April 4
1922: Harriet Keyserling, daughter of Isador Hirschfeld and Pauline Steinberg, is born in New York City. After marrying Dr. Herbert Keyserling in 1944, she moved south where she represented Beaufort for 16 years in the state legislature. She was elected to Beaufort County Council in 1974 and served one term. Then from 1977 to 1993, Keyserling spent her time in the statehouse focused on energy, nuclear waste, the arts, education, women’s rights and ending the filibuster in the House. She was the mother of longtime Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling.
2019: About 50 people gather in front of Congressman Joe Cunningham’s office on Boundary Street to protest the failure of the Trump Administration to release Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
April 5
1839: Robert Smalls is born into slavery in Beaufort. During the Civil War, Smalls became a hero for the Union. He freed himself, his crew, and their families by commandeering the CSS Planter on May 13, 1862 in Charleston harbor and sailing it through the Confederate-controlled waters of the harbor to the U.S. blockade at sea. After the Civil War, Smalls returned to Beaufort and won election as a Republican to the South Carolina Legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives during Reconstruction. He authored state legislation providing for South Carolina to have the first free and compulsory public school system in the United States and he founded the Republican Party of South Carolina. He served five terms in Congress.
April 6
2019: Former U.S. Senator and S.C. Governor Fritz Hollings, a longtime mentor to Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling, dies at the age of 97.
2019: The NAO Santa Maria, a hand-built replica of the largest of Christopher Columbus’ 15th-century ships that sailed to the Americas from Spain, visits Beaufort. The ship, open for tours, stayed in Beaufort for eight days.
April 9
1890: Robert Smalls marries Charleston schoolteacher Annie E. Wigg. It was Smalls’ second marriage.
– Compiled by Mike McCombs
