author
Margaret Davis Cate
1888–1961
A Georgia coastal historian with a gift for turning local memory into vivid storytelling, she helped preserve the history of Brunswick, St. Simons Island, and Fort Frederica. Her books draw on archives, oral traditions, and regional life to bring the past close.
1 Audiobook
Hawkins-Davison Houses, Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia
by Margaret Davis Cate, Charles H. (Charles Herron) Fairbanks
About the author
Born in Brunswick, Georgia, in 1888, Margaret Davis Cate spent her life closely connected to the Georgia coast. Sources describe her as a teacher, school principal, and later postmaster of Sea Island, as well as a local historian whose work helped spark wider interest in the region’s past.
She is especially remembered for documenting Brunswick and the coastal islands in books including Our Todays and Yesterdays and Early Days of Coastal Georgia. Accounts of her work say she drew on colonial records, family and community history, and oral traditions, including material related to African American life on the coast.
Cate died in 1961, but her research and papers continued to be preserved in archival collections. She is also credited with helping build the historical interest that contributed to Fort Frederica’s recognition as a national monument.