Beaufort District's Spanish Legacy by Sydney Whiteside

Happy September! From the 15th of September to the 15th of October, Americans all over the world celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month. What originally began as a weeklong appreciation under the Johnson administration was expanded to a month-long celebration in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan.

Display case.

You may be wondering, why start an event in the middle of a month? Well, those dates were chosen for a specific reason. This time frame was chosen because many Hispanic countries, specifically Central American countries, celebrate their independence between September 15th and October 15th. This is a special time for our nation to honor and recognize the cultural contributions of these countries throughout our history. Latin-Americans may take this month to celebrate or even trace their roots to better understand and appreciate their culture. In the BDC, we are using this time to explore Beaufort District’s Spanish Legacy, from the first voyage in the 1520’s to Beaufort’s thriving Hispanic community in present day, through our monthly display.

Every year, the National Council of Hispanic Employment Program Managers vote on what the theme of National Hispanic Heritage Month will be. This year, the theme is “UNIDOS, SOMOS MAS.” which translates to “TOGETHER, WE ARE MORE.” The winning quote was submitted by Meleny Gomez, a Management and Program Analyst for the Federal Aviation Administration. The poster was designed by Meleny Gomez and Kirby Quiles-Brown, Equal Employment Specialist for the Federal Aviation Administration. You can see the poster pinned to the back of the first shelf of our display.

All of the following materials are available to view inside of the Beaufort District Collection. Some may even be available for checkout through SCLENDS which I will denote with an asterisk. If your home branch does not have the title available, you may place the item on hold and it can be transferred to your branch. 

Shelf one.

Poster 433: "Beaufort County School District Pre-K Screenings Now Open for the 2026-2027 School Year." Posters are an item that we are constantly collecting as they visually display the ongoing events in Beaufort District. Though we primarily focus on the "historical stuff" (50+ years), we do collect present day material so it will be here for generations to come. This particular poster is double sided; one side is in English and one side is in Spanish, which has become a common practice for school districts and library systems. I could have chosen any year's back-to-school poster or even this year's summer reading game board, but this poster happened to be our newest addition! 

From our ever-evolving collection of Beaufort County Library Records, we have surrogate photographs of the 2003 Sabor Latino Festival held at St. Francis by the Sea Catholic Church on Hilton Head Island. The library set up their own booth to celebrate, pass out flyers, and it even looks like they brought a craft for attendees to interact with. There were a plethora of other booths set up as you can see in the other photos; presumably filled with delicious food and talented craft vendors. There appears to have been an parade with bands, flags, and adults and children alike dressed in traditional Hispanic garments such as huipils and polleras. As I mentioned before, this collection is constantly expanding as the library is consistently adding new records. The collection covers the period of 1914 up to the present day and provides wonderful insight into the evolution of our community. 

La Isla is a bilingual magazine that began on Hilton Head Island in 1999. The company was founded at a time when Beaufort's Hispanic immigrant community began to exponentially increase, and it has only continued growing since! The magazine is published monthly and can be found all over the county, including in your local library branches. The BDC collects one copy of every publication to store within our archives, so we will always have a holding of La Isla to look back on. This specific copy is the October 2001 publication that served as a memorial honoring those we lost on September 11th. 

Shelf two.

Seeds of Change: A Quincentennial Commemoration by Herman Viola (1991) is a companion volume to the National Museum of Natural History's exhibition "Seeds of Change" which ran from October 1991 through April 1993. The exhibition, as well as its companion volume, set out to showcase the extreme, and at times nonexistent, differences between the Old and New Worlds, using 500 years since Christopher Columbus' voyage as a time marker. The main focal points, or "seeds," were corn, disease, the horse, the potato, and sugar. This volume contains numerous scholar written articles. The one I would like to highlight is Hispanic American Heritage by Joseph P. Sanchez. Sanchez covers Spanish exploration of the Americas through the American Revolution. He even calls attention to crediting Hispanic contribution in the development of the Americas. *Available for check out through SCLENDS.

Poems and Paragraphs by Robert Elliot Gonzales (1918). Gonzales was a journalist and a poet who attended the University of South Carolina. He founded the school's student ran newspaper in 1908, The Gamecock, and became its first editor-in chief. He was an editorial writer for The State, where he became well known for various columns. Unfortunately, he died only a few years later of pneumonia. The State began receiving numerous tributes for Gonzales, all of which The State included in Poems and Paragraphs along with Gonzales's articles and poetry from his time with the paper. His time may have been cut short, but his legacy will live on in this compilation of his craft. *Available for check out through SCLENDS.

Poster 214: "Santa Elena 1566-1587: 450th Anniversary: 25th Annual South Carolina Archaeology Month, October 2016." Another poster from our collection depicts Pedro Menéndez de Avilés by Francisco de Paula Marti (1791) from a painting by Tiziano Vecellio above a map of what was referred to at the time as "New Spain." The poster contains an entire back page full of incredible archaeological facts in honor of the 450th anniversary of Santa Elena. We have a physical copy of the poster here in the BDC, but you are also able to access a copy of the poster online. 

Shelf three.

One of our many wonderful online resources is our WordPress Blog. On our WordPress Blog is an entire post dedicated to Spanish Legacy in Beaufort District. The post begins with a brief overview, including a history from the Beaufort County Comprehensive Plan (2010), and then provides various continuing resources that you can find online, check out through SCLENDS, and view inside the BDC. 

Port Royal Under Six Flags: The Story of the Sea Islands by Katharine M. Jones (1960) spans five centuries of history, all of which took place across the Sea Islands. These Sea Islands, most notably the Santa Elena area in 1526, were discovered by none other than Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón, a Spanish explorer and judge. Another Spanish squadron was sent by Phillip II in June of 1564 to destroy what had become Charlesfort. Mission accomplished, they set off to Cuba and returned to Santa Elena two years later to solidify their stronghold in the Sea Islands. This is truly the simplest summary of events; if you would like an in depth, chronological overview with primary documentation, this is a terrific title for you. *Available for check out through SCLENDS. 

Spanish Artifacts from Santa Elena by Stanely South, Russell K. Skowronek, and Richard E. Johnson (1988). If you enjoy both archaeology and history like I do, then this is the piece for you. Spanish Artifacts from Santa Elena is an almost 500 page anthropological study on the artifacts found at the sixteenth century capital. This was a joint project between the University of South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and the National Science Foundation. This volume begins with a preface and introduction that acquaints the reader with the excavation. Then, an historical background is provided on the area followed by a project background. Finally, there are the most incredible figures, photographs, sketches, tables, and more, all of which show images from the excavation, artifacts found at the site, and recreations of how materials would have looked at the time. 

The Spanish Pioneers in United States History, Santa Elena: Spanish Settlements on the Atlantic Seaboard from Florida to Virginia 1513 to 1607 by Eloy J. Gallegos (1998). Gallegos labels each of the Spanish pioneers in Santa Elena's history with fitting titles. Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón is The Scholar, as he was known to be a very "learned and wealthy man" that came from a noble family "trained in the art of war." Tristán de Luna Y Arellano, The Veteran, was originally tasked with establishing a Spanish colony with a route to Santa Elena on the Atlantic facing side of the continent. This however, did not come to pass. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who excelled in purpose, skill, and paved his way in the name of the King of Spain, is named The Colonizer. His strengths aided him in founding Santa Elena as the capital of La Florida in 1566. For more on Juan Ponce de León, Father Juan Baptista Segura, and explorer and military captain Juan Pardo, you can view Gallegos's in-depth analysis here in the BDC. *Available for check out through SCLENDS.

Vertical files hold materials such as clippings, pamphlets, or articles pertaining to the subject of the file. These files act as a gateway; they can provide context that may point researchers to a new path of resources. If you are interested in learning more about the importance and use of these files, you can check out The Value of Historical (and Permanent) Vertical Files. The following vertical files offer researchers an informative glance into Beaufort District's Hispanic communities:

• VF ACERCAMIENTO HISPANO DE CAROLINA DEL SUR

• VF BEAUFORT--LIBRARY LATIN AMERICAN COUNCIL FOCUS GROUP

• VF FORT MOSE

• VF HISPANIC COMMUNITY

• VF LATIN AMERICAN COUNCIL OF SOUTH CAROLINA

• VF SANTA ELENA

• VF SANTA ELENA HERITAGE FOUNDATION

• VF SCHOOLS--HISPANIC STUDENTS

• VF 1430 AM

You can find all sorts of valuable information in vertical files. For example, on the first shelf you can see a newspaper clipping that was published in the Island Packet dated April 30th, 2006, on page 1D. The clipping is covering the Family Fiesta Latina held on Hilton Head Island by the Hispanic Cultural Committee and the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. The festival celebrated the colorful contributions and customs that Hispanic families have gifted to community. Attached to the back of the second shelf is the beginning of an article entitled “Bridging the Border” which was published in the June 1998 issue of the Hilton Head Monthly. At the time, Hilton Head was experiencing a massive increase in its Hispanic population, with numbers almost tripling. Paula Magrini, author of this article, interviewed recent immigrants to Hilton Head to share their first-hand stories and the change they wish to bring to their new community. Both of these articles were found in the Hispanic Community vertical file. 

If you would like to take a closer look at these publications, we have the Island Packet available to view on microfilm from July 1970 to March 2015 and we have the following years of the Hilton Head Monthly available: 1993, 1995-2015.

Shelf four.

Mary Long’s Yesteryear: Conquistadors and Explorers, South Carolina under the Spanish Flag from the South Carolina Educational Television Network (1988). This episode of Mary Long's Yesteryear, hosted by the educator herself, is available to view online with an SCETV account, or you can come view it the old fashioned way on VHS here in the BDC! Long tells the intense tales of two well know Spanish conquistadors, Hernando de Soto and Juan Pardo. De Soto made his way all through the Southeast, exploring Mexico all the way to North Carolina based on a rumor of gold. Pardo's journey went the opposite direction from South Carolina to Mexico, with a mission to expand outward from the capital of Santa Elena. 

El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America by Carrie Gibson (2019) begins with Juan Ponce de León's arrival to Florida in 1513, all the way to present (publication) day. Events are covered from across the country, but here in the BDC we try to stick to Beaufort District. Chapter one spans from 1492 to 1550 and encompasses the Spanish settlement of Santa Elena; moving forward with pivotal moments in Spanish exploration, expansion and contribution to American development. El Norte strings together these various events to emphasize the fact that cultural issues surrounding belonging, community, and so much more have existed from our arrival and still continue to this day. *Available for check out through SCLENDS.

American Conquistador: An Action-Adventure that is More Robin Hood than Robin Hood. And the Story is True! by Daryl Arden Ferguson (2022) is an historical adventure that begins with two young European boys, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés of Spain and Gaspard de Coligny of France. Coligny comes from wealth while Menéndez and his family works for everything in their lives. As the two grow into adulthood, their callings clash when they both strive to place the first European colony on America. Of course, we know how this story ends; but sometimes it is fun for historical material to whisk the reader away on an epic journey. *Available for check out through SCLENDS.

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If you are interested in any of the materials I have shared today or wish to explore our collection for yourself: walk-ins are sometimes accepted, while appointments are always encouraged. To make an appointment, send an email to bdc@bcgov.net or give us a call at 843-255-6468. We hope to hear from you soon! 

August 2026 Facebook Recap

In case you don't follow us, here is a recap of our Facebook posts for the month of August:

August 2: The history books and popular media lead most people to believe that the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4 and immediately the delegates signed the document. The real timeline was a bit different as the National Park Service shows. The four signers from South Carolina - Beaufort's own Thomas Heyward, Jr., Edward Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, Jr. and Arthur Middleton - do so on August 2, 1776 alongside the vast majority of the other representatives from Britain's colonies along the Atlantic seaboard.

August 3: Independence (Mon)Day: Now that the BDC's involvement with the Revealing the Revolution Marker Challenge has ended, there are plenty more of American Revolution related historic sites to explore further afield. We recommend "Touring South Carolina’s Revolutionary War Sites" by Daniel W. Barefoot (1999) for an overview of South Carolina’s Revolutionary War battlefields and historic sites, including Cowpens, Ninety-Six, Camden, Eutaw Spring, and Kings Mountain. Brief biographies of key figures such as the "Swamp Fox" Francis Marion, "Gamecock" Thomas Sumter, Andrew Jackson, Henry Drayton, Charles Pinckney, and Henry Middleton are included. The BDC has a copy in our Research Room but other SCLENDS libraries have plenty of copies that you can borrow.

August 4: In 1526, Captain Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon brought a company of 550 men to what is now Beaufort County. Embark on a journey of discovery of 500 years of Spanish influence in Beaufort District! First, fuel your curiosity with our comprehensive resource guide, "The Spanish Legacy in Beaufort District History." Then, join our vibrant community at one of our upcoming local history programs!

August 5: "Black History Note Wednesday:" Work on updating the Resource Guides posted to the BDCBCL blog continues. We revised the list of materials about Rachel C. Mather's School recently. Follow the link to see the list of materials we have about this important Civil War and Reconstruction Era educator and humanitarian.

August 6: Congratulations to the "Revealing the Revolution" Challenge winner, Angela Baldree who is accepting the framed Beaufort District map from Beaufort County Historical Society President Phil Toomer. Representing the RtR team in the photo are Mary Lou Brewton, Leah Roche and me. We thank all of you who participated.

August 7: It's Finding Aid Friday! My staff tease me about my focus on disaster and death so I think that it's highly fitting that my final two "Finding Aid Friday" FB posts are about primary sources for a deeper understanding of the Hurricane of 1893. First up : George Waterhouse (1838-1894) was a local businessman who operated a storefront, warehouses, and a wharf on Bay Street. The George Waterhouse Collection contains documents, letters, and photographs related to his life and the impact of the Hurricane of 1893 on his business. Some even say that the stress caused in the aftermath of the storm led to his death the following summer.

August 7: Happy National Lighthouse Day! Go shine a light on our updated Connections post 'Celebrating Beaufort District's Lighthouses and Range Lights'.

August 10: Independence (Mon)Day: "A Historical Account of the 1780-1781 Campaigns in Southern North America" is a seminal work, penned by the controversial British officer Banastre Tarleton. The two volumes provide a meticulous chronicle of the final major battles of the American Revolutionary War. Universally reviled by the Continental Army for his brutal tactics, Tarleton's 1787 publication offers a comprehensive, extensively documented history of the war's shift from New England and New York to the southern provinces. The book features an array of primary sources, including letters, statistics, and unique maps, detailing the campaigns of Lord Cornwallis, the state of the royal armies, and pivotal battles in the southern theater. Follow Tarleton's encounters with American leaders Nathanael Greene, Francis Marion, and George Washington in this classic of military history.

August 12: "Black History Note" Wednesday - You may know Joseph William Frazier as "Joe" or "Smokin' Joe" but we know him as a native son. Like many southern Blacks of the mid-20th century he relocated to the North to improve his lot in life. He settled in Philadelphia, PA which recently relocated a statue of him to the base of the Philadelphia Art Museum. Read more about his life and boxing career in our WordPress Blog.

August 14: "Finding Aid Friday:" John J. Dale (1844-1896) was a Beaufort businessman at the time of the Sea Island Hurricane in 1893. Following the devastating hurricane, he advocated for relief efforts for affected Sea Islanders and was appointed to the Sea Island Relief Committee by Governor Benjamin Tillman. This collection of correspondence from the fall of 1893 is believed to have been written by Dale.

August 17: Independence (Mon)Day: Today, the BDC is belatedly honoring William Henry DeSaussure's 263rd Birthday. DeSaussure was born on August 16, 1763, to a local Huguenot merchant family. Before becoming a prominent SC politician and Director of the US Mint (his most famous achievements), DeSaussure was a young Patriot soldier. While fighting to defend Charleston from British forces, DeSaussure was captured in May of 1780 and imprisoned on one of the infamous prison ships. He was not yet 17 years old. DeSaussure was exchanged and released after a few months and made his way to Philadelphia where he studied law. The rest, as we say, is history! You can learn more about William Henry DeSaussure's life after the Revolutionary War, as well as the story of his family, in the DeSaussure Family Vertical File in the BDC.

August 19: "Black History Note" Wednesday - In honor of National Aviation Day, we wanted to share a snippet of a poem written by Elijah Heyward, Jr. in his book, Stories and Poems of a Gullah Native (2012). Heyward was inspired to write a series of poems on historic Black Americans while working as a teacher. One such poem is entitled "Tuskegee Airmen," where Heyward reflects on the triumph of the first Black Army aviators despite the doubt of many that Black men were capable of such pursuits. Heyward closes the poem thusly:

"The news from Tuskegee is great,
God intervened; call it fate.
Not only did the Negro fly,
They excelled with only one try."

P.S. Local history nerds are likely to know that the Lowcountry has yet another a connection to the famed Tuskegee Airmen (though not a Beaufort one)! The Airmen's advanced training took place at Walterboro Army Airfield, now the Lowcountry Regional Airport. A monument stands in Walterboro in their honor.

August 21: Fun Friday: Cassandra and Sydney have decided that on non-Finding Aid Fridays, the BDC will post something related to the Library's marketing theme for that month. This month, BCL is highlighting cookbooks, so we want to share a couple of fun ones that can be found in our collection. Today, it's the Recipe Book of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, 1756.

This delicate booklet is a host to a wide array of recipes for more than just food. You will also find remedies for illnesses, salves for rubbing furniture, oil to help your hair grow, and so much more. When it comes to curing ailments, there was nothing Eliza could not handle. She provides treatments for watery eyes, gout, sore throat, tooth aches, jaundice, and scald head, the last of which includes a salve made from mutton fat and tar drippings. Of course, inside her book there are recipes for edible items such as mince “pyes”, mushroom “catchup”, oyster “soop,” and so much more!

August 24: Independence (Mon)Day: On your next trip to Charleston, watch for the Colleton County Historic Marker about "John Laurens" within a mile or so as you cross the Harriet Tubman Bridge over the Combahee River. This local Patriot, and dear friend of Alexander Hamilton, was killed on August 27, 1782, near this site in the Battle of Combahee Ferry (also known as the Battle of Tar Bluff). The battlefield was rediscovered in 2020 by The South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust.

Interested in learning more about John Laurens? Check out John Laurens and the American Revolution by Gregory D. Massey (2000) from an SCLends library or come take a look at the copy we have in the BDC!

August 26: "Black History Note" Wednesday - Earlier this month, the BDC put up a National Archives and Rightfully Hers display in the Beaufort Branch lobby which details the ratification of the 19th Amendment in August of 1920. Today, I wanted to share with you the story of the Rollin sisters, the Lowcountry's own suffragettes! Born into a Free Black family in Charleston, the sisters (Frances, Lottie, Kate, Louise, and Florence) were advocates for equity, enfranchisement, and education in Reconstruction era SC.

According to their profile in 101 Women Who Shaped South Carolina (2020), Lottie and Louise were the most active sisters in the suffragette movement. In 1869, Louise gave an address to the SC House of Representatives on the matter of women's suffrage. Lottie became secretary of the SC Women's Rights Association in 1870 and led a suffragette rally the following year.
The most famous of the sisters (especially in Beaufort) was Frances Rollin Whipper, the author of the first full length biography written by an African-American, "The Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany." She is also the author of one of the earliest known diaries written by a Southern Black woman. Frances was married to William J. Whipper, a local politician, and they lived at 606 North Street until the marriage dissolved in 1880. Rollin then moved to Washington, DC where she worked in the District's Deeds Office with Frederick Douglass. She later returned to Beaufort where she died of tuberculosis in 1901. It is believed that Frances and William are buried in unmarked graves in the Wesley United Methodist Church yard.

August 27: I would venture to guess that the BDC's most consistently requested materials are school annuals and yearbooks. From student portraits, game highlights, and sponsor ads, yearbooks can yield a treasure trove of information!

If you are curious about what yearbooks the BDC has in our collection, please take a look at our new bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids blog post. We published our most up-to-date inventory of all the yearbooks and school annuals we have on our shelves and will continue to update it as more are donated. You can take a look for yourself here.

August 28: Fun Friday: This Friday, we're sharing the Recipe Book that can be found in the Dale Friedman Collection of Johnson Family Materials. This circa 1880s recipe book is signed “Eliza M. [?] Johnson” on the title page and “Florence E. Johnson” on the back cover, with the date "188[4 or 6?]." It is possible that both women collected the approximately 86 recipes (mostly handwritten) for foods and household materials that make up this book. Some recipes have sources and dates ranging from the 1840s to the 1870s, and some are even credited to fellow Beaufortonians.

One of the most common ingredients in these recipes was rice. When Cassandra was processing the collection, she counted 3 recipes for rice pudding and at least 7 different rice bread recipes. One section went thusly: "Rice Bread ~ Rice Bread ~ Rice Bread Again ~ Rice Bread Again ~ Rice Bread once more...." Cassandra's favorite was the recipe for "Rice Bread !!!!," transcribed here:

"Rice Bread !!!!
2 spoonfuls of wheat[?] flour
2" of Hominy
1" level of good brown sugar
From[?] 1 1/2 pints to a quart of rice flour
" 1 to 2 spoonfuls of yeast according to the temperature of the weather
3 [?] spoonfuls of table salt"

August 31: Independence (Mon)Day: On September 3rd, 1783, the Revolutionary War officially ended.

Many consider the Surrender at Yorktown in October of 1781 to be the end of the Revolution, but skirmishes and occupations continued into 1782. That same year, treaty negotiations began in Paris between the US and Great Britain (and other European powers), which resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Paris in the first week of September 1783.

The Treaty of Paris is one of the most important documents in US history and is called a "milestone document" by the Library of Congress. If you are interested in reading the Treaty of Paris or other documents important to our nation, consider checking out the book, Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives (2003), from an SCLends library near you!