September 2024 Posts on Facebook

There were fewer BDC Facebook page posts in September due to my vacation and the Labor Day holiday. As per usual, some posts fall into more than one category. 

Just Because Posts: 

September 3: In praise of "World Beard Day," an hirsute Conrad Donner made a self-portrait. You can see photographs he took of life in late 19th-early 20th century Northern Beaufort County online through our partnership with the Lowcountry Digital Library.

September 17: September 17 is designated as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day to commemorate the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787. South Carolinians from Beaufort District had a key role to play. I wrote about who they were, want they wanted, and the adoption process in Connections.

September 19: In honor of "Talk Like a Pirate Day," watch a "Beaufort County Moment" about "Pirates in the Lowcountry."

September 22: Today is the start of "Banned Book Week, 2024." Beaufort County recently had its share of discussion about what was appropriate for students in the public school system. We collected documentation of those challenges for our vertical files. I am rather fond of this Oscar Wilde quote found in the preface to the 1891 edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray, "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all."

September 28: One might find "Americans’ Views on Book Restrictions in U.S. Public Schools 2024" an enlightening read on this final day of Banned Book Week 2024 - particularly given our local experience re: book challenges in the Beaufort County School District, 2023 -2024.

"Black History Note: Wednesdays" Posts:

September 4: "Black History Note:" Read Charlotte Adams' thesis, "Beyond Preservation: Reconstructing Sites Of Slavery, Reconstruction, And Segregation" (2018) that discusses the Garvin House, a Freedman's cottage, in Bluffton.

September 18: "Black History Note:" Leland Ferguson identifies the "first underground railroad" for escaped slaves as a route from South Carolina, across Georgia, to Florida for Spanish protection. In 1738 the Spanish governor gave land near St. Augustine to self-emancipated slaves. They created a town and fort, "Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose" - more commonly called "Mose" or "Fort Mose" to live in. BTW: "Mose" is a two syllable word pronounced MOH-Say. Read more in Ferguson's book Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650 - 1800. It's available in the BDC as well as other units of the BCL and SCLENDS.

September 25: "Black History Note:" Louden S. Langley was an African-American Vermonter who joined the 33rd USCT in April 1864, mustered out in January 1866, but stayed in Beaufort with his wife and children for some time - long enough to be the County Tax Auditor, serve on the Beaufort County School Board, and in 1880 - 1881 to be an Assistant Keeper at the Hunting Island lighthouse.

We have a vertical file about him. Additional information about Langley is found in Discovering Black Vermont: African American Farmers in Hinesburgh, 1790-1890 by Elise A. Guyette (2010); James Fuller's Men of Color, To Arms!: Vermont African-Americans in the Civil War (2001); and in Up Here: The Hunting Island Lighthouse and Its Lightkeepers by Theodore Panayotoff (2024). The first two books are only in the BDC Research Room; the BCL has multiple copies of Up Here to share through the local history sections. If you're interested in Beaufort County's lights, read Connections.

Program Related Posts:

September 5: The "Historically Speaking" series returns today with Season 6, lecture #1 by Larry Koolkin on the topic of the art of Jacques LeMoyne. Free. First come, first seated. Doors open at 10:30 AM. (and later that date) Please join us for the next Local History program, brought to you by the Hilton Head Chapter, Archaeological Society of South Carolina and the BDC.

September 14: Today's the day to learn more about the Ford's Shell Ring Project on Hilton Head Island. We are delighted to share this local history program about archaeology through a collaboration with the fine folks of the Hilton Head Chapter, ASSC.

September 22: This week in the BDC: We have a local history program on Tuesday at Hilton Head Branch Library - please come -- but having a local history program also means that the BDC Research Room will be closed on Tuesday, September 24th.

September 24: Cassandra and I are heading over to Hilton Head Branch Library for a BDC@ the Branches Local History program. We hope to see you there!

September 29: This week in the BDC: We'll be reviewing applicants and doing some county mandated training in addition to our usual "stuff." Also I'm trekking across the Broad River twice: On Oct. 2nd I'll be doing a community outreach at Coastal Discovery Museum; On Saturday, Oct. 5th the BDC is co-sponsoring "What the HECK Is It?" with the HHI Chapter, Archaeological Society of SC at Hilton Head Branch Library.

Hispanic Heritage Month Posts:

September 15: In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month that begins today: Ambrosio José Gonzales was a Cuban who established family ties to the area through marriage. His wife was Harriet Elliott of Beaufort. He first arrived in Beaufort in 1851. Their South Carolina plantation of residence was in St. Paul's Parish, Colleton District. Gonzales was a conspirator for Cuban independence from Spain both before and after he joined the Confederate Artillery during the Civil War. Cuban Confederate Colonel by Antoino Rafael de la Cova recounts Gonzales's military and family history. Their sons would go on to establish The State newspaper and part of one of South Carolina's biggest scandals of the early 20th century.

September 16: "Uniquely BDC: Hispanic Heritage Month:" Beaufort District has one of the longest Spanish histories in North America. Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month by learning more about this area's earliest colonial period, the 16th century.

"Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday" Posts:

September 23: "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday" on Native Americans Day: Check out the range of materials we provide about local area tribes through the centuries.

September 30: "Uniquely BDC: Materials Monday:" Molly Gray, our beloved BDC docent transcribing her ancestor's diary discovered an entry last Monday that was a propos to our recent local history program with Ted Panayotoff. I do so love it when we "find stuff" by serendipity - and at just the right time to use in an introduction to a BDC@ The Branches Local History Program.

Mrs. Crofut wrote about her mid-May 1874 trip to Hunting Island. Her party of 11 people was delayed by rain and stuck at Capt. Ward's house on St. Helena Island for 2 days. But on Friday evening, "Our party accompanied by Capt. Ward, his daughter Sarah and Miss Cooke embarked for Hunting Island, landed in the rain and waited under the shed until some of the party went up to the house to inform them of our arrival. Uncle Sam is building a lighthouse here & between 20 & 30 men are employed. A Mr. Collins seemed to be "boss," and did not appear very glad to see us. ... " The entry goes on to explain the meal and sleeping arrangements.

After Ted's author book talk, I can well understand how an unannounced party of 11 local residents surely put a strain on island's pantry and accommodations. Deliveries of staple foodstuffs were only made once a quarter to the lighthouse keepers. They had to grow their own vegetables, raise their own livestock and milk their own cows. Drinking water came from cisterns. 11 unexpected people on top of a construction crew and the keepers' own families must have been quite the challenge. I'm certain that when the visitors left the next day, Mr. Collins was relieved to see them go.