History
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Hilton Head Island History
Pre-history Hilton Head Island has been attracting seasonal visitors for thousands of years. Since approximately 8000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. Archaic Period Native Americans visited the Hilton Head area at different times of the year. In terms of more recent history, the existence of a 150 feet diameter shell ring along Skull Creek provides physical evidence that Native Americans (Woodland Indians) inhabited the island around 1335 A.D. during the Fall and Winter months of the year.
European Exploration and Settlement
In 1521, the Spanish were the first to “discover” Hilton Head Island when they
made contact with the local tribes. They returned in 1526, during coastal explorations
from Key West to the St. Lawrence calling Hilton Head Island “La Florida”.
In 1562 a French Huguenot, by the name of Captain Jean Ribaut led an exploration
in the area and built fort Port Royal on what is the present day town of
Port Royal near Beaufort, South Carolina.
In 1586 with England's growing power in Europe, Queen Elizabeth I was emboldened
and sent sir Francis Drake to drive the Spaniards from “La Florida”. However, even with Drake’s success, it wasn’t until 1663 when King Charles II granted eight (8) Lord Proprietors vast parcels of land comprising the territory they called “Carolina” that development of this coastal area was undertaken by the British. It was in this same year (1663) that an English Captain, William Hilton, discovered the Island of Hilton Head during his exploration of Port Royal Sound. The inclusion of the word “head” was a reference to the headlands comprised of the coastline that extended into the uncharted waters and became visible to them as they sailed toward the island.
The first English settlement in the area occurred in 1698. However,
Indian attacks, with sponsorship from the Spanish, continued to plague these
early settlers.
The first white settler on Hilton Head Island was Col. John Barnwell, who in 1717, was granted by the Lord Proprietors one thousand acres on the northwest corner of the island. By the year 1766 approximately 25 families called Hilton Head Island home.
Hilton Head Island
During the Revolutionary War Days
Hilton Head Island aligned with the Colonies during the Revolution, and its nearby neighbors on Daufuskie Island, just one mile away, supported the Tories. During the war the British frequently raided Hilton Head Island going so far as to burn some of the plantations. Hostilities between Hilton Head and Daufuskie continued throughout the war and for a short while after the war as well. Eventually these neighbors focused more on rebuilding and both enjoyed the prosperous “Golden Days” immediately
following the Revolutionary War, as crops of cotton, indigo and rice were
plentiful and in high demand.
While the exception of some additional drama during the War
of 1812 with the British returning to again terrorize island inhabitants
including the burning of more homes, life on Hilton Head, between the end
of the Revolutionary War and the Beginning of the Civil War was peaceful and prosperous.
Hilton Head During the Civil War Era
South Carolina
led the secession movement for Southern states to withdraw from the Union.
The first meeting held to draft the Ordinance of Secession was held in
Beaufort, at the Milton Maxey House, now known as the Secession House.
This placed the Lowcountry at the top of the list of targets for the Federal
forces.
South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. By November of 1861 a Federal fleet was in Port Royal Sound and began attacking all the settlements in the area. The Confederates quickly realized the battle was lost and fled. Hilton Head Island fell quickly to the Union Army. Pinckney Island was occupied soon after.
For the Union Army, and perhaps more importantly for the men and women living under oppression, this victory meant the emancipation of nearly approximately 1,000 slaves of The Sea Islands. As, black males were quickly pressed into service-becoming the first African-American troops for the Union Army-General Mitchel order the construction of adequate homes for the newly freed peoples.
Mitchelville, as it was come to be known was the first “freedman’s” village in the United States, located on the present day location of Beach City Road (where the hospital and library are.) The first school in the South for freed slaves was also established at what is now Penn Center on St. Helena Island. How ironic that the southernmost portion of the state that demanded succession was the first to accommodate freed slaves and make them feel at home.
With nearly 80 ships, 14 thousand troops and 1,500 horses
the Union Army now had a beachhead from which to launch its blockade of the South.
Hilton Head became headquarters for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
Eventually Union Forces reached a population of 50,000 on the island (more
than the number of year round residents today). Beaufort would
remain occupied by Union troops for the rest of the war.
The Hilton Head and Beaufort areas, while not left in ruins, were certainly affected by the War. The buildings may have
been left standing but the economy was destroyed. South Carolina suffered
much and the state, as well as its citizens, continued to suffer economically
well into the 1900s.
In 1949 a group of lumber associates from Hinesville, Georgia,
General Joseph B. Fraser, Fred C. Hack, Olin T. McIntosh, and
purchased approximately 20 thousand acres of
pine forest on Hilton Head and formed a timber operation known as The Hilton Head Company.
In 1950 the Palmetto Electric Cooperative brought electricity
to Hilton Head Island and in 1955 Beaufort County state representative Wilton
Graves opened the Sea Crest Motel (just two rooms initially) on Forest Beach.
The first vacation cottages were developed on Folly Field Road.
Hilton Head was connected to the mainland in 1956 with the
construction of the James F. Byrnes Bridge, a two-lane toll swing bridge. This made Hilton Head
assessable to automobile traffic. During the first year forty-eight thousand
cars traveled across the bridge.
In 1956, Charles E. Fraser, (the son of Joseph B. Fraser)
purchased his father's interest in the Hilton Head Company and began to
develop the company's land holdings into Sea Pines Plantation, one of the
country's first planned communities. The first deed to a lot in Sea Pines
was signed in 1958. Beachfront lots initially sold for $5,350 and nearly
doubled to $9,600 by 1962.
Additional plantations (communities) were started soon after;
Spanish Wells in 1960, Port Royal Plantation in 1961, and Palmetto Dunes
in 1967. With a full-time population of 2,500 in 1967 growing to over 35,000 today,
Hilton Head Island has maintained the island’s natural beauty through the consummate eco-friendly
planning of its residential communities, infrastructure and commercial developments.
