Mary Shindler, Native Daughter Poet

Latest update: 1 April 2024 - gmc

Native daughter, Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer Dana Shindler (a.k.a. Mary S. B. Dana) is the perfect person to transition from National Women's History in March into National Poetry Month in April. Given that it's Easter Week 2024, a poem based on a Bible scripture seems fitting. 

Passing Under the Rod 

And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you in to the bond of the covenant." Ezekial, Chapter 20, Verse 37.

I saw the young bride, in her beauty and pride,
  Bedeck'd in her snowy array;
And the bright flush of joy mantled high on her cheek,
  And the future look'd blooming and gay:
And with woman's devotion she laid her fond heart
  At the shrine of idolatrous love,
And she anchor'd her hopes to this perishing earth,
  By the chain which her tenderness wove.
But I saw when those heartstrings were bleeding and torn,
  And the chain had been sever'd in two,
She had changed her white robes for the sables of grief,
  And her bloom for the paleness of wo[e]!
But the Healer was there, pouring balm on her heart,
  And wiping the tears from her eyes,
And he strengthened the chain he had broken in twain,
  And fasten'd it firm to the skies!
There had whisper'd a voice -- 'twas the voice of her God,
"I love thee -- I love thee -- pass under the rod!"

(From the Parted Family collection; the poem was written in Charleston July 6, 1840)

Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer was born February 15, 1810 in Beaufort to Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmer and Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer (Yes, she had the exact same name as her own mother; and matters are further complicated by two Rev. Benjamin Morgan Palmers, her father 1781 - 1847 and his nephew, (her cousin) Benjamin Morgan Palmer, 1818-1902  who became a renowned Presbyterian minister).  In 1813, her father moved the family to Charleston, SC where he served as the minister of the Circular Church until 1835.   She was educated in the private school of Dr. Ramsey and his daughters in Charleston and in various seminaries for young ladies in Connecticut and New Jersey.  In 1835, she married Charles E. Dana of New York.  They had one son.  Both her husband and her son died at their home in Bloomington, Iowa during August 1839.

Image courtesy of Cyberhymnal.org

She returned to the home of her parents in Charleston as a childless widow and poured out her grief about her string of recent losses through writing The Parted Family, and Other Poems (1842). Both her parents died in 1847. Her religious poems reflect on themes of comfort in the struggles of life and death. Recognition of her poetry, often infused with religious sentiment, began during this decade. Later she set some of her poems to music, often favoring folk tunes for the melody.  

She married an Episcopalian minister, Robert Doyne Shindler at some point between 1848 and 1851 (sources vary as to the precise date of the nuptials).  They had one child, a son, Robert Conrad Shindler, who was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky in April 1852.  They were living in Tennessee by 1859.  After the Civil War, the family relocated to Nacogdoches and San Augustine, Texas. Rev. Shindler died in Nacogdoches in 1874; she died 9 years later on February 8, 1883.  

Among her famous descendants are the former US Senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison and actress Mary Tyler Moore.   

Her works include: The Southern Harp, The Northern Harp, and The Western Harp in which her religious poems are set to music, several novels, and religious and spiritualism essays.  In our collection we have copies of her Letters addressed to relatives and friends,: chiefly in reply to arguments in support of the doctrine of the Trinity; The Southern harp: consisting of original sacred and moral songs, adapted to the most popular melodies: for the piano-forte and guitar; The parted family, and other poems: an offering to the afflicted, and a tribute of love to departed friends; A southerner among the spirits: a record of investigations into the spiritual phenomena; and one of her novels, Forecastle Tom or, The landsman turned sailor.  

Her papers are included in the Shindler-Palmer Family Papers at the Ralph W. Steen Library of the Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches.     

We used sources found in our vertical file, Shindler, Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer Dana, (1810 - 1883) to write this entry.  

"Historically Speaking" Series Reservation

Season 3 of the "Historically Speaking" series opens with Dr. Mollie Barnes’ presentation "Reading Between Lines and Across Rivers: Charlotte Forten and Harriet Tubman, June 1863."

Professor Barnes is Associate Professor of American Literature at USCB. This lecture is sure to be a nice complement to the engaging "Women of Reconstruction" lecture about Laura Towne, Charlotte Forten, and Susie King Taylor that Suzie Parker Devoe did last season.

We are pleased to have the Beaufort County Historical Society and the Institute for the Study of the Reconstruction Era as co-sponsors of this local history program.

Delivery of this session will be unique - and multi-faceted - for BDC Local History groupies! 

1) A few folks will be able to attend the lecture in person. 

2) More folks will be able to live stream the lecture on their personal electronic devices the day of the event.

3) Even more folks will be able to watch the recording later on their personal electronic devices on the day and time most appropriate for them. 

Please note: Limited Reserved Seating Opens at Midnight Thursday, September 30th! 

35 lucky people will get the opportunity to reserve a seat in Room 100, CFA (Center for the Arts), 805 Carteret St, Beaufort for the live presentation set to occur at 11:00 AM on Thursday, October 14th.  Sign up for one of those 35 seats at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reading-between-lines-and-across-rivers-charlotte-forten-harriet-tubman-tickets-176618128577 beginning at midnight on Thursday, September 30th. 

You should get a screen that looks like this: 

If you click the "Remind Me" button shown in red, you can register for a reminder to be sent to your email inbox one hour before registration opens. Reservations will be closed when full. 

But let's just say that you are still a bit leery of in-person events. We have a URL for that, too.

The link is https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/7ed3329806ca4f5cab909350c4f942cf.

But here's the fine print that you must read and understand! That link is not currently active. This is what you will see until 10:30 AM on October 14th (all things going as planned) 

At 10:30 on Thursday, October 14, 2021 (30 minutes before the lecture is set to begin), the link will let people in the room so you can make sure you're connected and happy and ready to tune in. Once you're in the virtual waiting room, you'll be prompted to type your name so that the USCB folks transmitting and recording the session can see who is who and then you can turn your videos/microphones on if you please. But in certain parts of the County (like from my house on Lady's Island) it's usually better to mute your video and mute your audio in order to have sufficient bandwidth to watch Dr. Barnes without aggravating buffering.  

Let's say that for some reason the Live Stream doesn't stream live as planned. There's yet another way to see and learn from Professor Barnes - you will be able to watch a recording of her "Historically Speaking 3.1" lecture once it gets posted within a few days after the live presentation. 

Re-cap of March 2021 Posts on the BDC's Facebook Page

If you happen to be on Facebook and if you happen to follow the BDC's Facebook page, then you know that I try to feature women's history on a regular basis, and in March particularly so. But there was also a local history program to promote, Irish heritage to acknowledge, a red letter date that was worth noting and the usual weekly "Materials Monday" and "Black History Notes" to post. 

Here's a recap of the posts that I made on Facebook during March 2021:

"Materials Monday: Letters" Posts

1 March 2021 - Now that it's Women's History Month, I will focus on letters written by women.

I shall begin with Eliza Ann Summers' weekly letters as compiled in "'Dear Sister": Letters Written on Hilton Head Island, 1867 edited by Josephine W. Martin (Beaufort, SC: Beaufort Book, 1977). In them, Eliza tells her sister Sarah about what it was like to be a teacher to the freedmen and circumstances of daily life at Lawton Plantation and in Mitchelville during the 6 months she spent on "the Head." 

 

For example: From Letter #18, Eliza writes about the deaths of two young Black boys, her class schedules and number of students, the prevalence of rattlesnakes, a man and woman who were struck by lightning but survived, her pony Billy, her pet mockingbirds, her Black servant's upcoming wedding and food scarcity. In fact, when a young Black girl goes missing, the lack of community concern is concerning to Eliza. 

"...She [the girl] probably wandered off ... in search of food or else she is lying around the field dead some where. I think the latter. It is a very common occurrence here...Often the children come to school crying, and on asking them what was the trouble they would say I am hungry, I have had no breakfast." 

The Library has plenty of copies of this local history title for you to borrow https://sclends.lib.sc.us/eg/opac/record/2102151?locg=1 - or you can make arrangements to visit our Research Room to see this and the many other women of Reconstruction related materials we share on-site.

8 March 2021 - In April 1827, Margaret Hunter Hall, her husband Basil and young daughter, Eliza, set sail from Liverpool, England for America. She wrote intimate detailed letters her sister Jane about her experiences and travels in the United States. Mrs. Hall had high standards of lifestyle, convenience, and behavior based upon her own upbringing in a noble household in Edinburgh and Madrid, Spain where her father, Sir John Hunter, served as British consul for a short time. 

In March 1828 the group journeyed from Charleston to Savannah, stopping off at the plantations owned by Nathaniel Heyward and William Heyward (though she spelled their surname "Hayward.") The letters are full of Mrs. Hall's unstinting observations of slavery and of plantation owners. Her critiques of America were not always kind. For example, she did not think much of the conversational skills of the Nathaniel Heyward family in spite of the fact that "His plantation is considered one of the best regulated in this State:" 

" ... At dinner we were joined by one of his sons who had been out hunting. We were not much the better of his conversation, nor that of his brother who came in in the evening, neither of them spoke a word. I have heard of sisters being no greater use at a party than to fill two chairs, but I never saw the case so completely identified as in the case of those two brothers. The old gentleman himself is much more willing to talk, but neither is he a man of much information, and when we had got all out of him that we could relative to the cultivation of rice and the treatment of slaves, the conversation flagged so much that we were glad to make our escape to our own room." 

You can read more in The Aristocratic Journey; being the outspoken letters of Mrs. Basil Hall written during a fourteen months' sojourn in America, 1827-1828, call # SC 973.55 HAL in the Research Room.

 

15 March 2021 - Today's featured letters were written by a love-struck young woman living in Seabrook during the 1910s.

 

In 1914 Albert Onthank, the writer's father and a Beaufort native son, returned with his family to open an egg farm, Sea Island Poultry Farm. The company's main customer was the Marine Corps which had a lot of young and hungry recruits to feed three-squares on Parris Island. Mae had to leave her sweetheart behind in Lynchburg, VA.

 

The collection is primarily correspondence. Mary Elizabeth Onthank (called "Mae) wrote many letters to her beloved Billy (William MacLeod of Lynchburg, VA) from her home in Seabrook. The letters were mostly composed between 1914 and the couple's marriage at St. Helena's Episcopal Church on a Wednesday evening in late June 1915.

 

Most of the arrangements for the nuptials were done by mail. One topic was who Billy would have as groomsmen. Mae had a few ideas about who he should choose:

 

"I wish Al [Onthank] would be a grooms man. I hope you haven't asked Cap yet - and please if you will - write and beg Al to be a grooms man to walk with Ovid [Webb of Lynchburg, VA]. I think if you urged him he would - and Jimmy will go with Nance [Nancy MacLeod, sister of the groom]. Now Billy tend to this and don't forget. If Cap wants to come - why we'd be delighted to have him but he doesn't have to be in the party....I would not have Gip. He has acted outrageous about your letter. Please do as I say."

 

If only husbands - or potential husbands - would listen...

 

Provenance: Douglas MacLeod, Mae's grandson, donated the love letters, transcriptions and family history to the Library back in February 2000. We keep the transcriptions in the library stacks and the original letters, envelopes, and photographs in the archives stacks in the Research Room. Make an advance appointment and we'll be happy to let you read each and every one.

22 March 2021 - Carolina Letters by Henrietta Duff Montgomery covers correspondence that she sent to family members form December 1939 to late September 1957 from her new home on Lady's Island. Mrs. Montgomery wrote charmingly descriptive letters about the sounds, smells, flora, fauna, and activities along the Beaufort River that their Meridian Road house fronted. She also commented on daily life, the fire station, the post office, oystermen, getting a South Carolina license to drive, social events and local customs.

Her husband, Dr. Andrew J. Montgomery had been a Presbyterian Minister serving at many churches and had recently retired from the Presbyterian Church Board of National Missions based in New York City. In the first letter of the spiral bound booklet dated December 1, 1939 she wrote:

"You might think the quiet would oppress us. Well hardly. We hear children laughing and calling, guns firing tons of ammunition, drums beating, two donkeys braying, very near by. The crane seems to have a regular schedule for his greetings. Yesterday afternoon I stood on the river bank and watched him feed. We also watched an ibis for a long time. But I was speaking of noises! A little terrier came and barked on the beach this morning. He evidently came from the boat - the oyster boat that is beached for repairs on the public beach. There are fiddler crabs here, but they are silent. Of the birds songs, there is not much to mention now, a little too early. The crows are persistent in their caw-cawing, and the roosters crow, the boats chug by....

The Montgomerys were married for almost 72 years. Henrietta died at age 92 in March 1961. Her obituary descried her as "active in church work and a patron of the local library and the Benevolent Society. She was a member of the Sea Island Garden Club." Rev. Dr. Montgomery broke his hip a few months after his wife's death and died on August 2, 1961 at age 96. They are buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

 

29 March 2021 - The first book by Beaufort District authors, Living Christianity Delineated... (https://archive.org/details/livingchristian00hantgoog ) was published in London in 1760. Included are 6 letters written by Mrs. Mary Hutson, described as "a sincere Christian, an affectionate wife, a tender mother, and condescending mistress in a very uncommon degree." (p. 125) In 1743 the Reverend William Hutson became the first minister of Stoney Creek Presbyterian Church and married widow Mary Woodward Chardon, a grand-daughter of Dr. Henry Woodward, the first English settler in South Carolina.

 

Mrs. Hutson, like her husband and Hugh Bryan, was an enthusiastic supporter of the Reverend George Whitefield's theology. One can see how important Mrs. Hutson held her faith in Letter V, a letter of condolence and spiritual encouragement to an unnamed recently widowed man, to wit.

"Dear Sir,

I Heartily sympathise with you in your late great affliction. Has the Lord once more touched you in your tender part? Has he taken away from you the faithful companion and support of your old age, and are you now left alone? Well, dear sir, is there not a voice in God's providence, as well as in his word; and is not this the language of you affliction? 'O trust not in riches, trust not i friends, trust not in any thing beneath the eternal God, for if you do, they will prove a broken reed, and fail you when you stand most in need.' O then, dear sir, let me intreat you to fly to the fountain ; look to Jesus ; spend the remainder of your days in striving to secure an interest in Christ; make him your friend, and he will be better to you, I am sure, than all the friends you ever had... Surely in this dying country, and these dying times, we ought often to be considering our latter end, and that we may learn now frail we are. And what reason we have to live in an habitual preparation for eternity, lest we should be surprized with the summons of death."

Living Christianity Delineated is also her story of religious conversion. You can read more about the book and the intertwining family connections between the Bryans and Hutsons in Connections.

 

"Black History Notes Wednesday" Posts

 

3 March 2021- LeRhonda Manigault had an unusual paranormal experience at the Charleston City Market while on a school trip when she was a teenager. She felt the dead trying to communicate their pain and anguish with her. Ultimately that experience led to an ethnographic study exploring the relationship of seven lowcountry Gullah/Geechee women with religion, music, and daily expressions of their culture. 

 

She started her study by sharing her experience at the City Market, to which her first interviewee responded nonchalantly that "Ah Tulk to De Dead All De Time." Thus, her 2007 dissertation at the Graduate School of Religion of Emory University became "'Ah Tulk to De Dead All De Time:' Religion among Gullah/Geechee Women of the Carolina Lowcountry." Seven years later Talking to the Dead: Religion, Music, and Lived Memory Among Gullah/Geechee Wome" was published by Duke University Press. 

 

In Gullah culture, talking to the dead indicates an ongoing exchange between a living person and family members and friends who are deceased. According to the book blurb: "By looking in depth at this long-standing spiritual practice, Manigault-Bryant highlights the subversive ingenuity that lowcountry inhabitants use to thrive spiritually and to maintain a sense of continuity with the past." 

 

I find the topic fascinating. Perhaps you will too. There are plenty of copies of the published book ( https://sclends.lib.sc.us/eg/opac/record/2638289?copy_depth=1;locg=104 ) available in the Local History sections at the Branch Libraries for you to check out.

10 March 2021 - Isabella Coleman Glen wrote a combination family history, memoir, short vignettes regarding community members and some cultural history in her Life on St. Helena Island published in 1980. Born in 1905 to Simon and Isabella (nee Brown) Coleman, she attended Penn School and later worked as a domestic at Frogmore House for the Macdonald family. Isabella eventually saved up $30 to fund her first trip to seek better paying work in New York in 1930. She was part of the Great Migration of African-Americans northwards in the early decades of the 20th century, some of whom were helped by the St. Helena League founded by her elder brother, John, and others from the island who had relocated into the Northeast to better their own economic circumstances. The group helped their family members and friends relocate later. 

 

For a number of years she was living in either Brooklyn, NY or Philadelphia for the summer and teaching school on St. Helena Island during the Fall through Spring months. When her mother died in 1938 and left her a small inheritance, Isabella built the Folly Road Grocery described by Dr. Rowland as "one of the foremost black-owned businesses on the island." She was the first woman in the state to be appointed to the Federal Housing Administration in the 1960s. She had one son with her second husband. At the time of her death on October 4, 1992, Isabella was 86 years old and a resident of Savannah. 

 

We are fortunate to have copies of her book ( https://sclends.lib.sc.us/eg/opac/record/12909?copy_depth=1;locg=104) in the BDC for permanent retention and to have several copies you can borrow and take home to read from the local history sections at most of the Branch Libraries. 

 

17 March 2021 - Eva Smalls Segar has plenty of Songs to Sing, Stories to Tell about growing up Gullah on a small farm in Northern Beaufort County during the 20th century. She graduated Robert Smalls High School and spent 40+ years working as a nurse, more than 30 of those years were at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. [Volume 1] begins with these words in the Author's Foreword: "It's a book about being human, and every word of it is true. I decided to tell my story because I want people to understand that having a powerful determination to survive and never being afraid to love is what is most important in the human experience." Volume 2 begins with her life as a young woman. Both volumes include family photographs. 

 

She would shift her focus to food, sharing recipes in My Gullah Kitchen (2006) and My Thrifty Gullah Kitchen (2008). 

 

The Library has plenty of copies of each title to share with you.

 

24 March 2021 - Today we highlight another local female African-American author. 

 

Nellie Holmes Homemaker shares her Journey with a Woman of the Gullah Culture in a self-published memoir of growing up as a member of the large extended Holmes family on St. Helena Island. Though she relocated to New York in the early 1960s to become a professional singer and garment industry buyer, her heart never left the pluff mud and local waterways. This book is her love song to the Gullah people and her native soil.

 

Like some of our resources, this is a very local book with a very limited number of copies printed. The BDC has a permanent copy; the Gullah Geechee collection at St. Helena Branch library has a copy; and the Lobeco Branch library has a copy in its Local History section that you can check out.

31 March 2021 - Matriarchs are very important people in Gullah culture. Beaufort's own native daughter, Dorothy Holmes-Olenja offers a loving tribute to the significance of Great Grandma Gladys (AKA Missionary Holmes) on teaching five of her great grandsons about having pride in Gullah contributions to American culture and history as well as leading them along the path of spiritual "seeking" for "the greatest gift you can give your family is to teach them to keep a close relationship with the Creator, the source of life and all knowledge." (p. 25) The book is designed for youth with vibrant illustrations provided by Chaveevah Banks Ferguson.

The BDC is the only holder in the SCLENDS consortium of this author published title.

Additional Posts Relating to Women's History: 

 

4 March 2021 - Paradise by Nell and Ora Smith recounts what it was like to live on Hilton Head Island from the 1960s into the 1990s as development forever changed a quiet coastal island into the premier resort destination it is today. We have plenty of copies ( https://sclends.lib.sc.us/eg/opac/record/3220255?locg=104 ) to share.

 

5 March 2021 - Because COVID-19 stymied public celebration of the 100th Anniversary of broader white female suffrage in the United States, the theme for National Women's History month continues to highlight the campaign to secure passage of the 19th Amendment. We do so as well. We have returned "Rightfully Hers" display from the National Archives to the downstairs lobby for all to enjoy during the month of March 2021.

 

16 March 2021 - So just how much do you think that you know about the history of women's suffrage in the United States? Take this Kids quiz about Suffrage https://www.2020centennial.org/kids-quiz to find out.

 

19 March 2021 -  Beaufort District has seen a number of amazing women in its past. An unsung heroine who confronted the injustice surrounding her was Susie King Taylor. Taylor served the 33rd USCT [the United States Colored Troops within the Union Army raised locally] as a nurse and a teacher. She did so without payment. She taught and nursed here in Beaufort among the freedmen being treated in the Contraband hospitals. Consider her words from Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S. C. Volunteers:

"In this 'land of the free' we are burned, tortured, and denied a fair trial, murdered for any imaginary wrong conceived in the brain of the negro-hating white man. There is no redress for us from a government which promised to protect all under its flag. It seems a mystery to me. They say, 'One flag, one nation, one country indivisible.' Is this true? Can we say this truthfully, when one race is allowed to burn, hang, and inflict the most horrible torture weekly, monthly, on another? No, we cannot sing 'My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of Liberty'! It is hollow mockery. The Southland laws are all on the side of the white, and they do just as they like to the negro, whether in the right or not... I do not uphold my race when they do wrong. They ought to be punished, but the innocent are made to suffer as well as the guilty, and I hope the time will hasten when it will be stopped forever ... I hope the day is not far distant when the two races will reside in peace in the Southland, and we will sing with sincere and truthful hearts, 'My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of Liberty, of thee I sing.'"

The Library has printed copies of her memoir and a children's book called The Diary of Susie King Taylor that you can borrow from the Library through our curbside service. Hoopla has an audio-book for children entitled the Memoir of Susie King Taylor: Civil War Nurse that you can borrow electronically and download. The Documenting the American South website contains (https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/taylorsu/taylorsu.html) her document that you can read online as well.

 

23 March 2021 - Editing "The Hidden Senator" recording put me in mind of some of the women in local and state politics who may be less known today than their accomplishments would indicate. Not only was Harriet Keyserling the first woman to sit on County Council, she went on to have a noteworthy state legislative tenure. Read more https://bdcbcl.wordpress.com/.../harriet-keyserling-1922.../ in the "BDCBCL: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids" blog.

 

26 March 2021 - The 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote but what did it matter? The Library of Congress recorded a panel discussion (https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-9071?loclr=eanw) about the women's suffrage movement and how it impacts women's rights today with author Corrine McConnaughy and journalist Elaine Weiss. "The Impact of the Women's Suffrage Movement Today" runs about 1 hour and 10 minutes. 

 

27 March 2021 - Before we leave National Women's History Month to highlight poetry, libraries and preservation of library and archival materials, you may want to view the National Archives' "Rightfully Hers" online exhibit https://museum.archives.gov/rightfully-hers and the behind-the scenes tour that exhibit curator Corinne Porter gives.

28 March 2021 - March has been National Red Cross Month since 1943 (https://www.redcross.org/about-us/red-cross-month.html). Given that Clara Barton was the founder of the American Red Cross and that she worked in our area during the Civil War and again after the Great Sea Island Hurricane of 1893, we compiled a list of sources about her time in the area https://bdcbcl.wordpress.com/.../09/clara-barton-1821-1912/ for the BDC's "BDCBCL: Links, Lists and Finding Aids" blog.  

 

30 March 2021 - A few days ago I wrote about how editing "The Hidden Senator" recording (now available at https://youtu.be/AEkCSOa6wOU) put me in mind of some of the women in local and state politics who may be less known today than their accomplishments deserve. Accordingly, I updated a Connections blog post first written in March 2016 to include at least a few more of the Beaufort County women (http://bit.ly/1CqMaef) who have served or who are serving in state and local government. 

 

Posts Related to Significant Dates in Local History: 

 

9 March 2021 -  On March 9, 1862, William C. Gannett and 52 other Northern teachers and missionaries disembarked from the steamer "Atlantic" at the docks in Beaufort. And thus began an educational and social endeavor that would forever change life for the "contrabands of war". Read more about Gannett and the Port Royal Experiment in a guest post written by his descendant Mike Gannett http://bit.ly/3adbf3H in Connections.   

 

18 March 2021 - "It's another "Red Letter Local History Day!" Read about Lafayette's visit to Beaufort in Connections, http://bit.ly/1CqMaef the BDC's longest running blog."

 

Other Post Topics: 

Posts related to home access to Ancestry Library Edition were made on 2 March; 7 March; and 12 March 2021 with two of those posts relating to Irish American genealogy sources on the subscription database that is temporarily available at your home with an internet connection and a valid Beaufort County Library card and password.

I particularly liked the newspaper clipping from the Palmetto Post from 29 April 1897 that I shared: 

 

 

13 March 2021 -  I informed Facebook followers that the latest "New (and New to Us)" List was available here in Connections.

 

19 March 2021 - The BDC has the largest collection of microfilm in the Library system. We have 19 local newspapers on microfilm; 18 series of primary documents from the South Carolina Department of Archives and History; some local and federal government records; and more. Contact us to get the full list of materials we have on microfilm and/or to arrange a date and time to come into the Research Room to use this service. 

 

We  posted a notice about bad weather affecting the Research Room schedule on the afternoon of  March 18th, expected schedule changes due to the recording session for the "Historically Speaking" lecture 2.3 and the upcoming Good Friday closure on various dates within March. 

 

Writing of "The Hidden Senator, Niels Christensen, Jr.",  I made reference to the local history program 6 times in March: March 9th, 10th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, and again on March 30th - because the Beaufort County Historical Society and I and the Library really, really, really want you to watch our final episode for Season 2. 

It is online on the Library's YouTube Channel for a limited run. Not only will you get to learn about this important local businessman and State Senator, you'll get to see some of the BDC's treasures as you listen to Anne Pollitzer share just a part of her family's unique history. 

 

Reminder: 

If you want to schedule an appointment for the week of April 5 - 9, your best opportunity is to get that request in to me gracec@bcgov.net or 843-255-6446 by 4 pm on Thursday, April 1st.

Beaufort County Women in Local and State Government, 1974 - 2021

Notes: The link to the Ciehanski Papers Finding Aid posted online was added 15 March 2023. - gmc 

Editing “The Hidden Senator” recording as the final installment of the “Historically Speaking” Season 2 lecture reminded me that five years ago, the theme of National Women’s History Month was meant to honor women in public service and government. Please note: This is at best a rudimentary list of women serving in local governments since 1974. Please help me by letting me know who I may have left out, their position, and the period in which they served in that position.   Therefore, I am updating the Connections post of 27 March 2016 to reflect the situation in March 2021.

Securing the right to vote for American women was a long and arduous process. After almost 100 years of advocacy and strife, Congress passed the 19th Amendment to the United States in 1919 and submitted it to the states for ratification. On August 20, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment and it became the law of the land. While on paper, every American female citizen was eligible to vote, the states set the voter registration rules and procedures.  In many parts of the country, exercising one's right to vote was abridged by these rules, particularly Women of Color. Even with the reforms of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964 in place, another decade passed before women began to secure elective office here in Beaufort County. 

In 1974 Harriet Keyserling (1922 - 2010) became the first female elected to serve on Beaufort County Council. She served in the State House from 1977 - 1993 and helped found the SC Legislative Women's caucus. Read her memoir Against the Tide: One Woman's Political Struggle. It is available in our Research Room or check out a copy from a branch library's Local History sections. We have a BDC.BCL List of Links and Materials about her posted on our Wordpress blog.

The very first archive we processed with a SC State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) grant was the Nancy Ciehanski Papers. She was appointed to the Beaufort County Joint Planning Commission, Island Commission in 1979 and was elected to serve on the Town of Hilton Head Island’s first municipal council becoming Mayor pro tempore in 1983. She was actively involved with environmental groups and the Hilton Head Island Member-at-Large Unit of the League of Women Voters. 

Juanita White, an African-American woman, represented parts of Beaufort and Jasper Counties in the State House of Representatives from 1980 - 1995. Holly Cork won the state representative seat left vacant by her father's death in 1989 and was elected to James Waddell's long-held State Senatorial seat in 1992. JoAnne Gilham, Edie Rodgers, and Catherine Ceips also were elected to the State Legislature. Margie Bright Matthews represents District 45 in the SC Senate, filling the vacancy caused by the murder of Sen. Clementa Pinckney, one of the Emmanuel 9. Shannon Erickson was elected to State House District 124 in 2018 and was again reelected in 2020.

Laura Von Harten, Dot Gnann, Beth Grace, Alice G. Howard, Cynthia M. Bensch, Starletta Hairston, Margaret Griffin, Eva M. Smalls, Gloria G. Williams, and Victoria Mullen are among former or sitting female Beaufort County Council members. Among former or sitting female Beaufort County Clerks of Court are Jerri Ann Roseneau and Elizabeth Smith. Maria Walls and Joy Logan served as Beaufort County Treasurer. Other women elected to County level positions were Bernice Wright, Sharon P. Burris, and Mary Ann Gray. To date Beaufort County has had one female administrator, Ashley Jacobs.  

The City of Port Royal has a number of women on its governing board and commissions. Mary Beth Gray-Heyward sits on the Port Royal City Council. 

Tamara Becker sits on the Town of Hilton Head Island Council. Kimberly Likins and Nancy Ciehanski once did as well. There may well indeed be women on some of Hilton Head's boards and commissions but I found no online list of current board and commission members.

Lisa Sulka was elected to the Bluffton City Council in 2004 and first won the mayorship that she holds today in 2007.  Bridgette Frazier currently serves as a Bluffton City Councilwoman.

Among the African-American women to hold elective office since 1960 were Freida Mitchell, Agnes Sherman, Ann Perry on the Beaufort County Board of Education, Alice G. Wright on the Beaufort City Council, Bluette H. Jones and Annette Drake Smith on the Port Royal City Council. A number of Black women have served on County Boards & Commissions. Among them were Jessie M. Jenkins, Mary Davis, Mary Mack, Renell Brown, Jennie Green, and Rosalyn Thompson.  

The 11 member Beaufort County School Board has six women currently serving: Ingrid Boatright, Cathy Robine, Rachel Wisnefski, Tricia Fidrych, Angela Middleton and Chairperson, Christina Gwozdz. Some former School Board members were Evva Anderson, Laura Bush, Mary Cordray, Geri Kinton, and JoAnn Orischak.