The recorded History of Brunswick, Georgia dates to 1738, when a plantation was established along the Turtle River. By 1789, the city was recognized by President George Washington as having been one of five original ports of entry for the American colonies. In 1797, Brunswick's prominence was further recognized when it became the county seat of Glynn County, a status it retains to this day. During the later stages of the Civil War, with the approach of the Union Army, much of the city was abandoned and burned. Economic prosperity eventually returned, when a large lumber mill was constructed in the area. By the late 19th-century, despite yellow fever epidemics and occasional hurricanes, business in Brunswick was thriving, due to port business for cotton, lumber, naval stores, and oysters. During this period, Brunswick also enjoyed a tourist trade, stimulated by nearby Jekyll Island, which had become a posh, exclusive getaway for some of the era's most influential people. World War I stimulated ship building activity in Brunswick. But it was not until World War II that the economy boomed, when 16,000 workers were employed to produce ninety-nine Liberty ships and "Knot" ships. During the war, Brunswick's Glynco Naval Air Station was, for a time, the largest blimp base in the world. Since the end of World War II, the city has enjoyed a period of moderate economic activity, centered on its deep natural port, which is the westernmost harbor on the eastern seaboard. In recent years, in recognition of a thriving local enterprise, Brunswick has declared itself to be the "Shrimp Capital of the World".
Early colonization
As early as 1738, the area's first English settler, Mark Carr, a captain in General James Oglethorpe's Marine Boat Company, established his plantation along the Turtle River (at an area known as Plug Point). In 1771, the Royal Province of Georgia purchased Carr's fields and laid out the town of Brunswick in the grid style following Oglethorpe's Savannah Plan. Brunswick obtained its name from the duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Germany, the ancestral home of King George II of Great Britain.
In 1789, George Washington proclaimed Brunswick one of the five original ports of entry for the colonies. Because of this notion, the city began to prosper, and in 1797, the Georgia General Assembly in Louisville transferred the county seat of Glynn County from Frederica on St. Simons Island to Brunswick.
Commerce and expansion
Little development occurred in the town during the thirty years after its designation as the county seat. Records show that Glynn Academy, the first public building, was built in 1819; it closed four years later due to lack of attendance. The school soon re-opened, however, and in 1840, a new building was erected on Hillsborough Square, the present location of Glynn Academy. In 1826, the Georgia General Assembly granted title to much of the undeveloped town to Urbanus Dart and William R. Davis. Soon after the title was granted, Brunswick had a courthouse, a jail, and about thirty houses and stores. Along with the founder of the Brunswick and Florida Railroad, Thomas Butler King of St. Simons Island, Dart and Davis formed a company to construct a canal north to the Altamaha River, connecting the natural port with interior plantations.
In 1836, the Oglethorpe House hotel was built; two years later, a newspaper was started and a new bank opened. But the panic of 1837 caused cotton and timber prices to plummet and languished the progress of the canal and railroad projects. The Cotton Crash of 1839 only put the city in further jeopardy.
Following a period of recession, the Brunswick–Altamaha Canal opened in 1854, followed by the railroad in 1856. Brunswick received its second charter that very year and was officially incorporated as a city on February 22, 1856. In 1860, the city had a population of 468, a weekly newspaper, a bank, and a sawmill.
American Civil War
During the Civil War, the Confederate States Army burned the St. Simons Island Lighthouse as they left to keep it from falling into Union hands. In Brunswick, wharves as well as the Oglethorpe House (which would have made an ideal headquarters or hospital for the Union Army) were burned. When the city was ordered to evacuate, most of the citizens fled to nearby Waynesville. The canal and railroad ceased operation, and Brunswick was abandoned.