Film-Screening and Discussion on Thursday

The November BDC @ The Branches program is a film-screening and discussion with the film-maker and naturalist, Greg Smith. We will be showing his documentary "Keeping the May River Wild," in the Children's Programming Room in the Beaufort Branch Library at 311 Scott Street, beginning at 5:30 pm this Thursday, Nov. 4th.

By starting the screening at 5:30pm, library customers will only have to pay the City of Beaufort for 30 minutes of parking.

Please note: I am seriously considering starting any future BDC @ The Branches local history programs being held in the 311 Scott Street building at or after 6 pm so that paying for parking is not a hindrance to BDC customers interested in learning more about our local history, culture, and environment. I'd like to hear what you think about starting BDC programs at 311 Scott Street a bit later in the evening. Are you in favor of a slightly later start time? Is it a bad idea? Please let me hear from you.

Thompson: Architecture of Beaufort, 1711-1861

Evan Thompson, Executive Director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation, will speak on "The Architectural Development of Beaufort, SC (1711-1861)" Monday evening, May 4th in the Friends Room at the Arsenal at 7 pm. He will share what he's learned from his research about the built environment of the town within historical documents, newspaper accounts, maps, and photographs. For more information, please see the HBF website or call 379-3331.

Water Festival, a poem by Edith Bannister Dowling

Given that it's mid-July and the 53rd Annual Water Festival is underway, here's a poem from A Patchwork of Poems about South Carolina (pp. 30-31) by Edith Bannister Dowling about the event. When Mrs. Dowling wrote this poem published in 1970, the Water Festival events fell on one weekend in mid-July. Over the years, the Water Festival has grown considerably larger and longer.

Water Festival

The Angels are Blue,
Beaufort heavens are, too,
And our Bay, this big Water weekend.
Swift skiers -- Greek gods;
Speed boats -- hottest rods;
All these, with the proud Parade, blend
To make magic marine;
And then each lovely Queen,
Is divine, at that ball of a Ball:
So from water, and air,
Comes a show rich and rare:
Have fun, guests and townsfolk and all!

The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.

Bay Street from a Child's View, @1800

When the Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park was undergoing renovation, the designer of the children's playground called to ask me: "Who were the three most significant figures in Beaufort history? I want to hang portraits of them in the children's playhouse."

Whoa, I thought, what a way to get in a lot of hot water if I don't suggest the right 3 historical figures! Beaufort history is so rich that agreement on just who those 3 should be would be preceded by some vigorous debate. So...

I laughed as I told her, "I'm not getting myself in trouble. I'm just a librarian, a protector and sharer of resources, not a card-carrying historian." Instead, I suggested that an appropriate image for the Waterfront Park playhouse might be a copy of our Campbell watercolor. It was done by a child of his own hometown. Children romping in the park today would have a very similar perspective of the Beaufort waterfront as Campbell did in 1797.

If you're young enough, limber enough, or short enough to enter the Waterfront playhouse and climb to the 2nd story, you can see a copy of the painting hanging there. For the less agile, the Christensen copy hangs behind the Reference desk at Beaufort Branch.

The painting has an interesting history. The original watercolor, done by 13 year old Beaufort native, John Barnwell Campbell (1784-1847), burned in the big fire of 1907. Luckily, State Senator Neils Christensen had borrowed the Campbell painting a few years earlier in order to make a copy of it.

Here is what Senator Christensen said about his artistic process in a letter dated September 11, 1934:

"This copy I made by tracing the outlines of the picture on drawing cloth and then filling in the colors in oil and in water color. I made the copy as accurately as was possible for me so that the colors as well as the outlines were a faithful reproduction."

The child artist, John Barnwell Campbell, became an Episcopalian minister, serving as Rector of St. Helena's Episcopal Church 1812-1821, later serving at St. Paul's and St. Philip's Churches in Charleston District.

Senator Christensen donated his copy of the original Campbell watercolor to the Beaufort Township Library in 1934. The Beaufort Township Library grew into the Beaufort County Library in 1963.

Prints are available for purchase at $10.00 from the Beaufort Branch Circulation desk if you're interested in getting a copy of the print to hang in your home or to give as gifts.

Please note: Use of the image in publications or as a digitized product without the Library’s written permission is strictly prohibited. -- Grace Cordial

The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.

Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names

By “correct mispronunciations” we mean, of course, pronunciations that are considered correct in South Carolina but will seem wrong to you if you’ve just arrived from Connecticut, bless your sun-seeking heart, and you’ve never been in the Palmetto State before.

We’d like to preserve these traditional pronunciations. We are South Carolinians and to a South Carolinian the impulse to preserve tradition is almost as instinctive as breathing.

There’s the story about the three dogs who met at the corner of Broad Street and Meeting Street in Charleston. One of them was a mongrel who said, “I’m from New York and my name is Spot. That’s spelled S-P-O-T.” Another was a German Shepherd to said, “I’m from Ohio and my name is Rover. That’s spelled R-O-V-E-R.” The third was a French Poodle who said, “Welcome to [South Carolina]. My name is Fido and that’s spelled P-H-I-D-E-A-U-X.”

We hope…that [these] too-frequently mispronounced names will be helpful to broadcasters and to newcomers who’d like to pronounce the names of local people and places in the ways that South Carolinians have traditionally preferred.

--Claude and Irene Neuffer, authors of Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names, excerpt from pages v-vii.

Today’s Beaufort County Correct Mispronunciations:

BEAUFORT
BUE-fuht, BOE-fuht (first pronunciation in South Carolina; second pronunciation in North Carolina)

The Duke of Beaufort was a later Lord Proprietor (being invested in the proprietorship of Lord Granville in 1709.) Besides the more recently named Beaufort Streets and drives throughout the state, the southeast coastal area includes a district, county, town, river, and archipelago each named for the duke. The Beaufort section is often termed “the most discovered area in the United States”—having been discovered by Spanish, French, Scots, and English, in that order, with the English settlement surviving the colonial hardships. The source of confusion for newcomers is that up the coast and across the state line the North Carolina town of Beaufort is pronounced BOE-fuht. Which is right? Both are. (p. 12)

COMBAHEE
KUM-BEE

Spelling to the contrary, Combahee has long been pronounced as two syllables by folks in these parts. It may be an Indian word meaning small risings. The Combahee River is formed by Salkehatchie and Cuckold creeks (the second later called Chee-Ha and now Chehaw River) and flows between Colleton and Beaufort counties into St. Helena Sound. (p. 38)

910.3 NEU. Correct Mispronunciations of Some South Carolina Names by Claude and Irene Neuffer.
Find it @ the BDC, Beaufort Branch Library, Bluffton Branch Library, and Hilton Head Island Branch Library!

The Beaufort District Collection is a division of the Beaufort County Library, a department of Beaufort County Government of South Carolina.

The Memorial Day Tradition in the Beaufort District (updated 2025)

Note: The base of this article was written by Amber Shorthouse in 2008. In the intervening years, we have acquired additional materials on the topic. Latest update: 25 April 2025 - Grace Cordial

For many Memorial Day is the kick-off to summer fun but its origins lie in a much more solemn tradition. Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, a remembrance of the fallen Union soldiers and sailors of the American Civil War. 

Beaufort County residents love to boast that life here is rather unique in many ways. Our local peculiarities are diverse and plentiful: the Spanish New World was administered from Parris Island for a time during the 16th century; we have one of the greatest variations of high and low tide along the Atlantic coast; we established the first school for the newly freed slaves of South Carolina (Penn Normal School on St. Helena Island); and we used local bounty to create the lowcountry's favorite feast, Frogmore Stew. And yet, some things continue to surprise newcomers.

No other South Carolina county experienced the Civil War or its aftermath in quite the same way as it unfolded in Beaufort County. No other South Carolina county contributed such large percentages of its total population to the two warring sides. And therefore, it should come as little surprise that commemoration of those who died in the Civil War should be different here as well. Since Beaufort County raised troops for both the Confederate States and the United States, the dual remembrances commemorated here are rooted in long tradition as shown in this clipping from the Beaufort Gazette 100 years ago. 

An article about the Confederate Memorial Day speech begins in column 6 of page 1 and continued on interior pages of the issue; and there's an entry about the upcoming National Memorial Day [former Decoration Day] ceremony and program under the cartoon. 

The vast majority of Beaufort District's white male residents of the 1860s served with the Confederacy. By tradition in the Palmetto State, graves of the Confederate dead were adorned with flowers on May 10th in remembrance of CSA Gen. Thomas ("Stonewall") Jackson's death on May 10, 1863. Local heritage groups marked the occasion for many years. It was surprising to me to discover that Confederate Memorial Day only became an official state holiday in the year 2000. South Carolina is one of only three states to still observe a Confederate Memorial Day as a state employee holiday.   

Many area Black men joined the Union Army's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd South Carolina Volunteer Regiments (AKA 33rd, 34th, and 104th USCT) and the Federal Navy. Some of its most prominent late 19th century, 20th century and 21st century families have ancestors who served in the Union Army, Navy, or who ran businesses that supplied those Federal forces. The Beaufort National Cemetery had been founded in 1863 to provide eternal resting places for those who died while serving the United States. 

Many places lay claims to being the first community to honor its Civil War dead beginning as early as 1864 in Waterloo, New York. Waterloo got the official backing of the United States government as Memorial Day’s birthplace during L.B. Johnson’s administration in 1966. “Memorial Day – Over 150 Years of Remembrance” by the National Park Service covers aspects of the holiday’s history and other claimants.

In early May of 1868, General John Logan (USA) in his capacity with the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R., a Union Civil War veterans group) declared its first "Decoration Day" for May 30, 1868. There does not appear to have been any particular significance to Gen. Logan's choice of May 30th for the celebration other than the date’s lack of a significant battle anniversary upon it though some aver that the date was selected simply because flowers would be readily available throughout the reunited United States to adorn the gravesites of the fallen by that date. 

On Decoration Day, the GAR encouraged people to honor the Union Civil War dead by "strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion."

Beaufort District's Memorial Day Traditions

Locally, May 1868 was especially significant because of the reinterment of Union Prisoners of War (POWs) from the "Racecourse" prison camp near Charleston into the Beaufort National Cemetery and the installation of an obelisk in the Beaufort National Cemetery dedicated to their memory by the widow of a Unionist Charleston merchant, Mrs. Eliza Potter. Local celebrations of the war dead as an annual remembrance are often based from this reinterment.  

In addition to some white Union veterans staying behind post-war, Beaufort County had a high proportion of Black Union veterans. Black folks from Charleston, Savannah, Augusta, and neighboring islands would catch the train, oxcart, wagons, or boats and visit Beaufort for the speeches, music, pageantry and remembrance ceremonies at the Beaufort National Cemetery. We are quite fortunate to have a number of diaries that include entries about Decoration Day in Beaufort through the years. 

Here's what Mrs. Ellen Crofut wrote in her diary about Decoration Day in 1890:

Friday, May 30, 1890

Decoration day. Clear and cool.

George went back 5 a.m.

There were crowds of people in town, excursions came by boat and train. Gen’l Stolbrand (1)  and his daughter, Gertrude and Mr. Toumey (?) were in and out this morning: a number of people (colored) called to see Mrs. Brayton during the day.

About four o’clock we all went out to the cemetery in our carriage. Mr. Brayton (2) went with Mr. Collins in the procession. We arrived a little before the procession. First came officers from the Baltimore, Kearsarge, Dolphin and Galena, then marines and sailors, lastly the colored soldiers and G.A.R. It was a very pretty sight when they all marched in and took their places. Mr. Brayton spoke one hour.

Mrs. Crofut’s entry description of the day varies greatly in tone than the account published under the title of “A Burlesque at Beaufort” in the Charleston News and Courier on May 31, 1890 which you can find in the BDC’s DECORATION DAY vertical file folder amidst over descriptions and clippings through the years.  

Most years she writes about the events on Decoration Day. Her diary for the 1895 celebration includes a Decoration Day program that indicates the parade route, the organizations participating and the order of the ceremonies held at the Beaufort National Cemetery.  

The celebration expanded with the influx of Marines training at Parris Island, many of whom were white Northerners with prior experience celebrating Decoration Day though the term “Decoration Day” gradually morphed into the term “Memorial Day,” particularly in the aftermath of the horrors and deaths in the Great War (what we now refer to as World War I). 

For some local residents the two terms refer to the same holiday. You’ll see that the entry by Mr. Thomas in 1929 uses the term “Memorial Day” whereas Mr. Christensen uses the term “Decoration Day” in 1943.

W. J. Thomas, Jr., (1906 -1982) wrote about his hometown celebration in the Beaufort Gazette of June 13, 1929: 

Ancestral differences were tossed aside with mutual relief and patriotism, and the local white Republicans led the way as all together they arbitrated and decided to celebrate a modified Memorial Day, not for the victory of the North over the South but in remembrance of the reunion of the sister states and the restoration of national harmony.

Thomas Jr. was the son of William J. Thomas, Sr. and Tennessee Calhoun Thomas. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina and at Columbia University in New York City. During his career, he worked in the news media industry for the New York Herald Tribune, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), the Radio and Television Division of William Espy Co. and for the First Federal Savings Association of Beaufort.

Frederick Holmes Christensen (1877-1944), a local businessman, often wrote about political, social, and economic life in Beaufort. Here's his commentary about Memorial Day 1943:   

Sunday, May 30 [1943]

Decoration day will be celebrated this year tomorrow the 31st. Never the less Helen, Frederik and I went over to the church yard with flowers today and decorated father and Mother's lots. In the afternoon I went to the wharf and witnessed the colored exercises for those lost at sea.

His parents were Niels and Abbie Holmes Christensen whose graves are located in the family plot located at Lot A-22 of the Baptist Church of Beaufort cemetery.  Niels, an immigrant to the United States from Denmark, had served in the Union Army and later as the superintendent of the Beaufort National Cemetery. He stayed in the area after the Civil War to sire a prominent local family with Abbie who are quite involved in community affairs even now.

As this brief overview indicates, Decoration Day, which originally commemorated the sacrifice of Union troops during the Civil War only, was broadened into a commemoration of the sacrifice of all American soldiers and sailors who died in service to their country during wartime and as a result of military actions.   

Memorial Day became a Federal holiday in 1971 when the government set the annual commemoration on the last Monday in May. Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act in 2000. The act designates 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day as a time for prayer and reflection.

Notes and Sources: 

1. Gen'l Stolbrand was Charles John Stolbrand, a Swedish immigrant to Chicago in the 1850s where he became a successful businessman. He organized an artillery company and became its Major in 1862. He led artillery units in the Vicksburg-Chattanooga and Atlanta campaigns before becoming Sherman's head of artillery for his Carolinas Campaign. President Abraham Lincoln promoted Stolbrand to a Brigadier General in January 1865. Find-A-Grave Memorial.

2. Mr. Brayton was Ellery McTeall Brayton who was an independent Republican candidate for the 7th District in the United States House of Representatives in 1890 against William Elliott (Democrat) and Thomas E. Miller (Republican) both of Beaufort. Brayton had served in the South Carolina State House of Representatives for Aiken County in the mid 1870s. William Elliott won on 4 November 1890.  Political Graveyard website. 

U.S. Memorial Day organization

"10 Memorial Day Facts about the History of the Holiday, " by Sophie Caldwell, Today, 25 March 2024. 

Where Did Memorial Day Originate? (history.com) by Christopher Klein, 16 May 2023, History website. 

Memorial Day - Over 150 Years of Remembrance by the National Park Service. 

Beaufort National Cemetery, Beaufort South Carolina by the National Park Service. 

Stonewall Jackson. Britannica. 

John A. Logan, Wikipedia. 

Grand Army of the Republic, Wikipedia. 

"General John A. Logan, Memorial Day Founder," The Army Historical Foundation. Accessed 29 April 2024.  

"79. Washington Racetrack, 1792 - 1900", Halsey Map, Preservation Society of Charleston.  

"Mrs. Potter's Memorial Monument," Beaufort District Collection Connections blog, 8 December 2022. 

"The Origins of Memorial Day" Memorial Day | U.S. Army Center of Military History. 

U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs, National Cemetery Administration: Memorial Day History. 

How to Observe Memorial Day by the Memorial Day Foundation.

BDC Obituary Card Files: W.J. Thomas, Jr.; Frederick Christensen