Beaufort County
http://www.co.beaufort.sc.us/
http://www.sccounties.org/counties/beaufort.htm

Both Beaufort County and its county seat of Beaufort were named for Henry
Somerset, Duke of Beaufort (1684-1714), one of the Lords Proprietors of
Carolina. The district was formed in 1769 from the parishes of Prince William,
St. Luke, St. Helena, and St. Peter. It remained relatively unchanged in size
until 1878, when a large portion was removed to form Hampton County. French
explorers visited this area long before the English arrived. They established a
fort in 1562, as did the Spanish in 1566; neither of these settlements survived,
however. Beaufort, the second oldest town in South Carolina, was founded in
1710. In the years before the Civil War, rice and sea island cotton plantations
brought great wealth to the region. Federal troops occupied Beaufort in December
1861, and the first school in the South for freed slaves was established during
the Civil War at what is now Penn Center on St. Helena Island. The United States
Marine Corps began training recruits at Parris Island in 1915, and later in the
twentieth century Hilton Head Island and neighboring sea islands have become
popular resort and retirement destinations. Some famous residents of Beaufort
County are naturalists Alexander Garden (ca. 1730-1791) and Stephen Elliott
(1771-1830); Robert Smalls (1839-1915), a former slave who became a United
States Congressman; boxer Joe Frazier; and writer Pat Conroy. 

Compiled by South Carolina State Library 1996. 
http://www.state.sc.us/scsl/beau.html

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