of these lots were re granted and there collected in Brunswick a few families who desired proper education for their children. By act of the General Assembly on February 1, 1788, eight town commissioners were appointed and Glynn Academy was chartered, the funding of which was to come from the sales of town lots. Brunswick was recognized as an official port of entry in 1789 by act of the United States Congress. In 1797 the General Assembly transferred the seat of Glynn County from Frederica to Brunswick.
At the end of the eighteenth century, a large tract of land surrounding Brunswick on three sides had been laid off and designated as Commons. Commissioners were named in 1796 to support these efforts. The General Assembly authorized them to sell 500 acres of Commons; one-half of the proceeds to go to the construction of the courthouse and jail and one-half to the support of the academy. In 1819 the commissioners erected a comfortable building for school purposes on the southeastern corner of Reynolds and L streets. This was the first public building in Brunswick. It was abandoned four years later, but a new building was erected on Hillsborough Square in 1840 using Commons proceeds. A courthouse and jail were built around this time. The town was officially incorporated as a city on February 22, 1856. By 1860 Brunswick had a population of 468, a bank, a weekly newspaper, and a sawmill which employed nine workers.
Brunswick was abandoned during the Civil War when citizens were ordered to evacuate. The city, like many others in the South, suffered from post-war depression. After one of the nation’s largest lumber mills began operation on nearby St. Simons Island, economic prosperity returned. Rail lines were constructed from Brunswick to inland Georgia, and, unlike many other southern cities during the Reconstruction period, Brunswick experienced an economic boom.
In 1878, poet and native Georgian Sidney Lanier, who sought relief from tuberculosis
