December 24
1856: Robert Smalls married Hannah Jones, an enslaved hotel maid five years his senior. It was Smalls’ first marriage.
December 28
1979: Longtime Beaufort County Sheriff James Edwin McTeer died of pneumonia, emphysema and other symptoms of old age at the age of 76 at Beaufort Memorial Hospital. Sheriff for 37 years from his appointment in 1926 to his retirement in 1963, McTeer was widely known as a root doctor and an expert on witchcraft, according to the Beaufort Gazette.
– Compiled by Mike McCombs
