Isle Of Palms Magazine Summer/Fall 2018

24 www.IsleOfPalmsMagazine.com | www.ILoveIOP.com | www.IOPmag.com [ Feature ] We Were Isle of Palms I n the mid-1970s, Betty Lee Johnson interviewed dozens of seniors living in the East Cooper area, learning about the history of this area as the people who lived it – things you won’t find in any history book. The stories were one of the most popular weekly features of The East Cooper Pilot, which closed its doors in 1979. Johnson compiled the interviews into two books in the late 1980s: “As I Remember It: An Oral History of the East Cooper Area” and “As I Remember It, Volume II.” The stories are priceless tales of a time long-gone, when Isle of Palms was a far-away summer destination for many and home to few. Those who narrated have long since passed, yet their words still bring life to their memories of when they were Isle of Palms. ELLA BLACKARD FITZSIMMONS BornOct. 1, 1890 Born to a rice planter who lost everything in one season, Fitzsimmons’ family was in the Charleston area before the Civil War. Her family – her parents and 11 children, nine who lived to adulthood – hailed from the Wando area and had land in what is now the Francis By Anne Shuler Toole Marion National Forest and a “country place” on the Wando River. She recalls some of her childhood memories, like going to the Charleston Exposition (1901-1902) at what is now Hampton Park. Around the turn of the century, the ferry from Charleston to Mount Pleasant would dock at the end of Ferry Street in Mount Pleasant before moving to Hibben Street and then finally Hog Island. There was a bridge at