August 2022 Posts to the BDC's Facebook Page

In keeping with my 2022 - 2023 performance evaluation goal of "Social media posts will be reduced by 66% to free up time for preservation and archival projects," and the fact that I was out for 5 weeks recovering from surgery, I didn't make all that many Facebook posts in August. Most were related to the "Materials Monday" and "Black History Note Wednesday" series as you can see ...    

August 1, 2022 - "50 Shades of Beige: Materials Monday:" William Elliott's Carolina Sports by Land and Water is considered a sports literature classic. It has stayed in print since 1846. The USC Press reprint of 1994 with a new introduction by Theodore Rosengarten (author of Tombee) has a beige, brown and red cover - which is way I am featuring it here today.

The BDC has a first edition copy and several other reprint editions in the Research Room. We also share more recent reprint editions through the Local History sections at the Branch Libraries. In other words, there is no reason at all why you shouldn't check out "Carolina Sports".

August 8, 2022 - "50 Shades of Beige: Materials Monday": In Seth Rockman's review of Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina by Ryan A. Quintana (2018) he opines that the Quintana "makes the social history of enslaved people central to the processes of state building and the political economy of capitalism. Indeed, the book's great value is its recognition of enslaved people as crucial historical actors whose everyday lives created the infrastructures of the state."

August 15, 2022 - "50 Shades of Beige: Materials Monday": A great many people are interested in family history - particularly if someone else does the work for them and all they have to do is listen to the stories compiled from the researcher's work.

(I too am guilty of this. Most of what I know about my ancestors comes from compiled genealogies written by others.)

Among the genealogical books held in the Research Room for family historians to use as a reference is Abigail's Story, Tides at the Doorstep: The Mackays, LaRoches, Jenkinses, and Chisolms of Low Country South Carolina, 1671-1897 compiled by William Greer Albergotti, III (1999), a tome of 566 pages. The index is 55 pages worth of 4 column entries of names, averaging 75 entries per column, a lot of those using the same first -often common - name (or first and second - often common - names) over several generations. There is no way that I would be able to equitably unravel these multiple Richards or Thomases or Sarahs or Elizabeths in the time I have left on this earth - much less in the time I have left in the employ of the Beaufort County Council.

Therefore, the best that I can do for those who do not undertake the work themselves is to send a few cellphone photos of a family history book's index as I did a few months ago for a woman who lives in Nebraska but who had South Carolina ancestors. She was not able to visit the Research Room to review this title in person.

JSYK: We have approximately 15 linear feet worth of compiled family histories directly relating to families that lived for two generations or more in Beaufort District for our Research Room customers to use.

August 22, 2022 - Today is a great day for a 2-fer-1 deal: I have a "50 Shades of Beige" selection for my choice for August's Diversify Your Reading Challenge. Learn more about Ann Head's life, career and her best known title, Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones that is credited as kicking off the Young Adult literary genre in Connections.

August 29, 2022 - Materials Monday: "50 Shades of Beige:" The Rev. Archibald Simpson kept manuscript journals of his life from 1748 until 1784 that have been edited down by Peter N. Moore to 2 beige colored volumes of material. References to Simpson's preaching and ministry in Beaufort can be found in volume 1 on pages xvi, 97, 278, and 288n53 and in volume 2 on pages 2-4, 9, 12, 21, 170, and 230. He also wrote about his time in Indian Land and the people he served and observed therein - which in his case means the people and environs of Prince William's Parish and its Stoney Creek Independent Church. The journals would be virtually unintelligible is not for Moore's annotations and explanations of the interrelationships between many of Simpson's flock. Part 2 recounts the many unsuccessful pursuits the widower made among the area's women between 1765 and his ignominious return to Scotland in 1772 having failed to secure a second wife.

Rev. Simpson would return to South Carolina 1783 and would write of the Revolution's aftermath in Beaufort District: "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." (Extract of diary entries of Tuesday, November 4, 1783)

You can make an appointment to read Rev. Simpson's diaries in the Research Room: bdc@bcgov.net or 843-255-6468.

August 3, 2022 - "Black History Note:" A more contemporary version of the Trial of Sundry Negroes ... mentioned here on 13 July is Designs Against Charleston by Edward Pearson (1999). On July 2, 1822, officials in Charleston, South Carolina, executed a free black carpenter named Denmark Vesey for planning what would have been the most extensive slave revolt in U.S. history. Pearson provides a fascinating and comprehensive account of the Vesey conspiracy that uses both primary and secondary sources including the words of the accused.

August 10, 2022 - "Black History Note:" Black Majority : Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion by Peter H. Wood (1996, 1975) was a groundbreaking thesis in 1972; an important book of 1975; and has remained in print since. Wood explored the consequences of importing the largest single group of non-English-speaking migrants to the North American colonies on United States history through a thorough and penetrating case study of the Palmetto State during the period. The BDC has a copy but there are also plenty of copies that you can check out through the SCLENDS consortium.

August 17, 2022 - "Black History Note:" The Risen Phoenix : Black Politics in the post-Civil War South by Luis-Alejandro Dinnella-Borrego highlights the careers of six African American legislators, our own Robert Smalls included. The book argues that African American congressmen effectively served their constituents' interests while also navigating their way through a tumultuous post-Civil War Southern political environment. Black congressmen represented their constituents by advancing a policy agenda encompassing strong civil rights protections, economic modernization, and expanded access to education. As these black leaders searched for effective ways to respond to white supremacy, disenfranchisement, segregation, and lynching, they challenged the barriers of prejudice, paving the way for future black struggles for equality in the twentieth century. The BDC has a reference copy in the Research Room but there are two copies that you can borrow from other parts of the BCL.

August 24, 2022 - "Black History Note:" One of my favorite books in the Research Room is Camera Man's Journey: Julian Dimock's South edited by Thomas Johnson and Nina Root (2002). The photographs compiled here are of African Americans taken around Columbia and Beaufort, S.C. between 1904 and 1911.

There are plenty of copies in the local history sections at the Branch Libraries to borrow as well.

BTW: The American Museum of Natural History has the originals of these and about 3300 more images taken by Julian Dimock in its collection.

August 31, 2022 - "Local History Red Letter Day" and "Black History Note" are rolled up in one: Find out why frightened people white and colored fell to their knees singing and praying 136 years ago today in the latest Connections blogpost.

A couple of posts referred to the "Tide of Death" local history program I did at Bluffton Branch on Saturday, August 27th - which had 27 people in attendance. 27 people is a very satisfactory turnout for a local history program on a Saturday morning south of the Broad River.

August 25, 2022 - The 1950 Census Indexing update: It is fully indexed on the Ancestry Library Edition website - and in record time. The downside is that access to Ancestry Library Edition has returned to its pre-Covid state, that is, one must use it on one of the Library's public computers.

FamilySearch.org's 1950 Census project remains underway "indexed by computers, reviewed by people" with 80% of the states and territories all done. South Carolina's returns are completely indexed.

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. 

"Red Letter Local History Day:" Bluffton Movement, 31 July 1844

July 31, 1844 is another Local History Red Letter Day.

Serious talk of separating the Southern states from the Federal government began years before the actual break. In an address delivered from the Walterboro courthouse steps on June 12, 1828, Congressman for Beaufort and Colleton Districts Robert Barnwell Rhett demanded "immediate and unilateral state action" against any laws made by Congress that harmed a state's interest. If the harm was not remedied within a reasonable time, Rhett argued that a state should remove itself from the Union. This principle of secession would remain his clarion call until his death. He was an ardent supporter of slavery, vehemently opposed protective tariffs and bristled at the lukewarm response of the Democratic Party to Southern political complaints.

Sixteen years later the impassioned but ever sober Rhett found a receptive audience at a homecoming dinner held in his honor at Bluffton on July 31, 1844. It is said that 500 people showed up to hear his speech under an oak tree about limiting Federal powers: "If you value your rights you must resist." And thus was born the "Bluffton Movement" that many mark as the beginning of secessionist thought in South Carolina. This "Father of Secession" propelled the later creation of the Confederate States of America through his political actions and influence.

Others known as "Fire-Eaters" followed his lead and over the years more and more influential Southern White men began to consider secession as a viable option to their political, social and economic problems during the mid-19th century. Dr. John McCardell Jr. examined how this change in thought came about in his lecture "The Idea of a Southern Nation" delivered as part of the 2009 Beaufort Tricentennial Lecture Series. There were, however, some Southern White men who thought that the idea of secession was a terrible idea. Two such men, called Unionists, were James Louis Petigru and William John Grayson.

The Library has a lot of materials about the topic of Secession in the SCLENDS catalog and through the Hoopla Catalog if the ones on the flyers are not enough for you to get started exploring the topic of secession. A valid Beaufort County Library card is all that you need to get started.

Please note: The image of Robert Barnwell Rhett is from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 - Present website.

"The Planter" Escapes: Lt. Lamson's Letters

A perceptive United States Navy lieutenant, Roswell H. Lamson, was stationed on the USS Wabash in Port Royal Harbor from November 4, 1861 (participating in the Battle of Port Royal Sound) until July 5, 1862. He would later command a gunboat fleet that helped stop Gen. James Longstreet’s advance on Norfolk, VA and was very involved in capturing Fort Fisher in North Carolina in December 1864 – January 1865. According to editors James M. McPherson and Patricia R. McPherson, “Lamson of the ‘Gettysburg:’ The Civil War Letters of Lieutenant Roswell H. Lamson, U.S. Navy” contains “the best portrayal of blockade duty in the Civil War.” It’s lucky for us because Lt. Lamson was personally involved in receiving a prize of war that received lots of media attention in both the United States of America and Confederate States of America – and wrote personal letters to his cousin Flora Lamson of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts about the event.

Two letters recount the escape of The Planter headed by Beaufort’s own Robert Smalls.  In a letter dated May 13, 1862 while the USS Wabash is temporarily “off Charleston”, Roswell writes his cousin Flora Roswell that:

“… Soon after I commenced this letter the ‘Officer of the Deck’ bellowing through his trumpet –‘Steamer Ahoy!!’ – What Steamer is that?’ – and you may imagine our surprise when we learned that fifteen negroes had run her out of Charleston harbor, past all the forts and reached our fleet outside.

She is an armed steamer having six guns on board and was lying at the wharf between two other steamers nobody being on board except the negroes, when they backed out and steamed down the bay with the rebel flag flying, as they passed Fort Sumpter they saluted the flag on the fort by dipping their colors and as soon as they were clear of the guns they ran up a white flag…" (p. 60)

Another letter to Flora five days later was written from aboard The Planter:

"… You will no doubt hear before you receive this of the negroes running this Steamer out of Charleston harbor….The enterprise was planned by Robert Small, the black pilot, who proposed it to the others some time ago….Nine men, five women and three children came in her. When the Steamer reached this place the Commodore sent me on board…to take command of her, and the next day sent me to Beaufort to find good quarters for the families…. They are altogether better fixed than they ever were in their lives before, and it would do you good to see how happy they seem at being free. When they ran up the white flag and were out of range of Sumpter, Robert Small[s] said ‘We’re all free n* now.’ … Robert has his wife and three children and he says it was the cruel treatment his wife received that made him first determine to make the attempt to escape. They all express their firm determination not to be taken alive after leaving the wharf, and if fired into to sink rather than stop the vessel well knowing what their fate would be if taken. They say the slaves are treated with the greatest cruelty in Charleston now…

I do not know how long I shall continue in command of the boat for she is not a man of war and it would be contrary to naval etiquette to put a regular officer in her." (pp. 62-63)

Robert Smalls would serve as the pilot of The Planter for the rest of the Civil War. Lt. Lamson would later command a gunboat fleet that helped stop Gen. James Longstreet’s advance on Norfolk, VA.  Lamson was very involved in capturing Fort Fisher in North Carolina in December 1864 – January 1865.

The US Navy would honor Lt. Lamson by naming three ships after him: A torpedo boat destroyer built in 1907; a second destroyer launched in 1919 that served through 1935, and a third destroyer named USS Lamson commissioned in 1936 that saw service in the North Atlantic Ocean during World War II.

Learn more about how the military has honored the bravery of Robert Smalls in the WordPress blog. 

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.