JUNE
June 1
1756 -- William Henry Lyttleton arrived in Charles Town aboard HMS Winchelsea to assume his new position as the colony's Royal Governor. He was a short, slim, 31-year-old man, well connected with England's aristocracy by birth and marriage. A great crowd turned out to greet him, and Henry Laurens expressed the feelings of many: "We are much in want of a new Governor. We mean a good one." (Charleston! Charleston! by Walter J. Fraser)
June 3
1757 -- Alexander Wood recorded the value of his inventory, including "10 slaves: Ophella, his wife Jenny an Indian woman with two children, 7 yrs. old girl Phillis & 5 yr. old boy Frank; York an Indian fellow one of the hunters, old Moll almost past labor an Indian woman; Pompey black a carpenter; Hannibal black a field slave; Nero black a boy & hunter; Peter black." (Source: Goose Creek: A Definitive History, Vol. 1, p. 88)
1776 -- S. Smith published "A View of Charles-Town, the Capital of South Carolina, from an Original Picture Painted at Charlestown in the Year 1774," painted by Thomas Leitch and engraved by himself.
1780 -- 110 of the "principal and most respectable inhabitants of Charles Town" accepted Gen. Sir Henry Clinton's offer of a pardon for all "treasonable offenses" to citizens who would take an oath of allegiance to the British government and lay down their arms. Among those accepting this pardon was Col. Charles Pinckney of Snee Farm.
June 6
1766 -- Elizabeth Thomas Broun died and was buried in the St. James Goose Creek Chapel of Ease churchyard.
June 7
1885 -- Minutes taken during a meeting of the New Wappetaw Presbyterian Church stated: "Charleston Presbytery at its most recent meeting adopted the following paper: 'This Presbytery has learned with sorrow of troubles which exist in New Wappetaw Church, that impair the efficiency of that church and hinder the progress of the redeemer's kingdom in that community. Therefore be it resolved that a commission of Presbytery be appointed to visit said church and make inquiries into the nature of those difficulties, and with full power to take such action in the premises, as under the law of our church their wisdom might suggest.'" (Source: Home in the Village, p. 126)
2021 -- Maggie Murdaugh, 52, the wife of prominent attorne Alex Murdaugh, and their son Paul, 22, were brutally shot to death by the dog kennels of their Colleton County estate, Moselle.
June 8
1775 -- Two Charlestonians who remained loyal to the Crown, a small-time merchant named Laughlin Martin and another man named James Dealy, were tarred and feathered by locals calling for revolution, based on an accusation that they had cheered rumours that enslaved Blacks, Catholics and Native Americans were to receive arms from British forces to help quell the rebellion. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 143)
June 9
2024 -- Thomas Charles DiFiglio, a Charleston resident who was born in Brooklyn, NY, passed. He taught in Charleston for several years before opening a Planet Fitess, bringing in Lou Ferrigno for the grand opening. Sen. Strom Thurmond alo visited. He moved to Florida for many years, where he dabled in stand-up comedy and was Burt Reynold's double on the television show, B.L. Stryker. He moved back to Charleston shortly before his death on this date.
June 10
2021 -- Randolph Murdaugh, 81, father of Alex Murdaugh, died peacefully at his home of natural causes, three days after his daughter-in-law and grandson were brutally murdered at their Islandton estate.
June 11
1733 -- Frances Brewton, future wife of Col. Charles Pinckney and mother of Charles Pinckney, an architect of the U.S. Constitution, was born.
2021 -- Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were buried in Hampton during a driving rain.
June 15
1737 -- Rebecca Brewton (m. Motte), sister of Frances Brewton (m. Pinckney) was born to Robert and remarried widow Mary Griffith Loughton Brewton.
June 16
1775-- A slave named Jemmy said in a depostion to Revolutionary authorities that he had been approached by his brother-in-law Thomas Jeremiah to "take a few guns" to a runaway slave named Dewar. The weapons, he said, were "to be placed in Negroes hands to fight against the inhabitants of this Province" to support the British. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 145)
1845 -- John Marion Lofton was born in St. James Santee Parish.
2024 -- One of Charleston's foremost restauranteurs of his time, Ali Rahnamoon passed away. Born in Tehran, Iraq, Ali and his business partner Shahram Aghapour immigrated first to Boston, then Charleston, where they opened Papillon on South Market Street and Ferrante's Restaurant in the old Sailors' Chapel at the corner of North Market and East Bay. They then opened Saffron's Bakery in 1986 in what had once been Jacob's Hosiery.
June 18
1945 -- The Ben Sawyer Bridge, connecting the mainland to Sullivan's Island and the Isle of Palms, officially opened, and the old Pitt Street Bridge was closed to vehicular traffic.
June 22
1867 -- A Category 1 storm, which still holds the record as the earliest landfalling hurricane in the National Weather Service's Charleston area, made landfall at Isle of Palms, then weakened to a tropical storm before moving through the Pee Dee and into central North Carolina.
2021 -- SLED reopened an investigation into the unsolved death of 19-year-ol Stephen Smith, whose body was found in the road in 2015 in Hampton County. The agency said the proble was being reopened based on informaiton gathered while investigating the deaths of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.
June 23
1666 -- Robert Sanford took possession of Carolina in the name of King Charles II and the Lords Proprietors.
June 24
1943 -- Rueben Morris Greenberg IV was born to a Jewish immigrant father and African-American mother. In 1982 Greenberg became Charleston's first African-American police chief. An article written by the National Review upon Greenberg's retirement in 2005 credited Greenberg with turning "the... Police Department into a national model. In the process, he became a celebrity and a source of pride for the city."
June 25
1784 --- The Hebrew Benevolent Society of Charleston, the oldest Jewish charitable society in the United States, was founded.
2021 -- Alex Murdaugh and his surviving son, Buster, announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for killing Margaret and Paul Murdaugh.
June 26
1738 -- As the terrible smallpox epidemic of 1738 subsided, acting Royal Governor William Bull proclaimed June 26 as "a day of publick Fasting and Humiliation" to remember the many deaths in Charles Town.
1742 -- Arthur Middleton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born.
June 28
1776 -- British Admiral Peter Parker ordered his ships to begin their ill-fated attack on Fort Sullivan (later renamed Fort Moutire, after its successful commander). This became Carolina Day.
2023 -- Folly Beach resident Sandra Meares passed away. For decades, she owned an iconic bar she opened in 1978 called Group Therapy in Columbia's Five Points neighborhood near the University of South Carolina. A nasty little dive, patrons traditionally shattered their last beer bottle of the evening by smashing it into a trashcan on the way out. Meares had a reputation as someone friends could come to for advice or comfort in difficult times, which she happily dispensed along with a cold beverage: thus the bar's name, Group Therapy.
June 29
2023 -- Marvin "Jerry" Gerome Beach of Mt. Pleasant died. According to his July 9 obituary, he leveraged his gregarious nature and perfect head of hair into a successful sales career. Not only did he serve as a mentor to his own children, but also to every child he saw selling lemonade. He was a good cook, fantastic tipper, and could swallow two slices of white bread in under a minute without a sip of water.
June 30
2024 -- Tom Sloggett, 91, a Michigan transplant who retired to Charleston after a successful 37-year career with Dow Chemical Company in Michigan and Ohio, passed peacefully at Agape Hospice House in Summerville. Tom and his wife of 69 years, Ruth, loved living in the Lowcountry. They were valued volunteers for many years with Historic Charleston Foundation's Festival of Houses and Gardens, where Tom often served as a Senior Street Marshall, helping guests find their way and answering questions.
