Last updated: 20 August 2024 - gmc
Every year since 1968 the contributions of Spain and its former colonies and peoples have been highlighted in mid-September. What began as a week of celebrations has become a month of commemoration from mid-September into mid-October. In the case of Beaufort District, the Spaniards established the first European colony and held the first Catholic Mass in what was to become South Carolina in the 16th century. For a time the capital of New Spain was based at Santa Elena on Parris Island. The foothold lasted about 20 years before the Spaniards were forced to retreat to St. Augustine. You can learn the history of the Spanish settlements by reviewing the "
Spaniards in 16th Century Beaufort District" WordPress blog post.
Then came centuries in which few, if any, Spaniards, Mexicans, Cubans, Central Americans, or South Americans visited or stay in the Beaufort District long enough to be counted on the decennial Federal Census. South Carolina's percentage of immigrants had been quite small in relation to the number of immigrants received in other states. The following chart is based on information found in "
History of Immigration to the United States".
Percentage of Historical Foreign-Born Population, 1850 - 1920
United States South Carolina
1850 9.7 1.3
1860 13.2 1.4
1870 14.4 1.1
1880 13.3 0.8
1890 14.8 0.5
1900 13.6 0.4
1910 14.7 0.4
1920 13.2 0.4
I did find a few immigrants from Spain and Cuba through access to the
Ancestry Library Edition database. Please note: This list is by no means even remotely conclusive.
Spanish immigration to the United States was less than 7000 persons between 1820 and 1850. The 1850 US Federal Census for St. Peter's Parish lists one John Saviana, a 29 year old manager whose birthplace was "Madrid. " But he can neither read nor write English. Most business managers would need to be literate. At the time of the 1850 Census the major business in St. Peter's Parish was agriculture. My hunch is that therefore he may have been an overseer for one of the nearby listed plantation owners. On that particular census page, there are more than a few men whose occupation is given as "manager." Saviana was not listed in Beaufort District in the 1860 Federal census.
Ambrosio José Gonzales was a Cuban who established family ties to the area through marriage. His wife was Harriet Elliott of Beaufort, a daughter of planter, lawyer, and politician William Elliott, III. 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 be subjected to one of South Carolina's
biggest scandals of the early 20th century.
About
5300 Spaniards emigrated to the United States between 1871 - 1880. In contrast with much of the South, Reconstruction was a booming era for Beaufort County. According to Wise and Rowland, in 1880 "Beaufort County [was] the largest phosphate port in the United States." More than $250,000 worth of phosphate shipped out to the United Kingdom that year alone. There were plenty of good paying, though difficult, jobs to be had in the area. The work would attract men who had once been enslaved and immigrants. The success of the trade led to a large increase of maritime traffic and congestion in St. Helena and Port Royal Sounds. After a number of shipwrecks caused by hurricanes, shifting sandbars, and strong currents in St. Helena, regulations were put in place to secure skilled pilots to bring ships safely through the sounds.
One of the skilled maritime pilots residing in Beaufort District in 1880 was a Spaniard. Antone Santos would marry into another family of pilots, the Von Hartens. The Santos family would move to Charleston County around 1912 where Antone continued his trade in Charleston Harbor. Descendants of the Von Hartens still reside in Beaufort County.
There were other foreign born people who gave their birthplaces as Spain in the 1880 census for Beaufort County though they had English and Irish surnames. Whether or not these people had anglicized their surnames for their new country would require more investigation. Dan B. Conner listed as a 23 year old mulatto physician had been born in Spain as had his parents. A Spaniard going by the name of John Francis was a laborer at one of the phosphate mines; John Davis, an Engineer, gave his country of birth as Spain; John Allen, identified as a Black sailor, told the enumerator that he had been born in Spain of Spanish parents as well.
In 1910 Joseph Martinez, a tailor by trade, and his wife Delores had been born in Spain although both of their young children had been born in Georgia since 1907. They were living in Savannah by 1913 where he continued his work as a tailor. Through the databases within
Ancestry Library Edition and its link to the
Find-A-Grave website I was able to track Martinez's movements from Beaufort to Savannah to New York to Cleveland, Ohio where he died in 1932. His body was returned for burial in the Catholic Cemetery of Savannah. It appears that the obituary notice posted on the Find-A-Grave website was from a Savannah newspaper though there is no citation given.
A quick search of the 1920 Federal Census on
Ancestry Library Edition for people born in "Spain" living in "Beaufort County South Carolina" resulted in no hits.
Rafael, D. L. (2003). Cuban Confederate Colonel: The Life of Ambrosio José Gonzales. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Wikipedia contributors. (2020, October 1). "Spanish Americans" in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11:42, August 20, 2024.
Wise, S.R. and Rowland, L.S. (2015). Rebellion, Reconstruction, and Redemption, 1861 - 1893 (The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volume 2). Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
