Skidaway Island, Georgia

It is uncertain why the name "Skidaway" was applied to this island. The name may relate to one in Yamacraw or another Native American Creek language. In his 1967 publication How Georgia Got Her Names, Hal E. Brinkley speculated it might be an Anglicized form of Scenawki, wife of the local Yamacraw chief Tomochichi and for whom Georgia's founder James Oglethorpe named the island. Before the American Civil War, planters farmed on the island using enslaved labor. On January 15, 1865, during the final year of the conflict, U.S. General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order, No. 15 (series 1865). The order reallocated plantation lands on "Skidmore Island" to some formerly enslaved people whom Sherman had freed pursuant to the Emancipation Proclamation. The former slaves received plots of land no larger than . Land records show that many such plots were issued on the island beginning on April 11, 1865, two days after C.S.A. General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House; plots were issued though that summer and early fall, despite the death of President Abraham Lincoln, and before Georgia's readmission to the Union and the resumption of civil authority there. Lincoln's successor, President Andrew Johnson, opposed such land transfers, as would various courts, especially since no legislation supported it. During the Reconstruction era, federal and state policy emphasized wage labor, not land ownership, for black people. Almost all land allocated to blacks in 1865 was ultimately restored to its original white owners. In a March 2019 referendum, Skidaway Island voters overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would have incorporated their community as the City of Skidaway Island. The island remains unincorporated. ==Geography==

Skidaway Island is located at (31.927434, -81.042505). According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , of which is land and (8.45%) is water. ==Demographics==

Skidaway Island has been listed as a census-designated place (CDP) since the 1980 United States census. The median age was 64.3 years. 14.6% of residents were under the age of 18 and 48.8% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 90.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 86.5 males age 18 and over. There were 4,173 households in Skidaway Island, of which 17.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 72.5% were married-couple households, 6.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 19.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. There were 4,511 housing units, of which 7.5% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 10.7%. ==Notable people==

• Dorothea Orem, nursing theorist, who died at her home on Skidaway Island on June 22, 2007. • Ron Senkowski, founder of Farmer's Almanac TV. • Bobby Thomson, baseball player, who died at his home there on August 16, 2010. ==See also==