American History Began in Beaufort, SC.
American History Began in Beaufort, SC.
Walk down its streets - reminders are everywhere of the 500 years of Beaufort's history.
The best way to travel to Hilton Head Island from the mainland was by small bateaux located at Buckingham Landing.
Reminders are everywhere of 500 years of Beaufort’s history.
Santa Elena on Parris Island (1566) - the first European colonial capital in what is now the United States. The site of the Revolutionary War Battle of Port Royal, The Edmund Rhett House where wealthy planters discussed secession from the Union. Union Troops occupied the Arsenal(1798) during the Civil War. Brick Baptist Church and Penn Center on St.Helena Island- monuments to the thousands of slaves freed here during the Civil War and the birth of Reconstruction, right here in Beaufort. “All of American history began in Beaufort, South Carolina!” declares Lawrence S. Rowland, distinguished professor emeritus of history at the University of SC, Beaufort. The first time I heard Dr. Rowland give a public lecture, it was the most interesting lecture I had ever heard - sharing his stories and connections was remarkable.
It wasn’t until 1956 that a bridge was built connecting Hilton Head Island to the mainland.
Imagine a place with no gasoline engines and no traffic troubles where a fellow could ride his horse from Bluffton to Buckingham Landing near the base of what is now the Hilton Head Island bridge to catch a bateau to Hilton Head Island without seeing another person along the way. Without yachts, jet skis, and high-powered motor boats, he could travel silently through the creeks and sounds, relying on the tide and the wind to help power his oars or sails. He might even hear the mullet jumping and the “whoosh” of a dolphin passing by.
In 1900 all of Beaufort County had a population of only 35,000. With no theaters or other forms of entertainment, the men and women of this era became skilled storytellers.
Crabs were so plentiful that on a summer afternoon, even a child could walk along the creek’s edge with one stout stick, and throw dozens of them onto the bank, hook them with their back fins around a second stick, and bring Mama enough crabs for Sunday supper.
Before 1900, Beaufort County experienced the “poor but proud years.”
The poor but proud years lasted all over the South from Reconstruction to the end of WWII. They have a place in history, just as the antebellum years have theirs. Poverty was just another phase in the history of Beaufort. It had been a small town for a very long time.
According to distinguished professor emeritus of history at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, Lawrence S. Rowland, “All of Amercian history actually began in Beaufort, South Carolina. Beaufort history goes back 500 years.”
Spanish explorers came to the area 100 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. French, Scottish, and English settlers followed, and by the time of the Revolution, Beaufort was a center of the scattered plantation world where slaves harvested rice, indigo, and corn. By century's end, the newly invented cotton gin, the successful cultivation of long-staple cotton on the sea islands, and a growing slave population, came together to launch Beaufort into its heyday - a 60-year spree of building, buying, expanding, and high-living that ran until about lunchtime on Nov. 7, 1861, when Union soldiers demolished the Confederate port.
The Union Army during General Sherman’s March to the Sea never burned the town but instead made it their headquarters throughout the war, leaving the homes intact. Many private residences and churches served as hospitals and morgues during this period. St. Helena’s church, established in 1712, was built in 1724 of bricks brought over from England. It stands as one of the oldest churches in America with an upper galley that once provided space for slaves to worship. Federal troops dismantled the church and used it as a hospital, uprooting slabs from the graveyard for operating tables..
The Great Skedaddle proved to be Beaufort’s salvation.
Following 1861 and the firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston, which precipitated the Civil War, the entire state was under siege. Beaufort was very much at risk sitting just to the South.
Residents of the town did not stay and fight, but believing the war would be over in a month or two, buried their silver and skedaddled, planning to return and take up their lives once the war ended. In their haste to leave, they left food on tables, and in some cases, in their haste, they left candles burning. It was four long years before they could return. By then, their livelihoods had vanished along with magnificent estates— almost all lost to unpaid taxes.
Tidalholm had an interesting turn of events at the tax auction, a very touching and beautiful story.
Tidalholm was included in a massive auction for taxes once the Civil War ended. When the owner James Fripp returned after the war he arrived just as his house was being auctioned for taxes by the U.S. Tax Commission. He was unable to bid on his home so he stood with tears rolling down his cheeks. A Frenchman, who had been living in the area and who was sympathetic to the South, purchased the home. He walked over to Mr. Fripp, presented him with the deed, kissed him on both cheeks, and left, returning to France before Mr. Fripp had a chance to repay him.
In later years The Great Santini starring Robert Duval, opened the world to Tdialholm followed by The Big Chill, filmed in 1983.
Evidence of the Union soldier’s presence in Beaufort remains visible all over town. Climb the front stairs of the George Elliott House on Bay Street, which was a hospital, and look at the wall on the second floor where soldiers from New York and Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, boys a long way from home, wrote their names with the date beside it.
It is the legacy of these years, the architectural accomplishments they produced, and the disastrous decline that precipitated, that today impresses every visitor to Beaufort. As in Charleston, the buildings, the old houses, and churches stand as they did, now restored, lived in, once again playing a central role in community life. There’s a story for every home, and someone close by to talk about it.
