New Year's Day 1880 brought an unexpected treat to local residents. Former President and Union General Ulysses S. Grant was coming to town - and on the anniversary of Emancipation Day no less!
When he left the presidency, Grant embarked on a world wide tour with his wife Julia and son Jesse. They spent about 2 1/2 years visiting most of Europe, some of the Mediterranean countries, Scandinavia, East Asia, China and Japan. Along the way, he met a host of political leaders and royalty including Queen Victoria, Emperor Meiji, King Leopold II and Pope Leo XIII.
Map by John Russell Young / artist: Kemp - Book: Young, 1879. Around the
world with General Grant, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64169613
When Grant returned to the United States, he rested for only a short time before he embarked on a cross-country tour visiting Chicago, Kentucky, Ohio, and Philadelphia before heading southward. (1) He left Augusta, GA at 11 AM on New Year's Day 1880 via the Magnolia Route heading towards Savannah (2) with an eye towards catching a steamer in St. Augustine Florida to book passage for Cuba.
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| Grant in 1879 (Library of Congress) |
Col. Grant sent a telegram from Augusta to Congressman Robert Smalls that the group would be arriving in Beaufort on the "Down Train" that very afternoon. Beaufortonians sprang into action. A committee was formed. (4) When the train arrived at 3:30 PM the town was festooned and ready to fete the presidential party. (5)
An arch with "Welcome" spelled out in evergreen boughs was near the Depot - as approximately 3000 enthusiastic residents cheered. Local militia and naval personnel lined Bay Street as the Presidential party toured the town in the best carriages that could be hastily assembled for their use. Wise and Rowland wrote that the welcome reflected "Reconstruction Beaufort in that blacks and whites, Union and Confederate veterans, northern merchants and southern professionals came together for the good of the community." (6)
At the Sea Island Hotel all the local notables were present: Congressman Smalls, William Elliott, James M. Verdier, J. W. Collins, P.E. Ezekiel, George Holmes, George Waterhouse, Moritz Pollitzer, George Gage, Joe Richardson, Dr. Henry A. J. Stuart, Commodore Thomas Pattison, Intendant (or Mayor) Alfred Williams and James Crofut, a Bay Street merchant, real estate investor, and auctioneer. (7)
Crofut's wife, Ellen Chapman Crofut (1837 -1905) begins her 1880 diary with this observation about Grant's visit to Beaufort:
... We have had quite an exciting time for a little place like Beaufort today. This morning all the different companies turned out and this afternoon Gen. Grant with wife and son and friends came and stayed an hour rode around town and then came to the hotel and spoke to us all that is shook hands with us. Then made a speech to the Mayor which they say is one of the longest he has ever made They were quite pleased with Beaufort and the people. We went to the depot to see him off Geo. and I.
Had several callers and then after supper went down and spent the evening with the Crofuts’ Every thing was about Grant. Mr. Wilson told us a good deal about him and if we had only known that he was coming sooner we should had the hotel and other places fixed all up – as it was he was very much pleased. I suppose he liked the quickness after such receptions he has been having. This is rather a bad beginning for the first page but it is hotel ink. (8)
That speech which Mayor Williams termed Grant's longest consisted of four or five sentences (sources vary on the actual sentence count.):
Grant stayed about an hour in Beaufort before heading off to Savannah.
Mrs. Crofut wrote that Grant left town too soon. As she and her son, George, rode back from Garden's Corner in a horse drawn carriage on January 2nd:
We met folks coming in town to see Massa Grant if he could have stayed a day he would have had nearly half of the people in the county here to see him. The larger cities feel rather hard against him for not stopping in there instead of coming to Beaufort. (9)
News of the former President's surprise visit to Beaufort was published in newspapers throughout the country. Far and wide, from Savannah to Washington, Chicago to Montana, the visit was noted in the press. Charleston was indeed envious. The Anderson (SC) Intelligencer gave the Grant's brief sojourn to Beaufort its top billing in the "Events of the Year. A Bird's Eye View of South Carolina in 1880" column in early January 1881. (10) For once, Beaufort trumped Charleston in the national news.
Sources:
1) Wikipedia contributors, "World tour of Ulysses S. Grant," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_tour_of_Ulysses_S._Grant&oldid=985013252 (accessed December 10, 2020).
2) The Weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.), 10 Jan. 1880. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016632/1880-01-10/ed-1/seq-1/>
3) Stephen Wise and Lawrence S. Rowland, Rebellion, Reconstruction, and Redemption: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1861 - 1893, vol. 2: 490- 491.
4) Stephen Wise and Lawrence S. Rowland, Rebellion, Reconstruction, and Redemption: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1861 - 1893, vol. 2: 490- 491.
5) Chicago Daily Tribune. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.), 02 Jan. 1880. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84031492/1880-01-02/ed-1/seq-5/>
6) Stephen Wise and Lawrence S. Rowland, Rebellion, Reconstruction, and Redemption: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1861 - 1893, vol. 2: 490- 491.
7) Stephen Wise and Lawrence S. Rowland, Rebellion, Reconstruction, and Redemption: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1861 - 1893, vol. 2: 490- 491.
8) Ellen Chapman Crofut Diary, January 1, 1880. (BDC Archives)
9) Ellen Chapman Crofut Diary, January 2, 1880. (BDC Archives)
10) The Anderson Intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.), 13 Jan. 1881. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026965/1881-01-13/ed-1/seq-1/>
Sources of Images:
Around the world with General Grant, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64169613
[Ulysses S. Grant] Chicago : [publisher not transcribed], c1879
Library of Congress. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/ppmsca/46700/46704_150px.jpg
"Heyward House now the headqtrs of Gen. Saxton Beaufort, SC Jany 1864." by Samuel A. Cooley from the L.A. Hall Collection, (BDC Archives)
Ellen Chapman Crofut Diary, January 1, 1880. (BDC Archives)
The Weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.), 10 Jan. 1880. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016632/1880-01-10/ed-1/seq-1/>
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