Re-Cap of January 2026 Posts on the BDC's Facebook Page

As per usual, references to local history programs, events, or holidays that occurred during January are omitted. -- gmc

January 2, 2026  - The FB prompt for today says that it is "National Motivation and Inspiration Day." Sydney, Cassi, and I would love to motivate and inspire you to explore all the online content and activities that our small but mighty staff of 3 has created to tell the long and storied history of this wonderful place we live.

The place to start your exploration is the BDC/Local History page on the Library's website. From home you can read our social media posts and view our digital collections. We stock the local history sections at the Branch Libraries with materials you can borrow plus we have a lot of local history programs you can attend, too. But our primary mission it to collect and share relevant resources for you to use for research in our Research Room.

We know that the words "special collection and archives" can be scary. While I embrace that my most excellent withering look may be a little scary to some, please know that Cassandra and Sydney are not scary at all. They are dedicated young women eager to help you explore all that the BDC's Research Room offers you. If you have questions about what we have or do or want to come spend some time on research, reach give us a call: 843-255-6468 or send us an email: bdc@bcgov.net.

January 3, 2026 - Words of wise counsel about what to do with your family history research from Genealogy Tip of the Day:

January 5, 2026 - New Year - New "Materials Monday" theme!

In consultation with Cassandra and Sydney, the BDC's Materials Monday theme on the BDC's Facebook page for 2026 is Independence (Mon)Day. We will feature items that show the depth and scope of the BDC's holdings from or about the years 1770 - 1783. These items will help explain what happened in Beaufort District before, during, and after the Declaration of Independence was signed. This is in line with our intentional increase in American Revolution related local history programs with our partners the Beaufort County Historical Society, the Beaufort History Museum, and the Beaufort County 250th Committee that began in 2021 and with the Library system's plans to highlight the upcoming 250th anniversary of our country later this year. Join us most Mondays for a small dose of Revolutionary War history.

January 6, 2026 - Statistically speaking more people die during January than any other month of the year in South Carolina. If you're like me, you just hope not to be among the dead in January 2026. But whenever it may come, I would hope for a "Good Death" a la Victorian times. Back in April 2020, at the scariest times of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dave Smoot wrote me an email describing the link between Civil War deaths and those of 2020 - 2021 that I simply had not considered. Perhaps it will be thought-provoking for you, too.

January 7, 2026 - "Black History Note:" Chapter 4 of Penn Center: A History Preserved by Orville Vernon Burton is dedicated to the discussion of Penn Center's role in the Civil Rights Movement. This book is also available in the BDC Research Room as well as from the Local History sections at your favorite Beaufort County Branch Library. If you prefer an e-book, Hoopla has got you covered.

January 8, 2026 - Once upon a time, a Bluffton woman married into big money, inherited an astounding fortune when her husband died, 15 years later she marries a prince 20 years her junior... More in Connections.

January 10, 2026 - We're going on a Field Trip next month! We would be delighted to see you at there.

January 12, 2026 - Independence (Mon) Day: If you want a bareboned and swift account of Beaufort from 1770 to 1783, start with Michael C. Taylor's chapter 4: The Revolutionary War, 1775-1783 in his Historic Beaufort County: An Illustrated History, pp. 17-22. The book was published for the Beaufort County Historical Society in 2005. BTW: The Beaufort County Library system has the only copies of this title inside the SCLENDS consortium. It is another example of "Uniquely BDC."

January 14, 2026 - Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Penn Center while campaigning for Civil Rights during the 1960s, and it is said that he wrote much of his "I Have a Dream" speech there. In 2009, BCL's Rosa Cummings and Dennis Adams visited Penn Center to record a short video. The film briefly detailed MLK Jr.'s visits to Penn Center before Rosa gave a stirring recitation of "I Have a Dream." A DVD with the short film now resides in the BDC where patrons can view the material by request. [This is yet another example of a "Uniquely BDC" title.]

January 15, 2026 - Sign up for the Library System’s Winter Reading Program January 20 – February 20, 2026. Details on the Library's website under the Events Tab.

January 16, 2026 - For 13 years, one man had the most recognized face and most resounding voice advocating for equal rights for all United States citizens. From the age of 26 until his assassination in 1968 at age 39 years old, Martin Luther King Jr. advocated for fair and equal application of all US laws and full benefits of citizenship for minorities. And he used our local Penn Center as a respite as this little gem of a booklet describes. "I Will Not Be Silent and I will be Heard": Martin Luther King, Jr. by J. Tracy Power (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Dept. of Archives & History, Public Programs Division, c1993) is available in the BDC Research Room as well as from the Local History sections at your favorite Beaufort County Branch Library.

January 19, 2026 - Even though the Library is closed for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, you can still learn about one of the Beaufort District's most significant red letter days in its long and storied history on its 119th anniversary.

“Red Saturday” (19 January 1907) was an accident that had devastating consequences. When the embers cooled, 40 structures in downtown Beaufort were damaged or destroyed and one well regarded African American local man lay dead. A series of BDCBCL: Links, Lists and Finding Aids blog posts cover that incident and its aftermath.

January 20, 2026 - 10 AM: The Library system provides access to Ancestry Library Edition inside our buildings. Sydney wrote about what happens here in the BDC when a customer asks for help using ALE in our Connections blog.

6 PM: Today the Library System began its Winter Reading Program - and it's easy peasy to participate. Only 6 hours of reading required with no restrictions on when you read. For those like me who are bingers, you can even do all 6 hours of reading in one sitting if you choose. Look for local history recommendations from the BDC staff on this page on Thursdays through February 19 to help you complete the Winter Reading requirements and learn a little local history at the same time. Details.

January 21, 2026 - "Black History Note:" It is said that Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote much of his "I Have a Dream" speech at Penn Center on St. Helena Island. On 28 August 1963 during the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," King was the final speaker of the day. It is ironic that arguably his most famous speech did not include the words "I have a dream" in his prepared text. King went off script to extemporaneously include the "I Have a Dream" cadence. Researchers are fortunate that many of the country's television stations broadcast King's speech live that day to capture a moment in time as history was made.

January 22, 2026 - We recommend for your Winter Reading: The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans by Patricia Klindienst. Check it out from a BCL Branch's Local History section if you are a garden lover or interested in historic and contemporary agriculture in the Lowcountry.

Patricia Klindienst is a descendent of Italian immigrants who wrestled with their ethnic identity in the face of discrimination and the desire to assimilate into their new home culture. For her family, and the families of other immigrants, gardening was a vocation that tied them to both the land that they now stood on, and the land of their forbearers. Klindienst journeyed across the nation to study gardeners of other ethnic backgrounds and record their views on how gardening connects them to their heritage and defines their identity as modern Americans.

Klindienst visited two Gullah gardeners on her travels and wrote about what she learned from the two men in Chapter 2, which she entitled “Freedom.” The gardens on St. Helena grew indigo, okra, beans, squash and more, carrying on the traditions of both their enslaved and free ancestors. Most crucially, the Gullah elders spoke of the connection between the land and the community, and the high value that Gullah people place on both in deriving their strength and protecting their way of life. [BTW: This title is found only in the BDC and local history sections of the BCL Branch libraries.]

January 23, 2026 -

Happy National Pie Day! National Pie Day was established in the 1970s, and today we are sharing a recipe from over a century earlier to celebrate the day. This recipe for Lemon Pie was written in the recipe book of Eliza M. Johnson, part of the Dale Friedman Collection of Johnson Family Materials archival collection that Cassandra recently processed. The recipes in this book date from the 1840s to the 1870s approximately, so let us know if this Lemon Pie recipe stands the test of time if you chance to make it yourself. It reads:

Lemon Pie

Half pound sugar. Half pound of butter. Six naples biscuits. One quart of milk. Six eggs. The yolks & whites to be beaten separately. The rind & juice of two lemons.

Have the biscuits beaten very fine & pour the milk boiling over it. Add this to the beaten eggs sugar & butter stirring it briskly. Then add the whites beaten to a froth. Put the juice & rind in last. Add more sugar if required. Put paste in the bottom of your dishes. They are much better baked in a deep dish.

This will make two.

January 26, 2026 - "Independence (Mon)Day:" If you want more details than you got from reading the chapter about the Revolutionary War in Historic Beaufort County by Taylor, we recommend that you read Chapters 10 - 13, (pp. 175-215) of the bible of Beaufort history, The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, volume I, 1514-1861 by Lawrence Rowland, Alexander Moore, and George Rogers, Jr. (1996).

In these four chapters you'll meet some of the key local players and challenges of the critical years leading up to and through the War of Independence.

• Chapter 10 covers the area's "Economy on the Eve of the Revolution" including shipbuilding, indigo, rice, and mercantilism.
• Chapter 11 covers the "Beaufort Assembly of 1772" - which "became the scene of one of the most significant political contests between the royal governor and the elected representatives of the people of South Carolina."
• Chapter 12 covers the political and military scene in the District from 1775 to 1778.
• Chapter 13 covers the political and military scene in the District from 1779 to 1783.

There are plenty of circulating copies of this title at the Branch Libraries for you to borrow. 

January 28, 2026 - "Black History Note Wednesday:" Martin Luther King, Jr. built the 20th century Civil Rights movement off the contributions of a number of important Black men who championed civil rights during the Reconstruction Era. Most locals know about Robert Smalls and his political career, but he was not alone in advocating for human rights.

The BDC recommends: All for Civil Rights: African American Lawyers in South Carolina, 1868- 1878 by Lewis Burke (2017).

Burke explores the careers and impact of the 170 black attorneys who fought for equal protections and rights for African Americans, including these from Beaufort District: Samuel J. Bampfield; William J. Whipper; Julius I. Washington; Jonathan J. Wright; Richard H. Gleaves; A.A. Bradley; Thomas H. Wheeler; L.S. Langley; A. H. Ezekial; Dempsher W. Powell; Isaiah R. Reed; Charles English Washington; Charles E. Washington, Jr.; Thomas J. Reynolds; A.S. Bascomb; and William W. Still.

January 29, 2026 - We recommend for your winter reading: Last Ferry to Beaufort: The Life and Times of Captain Willie Roberts, 1865-1952 by Charles D. Wersler (2014).

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to live in Beaufort just over a hundred years ago? Wonder no further! This title not only recounts the life of Captain William Pullman Roberts, but it also offers a glimpse into what life was like in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Beaufort. “Captain Willie” was the last operator of the White Hall Ferry, the only connection from Beaufort to Lady’s Island prior to the construction of the first bridge in 1927.

Last Ferry to Beaufort contains never before seen photographs, letters, and narratives from Captain Willie’s personal collection. Learn about various aspects of historic Beaufort from the shops and restaurants on Bay Street, to Ferry operations and the construction of the first Beaufort River Bridge. Although most of the people and places mentioned in this title are long gone, their memories will now live on for generations to come. [This title is another example of an uniquely BCL title.]

January 30, 2026 - "Finding Aid Friday:" Behind-the-scenes work continues apace in the BDC. The Woodrow Strock Collection slides were made in the 1970s/1980s. You are welcomed to set up an appointment to review the images of taken on a school trip to the Oyotunji African Village: bdc@bcgov.net; 843-255-6468. The Finding Aid to the collection is posted on our BDCBCL: Lists, Links and Finding Aids blog.