Ribaut returned to France, where legal complications delayed his return for some years. By the time of his return, his party had been decimated by Indians, Spaniards, harsh conditions, and disease. When the English arrived in , they were warned that the threat from nearby Indians and Spaniards was too great to contest, so they moved up the coast to Charleston, where they established the first permanent settlement in South Carolina.
Before the Civil War, the growing of indigo, cotton, and rice made South Carolina the wealthiest colony in America even wealthier than New York , and allowed many Lowcountry planters to accumulate large tracts of land for planting and leisure activities — thus the southern plantation was born. During the Civil War, Beaufort was occupied by Union naval forces without a single shot being fired, which thankfully spared the many beautiful houses and buildings from burning.
Today, Beaufort is a major military center, with three Marine Corp bases; and a major tourist destination as a result of the sublimely beautiful Lowcountry setting and sheer number and variety of beautifully preserved houses and buildings, which form a virtual encyclopedia of southern architectural styles of the 18 th , 19 th , and early 20 th centuries.
Sea Island cotton became the finest cotton available in the world. Many of the sea island plantation owners built their summer homes on the banks of the Beaufort River to catch the cool prevailing breezes. Beaufort was referred to as the "Newport of the South.
During the War of , the British again invaded Hilton Head Island and burned most of the houses located near navigable waters.
Verdier House - Beaufort, SC. John Mark Verdier was a French Huguenot, who settled in Beaufort to build a plantation-based fortune. The local merchant and subsequent plantation owner was tremendously successful in his endeavors, and made a mint in the highly profitable Indigo trade of the latter 18th and early 19th centuries. By the second half of the s, Verdier had traded enough indigo to acquire more than 1, acres of Sea Island cotton fields and plantations, and as a result, his personal fortunes soared.
Shortly thereafter, he built a home to represent his rise in society - a Federal style mansion in the historic downtown district, close to the water, that cemented his ascent from the well-to-do merchant class to a wealthy member of Beaufort's elite.
John Mark Verdier was also the first U. Postmaster for the town of Beaufort in The exceedingly grand home with two levels of white pillared columns supporting two levels of front porches was a legendary local landmark from the beginning, and was even selected as a preferred home base by occupying Union soldiers during the American Civil War.
John Mark Verdier himself died in , just 20 years or so after the home was complete, but his son James Robert Verdier would rise to regional fame as well as one of the first successful pioneers in the battle against the deadly, and prevalent-at-the-time, Yellow Fever. The district was formed in and included the parishes of Prince William's, St. It remained relatively unchanged in size until , when a large portion was removed to form Hampton County.
They established a fort in , as did the Spanish in ; neither of these settlements survived, however. In the years before the American Civil War, rice and sea island cotton plantations brought great wealth to the region.
Federal troops occupied Beaufort in December of , and the first school in the South for freed slaves was established during the Civil War at what is now Penn Center on St. Helena Island.
The United States Marine Corps began training recruits at Parris Island in , and later in the twentieth century Hilton Head Island and neighboring sea islands have become popular resort and retirement destinations.
Some famous residents of Beaufort County are naturalists Alexander Garden ca. In the South Carolina lowcountry, Beaufort District was formed in as one of seven original "overarching Districts. These counties never became fully functional, and in these counties were abolished. Taking virtually its present boundaries, Beaufort District county was established in In , Beaufort District was designated Beaufort County. Its county seat, the town of Beaufort, is on U.
Highway 21, about forty miles northwest of Savannah, GA and miles south of Columbia. Beaufort County was organized in , has an area of square miles, and a population of 22, in , estimated at 22, in The railroad mileage of the county is 52 and it has one accredited high school.
The growing season numbers clays. The southernmost county of the state, the winter climate is mild and fresh sea breezes moderate the summer's heat. The town of Beaufort, with 2, inhabitants, is the county seat, and other towns with their populations are Bluffton, ; Hardeeville, ; Port Royal, ; and Yemassee, Navy victory in Port Royal Sound on November 7, Beaufort became the headquarters of the U.
Army, Department of the South, and most of the buildings were converted into hospitals for Union army wounded. At the end of the war, a National Cemetery was laid out north of Boundary Street as a burial place for Civil War dead. Beaufort became a leading center of the Reconstruction regime in South Carolina. A leading political figure of the Reconstruction era was Robert Smalls, a Beaufort native and former slave.
Smalls organized the Republican Party in Beaufort in and served in the state legislature and U. Congress for many years between and From to Beaufort prospered as a commercial and industrial center led by transplanted northern or immigrant merchants and capitalists. Cotton, timber, phosphate mining, and shipping all transformed Beaufort from a model of the Old South before the war to a model of the New South after the war. The Lowcountry region had been subject to numerous European explorations and several aborted attempts at colonization before the British successfully founded the city in Below is a timeline of Beaufort - from exploration to foundation.
In , less than thirty years after Columbus discovered America, Captain Francisco Gordillo, exploring from Hispaniola, stopped near Port Royal Sound long enough to name the region Santa Elena, one of the oldest European place names in America. Angel Villafane explored the Sea Islands but failed to establish a permanent colony. Ribaut explored the coast from Florida to South Carolina and decided upon the sea islands of Santa Elena.
He described the areas as a place teeming with edible wildlife and with a harbor where "all the shippes of the world could anchor in comfort. Ribaut left thirty Protestants on modern Parris Island at his settlement of Charlesfort named for the infant king of France and returned to France for supplies. Religious wars detained him, and his thirty colonists, plagued by troubles with the Indians and among themselves, abandoned Charlesfort, built a boat on Parris Island, and sailed for France.
In , Ribaut, undeterred, returned to the southern coasts, but this time to the St. Johns River in Florida where he established Fort Caroline.
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