BHM/BCL Local History Series Returns in October

The Beaufort History Museum/Beaufort County Library local history series returns for its 8th season with two sessions of "The History of the Beaufort Jasper Water & Sewer Authority, 1954 - " presented by BJWSA's own Director of Technology and Innovation Tricia Kilgore. If this sounds familiar, it's because we had a session in April on this very topic by this very person. In spite of the technical difficulties on that date, Ms. Kilgore provided us with a great presentation well worth sharing with you. 

Come learn about the history of a key piece of local and regional infrastructure. Discover the circumstances of water and sewage services before 1954, where your water comes from, why it comes from there, where it goes when you are done with it, and what it has in common with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

The first session will be held at St. Helena Branch Library on October 15; the reprise will be at Bluffton Branch Library on October 22. Space is limited at both locations. Access to each session will close if and when we reach room capacity. 

"The History of the Beaufort Jasper Water & Sewer Authority, 1954 - " with Tricia Kilgore

BHM/BCL Local History Series 8.1A
Tuesday, October 15, 2024 | St. Helena Branch Library, 6355 Jonathan Francis Senior, Road | 2 PM | First come, first seated. Door opens at 1:30 PM

BHM/BCL Local History Series 8.1B
Tuesday, October 22, 2024 | Bluffton Branch Library, 120 Palmetto Way | 2 PM | First come, first seated. Door opens at 1:30 PM.

Speaker Biography:
Tricia H. Kilgore, PE is the Director of Technology and Innovation at Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority in South Carolina. She worked as a regulator then an engineering consultant before joining the utility side in 2008. At BJWSA, Tricia has worked in engineering, capital projects management, and operations. In her present role, she is focused on sustainability, reuse, emergency preparedness, regulatory compliance, research, and innovation. Tricia has engineering degrees from Virginia Tech and Loughborough University in the UK.

The Week Ahead, April 15 -20, 2024

BDC staff is pretty busy this week with 2 local history programs, Beaufort County deadlines for required participation in the employee job classification survey, and a community event on Saturday. We hope that you'll be able to join us for one - or all - of our special events.

We’re hosting a reprise of "Snakebit" - an examination of surviving sources of information about one of the most fascinating Englishmen of the colonial period, Henry Woodward. Red Bird and the Devil author Robert E. Lanham will discuss what he found to be true and what remains myth. Join us and the Beaufort History Museum at St. Helena Branch on April 16, 2024 at 2 PM for this educational local history program.

History is full of forgotten, unknown and underappreciated human stories of challenge and triumph. Come hear the courageous life story of Bristow Eddy, an enslaved man who undertook the dangerous trip along the South Carolina coast to fight for freedom in the Union Army in the "Historically Speaking" series lecture on April 18th. This program is part of the BDC and Beaufort County Historical Society's contribution to the ISRE Symposium.

We continue our Outreach efforts on Saturday, April 20th. We'll have a booth at USCB’s Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era Symposium in an effort to inform the public about the range and scope of the materials the BDC shares about the period, both inside the Research Room and online through our BDCBCL: Links, Lists and Finding Aids blog, our digital collections hosted through the Lowcountry Digital Library, and this blog. Feel free to drop by for this free event, say hello, and listen to some presentations on offer in the auditorium. 

As a reminder: The Library will be closed on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 for Staff Development. 

Learn Local History at Programs in Mid-April

As you will discover, April 2024 is a very busy month for the BDC staff. We're hosting three Behind-the-Scenes tours and two local history programs, plus doing some outreach. If local history lectures are your "thing", we have two coming up in mid-April. One deals with the colonial period; while the other addresses the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. We'll go in chronological order this time. 

Join us at St. Helena Branch Library the day after taxes are due for a reprise of "Snakebit" -  an examination of surviving sources of information about one of the state's most fascinating Englishmen of the colonial period by The Red Bird and the Devil author, Robert E. Lanham.  

"Snakebit: Henry Woodward, South Carolina's First English Settler" with author Robert Lanham | Tuesday, April 16, 2024 | 2 PM | Beaufort History Museum/Beaufort County Library Local History series 7.4 | St. Helena Branch Library, 6355 Jonathan Francis Sr. Rd   | Doors open for seating at 1:30 PM

The main focus of Lanham's presentation is how he discovered and made use of historical documents to flesh out the personality and activities of the Palmetto State's first permanent English settler, trying to separate what was "fact" from what is commonly held "fiction" for his novel.  

The title of the lecture comes from an extract of a letter that Henry Woodward wrote to John Locke dated 12 November 1675 in which Woodward shares some of the Native American's beliefs. "Port Royall Indians worship the Sun but the Westos worship the Devil and have his figure carved in wood." He shared that some Indians purport to "have power over the ratle snakes soe farr as to send one over severall over rivers and brooks to bite a particular Indian which has bin don since our being here."

Robert Lanham is a retired family law attorney and former geologist residing in the South Carolina Lowcountry where Henry Woodward, the protagonist of his book, The Red Bird and the Devil lived 350 years earlier. Lanham moved here from Colorado and fell in love with the Lowcountry and its history. His distant grandfather came to the southern colonies as an indentured servant in the late 1600s, the same time as Henry Woodward, sparking his interest in early colonial history. Using skills developed during 40 years of research, writing, and teaching in science and law, Robert published The Red Bird and the Devil, a fresh look at the origin and first decades of Carolina Colony from the perspective of Henry Woodward. 

On Thursday, April 18th, we will gather for the next "Historically Speaking" series lecture co-sponsored by the Beaufort County Historical Society. This lecture is part of our contribution to the Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era 2nd Annual Symposium, April 19 - 20, 2024. 

"Freedom's Eddy: To Beaufort and Battle by Boat" with Wyatt Erchak | Thursday, April 18, 2024 | 11 AM | "Historically Speaking" series 5.5 | First Presbyterian Church Education Building, 1201 North Street, Beaufort  | Doors open for seating at 10:30 AM

Carnegie Mellon PhD candidate Wyatt Erchak will share a little known story about a daring escape by enslaved people into the Union lines at Port Royal.

On October 26, 1862, nine enslaved people used the Union Navy's presence to escape from Georgetown and join the black regiment being formed in Beaufort. Their goal was to take a direct action against slavery. Wyatt's presentation explores the life of Bristow Eddy. Born enslaved as a forced plantation laborer, when he and eight others made their break for freedom, he became Corporal Eddy. A skilled carpenter and soldier, Bristow was best summed up in the words of a comrade: "he was a little fellow but he was a good deal of a man." Before attaining that reputation, his group made their way to an island where others like them had been gathering for months as the floodgates of slavery broke down and waves of freedom seekers rushed out, often boarding arriving gunboats. "I was taken with others by boat," Bristow remembered, and came to Beaufort, where "I enlisted voluntarily" in November. From there, he entered the maelstrom of war and got to work; after peace returned, he built a new life for his family in the Beaufort area, at Lady's Island and Dixonville. Eddy's odyssey of freedom, represents the most singularly understudied figure of the Civil War era: the formerly enslaved Black soldiers of the Deep South, whose untold stories, once told, significantly transform how we understand that conflict.

Wyatt Erchak was Dr. Edda Fields-Black's research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University as she was preparing her latest book, Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid and Black Freedom during the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2024). During the Combahee research process, Wyatt became irrevocably entangled with the obscure story of the Union's first-formed black regiment. The story of the First South Carolina Volunteers of African Descent has become the core of his doctoral candidacy.  The University of South Carolina's Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era has asked Wyatt to be a keynote speaker at their pending symposium 19-20 April 2024 at USC-B.  Wyatt lives in upstate New York, is currently a Carnegie Mellon PhD candidate, and will present a version of our talk at the World Congress of Environmental History conference being held in Oulu, Finland in August.  

No need to register. Both local history programs are a first come,
first seated opportunity to learn more about the depth and scope of Beaufort District's history, its people, environment, and events. 

Reminder: The Library will be closed on Friday, March 29, 2024 for Good Friday. The Beaufort District Collection will re-open on Monday, April 1st. BCL units usually open on Saturdays will be open on Saturday, March 30, 2024.

Registration Opens - and Closed Today - : Jackpot with Jason Ryan

Update: 1:15 PM 18 April 2023 - At record breaking speed, the next BDC co-sponsored program has reached room capacity. No tickets remain.  

Nothing draws in folks to local history programs like tales of death, destruction, and scandal! We end Season 6 of the joint Beaufort History Museum-Beaufort County Library local history series on one of the biggest scandals in Beaufort District's long and storied history: Operation Jackpot. I often tell those who ask to think of Operation Jackpot as the Murdaugh scandal of its day. It was - and remains - a big deal. In fact, you just might run across a participant or two in the course of your daily life in Beaufort County. I'm pretty sure that everyone who was sentenced has served their time and are back home now.  

Topographically speaking, if smuggling is on your mind, then our county's waterways are just about perfect! For centuries a variety of outlaws have used the twisting waterways of the South Carolina Lowcountry to conceal illegal activity. Pirates found refuge in Carolina creeks, Civil War blockade runners sneaked supplies past a naval blockade, and rumrunners imported alcohol in the midst of Prohibition. But smuggling didn't stop in the 1930s, though the product being smuggled changed and launched the country's War on Drugs.

Learn about the escapades of South Carolina’s “gentlemen” marijuana smugglers, who sailed nearly $1 billion worth of pot into Southern marshes during the 1970s and ‘80s from the man who literally wrote the book about Operation Jackpot. Come learn how a group of fun-loving college dropouts from the Palmetto State made it big in the world of marijuana trafficking before losing it all at the hands of a  federal investigation. 

Jason Ryan is a nonfiction author and journalist in Charleston. His books include the marijuana smuggling tale Jackpot: High Times, High Seas and the Sting that Launched the War on Drugs, the true crime thriller Hell-Bent: One Man’s Crusade to Crush the Hawaiian Mob, and the early aviation account Race to Hawaii: The 1927 Dole Derby and the Thrilling First Flights That Opened the Pacific. He is a former reporter for The Beaufort Gazette and The State newspaper and is currently at work on a book about the Murdaugh family of South Carolina.

Jason has been very kind to revisit his book periodically for us over the years, though he has moved on to other topics as the list of his books above indicate. I am very grateful that he consented yet again to my entreaties to do another Author Book Talk about his investigative look into Operation Jackpot. It's always a crowd-pleaser. Registration  opens today for this session through the Beaufort History Museum's website. Go to https://beauforthistorymuseum.wildapricot.org/event-4962913 to reserve a seat.  

A few tips: If past attendance at a Jackpot local history program can be applied to this session, it will "sell out" quite quickly. And indeed they did - in record time. But even I was surprised by the speed at which we reached room capacity.   Sign up asap before the seats are all taken; We will provide seating for ticket holders beginning at 1:30 PM the day of the program. Our usual rules will apply: Any empty seats not occupied by a ticket holder will be offered to those standing by beginning at 1:55 PM. Don't be late the day of the program or your seat may be given to someone else. Please understand that given the speed at which tickets were expended, odds that there will be an empty seat at 1:55 pm on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 for stand-bys are slim. 

Registration Opens Today: Shrimp Tales with Beverly Jennings

Registration opens today for the third lecture in Season 6 of the joint Beaufort History Museum- Beaufort County Library local history series coordinated by the Beaufort District Collection. We turn our attention to the history of one of our local seafood industries, commercial shrimping. 

Shrimping is a tough, messy business full of physical risks and economic hardships. Beverly Jennings interviewed over 65 fishermen, marine biologists and others to explore the commercial shrimping life along the southeastern coast to create an exhibit for the Sharon and Dick Stewart Maritime Center - which in turn led to the publication of her book Shrimp Tales: Small Bites of History in 2020.  

The book explores the trade that started in Florida and eventually found its way up to Georgetown, SC. There are lots of photographs, illustrations, quotes from shrimpers and even some recipes you can cook at home after the program.

Beverly Bowers Jennings has loved the sea since age 6 when her father built a white rowboat named Little Fish for her. A Master Naturalist, Jennings has designed exhibits for the Port Royal Sound Maritime Center and Coastal Discovery Museum.  She has been featured on Walter Edgar’s Journal,  Local Life magazine, and SCETV’s By The River series.

Registration is required. Space is limited. Reservations will close when room capacity is reached.  Please note that this BHM/BCL local history program coordinated by the BDC will be held at the St. Helena Branch Library located at 6355 Jonathan Francis, Sr. Road. 

Just a reminder: We learned by trial and error that the 2 weeks window for registration resulted in getting the most butts in seats. We are pleased that our programs have been quite popular in the past, often "selling out" all seats. However, even with the shorter registration period, we may have no-shows. Therefore, we decided that a reservation holds a seat for you up to 1:54 pm the day of the program. Any seats vacant at 1:55 pm are offered to others on stand-by to enter the session until room capacity is reached. So don't be late! 

Registration Opens Today: Tuscarora Jack with John Warley

We continue with the popular Beaufort History Museum-Beaufort County Library local history series that the BDC coordinates. The second program in Season 6 features a key figure in Beaufort District's early colonial history, John Barnwell. 

John Barnwell was an early Anglo-Irish settler of the Carolina colony. He held political offices, led military expeditions, and sired descendants who formed the core of South Carolina's planter class and political elite up to the Civil War period and beyond. 

Come learn about Colonel John “Tuscarora Jack” Barnwell (1671-1724) from one of his descendants, John Warley, who just so happens to have been living in Beaufort since 2005.  He will share Tuscarora Jack's underappreciated contribution to the survival of Beaufort and the other English settlements in both North and South Carolina.  Both the Yamasee and Tuscarora Indians made concerted efforts to drive the colonists into the Atlantic, and both failed largely due to Tuscarora Jack’s courage, skill and determination. And when it came time for South Carolina to free itself from the clutches of the Lords Proprietors, there was only one man to send to London to make the case: Colonel Barnwell.

John Warley is the author of five works of fiction, one history of his undergraduate alma mater: Stand Forever, Yielding Never, The Citadel in the 21st Century and is currently working on a biography of his seventh great grandfather, John Barnwell.  John lives in Beaufort and currently serves as vice-president of the Beaufort History Museum. 

Registration is required; Space is limited. Registration will close when room capacity is reached. Reservations are good until 5 minutes to program start. Registration is now open for this local history program at https://beauforthistorymuseum.wildapricot.org/event-4884890. 

Reminder: All units of the Beaufort County Library will be closing at 5 pm on Wednesday, November 23 and will remain closed on Thanksgiving Day, November 24th and the day after, Friday, November 25th, 2022. Those units normally open on Saturdays will be open on Saturday, November 26th. (Note: The BDC Research Room is not open on Saturdays.) 

Looking ahead: The Christmas holidays are a bit longer for staff this year because of when Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fall. All units of the Library will be closed from December 23 - December 27, 2022. Regular operations will resume on Wednesday, December 28, 2022.

Season 6 of the BHM-BCL Local History Series Roster

With the cooperation of the Beaufort History Museum, I am proud to announce the roster for Season 6 of our joint Local History series. Programs will be in-person only and registration is required. Our roster covers the 17th - early 21st centuries: Proprietary period, Civil War era, a local seafood industry, and drug smuggling. In other words, there is something for everyone! Please take particular note of the location in which program will be held. Sometimes we will be at Beaufort Branch Library and sometimes we will be at St. Helena Branch Library.

1. Tuesday, October 4, 2022 @ Beaufort Branch Library | 2 PM – Jackson Canady re: 11^th South Carolina Volunteers CSA | Registration opens: September 20th on the BHM website

Learn about the history of Beaufort’s Civil War era 11th South Carolina Volunteers Confederate regiment.. Canady will cover  the local men who served, the battles they fought, and the struggles they encountered.                  

Jackson Canaday is a resident of the city of Beaufort. He grew up in Beaufort learning about his many local Confederate ancestors, which instilled a fascination for historical research-primarily of the 11th South Carolina Volunteers.  In these efforts, he has read many soldiers' personal letters and records, tracked their individual journeys throughout the war, and located and cleaned numerous final resting places of men within his ancestors' unit.

Registration opens September 20, 2022 at https://beauforthistorymuseum.wildapricot.org/event-4884467. 

2. Tuesday, December 6, 2022 @ St. Helena Branch Library | 2 PM – John Warley re: Tuscarora Jack Barnwell | Registration opens: November 22^nd on the BHM website 

Learn about Colonel John “Tuscarora Jack” Barnwell (1671-1724) whose contribution to the survival of Beaufort and the other English settlements in both North and South Carolina has not been fully appreciated.  Both the Yamasee and Tuscarora Indians made concerted efforts to drive the colonists into the Atlantic, and both failed largely due to Tuscarora Jack’s courage, skill and determination. And when it came time for South Carolina to free itself from the clutches of the Lords Proprietors, there was only one man to send to London to make the case: Colonel Barnwell.

The lecturer, John Warley, is the grandson of Colonel Barnwell seven generations removed and is currently at work on a biography of his famous ancestor.  He is the author of five works of fiction and one history of his undergraduate alma mater: Stand Forever, Yielding Never, The Citadel in the 21st Century. John lives in Beaufort and currently serves as vice-president of the Beaufort History Museum. 

Registration will open for this local history program on November 22, 2022 at https://beauforthistorymuseum.wildapricot.org/event-4884890. 

3. Tuesday, March 21, 2023 @ St. Helena Branch Library | 2 PM – Beverly Jennings about her book Shrimp Tales: Small Bites of History | Registration opens: March 7^th on the BHM website 

Shrimping is a tough, messy business full of physical risks and economic hardships. Beverly Jennings interviewed over 65 fishermen, marine biologists and others to explore the commercial shrimping life along the southeastern coast to create an exhibit for the Sharon and Dick Stewart Maritime Center - which in turn led to the publication of her book Shrimp Tales: Small Bites of History in 2020.  

The book explores the trade that started in Florida and eventually found its way up to Georgetown, SC. There are lots of photographs, illustrations, quotes from shrimpers and even some recipes you can cook at home after the program.

Beverly Bowers Jennings has loved the sea since age 6 when her father built a white rowboat named Little Fish for her. A Master Naturalist, Jennings has designed exhibits for the Port Royal Sound Maritime Center and Coastal Discovery Museum.  She has been featured on Walter Edgar’s Journal,  Local Life magazine, and SCETV’s By The River series. 

Registration will open for this local history program on March 7, 2023 at https://beauforthistorymuseum.wildapricot.org/event-4962919.

4. Tuesday, May 2, 2023 @ Beaufort Branch Library | 2 PM – Jason Ryan about his book Jackpot: High Times, High Seas and the Sting that Launched the War on Drugs  | Registration opens: April 18^th on the BHM website | 

Topographically speaking, if smuggling is on your mind, then our county's waterways are just about perfect! 

For centuries a variety of outlaws have used the twisting waterways of the South Carolina Lowcountry to conceal illegal activity. Pirates found refuge in Carolina creeks, Civil War blockade runners sneaked supplies past a naval blockade, and rumrunners imported alcohol in the midst of Prohibition. 

But perhaps more exciting than all of those historic misdeeds are the escapades of South Carolina’s “gentlemen” marijuana smugglers, who sailed nearly $1 billion worth of pot into Southern marshes during the 1970s and ‘80s. Come learn how a group of fun-loving college dropouts from the Palmetto State made it big in the world of marijuana trafficking before losing it all at the hands of federal investigation Operation Jackpot.

Jason Ryan is a nonfiction author and journalist in Charleston. His books include the marijuana smuggling tale Jackpot: High Times, High Seas and the Sting that Launched the War on Drugs, the true crime thriller Hell-Bent: One Man’s Crusade to Crush the Hawaiian Mob, and the early aviation account Race to Hawaii: The 1927 Dole Derby and the Thrilling First Flights That Opened the Pacific. He is a former reporter for The Beaufort Gazette and The State newspaper and is currently at work on a book about the Murdaugh family of South Carolina.

Registration for this local history program will open on April 18, 2023 at https://beauforthistorymuseum.wildapricot.org/event-4962913. 

A word about registration: When we opened registration a month ahead of program date, we had a lot of no-shows. We learned by trial and error that the 2 weeks window for registration resulted in getting the most butts in seats. We are pleased that our programs have been quite popular in the past, often "selling out" all seats. However, even with the shorter registration period, we may have no-shows. Therefore, we decided that a reservation holds a seat for you up to 1:54 pm the day of the program. Any seats vacant at 1:55 pm are offered to others on stand-by to enter the session until room capacity is reached. 

Tips: 

1. Don't be late if you have a reservation. 

2. It's best not to rely on showing up at the last minute in hopes that a seat might be empty. Oftentimes there isn't one left at 1:55 pm the day of.

The Southern Campaign included the Battle Of Purysburg, 1779

The Revolutionary War in South Carolina had an enduring impact and involved a great deal of fighting  - more so than in any other British colony. Few people know that South Carolina had the most Revolutionary War military engagements. The textbooks imply that most of the fighting was concentrated in Virginia, around New York, and in Massachusetts and whatever happened in the Southern colonies was a little consequence. How wrong all those textbooks have been! Few people in the South were left untouched by the conflict.

(Beaufort District Collection Print #138)

There was no consensus in the American colonies that independence from Great Britain was the only or even the wisest course of action to remedy the defects of colonial rule by George III and his representatives. 700,000 American residents were not free to conduct their lives as they themselves saw fit in 1776 for there were at least that many enslaved people in the American colonies. Thus the tension between the ideologies of liberty and enslavement was present from the start of this nation and has consequences that we feel even today. For most of the Revolutionary War period, congressional authority rested only on a state's willingness to comply with directives. Particularly troublesome was the economic dislocation caused by the war and the continual fear of slave revolts and social disturbances.

During the war, some of the heaviest fighting took place here. The landscape was ruined. Dr. Lawrence Rowland states: "The Beaufort District was devastated by the Revolutionary War. Most of the major plantations on Hilton Head Island and the mainland of St. Luke's and Prince William parishes were partially or wholly destroyed." (Rowland et al., The History of Beaufort County South Carolina, volume 1: 1514 - 1861) And the war was costly. The war effort cost South Carolinians approximately $120 million. With a white population of less than 100,000 people, South Carolina was the only state to pay its full requisition to the Continental Congress in 1783 but by doing so, it removed specie from circulation and helped fuel inflation. 

The Rev. Archibald Simpson,  a Presbyterian minister from Scotland who once served in churches in Colleton and Beaufort Districts from 1754 - 1772 returned in 1783 to find: 

All ... was desolation ... every field, every plantation showed marks of ruin and devastation ... The British & the American armies having carried off all my fine breed of horses, and Several hundred head of cattle ... Was all day entertained with the account of the most horrid transactions of the British Army & the Loyalists, during the war.

One of the main reasons that the BDC is revisiting the Battle of Purysburg with Rita Elliott is to raise awareness of the impact of the Southern Campaign. She will show us a documentary film about this military action that was part of the British Southern Campaign. She will answer questions about what was discovered during the LAMAR Institute’s investigations of the historic site. 

Space is limited. Registration is required. Masking is encouraged inside all Library buildings. Registration for this free lecture opens through the Beaufort History Museum’s website on February 25, 2022.

In case you are wondering why the BDC and BHM decided to offer this program at St. Helena Branch, there are three good reasons: 1) St. Helena Branch’s meeting room can hold more people than the one at Beaufort Branch; 2) St. Helena Branch’s screen is much bigger than what is available at Beaufort Branch - the better to view the documentary; and, 3) there are no parking kiosks at St. Helena Branch with which to cope! 

And speaking of the Revolutionary War…  Ms. Elliott’s lecture is just a prelude to a weekend of free Revolutionary fun from the BHM and BDC! 

Visit the Arsenal (713 Craven Street, Beaufort) on Saturday, March 12th, 10 AM to 4 PM to hear the cannons roar as period demonstrators “fire them off” at 30 minute intervals. Details are on the Beaufort History Museum’s website. 

While there, please be sure to drop by the BDC’s table to say “Hello!” and learn about some of the Library’s resources about the America’s fight for independence from Great Britain. I plan to be there from 10 AM to 2 PM to meet-and-greet-and-share local history with you. 

Recording of "Duels in Beaufort District" is Now Available!

Settling matters of honor according to accepted practice was an important part of being a gentleman in the 18th and 19th centuries - and some of these activities had deadly consequences. 

You will learn about some of the little known duels held in Beaufort District South Carolina from law enforcement professional and historian Neil Baxley in this all virtual first lecture in the Season 5 Beaufort History Museum – Beaufort County Library local history program series.  

Presenter bio:

A native of North Carolina, Neil Baxley spent 4 years in the Marine Corps before joining the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department more than 35 years ago. In 2013, Col. Baxley was put in charge of Beaufort County’s Emergency Management Division.

In his spare time, he studies and writes history. He’s given presentations at the South Carolina Archives and at area museums and libraries. He’s authored two Confederate regimental history books, Walk in the Light: The Journey of the 10^th and 19^th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (2013) and No Prouder Fate: The Story of the 11^th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (2009) and the foreword to Confederate General Stephen Elliott: Beaufort Legend, Charleston Hero by D. Michael Thomas (2020). 

We hope that you enjoy learning about this seldom discussed activity of the 18th and 19th centuries. The video will be available for viewing on the Beaufort County Library’s YouTube Channel from October 19 to November 9, 2021: https://youtu.be/Dky4QObdP1k. 

"Indigo" with Peggy Pickett is Full but ...

We are delighted that so many people intend to come to the Library on Tuesday for Peggy Pickett's talk about the history of Indigo in South Carolina that we are "sold out." When we started this collaboration with the Beaufort History Museum, we had no idea that we would have such success!

If you want to take a chance that there will be a no-show, all reservations become null and void at 1:55 pm on Tuesday, September 17th. Should there be a seat unoccupied at that time, the ushers will seat walk-in customers. Just so you know, sometimes folks who reserved seats in advance are unable to make the lectures. Sometimes we have a full contingent of reservation holders show up.

Local History Programs in September 2019

The Beaufort District Collection has some very popular golden oldie programs that get reprised on a fairly regular basis but those are not all we do. We offer programs on new topics as well. September 2019 is a prime example of new programs: one is about the Civil War era and the other is about the Colonial era.

In late 1861, Northern troops, in a seaborne assault, secured Beaufort and the surrounding area for the Union. It was quickly realized that the medical means brought along fell far short of meeting the  needs of the troops.  Necessity being the mother of invention, homes abandoned by their owners were commandeered as hospitals. Look closely at the map. The structures in red are homes (mostly) converted to hospitals. "Sorrow by the Sea" is the story of the medical side of the Civil War in Beaufort. This program is open to all on a first come, first seated basis.

"Sorrow by the Sea: Civil War Hospitals of Beaufort"
with Dave Smoot

Wednesday, September 11, 2019
5:30 PM
BDC@ Beaufort Branch Meeting Room, 311 Scott Street
First come; First seated


Six days later author Peggy Picket discusses the role of indigo as an economic foundation for the prosperity of the lowcountry during the colonial period. Explore the history of indigo in South Carolina and discover how it affected the sea islands around Beaufort in the season #4 opening lecture of the very popular Beaufort History Museum/Beaufort County Library Local History series. 
 
Please note: All BHM/BCL local history series lectures require advance registration.

In 1744 Eliza Lucas Pinckney sent a sample of indigo she had developed on her father’s plantation to England where it was said to be as good as the indigo produced by the French in their island colonies in the West Indies.  Indigo soon became a valuable export for Carolina planters. 

Pickett by Kellie McCann

"Indigo" with Peggy Pickett

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

2:00 PM

BHM/BCL Local History series

Beaufort Branch Meeting Room, 311 Scott Street

Registration is required and opens Tuesday, September 3rd. 

Sign up through the Museum's website to attend this lecture: www.beauforthistorymuseum.org/wildapricot/events-3463469. Registration opens 2 weeks in advance of the program date and will close when capacity is reached.

Update: 11 September 2019 - All seats for this session have been reserved. Capacity is met. Registration has closed. 

We hope that you can join us for one or both of these upcoming local history programs. 

Reminder: 

Please be vigilant and monitor the Beaufort County Emergency Management Division's notifications regarding Hurricane Dorian.  Hurricanes can be fickle forces of nature. If it heads this way, the Library may not re-open as previously scheduled.