Remembering the Way it Was at Beaufort, Sheldon and the Sea Islands

Not long ago, Beaufort County, South Carolina was a quiet, sparsely populated corner of the Old South where the residents were just as likely to travel by tidal creek as they were so slog down the county’s dusty, track-worn roads. Generations came and went like the tidal ebb and flow, and eventually Beaufort County—like much of the Lowcountry—was the site of much development, which brought changes to the face and pace of the area. Life in Beaufort County is different now, but many of the old ways have been kept alive in the county’s oral histories—stories that have been passed down over time, preserving the past through spoken word.

Now, author and journalist Fran Marscher has captured these rich, vibrant stories for all to enjoy.

Remembering the Way it Was at Beaufort, Sheldon and the Sea Islands is a collection of these priceless oral histories, which offer a glimpse of simpler times and unspoiled landscapes that cannot be found anywhere else. In their own words, the residents of old Beaufort County reveal a time when turnips and scrawny chickens substituted for legal fees among some of the clients of Grace White, the county’s first female attorney; when Henry Chambers’ “Aunt Henrietta”—rumored locally to be the richest woman in the world, and an Italian princess to boot—stunned everyone when she brought her magnificent yacht right up the Beaufort River. And much, much more.