Boonie added, “I loved those oysters and we used to eat them ‘til they ran out our ears. It was the year that Jessie decided to do crabs too, that nearly killed me. We cooked 1500 lbs of crab every night, to be picked the next day.”

The oyster factory came to an end eight years later when Jessie started to develop an allergy from the daily exposure to the oysters. It started with hives and then asthma, until finally she ended up in the hospital with a severe anaphylactic reaction.“I can still eat other seafood,” Jessie said, “but I can’t get near an oyster to this day. The oyster factory was torn down and removed soon after.”

Boonie started his own engineering co. specializing in planning and design. Jessie’s next career came about almost be accident. She walked into the Bank of Beaufort to inquire about a job and was hired on the spot for the travel dept. She managed the bank’s travel agency for eight years before joining Island Travel. The past 16 years were filled with memories of trips to every continent in the world.

It was a treat to sit by the warmth of the Hancock’s fireplace on a cold winter day and “see” the vivid world pictures of the exotic places that Jessie described. “I love to travel,” Jessie admitted, “and stay packed ready to go. But I’m always so glad to get back to the island and to our children and grandchildren. This is home.”