Time Travels in Beaufort

A Walking Tour through Family History

Our grandmother Mary Bell Grayson (1909-2001) grew up in Savannah Georgia, where her maternal English ancestors were among the first families of the fledgling Georgia colony. Her paternal Bell ancestors hailed from Scotland and Ireland and settled in the South Carolina Sea Islands, including the town of Beaufort on Port Royal Island. Like every other white family on the island, the Bells fled in haste on November 7, 1861, many never to return. I had the privilege of spending two beautiful days in historic Beaufort this past June, my first visit. To our knowledge, even Mary herself had never returned, so to speak.

Beaufort Arsenal and St. Peter’s Catholic Church

In November 1861 Mary’s grandfather Julius Bythewood Bell (1834-1897) was an unmarried 26 year-old clerk and Corporal in the local militia, the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery (BVA) The BVA mustered and trained at the Beaufort Arsenal, a yellow-gray fortress-like building that now serves as the Beaufort Visitor Center. Just up the street is Old St. Peter’s Church, where Mary’s Irish-born great-grandfather Samuel Catherwood (1822-1873) worshiped. Samuel’s first wife Rosa Ann (1819-1851) lies buried in St. Peter’s small graveyard. Julius Bell married Samuel’s daughter Elizabeth Jane (1853-ca. 1900) in Savannah in 1872.

St. Helena Church

Young Julius and his family worshiped at St. Helena Episcopal Church. The church dates to the early 1700s and has undergone numerous changes including being used as a Union hospital during the U.S. Civil War. Julius’ Scottish-born great-grandfather James Black (1740-1780) was a church elder in the 1770s. His wife Rachel Adams Black (1743-1787), and likely James himself, are interred in the St. Helena cemetery. Though worn considerably, the headstone of their daughter (Julius’ grandmother) Ann Black Bythewood (1769-1846) can still be found there.

Secession House

We met our insightful tour guide Janet on the veranda of the Rhett House Inn, a Bed and Breakfast that faces the Beaufort River. Nearby stands the Milton-Maxcy House, aptly nicknamed Secession House. The Union Army subsequently used it for various purposes after the secessionists fled in 1861.

The Point

Across Carteret Street to the east, the neighborhood now known as The Point juts into a bend of the Beaufort River. It boasts an impressive number of well-preserved historic homes. Before most of them were built our ancestor James Black owned the land and ran a successful shipbuilding operation. For many years the area was known as Black’s Point. James was mortally wounded by British redcoats at the Battle of Stono Ferry in 1789.

The John Bell House

James’ daughter Ann married John Hingston Bythewood (1767-1815), a ship’s captain from England who built a home on Black’s Point that still stands. Their daughter Margaret Bythewood Bell (1810-?) lived there with her husband John (1792-1864) and their son Julius when the war came in 1861. According to Beaufort Online “In 1862, Margaret testified she had lived in the house for “20 years before” outbreak of Civil War. Conveyed after the Direct Tax Sale by Tax Sale Certificate #223, the house is said to have been bought by a former slave [named] Mary Bell. The house remained in the hands of former slaves and their descendants until it was severely damaged and abandoned after the storm of 1893. Stories have followed the house that during the great storm boatloads of refugees from the islands were unloaded on the front porch, the highest point in the vicinity.”

House Auctions

The Union Army occupied much of the area in and around Beaufort for the entirety of the Civil War. The U.S. government confiscated land and homes alike for “failure to pay taxes,” then sold much of it at auction to speculators, northern carpetbaggers, and freedmen and women. The “John Bell House” was appraised at $700 and purchased for $250 by the aforementioned freedwoman Mary Bell.¹ Similarly, the nearby home of John Bell’s (and thus our) cousin Henry McKee was purchased by his former slave, Civil War hero Robert Smalls, who after the war reportedly welcomed Henry’s now poverty-stricken and somewhat addled wife Jane Bond McKee into her former home where she was treated like the mistress she once was.

At least one pre-war Beaufort homeowner was able to reclaim his house at auction. Dr. Joseph R. Johnson was said to have hastily buried many of his family’s valuables under the floorboards of an outbuilding before fleeing in the face of the invading Navy. The freed slaves and Union soldiers had undoubtedly found many such caches, but Dr. Johnson’s home was used as a Union hospital almost from the outset and the outbuilding was said to have been used as a morgue. “Ironically,” noted an online source, “the bodies of dead soldiers were to provide a macabre protection for the [treasure] buried beneath the floor.” Dr. Johnson was able to dig up his valuables and pay the $2000 in back taxes. “The Castle,” as it is now known, remained in the Johnson family until 1981.

¹Rebellion Reconstruction, and Redemption, 1861-1893: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina Vol. II by S. Wise and L. Rowland © 2015 University of South Carolina Press pg 266. 267