SEPTEMBER
September 4
1765 -- Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch and John Rutledge set sail for the illegally called Stamp Act Congress in New York City. Gadsden, ever the ardent Patriot, served as chair of the committee that drafted resolutions condemning the act.
1882 -- The bells of St. Michael's rang city curfew for the last time. (Source: Broad Street and Beyond, p. 41.)
September 5
1686 -- Six years after moving to the peninsula, Charlestonians awoke at daybreak to what was probably their first major hurricane. It was known as the Hurricane of Spanish Repulse.
1863 -- Confederate forces finally evacuated Battery Wagner and Battery Gregg.
1912 -- A tropical storm moved southwest off the South Carolina coast before weakening into a tropical depression and making landfall on Ossabaw Island, Ga.
1971 -- The Wagner House at 6 Green Street on the College of Charleston campus was scheduled to be torn down to make way for the new library. Upon hearing the news, preservationists Elizabeth Jenkins Young and Jane Thornhill ran to the site and single-handedly stopped the proceedings and saved the house.
September 6
1804 -- A large, violent hurricane which probably would have ranked as a Category 3 or 4 moved north along the Georgia coastline toward southern South Carolina. Though it most likely made landfall before reaching Charleston, it produced significant wind and water damage around the Lowcountry and killed hundreds.
September 7
1854 -- The Great Carolina Hurricane of 1854 made landfall south of Savannah as a large Category 3 hurricane.
September 9
1739 -- The bloodiest slave revolt in colonial America began near what is today the Stono River Bridge on Highway 17, about 20 miles south of Charleston.
1854 -- After two days, the Great Carolina Hurricane weakened to a tropical storm as it crossed from Savannah into South Carolina. Although most of the significant wind damage was south of Charleston, substantial storm surge flooding occurred well northward along the South Carolina coast ruining many crops. This was the first storm to hit the area since the keeping of official records.
September 10
1859 -- L.E.A. Shier, sometimes known as the Trillium Angel, died aged four years, 11 months and 13 days, a victim of the "bilious fever" epidemic that was going around after an unusally hot, humid summer.
September 11
1859 -- L.E.A. Shier, 4, was buried at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Goose Creek.
1960 -- Hurricane Donna passed by the Carolina coastline, spawning a tornado that brought down three walls of the Bennett Rice Mill, c. 1844.
September 12
1896 -- Harper’s Weekly published an editorial cartoon, proposing what the U.S. Supreme Court might look like if William Jennings Bryan won that year’s presidential election. Among the supposed “justices” are Illinois Gov. John Peter Altgeld (rising at center) and to his left, South Carolina’s Sen. “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman holding said farming implement. The U.S. Constitution lies on the floor.
September 13
1775 -- Col. William Moultrie's “Liberty” flag was first raised over Fort Johnson on James Island, before it was more famously flown at Fort Sullivan in June 1776.
1819 -- John and Livinia Fisher nearly escaped from the District Jail by creating a rope out of strips of cloth. John went down first and had almost reached the ground when the rope broke, leaving Lavinia trapped on the jail’s upper floors. Rather than leave his wife, John remained below Lavinia’s window and was, of course, recaptured.
September 14
1700 -- The Hurricane of the Rising Sun struck Charleston.
1752 -- The first breezes of what would become the Great Hurricane of 1752 began to pick up during the afternoon.
September 15
1752 -- One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the East Coast came ashore, blowing a large ship anchored in Charleston Harbor up Vanderhorst Creek (today's Water Street), striking the meeting house of a group of Baptists who had recently split from the city's main congregation, and finally coming to rest near Meeting Street.
1703 -- Ruth Brewton, future wife of William Pinckney and mother of Col. Charles Pinckney, was born.
September 16
1713 -- A hurricane blew ashore just north of Charles Town, causing significant property damage and at least 70 deaths.
1918 -- The first case of the Spanish Influenza's arrival in Charleston was documented at the Navy Base. The base immediately imposed a quarantine.
1933 -- Marilyn Smith (m. Weeks), who would later be named Miss Charleston 1953, was born to Julian and Lucille Smith. She grew up in Old Windermere, graduated from St. Andrews High School, and attended the College of Charleston.
1939 -- The last prisoners to be housed in the Old City Jail on Magazine Street were escorted out. (Source: Abode of Misery, p. 15)
September 17
1708 -- Governor Nathaniel Johnson sent a report to the Board of Trade in London with the good news that the Charles Town colony was flourishing, with a population of 9,580 --- 3,960 of which were free whites, 120 white indentured servants, 1,400 enslaved Native Americans, and 4,100 enslaved Africans and African Americans. (Source: Charleston! Charleston, p. 28)
1754 -- Col. Charles Pinckney bought Snee Farm plantation (715 acres at the time of purchase) and soon afterward built a house there.
1765 -- The South Carolina Gazette ran an advertisement for a plantation overseer and his wife: "Wanted immediately, for the subscriber's plantation near Bacon Bridge, an overseer that understands sawing, making shingles and rice; one with a wife, to mind a dairy and poultry, would be preferred, but none need apply who is not well recommended; any one properly recommended and approved of, will meet with very good encouragement from Henry Smith."
September 18
1857 -- Sarah Ann Lowry Lofton died in Christ Church Parish, one of the first three victims of the epidemic that roared through Mt. Pleasant that year.
1918 -- Depsite the quarantine put in place on Sept. 16, 350 cases of the Spanish Influenza had been reported at the Navy Base.
September 20
1857 -- Samuel H. Loften, who probably brought the epidemic ashore, died in Christ Church Parish, just two days after his wife.
1863 -- Cecilia Lawton wed her distant cousin, Wallace Lawton, who had "recently bought a large plantation near Lawtonville (six miles off) and moved his slaves there, having been ordered to remove them from James Island by the Confederate Government in charte." (Source: Incidents in the Life of Cecilia Lawton, p. xxi)
September 21/22
1989 -- At midnight, the eye of Hurricane Hugo, a category 4 storm, passed over Cove Inlet between Mt. Pleasant and Sullivans Island.
September 26
1718 -- A patrol of pirate bounty hunters under the command of Colonel William Rhett spotted Stede Bonnet's ship in the Cape Fear River inlet, and one of the most amazing pirate battles in history began.
September 27
1874 -- A Category 1 hurricane made landfall on Seabrook Island, producing downed telegraph lines and extensive wharf/crop damage in Charleston along with two recorded deaths.
1902 -- The Evening Post, in its coverage of the opening of the new Commercial Club, noted that the building's fourth floor was enclosed in glass that could be opened, "making a delightful resort to spend the evenings during the summer months."
2023 -- Sixteen high school, middle school and elementary school principals sent letters to the Charleston County School Board expressing disappointment after weeks of chaotic meetings that ended in newly hired Superintendent Eric Gallien's paid suspension, saying that the substance and conduct of the meetings did not meet the basic standard of good governance from elected officials, and that partisan politics had no place in a system devoted to educating students.
September 28
1854 -- L.E.A. Shier was born to Aaron and Mary Shier of Goose Creek.
September 29
1918 -- Due to the spread of the Spanish Influenza, The Citadel suspended classes and shut down the college.
September 30
1838 -- James Matthews told the editor of an abolitionish magazine horrifying stories of being an enslaved person sent to the notorious "Sugar House" for punishment.
1918 -- The Evening Post ran an article on the recent outbreak of the Spanish flu, saying ". . . the best thing to do is to avoid public gatherings as much as possible, walk to work in the morning rather than be exposed to a crowded conveyance [such as a trolley].”
