History

"B" is for Brown, James (1933-2006). Musician. Born in Barnwell County, Brown began his career in Augusta in the 1950s when he formed the Flames—the first of a series of backing bands that would contribute to the evolution of his trademark sound. His first hit came with the 1956 release of “Please, Please, Please.” A consummate showman, Brown gave his audiences the total experience of singing, dancing, and showbiz spectacle. His appearances recorded as Live at the Apollo are regarded as the peak of his live shows.

"B" is for Brown, Edgar Allan (1888-1975). Legislator. At the age of sixteen Brown learned shorthand and became a stenographer. In 1910 he passed the state bar exam. He represented Barnwell County in the House of Representatives (1921-1926) and served one term as Speaker. Brown was elected to the South Carolina Senate in 1928 and remained there until his retirement in 1972. Politically, Brown was one of the most powerful men in state government. For thirty years (1942-1972) he was both president pro tempore of the Senate and chairman of the finance committee.

"B" is for Broughton, Thomas (d.1737). Legislator, lieutenant governor. By the 1690s Broughton had immigrated to South Carolina from the West Indies. He quickly became involved in the Indian trade and used his connection as the son-in-law of Governor Nathaniel Johnson to advance his position. Broughton acquired four plantations, including Mulberry on the Cooper River where he built a massive, Jacobean-style brick mansion dubbed “Mulberry Castle.” He was first elected to the Commons House in 1696 and later served as its Speaker.

"B" is for Bryan, Hugh (1699-1753). Planter, evangelist. Born of the colony’s southern frontier, Bryan was captured by Indians during the Yamassee War. After his release, he settled in St. Helena’s Parish where he became a leading rice planter, cattle raiser, and slaveholder. Bryan became an enthusiastic follower of the evangelist George Whitefield and, under his tutelage, began to apply religious writings of contemporary events. Bryan saw the Stono Rebellion, the 1749 Charleston fire, droughts, and outbreaks of epidemic diseases as God’s displeasure with South Carolina.

(Originally broadcast 10/20/17) - Millions of historic documents in the U.S., from presidential papers to personal slave journals, are facing an issue apart from age: a preservation method that has backfired. The process of laminating documents between sheets of cellulose acetate film, widely practiced from the 1950s through the 1970s, has now been determined to actually contribute to the deterioration of acid-containing paper.

"L" is for Lumpkin, Grace (ca. 1896-1980). Writer, social activist. A native of Georgia, Lumpkin’s family moved to Columbia in 1900. She earned a teacher’s certificate from Brenau College and then held various positions as a teacher, home demonstration agent, and social worker. In 1925 she moved to New York where she took a job with The World Tomorrow, a pacifist publication. After covering a Communist-led textile strike she went to work for a Soviet-affiliated trading company.

"B" is for Burke, Aedanus (1743-1802). Jurist, congressman. A native of Ireland, Burke arrived in South Carolina in 1775 and served in the militia during the Revolution. In 1780 he was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions. He was captured at the fall of Charleston and spent sixteen months in captivity. In 1788, Burke was a leading opponent of the proposed U.S. Constitution, but on its ratification he pledged his support for the new government. He was elected as an anti-Federalist to the First Congress.

"B" is for Bull, William, II (1710-1791). Lieutenant governor. Educated in England and the Netherlands, Bull was a member of the Commons House (1736-1749) and, on occasion, its speaker. In 1749 he was appointed to the Council and ten years later became lieutenant governor until his political career ended in 1775. During that period Bull was acting governor on five occasions—serving for a total of eight years. After refusing to sign the oath of allegiance to the revolutionary government, he was banished from the state and went into exile in England.

"B" is for Bull, William (1683-1755). Planter, lieutenant governor. Bull had a long political career that began in the proprietary era and continued for thirty-five years after South Carolina became a royal colony. He served continuously on the Grand Council from 1719-1755 and he was lieutenant governor from 1738-1755. From 1737 until the arrival of Governor James Glen in 1743, Bull was acting governor. During that time he led provincial forces in suppressing the Stono Rebellion.

The American South has experienced remarkable change over the past half century. Black voter registration has increased, the region’s politics have shifted, and in-migration has increased its population many fold. At the same time, many outward signs of regional distinctiveness have faded. But two professors of political science write that these changes have allowed for new types of southern identity to emerge.

"B" is for Bull, Stephen (d. 1800). Soldier, legislator. Descended from one of the first families of South Carolina, Stephen Bull was the nephew of Lieutenant Governor William Bull, Jr. Bull represented Prince William’s Parish in the Commons House of Assembly. On the eve of the American Revolution, he was a colonel commanding the Beaufort District militia regiment. Unlike most members of his family, he supported the American cause. In 1778 he was promoted to brigadier general and led his regiment on the ill-fated American campaign against British East Florida.

"H" is for Huger, Daniel Elliott (1779-1854). Jurist, U.S. senator. From 1803 to 1819 Huger, a Charleston lawyer, represented St. Andrew’s Parish in the South Carolina House of Representatives where he gained a reputation as one its ablest and most respected members. In 1819 he was elected judge of the Court of General Sessions and Common Pleas and served until he resigned in 1830 to return to politics. A Unionist delegate to the Nullification Convention, he strongly opposed the Ordinance of Secession. Following John C. Calhoun’s resignation from the U.S.

"H" is for Huck, Christian (d. 1780). Soldier. Christian Huck was a loyalist captain of dragoons under Banastre Tarlton. A Philadelphia lawyer, Huck was known for viciousness and his intense hatred of all patriots, especially Scots-Irish Presbyterians. He commanded British outposts around Camden and participated in actions involving Tarleton’s Legions. In June 1780 he and his command burned the houses and plantations of known patriots in the Catawba Valley of Upper South Carolina. In response, a loosely organized group of five hundred up countrymen set out to destroy Huck’s force.

"H" is for Hub City Writers Project. A literary arts co-op founded in Spartanburg County in 1995—and modeled after the Depression-era Federal Writers Project—the Hub City Writers Project marshaled the talents of writers across South Carolina and beyond to create a series of books characterized by a strong sense of place. The non-profit profit organization was shepherded in its early years by Wofford College poet John Lane, journalists Betsy Teter and Gary Anderson, and graphics designer/photographer Mark Olencki.

"H" is for Howard, Frank James (1909-1996). Football coach. After graduating from the University of Alabama in 1931, Howard accepted a position as assistant coach at Clemson under head coach Jess Neely. When Neely departed in 1940, Howard was chosen as his replacement. As head coach, Howard directed the Clemson football program for the next thirty years (1940-1969). His teams compiled a 165-118-12 record, earned eight conference championships (two Southern, six Atlantic Coast) and appeared is six postseason bowl games.

Martyr of the American Revolution: The Execution of Isaac Hayne, South Carolinian (2017, USC Press) examines the events that set an American militia colonel on a disastrous collision course with two British officers, his execution in Charleston, and the repercussions that extended from the battle lines of South Carolina to the Continental Congress and across the Atlantic to the halls of the British parliament. Author C.L. "Chip" Bragg joins Walter Edgar to talk about circumstances that led to an act that sparked perhaps the most notable controversy of the war.

"H" is for Horseshoe (Columbia). Deriving its name from the U-shaped orientation of its nineteenth and early twentieth-century buildings massed around a central green space, the Horseshoe constitutes the historic heart of the University of South Carolina’s Columbia campus. It features the capital city’s greatest concentration of historic buildings. The plan for the “college grounds”—as it was then known—came from a competition in which Robert Mills submitted a design inspired by styles associated with colleges in the Northeast.  Construction began in 1803.

"G" is for Grimké, John Faucheraud (1752-1819). Legislator, jurist. In1774, after  graduating  from, Cambridge, Grimké returned to Charleston. He organized an artillery unit for service in the Revolution and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was captured at the fall of Charleston and imprisoned by the British—but escaped and joined General Nathaniel Greene’s army.  He represented St. Philip’s and St. Michael’s (1782-1790) in the South Carolina House and served one term as Speaker. The legislature named him an associate justice of the Court of Common Pleas and General Sessions.

"G" is for Grimké, Archibald Henry (1849-1930). Activist, scholar. Grimké was the son of Henry Grimké, a planter, and Nancy Weston, a slave. After the Civil War, Grimké enrolled in a school for former slaves whose principal arranged for him to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. His academic performance came to the attention of his aunt, the abolitionist Angelina Grimké Weld who acknowledged the relationship and helped him further his education. After college he became active in politics and was appointed American consul to the Dominican Republic.

"G" is for Gridley, Mary Putnam (1850-1939), Civic leader, businesswoman. Gridley moved to Greenville in the 1870s where her father was active in the development of cotton mills. Working as her father’s bookkeeper, she mastered the daily operations of management and administration. At his death she became the first woman in the state to become president of a textile mill. In 1889 Gridley was one of the co-founders of the Thursday Club, a study club for elite Greenville women.

"G" is for Grice Marine Biological Laboratory. Established by the College of Charleston as the Fort Johnson Marine Biological Laboratory, its name was changed to honor the then president of the College. The laboratory, is located on James Island, on a portion of the site of old Fort Johnson—close to the end of a peninsula that juts into Charleston Harbor. State and federal laboratories involved in studies of estuarine and marine environments are also located at Fort Johnson.

Richard Theodore Greener (1844–1922) was a renowned black activist and scholar. The first black graduate of Harvard College, he became the first black faculty member at the University of South Carolina, during Reconstruction. He was even the first black US diplomat to a predominately-white country, serving in Vladivostok, Russia. A notable speaker and writer for racial equality, he also served as a dean of the Howard University School of Law and as the administrative head of the Ulysses S. Grant Monument Association. Yet he died in obscurity, his name barely remembered.

"G" is for Gressette Committee (1951-1966). In 1951, the South Carolina General Assembly created the South Carolina School Committee at the request of state senator Marion Gressette of Calhoun County. Following the filing of the Briggs v. Elliott case, which challenged the “separate but equal” policy in South Carolina’s public schools, the General Assembly created the committee to prepare for, and hopefully thwart, the possibility of federally mandated desegregation. Gressette was chairman of the fifteen-person committee.

"H" is for Horse racing. “The Sport of Kings” emerged in South Carolina within a few decades of settlement. Before 1754, most horses were descended from stock brought to Florida by the Spanish and known as the Chicasaw breed. Horsemen later imported fine stallions and mares from England and Virginia. In Charleston races at the Washington Course coincided with a gala social season. Inland, the elegant setting and refined audience attending the racing scene at Pinewood claimed to rival that of British courses. The Civil War ended horse racing in South Carolina.

"G" is for Gressette, Lawrence Marion (1902-1984). Legislator. Gressette represented Calhoun County in the House of Representatives from 1925-1932. He served twenty-three terms in the Senate from 1937 to 1984—representing Calhoun County until 1966. Then, after reapportionment, Senate Districts Nineteen, Eleven and Thirteen. Gressette was a long-time member of a number of influential committees, including Judiciary (1937-1984; chairman, 1953-1984) and Education (1939-1984; chairmen 1951-1956). He served as president pro tempore of the Senate from 1972 to 1984.

"C" is for Clover (York County; 2010 population 5,137). Clover’s history goes back to the 1870s when the Chester and Lenoir Railroad placed a five thousand gallon water tank at the site of the future town. According to local legend, water spilling from the tank yielded a patch of clover on the ground—giving the town its earliest name—Clover Patch. The town was chartered in 1887, with a population of about one hundred—most of the migrants from western York County.

"C" is for Clinton (Laurens County, 2010 population, 8,335). Clinton grew up around the intersection of two roads, one connecting Greenville with Columbia and the other Spartanburg with Augusta. In the 1850s, the Newberry-to-Laurens railroad ran through the intersection, resulting in the development of a town. The little community was named for Henry Clinton Young, an attorney from nearby Laurens. The town was incorporated in 1864. In 1874 Thornwell Orphanage was built to help children who lost parents during the Civil War.

"C" is for Climate. South Carolina’s climate is classified as humid subtropical, which is typical of middle-latitude locations situated on eastern margins of large continents. Rainfall is abundant and distributed fairly evenly throughout the year. There is seasonal variation in the temperatures ranging from hot and humid summers to mild winters with some below-freezing temperatures. Summers tend to be hot across the state. The single most important factor influencing the state’s summer weather is the Bermuda high.

"B" is for Briggs v. Elliott (1954). Briggs v. Elliott was one of five cases, collectively entitled Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee, KS, et al., argued before the U.S. Supreme Court by attorneys for the NAACP. Originally a lawsuit filed by twenty African American parents in Clarendon County for educational opportunities for their children, Briggs v. Elliott was the first case in the twentieth century to challenge the constitutionality of racially segregated schools. Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP represented the parents.