Red Letter Day: 1886 Earthquake Felt in Beaufort

Latest update: 6 October 2023 

The ground quivered rather often for mid-and upstate parts of the state when this post was written in 2022. So far this year things have been quiet  - a circumstance which could change with absolutely no warning. 

As seismic events go, there are two South Carolina based earthquakes to know: the 1886 Charleston Earthquake and the 1913 Union Earthquake. Of these, the Charleston Earthquake was by far the most significant for Beaufort County. 

The 1886 Charleston earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale. It threw many people from their beds at 9:51 pm on the night of August 31, 1886. The earthquake rattled most of the East Coast, killed about 60 people, and caused much damage all along the coastal plain of South Carolina. It remains the strongest earthquake to date along the Eastern Seaboard affecting an area north to south from New York to Cuba and east to west from Bermuda to the Mississippi River. 

You can still see earthquake bars on some older Beaufort County buildings such as the Interpretative Center of the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park next door to the Beaufort District Collection.  

Here are a few local reports about the 1886 Earthquake as felt in Beaufort County as explained in Beaufort County Historical Society Paper #11, Reminiscences of Beaufort Storms by E.B. Rodgers in 1950:

"There was a rumbling from the northwest, then a slight shock, then a more severe shock and it lasted on through the night. The people thought the world had come to an end and rushed out of their houses and hurried to the churches. The white churches would not open. ... However, the Rev. Bythewood of the Tabernacle Baptist Church...opened its doors and to the surprise of all, the whites outnumbered the Negros [sic] in attendance."

"A tidal wave, twenty feet high, came up Beaufort River towards Port Royal and another down Beaufort River. They met just off Battery Creek and the water dashed high in the air..."  

I doubt that there was a 20 foot tidal wave because the Palmetto Post, a newspaper based in Port Royal then, did not mention any tidal wave at all. It covered the 1886 earthquake quite extensively including reports about aftershocks or damage to area buildings.  The newspaper included some colorful tidbits, such as "Weather Prophet Wiggins now claims to have predicted the great earthquake, and the most remarkable thing about it is that he claims that he predicted it before it occurred" (Palmetto Post, 16 September 1886, p. 2); the vilification of one John Thomson of Charleston for evicting earthquake survivors from his vacant lot; the inadequacy of the Western Union telegraph line in Beaufort; and, phosphate rock cracking at the Coosaw mines. But on the topic of a tidal wave, the newspaper is absolutely mum. I think that a 20 foot wall of water coming up and down the Beaufort River meeting at Battery Creek would have been noticed by someone and that the Palmetto Post would have included the event in its reporting - if it had really happened.

I propose that the author of Reminiscences of Beaufort Storms had heard the story about the tidal wave throughout his life and was simply sharing what he had heard with the members of the Society. He was but a toddler when the Earthquake of 1886 occurred as the preface to his talk indicates. Here is what he wrote:

My friends of the Historical Society have taken me for a much older person than I am and have indicated it by asking me to tell something about the earthquake.  I was only two years of age at the time -- I was born in 1884 and the earthquake was in 1886.  However, I have heard many things pertaining to the earthquake and some of those present know more about what happened than I, and I hope they will correct me or add to what I might say so as to make the record as nearly complete as possible."     

And perhaps someone at the Beaufort County Historical Society did discuss whether or not they had heard about the tidal wave as well. Local lore has a way of taking on a life of its own. Reminiscences can quickly turn into accepted not tested statements without the basic rules of historical research being considered. Given the date of Rodgers' presentation (June 1950), I doubt that he had access to the Palmetto Post newspaper issues from August - September 1886 in which he could read journalistic accounts of the earthquake and its aftermath. And, as his presentation title indicates, BCHS Paper #11 was a reminiscence, his recollections of what he had heard about the earthquake, not a formal historical study of local impacts of it on the Beaufort area. 

My favorite tale about the earthquake that Rodgers shared is this one:

“When the first shock [of the 1886 Earthquake] came, James Crofut was taking a bath. In his haste to get to the relative safety of the street, he remembered his beaver hat, but forgot his clothes!”

I can confirm that Mr. James Crofut was taking a bath at the time of the earthquake from the August 31, 1886 diary entry that his wife Ellen Chapman Crofut (1837-1905) made.  

She doesn't mention that he reached the street in the buff. He was a Bay Street merchant, real estate investor, and auctioneer. Here is what she wrote about the earthquake the day it happened: 

Quite a severe shock of earthquake was felt here at 9.45 pm. Ja[me]s was taking a bath up stairs and I was writing letters. He came down and we went out in the yard. Mr. Mayo and Willie came over: were afraid to stay in their building, it shook so. There were eleven shocks before twelve o'clock

The people white and colored were very much frightened. The colored churches (except Waddell's) rung the bells at 11 o'ck [oclock] and the people went there and stayed all night, singing and praying.

Mr. & Mrs. Burr, Nellie, Mrs. Fitzsimmons and three children were out in the street. James told them to come in so they did and stayed half an hour or so. Most of the Beaufort people spent the night in the streets.  

The next day she recorded seven more aftershocks, though "not severe". Several neighbors moved into their house at 201 Laurens Street fearing structural instability of their own homes. She also notes that communication with Charleston remained cut and that no mail from the North had arrived in Beaufort. 

Telegraph messages began to arrive on Thursday, September 2, 1886 indicating the safety of family members More aftershocks occurred at 1 AM and 5 AM.  

On Friday, September 3, 1886, Mrs. Crofut writes: "I was hesitating whether to go to church this afternoon as I feel too nervous to go anywhere by myself..." but some neighbors dropped by to visit. Later that evening, the couple 

Thought we had better go to bed up stairs as there had been no shocks today except a slight one at noon. James was in bed, and I almost ready when there came a heavy shock and we hurried on our clothing and went over on the sea wall. Mrs. Willet was there with Katie, her servant, Mrs. Levin, Mrs. Murray (Brown), and the girl who works for her. James came home got our two double carriages, hauled them over there. Mrs. Willett, Katie, Mrs. Levin and myself got in one and stayed there till 5 a.m. There was muttering and rumbling all night but no heavy shocks.

Mrs. Crofut mentions aftershocks of varying strengths, sometimes several a day, through September 10th.  

You are welcomed to make an appointment to read the diaries that Ellen Chapman Crofut kept from 1874 to her death, the clippings in the EARTHQUAKES vertical file, Reminiscences of Beaufort Storms, and the backfiles of the Palmetto Post on microfilm here in the Research Room. Contact: 843-255-6468 or bdc@bcgov.net to make the necessary arrangements. 

Author Book Talk on Saturday

(Courtesy of Stephanie Turner)

Please join us on Saturday, May 7th for another free inspiring and enlightening program about Beaufort District's local history and Gullah culture. At 1 pm we're hosting an Author Book Talk on A Yankee Scholar in Coastal South Carolina (University of South Carolina Press, 2015) with Bob Hester.

Transcribing the Civil War journals of William Francis Allen required a unique skill set. Allen was a New Englander with impeccable academic and abolitionist credentials who was "a perceptive observer of culture and events" in Civil War and Reconstruction era South Carolina. Taking an anthropological view of the former enslaved, Allen analyzed and collected their music for the first published anthology of Negro spirituals, Slave Songs of the United States (1867). He studied the syntax of their communication and dispassionately watched their interactions with others sharing his observations with his journal and a series of essays published in the Nation and the Christian Examiner.

Who had the particular set of skills and educational background to pay attention to the details and understand from whence came Allen's entries? According to Stephanie Turner of the Aiken Standard newspaper, Robert Hester, that's who.  Hester, an engineer by trade, is well accustomed to paying attention to all the details so vital in a scholarly transcription of manuscript material. Hester also has a deep interest in musical performance, theory and arrangement that equipped him to transcribe those portions of the journal relating to Gullah musical forms.


Hester did his job as historian and musicologist well. Professor George Rable, Charles Summersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama calls A Yankee Scholar  "fascinating reading" and says that Hester's work "immediately becomes an important new primary source for studying the Civil War era."

All are welcome to attend. Books will be available for purchase and autographing from the author at a discounted price. Doors to the Gallery will open at 12:30 pm.

D-Day

In honor of the brave assault of 24,000 United States, United Kingdom, and Canadian troops who stormed the Normandy coast of France 70 years ago on June 6, 1944, we share the next to last diary entry written by Beaufort businessman, Fredrick Holmes Christensen. Writing on Sunday, July 23, 1944 he stated:

It seems strange that I should write a diary in these exciting war times and have nothing to say about it. But to write a history of the war by a business man is out of the question. At best it would merely be the current rumors. Events crowd each other at such a bewildering pace that one can not begin to keep up with them. About a month ago the British and Americans accomplished the impossible and made a successful landing in France and took Cherbourg, but ever since the Germans have held them in narrow limits. During the past month the Russians on the other hand have crowded forward breaking one German line after another, seizing first one strong fortified point after along an eight hundred miles. They have driven the Germans out of Russia, have entered Poland, and are reportedly approaching Germany. The Allied forces in Italy, after being stalled all Winter, during the past few weeks have made notable progress, capturing Rome and driving the Germans to the Northern part of the county. The first week the Americans took Leghorn [?] on their end of the line.  Now come news of an attempt on the life of Hitler by members of the Army staff, which appears to have almost succeeded. The world can only judge of it through rumors that leak out, but it seems to indicate a serious conflict between the commanding officers of the army and Hitler's political following. Also in the last few days there has been a general shake up in the Japanese cabinet. This last appears to stem from the rapid and unchecked advance toward the homeland by the American forces.

Christensen died a few months later, 5 September 1944, purportedly from a blood clot while he was sitting in his hospital bed drinking a glass of milk. We have bound photocopies of his diaries, written from 1893 to 1944, courtesy of one of his descendants.