“O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come”
THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. HELENA
Celebrating 300 years
(A short history)
The Parish Church of St. Helena was established in 1712 by the Commons House
of Assembly under the Lords Proprietors of Carolina as a colonial parish of the Church of
England. It is one of the oldest churches in continuous use in the United States.
St. Helena’s was truly a frontier parish facing all the challenges of history, the
first being the Yemassee Indian War of 1715. This war resulted in most parishioners as
well as the rector fleeing by boat to Charleston for three years. The interruption delayed
building the church, which was finally completed in 1724. It was built of brick, much of
which originally was ship’s ballast, and then smoothed over with stucco.
One parishioner during this time was Captain John Bull, a captain in the
provincial forces. The provincial forces were formed under the Lords Proprietors of
Carolina who ruled the province from 1670 until 1729 when the name South Carolina
was adopted and South Carolina became a Crown colony. Captain Bull fought in the
Yemassee Indian War of 1715, and after his wife disappeared during that war, he
commissioned a Communion set in her memory. The stunning silver Communion set is
still used by the church today.
During the American Revolution, St. Helena’s experienced the first of two
occupations with the building suffering severe damage. One of many famous
parishioners of the church, Thomas Heyward, Jr. (1746-1809), was chosen by
parishioners to represent them in the 1776 General Assembly and became a signer of the
Declaration of Independence. Heyward was wounded at the First Battle of Port Royal
Island at Grays Hill in 1779 leaving a scar that marked him for the remainder of his life.
Among other notable parishioners, John Barnwell (1748-1800) distinguished
himself as an officer in the South Carolina militia, reaching the rank of major general.
Colonel John Barnwell (1671-1724) led an army against the Tuscarora in 1711-1712 and
was popularly known as “Tuscarora Jack.” He was the first to be buried in the Old
Churchyard surrounding the church and his grave remains there today.
During peaceful times, the church was enlarged in 1817 and again in 1842. The
original structure is incorporated in the enlarged church with the original bricks still in
the wall. Reverend Joseph Rogers Walker, D.D., rector from 1823-1878 is responsible for
the 1842 expansion. He is well known for the Great Beaufort Revival of 1831, when 40
young men of a community of about 600 gave up professional roles to become
ministers. Six of these men later became bishops in the Episcopal Church with one as
the first missionary bishop to China.
It was throughout this antebellum period that the Sea Islands of St. Helena’s
Parish became one of the wealthiest, most aristocratic and cultivated communities in
America. St. Helena’s was at the center of this culture and prosperity. Some of the
wealthiest and most prominent families in the American South were represented in the
church, among them Barnwells, Heywards, Elliotts, Rhetts, Fullers, Graysons, and
Wiggs. These were notable men in politics, scholarship, and religion during the
antebellum years.
2-2-2-2-2
Parish Church of St. Helena
A Short History
During the Civil War, Beaufort and the Parish Church of St. Helena suffered their
second occupation. In November 1861, Dr. Walker and the entire congregation fled the
area before the advancing Federal troops. The troops used the church at first as a
meeting area and for church services but eventually converted the church to a
convalescent hospital for black soldiers. The balconies were decked over to make a
second floor; pews were ripped out--many burned as firewood--and all that was left of
the church’s furnishings was a small marble baptismal font from 1784.
Rev. Walker and what was left of his congregation returned after the war in
December 1865 to a dismal scene. Bishop Thomas of the Episcopal Diocese of South
Carolina reported, “The church was a wreck of its former self and could not be used.” It
took two years to make the church usable for services again and seven years to
completely restore it. Craftsmen of the town hand carved new heart of pine pews, and
sailors of the U.S.S. New Hampshire, stationed in Port Royal Sound during the
reconstruction, hand carved the altar for the church as a gift of reconciliation.
The church and the altar survived hurricanes of 1893, 1896, and 1959. However,
the 1896 storm nearly destroyed the east end of the church, and hurricane Gracie in
1959 ripped off the east end of the roof. When debris was cleared away, the altar had
remained unscathed, and the church was repaired.
In 1985, the church raised the money to have a Taylor and Boody tracker pipe
organ built specifically for the church and installed in the balcony. It is patterned after
the 17th-century organs of northern Europe, the forerunners of the modern-day pipe
organ. The two-manual organ has 19 stops and 1,150 pipes housed in a beautifully
crafted oak case. The instrument was specifically designed to meet the needs of the
historic church and grows more beautiful in sound the longer it is used. Installation
required rearranging the choir section of the gallery, restoring the narthex to provide
two staircases, and demolishing the walls behind the organ itself. A tray ceiling was
crafted to accommodate the height of the case.
By 1998, the 286-year-old church was in need of structural restoration. All
contents of the church--including the windows with their hand-blown panes and
excluding the organ, which was sealed in an air-tight air conditioned box--were
removed from the church. After an 18-month renovation, the congregation was able to
return to a gloriously restored church on Palm Sunday evening in 2000.
Today, celebrating its 300th anniversary, the Parish Church of St. Helena
remains a beacon to the community and the world, opening its doors to all who are
seeking spiritual renewal through the Word of God as revealed in Holy Scripture and
the traditional teaching of the church.
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Information on Ancient Churchyard and historic graves below.
For more information contact:
Jan Pringle
843-838-9777
3-3-3-3-3
The Parish Church of St. Helena
A Short History
St. Helena’s Old Churchyard Cemetery is one of the oldest sacred burial grounds
in America established in 1724. In addition to “Tuscarora Jack,” there are 740 burials of
record including the grave of two British officers killed during the First Battle of
Port Royal Island at Grays Hill in February 1779. According to a contemporary account,
the Americans buried the two officers in a shallow grave on the battlefield and decided
two days later to bring them to Beaufort for burial in St. Helena’s churchyard. The
commanding officer in an address to those present said, “Soldiers and fellow citizens; we
have now shown our enemies that we have not only the courage to face and best them
in the field, but that we have the humanity to give their dead a decent, and a Christian
burial.”
There are over 60 Confederate veterans buried in the churchyard, which is
among the largest number of Confederate burials in a private cemetery in South
Carolina. In all, there are over 100 veterans buried in the churchyard representing the
Colonial Indian Wars, the American Revolution, and every major conflict through the
Korean War.
Other burials of note:
W illiam Henry Cory (1831-1893). Cory enlisted in the British Army under a
pseudonym and was a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava during
the Crimean War. This battle was made famous in a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson with
the unforgettable passage, “Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do or die: Into the
Valley of Death Rode the six hundred.” Cory came to America, enlisted in the
Confederate States Army in 1862, survived this conflict, and died in his own bed in 1893.
W illiam Elliott II (1761-1808). Elliott was a veteran of the American
Revolution captured and imprisoned by the British at the fall of Charleston in 1780.
After the war, he was the first to plant Sea Island cotton in South Carolina and the first
to grow Sea Island cotton commercially on the East Coast.
Robert W oodward Barnwell (1801-1882). When John C. Calhoun died in
1850, Barnwell was appointed to serve out his unexpired term in the U.S. Senate. He
was president of South Carolina College (designated a university in 1906), member of
the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, Confederate States senator from
South Carolina, and a candidate for the presidency of the Confederacy.
Lieutenant General Richard Heron Anderson, CSA (1821-1879). Anderson
was a commanding general in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil
War and for a time was the highest ranking Confederate officer from South Carolina.
After the war, he worked in the rail yards of Charleston, S.C., and was named State
phosphate agent. He died nearly destitute in 1879, and his grave remained unmarked for
many years.
For more information contact:
Jan Pringle
843-838-9777
[email protected]