Hurricane Quasquicentennial

Remembering the Dead 125 Years Later

To commemorate the 125th Anniversary of Sea Island Hurricane, please read a past Connections post about the "Most Devastating Natural Disaster" to ever befall Beaufort District and visit our Wordpress blog post to reflect on some of the names of the deceased from the Hurricane of 1893.

The names of most of those who died remain unknown as Beaufort County Coroner records are incomplete. The stories in the documents that do still exist are harrowing. Here H. J. Middleton describes what happened to his family when the Tide of Death roared ashore: 

  

Transcription of the images above 

 

State Of South Carolina

Beaufort County

The State vs. the dead bodies of the Will Middleton, Catherine Middleton & Carolina, C. Middleton, H.J. Middleton being duly sworn deposes and says:

I live in Lands End, Beaufort County. On the night of Aug. 27th, 1893, we were visited by a cyclone and tidal wave.  Deceased are my wife and children. The wind blew a gale.  We were all right at that time but as soon as I saw the water get near the house, we made for a tree with the children but the waves were so great and the tide was so strong that we could not help ourselves. I had two of the children under my arms. I found the water getting too deep and worse. I was compelled to turn them loose. I found the children and all on the next evening. If I had not turned them loose, I would have drowned myself.

HJ X (his mark) Middleton

Sworn to before me this 29th day of Aug. A.D. 1893 Jack Freeman, Dep. Coroner

[Beaufort County] County Coroner Inquisition Books vol. 2: 1888 – 1893, pp. 244-245.

By the way, the lecture about the Sea Island Hurricane scheduled for Coastal Discovery Museum on September 26th is completely full. We are trying to work out an additional date for a reprise of the presentation.

Looking ahead: What does the Coroner do? Learn more during Lecture #4 of Season 3 of the joint Beaufort History Museum / Beaufort County Library local history series in April 2019. Registration will open on the Beaufort History Museum's website approximately 2 weeks ahead of the lecture date.