Encyclopedia

The Spaniards constructed Fort San Felipe from sandy soil and other materials of the land. In its early days the fort had a triangular shape with walls made of wood and earth mounded over bundles of sticks piled high.

With walls five feet thick and fifty feet high, Fort Sumter was designed to mount 135 heavy cannons and garrison 650 officers and men. The fort was about ninety percent complete when South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, and due to the war was never finished.

The fort’s garrison included seventy-eight regular British soldiers and thirty-six Loyalists under the command of Lieutenant James McKay. With the strong garrison, the abatis, and the cleared land around the fort, Marion and Lee realized that a frontal assault to take the fort would be too costly.

Nearly a dozen rare, threatened, or endangered species are protected at Forty-Acre Rock, most notably the endangered pool sprite, which flourishes in vernal pools on the rock’s surface during early spring months.

The oldest fossils known from South Carolina are from the early Paleozoic era, from a time period termed the Cambrian period, and are about five hundred million years old. Some species called trilobites have been collected from several sites near Batesburg. Trilobites are the oldest extinct group of aquatic arthropods known and are most closely related to modern-day crustaceans and insects.

Other textile mills followed, but Fountain Inn remained primarily a commercial hub for nearby farmers. Twentieth-century transportation developments reinforced Fountain Inn’s prosperity, as the town straddled what emerged as a major north-south highway in the upstate.

Fox’s writing, both fiction and nonfiction, is characterized by his pervasive conviction that humor is a saving attitude and that traditional southern storytelling is a high art form.

The forest contains an exceptional diversity of animal species as well. More than three hundred species of bird have been observed within the forest, including such rarities as swallow-tailed kites and wood storks.

What was initially a three-building, two-year regional campus of the University of South Carolina became Francis Marion College, accompanied by plans to build the only comprehensive college campus in the Pee Dee. Since its founding, the campus has expanded to include eighteen buildings on three hundred acres east of Florence.

A prolific author of women’s fiction, Frank is a disciplined writer who works daily at her craft. She spins yarns—full of southern wisdom and wit—about the beauty, magic, and charm of the Carolina lowcountry.

Fraser spent his entire life in his native Charleston painting miniature portraits of his fellow citizens and visiting dignitaries, including the Marquis de Lafayette and John C. Calhoun. He enjoyed a long and acclaimed career and produced an impressive volume of miniature portraits.

Named to the team as an alternate, Frazier got his chance when a hand injury forced Mathis to yield his position on the American team. Frazier defeated Hans Huber of Germany to win the gold medal.

Despite the racial barriers that hampered African Americans in the early twentieth century, Frederick became a successful lawyer. Before his death in 1938, he appeared before the South Carolina Supreme Court thirty-three times, more than any African American lawyer up to that time.

Free blacks never exceeded two percent of the state’s antebellum black population, which was consistent with its lower-South neighbors but starkly contrasted with states in the upper South.

Even Freed’s military service during World War I became a platform for his musical abilities. As an army sergeant, he continued composing and put on shows to entertain the soldiers.

Created by an act of Congress in March 1865, the bureau grew out of efforts by northern Republicans and reformers to bring the free labor society and culture of the antebellum North to the post-emancipation South.

Throughout the summer of 1961 CORE and other civil rights organizations coordinated additional Freedom Rides, including two well-publicized trips from Washington, D.C., through South Carolina.

From 1973 until 1986 Freeman participated in the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Poet-in-the-Schools program. She served as a poetry therapy consultant to the Gastonia, North Carolina, Mental Health Center from 1973 until 1975. Governor Richard Riley appointed Freeman poet laureate of South Carolina in 1985.

Freemasonry in South Carolina dates to 1735, when Lord Weymouth, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England, issued a warrant establishing the office of Provincial Grand Master in the colony of South Carolina.

He became secretary of state in 1787 and retained the position until 1795. Freneau also operated a variety of business interests, including land speculation and shipping. By the early 1800s he owned shipping vessels, which he engaged for some years in the Madeira trade. Earlier in his shipping career, he had taken part in the sale of at least one slave cargo.