Berkeley Ramble to feature two special presentations in Upper St. John’s and St. Stephen’s Parish
The Society has been busy with placing the finishing touches on the upcoming Berkeley Ramble in April. There will be two presentations from historians and the enjoyment of riding through the pines and concluding with a delicious seafood supper overlooking the Tail Race Canal.
Ramble Planning Today
Shanda Phillips, Board Chair, Berkeley County Museum and Elizabeth F. Gay, Executive Director of the Society.
This week the finishing touches have been applied to the upcoming ramble with Keith Gourdin, Shanda Phillips, Cheves Leland and Elizabeth Gay. The team met in Berkeley to finalize the plan for the upcoming Berkeley Ramble which will feature Upper St. John’s Berkeley Parish. Shanda has recently been our partner for Colonial Day and with our Education Hour program when we visited the museum with students for a program on Brig. Gen. Francis Marion. Many also know Shanda through her work in support of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church of St. Stephen, SC. Keith has been advising on the Ramble since last Fall and is a well known historian in Berkeley County as well a member of the Society. Both Shanda and Keith are experts when it comes to studying upper St. John’s Parish and we are so pleased to have their partnership for our tour.
St. John’s Parish was created in 1706 and was the largest of the original parishes in South Carolina. Because of its great size, it was divided into three parts: Lower, Middle, and Upper St. John's. “European settlement began in earnest in the early 1690’s when Huguenots who had taken up residence along the lower Santee the previous decade were forced upriver by frequent floods.” (Source: South Carolina Encyclopedia). To the south of St. John's lay St. James Goose Creek Parish, to the east was St. Thomas and St. Denis Parish, and to the north was St. James Santee Parish. In 1754 the portion of St. James Santee bordering St. John's became a new parish, St. Stephen's. By 1775, St. John's and St. Stephen's had reached their final boundaries. (Source: The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 117, No. 3 (JULY 2016), pp. 205-255)
No story is complete without researching the SCHS archives
We have had our heads in the SCHS (South Carolina Historical Society) archives for months and one of the many treasures is the manuscript collection of William Henry Johnson. Not only does it provide property information, it includes family trees with full names. It’s a genealogist’s dream! We will be discussing many of his notes as we move through the pines. From our collection we will enjoy excerpts from “Reminiscences of St. Stephen’s Parish by Sam DuBose” which provides vivid detail on several Huguenot descendant properties. And, even if you are a descendant of one of the families described and know your own history, reading over all the neighbors and realizing how many “allied lines” there are is very interesting. This is just one of many research sources that will inform our program. We will be connecting dots from the parish down to Charleston, weaving together the stories of the families.
Where would we be without our Mouzon & Gaillard maps
We have spent countless hours engrossed in the 1773 Mouzon map of St. Stephen and a 1940’s Gaillard map of what was lost to the flooding for Lake Moultrie. These two Huguenot descendants have provided us with very detailed and informative maps that are a key part of our understanding our ancestors. Maps are a necessary addition to any successful Ramble as you must keep your whereabouts in your mind as you move along in order to stitch the history and families together. On our tour we will have copies of the most useful maps to provide us with a view into the past as we orient ourselves to 18th c. properties and communities.
Pineville Chapel and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
The village of Pineville, established 1793/94 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Chapel at Pineville will be one of the stops on the tour where Keith Gourdin will provide a talk which will include several maps for reference. The day will also include a stop at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church for a tour and talk hosted by Shanda Phillips. This stop will be interesting both for the history of the church and for a walk in the churchyard to study the headstones for ancestors. Members of the Bacot, Couturier, DuBose, Gaillard, Gourdin, LeNoble, Marion, Peyre, Palmer, Porcher families, and more, rest there. “A large part of St. Stephen's was first planted by Huguenot families, removed from French Santee, after they had outgrown smaller holdings and outworn poorer soil. At the time of the creation of the new parish, in the boom years that followed the War of the Austrian Succession, they were prospering mightily with indigo.” (Source: The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 45, No. 2, pg 65-70). The minutes of the church notes on July 22, 1754 Vestry men and Church-Wardens as: Vestry: René Peyre, Saml Peyre, Peter Sinkler, Peter Lequieux, Charles Cantey, Isaac Porcher, John Pamor; Wardens: George Bagby, David Boisseau.
Pineville Chapel
Keith Gourdin will present a talk at the chapel on the history of the chapel and the families of the area.
St.Stephen's Episcopal Church, St. Stephen, SC, c. 1760’s. It was built and designed by Francis Villepontoux.
Shanda Phillips will be our guide as we learn the history of this church and the Huguenot descendants connected to it.
Lost under Lake Moultrie are numerous communities, homes, graves (many relocated), and more. One property lost was Chapel Hill which has an interesting connection to the French Protestant (Huguenot) Church in Charleston. This, among other histories and connections, will be discussed on the tour.
What rests beneath…
How much of your ancestral history rests beneath this water? This view is from Bonneau Beach looking across Lake Moultrie and the Ramble will include a stop here and discussion of the history sacrificed to the water.
“We could spend a weekend and not nearly see all of historic Berkeley. There is so much rich history across the entire county. This year we will feature upper St. John’s and in the coming years we will visit other portions as we continue to preserve the memory of our Huguenot ancestors and their descendants,” said Elizabeth. “We are very fortunate to have Keith and Shanda as our guides and we look foward to their talks,” she added.