City Directories and History: “Beaufort College was chartered in 1795 as a preparatory school and junior college for the sons of the local planter families. The college first opened in 1802 but was closed from 1804 to 1806 because of a devastating hurricane which hit the area in 1804. From 1817 to 1820, the college was forced to close because of a yellow fever epidemic which took the life of the most noted teacher, Milton Maxcy. The occupation of Union forces in 1861 also closed the school.
The original building was located on Bay Street and was later moved Craven Street. In 1852 the existing Greek Revival style building was erected Carteret Street. The pedimented portico is supported by four massive columns. The two-story building is brick covered with stucco.
General Stevens, Federal Military Commander of Beaufort during the War, took over the building and sent the college library to New Following the war, the Freedman’s Bureau leased the building. The University of South Carolina at Beaufort now uses the building for its administrative offices.”
Information from: Historic Resources of the Lowcountry, The Lowcountry Council of Government, Cynthia C. Jenkins, Preservation Planner – Published, 1979
Beaufort became famous in the antebellum years as a center of education
for the youth of the planter families. Children from across the lowcountry would stay with relatives or pay-room and board with friends or acquaintances in order to attend one of Beaufort’s several schools. Beaufort had a male seminary to educate young men, and at various times different private schools were conducted by lawyers in the town. In 1852, the Beaufort Female Seminary was chartered with Thomas Fuller, Lewis Reeve Sams, Jacob Guerard, Robert W. Barnwell, Stephen Elliott, Henry M. Stuart, Edmund Rhett, Henry M. Fuller, and Benjamin Johnson as trustees.
So successful was Beaufort’s educational system that George Parsons Elliott could claim in 1857 that they could not find a single white man or woman native to St. Helena Parish who could not read or write; so literate was the population that 33,120 newspapers and 3,460 magazines were distributed through the Beaufort Post Office each year.
The most famous of Beaufort’s schools was, of course, Beaufort College chartered in 1795 and opened in 1803.The college closed in 1817 because it was thought to have been the source of the yellow fever epidemic. It opened again in 1820 and operated for the rest of the antebellum era.The college had a distinguished reputation throughout the South and sent its graduates on to degrees at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, and the South Carolina College, as well as schools in Europe. After 1841, the principal was John Fielding, an ex-Roman Catholic priest who caned the young men mercilessly. Dr. Hal Stuart recalled being unable to eat his breakfast for fear of the flogging he was sure to receive from Fielding. Joseph Barnwell remembered his texts at the college: Walker’s Dictionary, Peter Parley’s History of the United States, Comstock’s Philosophy, Davis’s Arithmetic, and classical works on Roman history and Greek mythology. Every Friday several students delivered public orations. In 1852, a new Greek Revival college building was built, designed by Major John Gibbes Barnwell, II. The year before, Barnwell also designed and constructed the new arsenal building on Craven Street. (Information from: A History of Beaufort County, Vol. I, Rowland, Moore and G.C. Rogers, Jr. – Un. of S.C. Press, 1996)
Beaufort College—Beaufort—Organized in 1796, but it never sought to become more than an academy. It is an example of one of the most successful academies. One of the early teachers was James L. Petigru, and one of the most famous was Rev. John Fielding who served until 1858. (Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
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