Jekyll Island Club - The Founding of The Club

The Founding of The Club

At the end of the plantation era of Jekyll Island, Newton Finney, John Eugene Dubignon’s brother-in-law, had big ideas for Jekyll Island. Finney had suggested to Dubignon the potential of selling the island to Northern businessmen as a winter resort. The two men received help from a New York backer to assist with the purchase of the entire island. By 1885, Dubignon was the sole owner of Jekyll.

During 1885, Newton Finney had also partnered with Oliver K. King who was an associate of Finney’s from New York. They brought together a group of men and petitioned the Glynn county courts, becoming incorporated as the “Jekyl Island Club” on December 9, 1885. They agreed to sell 100 shares of the Jekyll Island Club stock to 50 individuals at $600 a share.

Finney had no difficulty selling the shares. Six of the first seven shares went to the men who signed the charter petition: Finney, Dubignon, King, Richard L. Ogden, William B. D'Wolf, and Charles L. Schlatter. In all, Finney was able to find fifty-three individuals to join the Club, including such famous names as Henry Hyde, Marshall Field, John Pierpont Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, and William H. Vanderbilt.

By 1886, financial preparations were completed and Finney, as a representative of the newly formed Jekyll Island Club, was prepared to sign paperwork. On February 17, 1886 Newton Finney signed an official agreement with Dubignon, selling Jekyll Island to the Jekyll Island Club for $125,000.

On April 1, 1886, a meeting was held in New York to create the constitution and by-laws, and to nominate officers for the club. The first president was Lloyd Aspinwall, vice president was Judge Henry Elias Howland, treasurer was Franklin M. Ketchum, and Richard L. Ogden became secretary. These men faced the difficult task of turning the undeveloped property into a social club for the wealthy upper class of America.

Lloyd Aspinwall only served 5 months as the club president before he died suddenly. Henry Howland then took up the position as president of the Club.

Committees were formed to get the club off the ground. Charles A. Alexander of Chicago was chosen to design the clubhouse, and William Shaler Cleveland, a famous landscape architect, was chosen to design and lay out the grounds.

Ground was broken on the clubhouse building in mid-August 1886. After some setbacks the clubhouse was completed on November 1. The club officially opened its doors when the executive committee arrived for the 1888 season on January 21.

Several nationally important events took place on Jekyll Island during the Club era, including the first transcontinental telephone call made by Theodore N. Vail, president of AT&T, to Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas A. Watson and President Woodrow Wilson in 1915; and the development of the Aldrich Vreeland Act for the National Monetary Commission in 1908.