Alexia Jones Helsley and Larry Rowland Alexia Jones Helsley was a teen when she fell in love with Beaufort. Her love began as soon as the first storm blew in off the river.

Inspired by great teachers and surrounded by other students also blessed, Helsley found her niche for success early and easily. “There were six merit finalists in our senior class,” including author Pat Conroy and sculptor Daisy Youngblood, who just won a national award. By 1968, Helsley had joined the SC Department of Archives and History as an archivist, and her careers of genealogist, historian, author, and teacher were well underway.

Although her perspective was broader, more mature now, Helsley found much of Beaufort relatively unchanged when she returned to do research for her book, Beaufort: A History . “Beaufort is a great study in contrasts.” Its beauty has attracted Hollywood; its insects and diseases have brought grief; there have been both racial divides and cultural harmony,” said Helsley.

“Lowcountry isolation gave rise to the Gullah and Geechee culture,” Helsley said. “Before construction of some bridges that have since been built, the blacks on the islands had less interaction with white people so they were better able to preserve some of their culture. During reconstruction there was black leadership in Beaufort, and there continues to be,” said Helsley, mentioning Robert Smalls as a town hero and legend.

Helsley’s history of Beaufort naturally revisits the port town’s ups and downs. “It was taken by the Federal troops during the Yemassee War. When Sherman visited, it was already in Union hands, so he was just stopping off to feed his troops.”

The elements have shaped Beaufort as deftly as politics and culture. “Hurricane Gracie, in 1959, is the last direct hit Beaufort has taken. That was something to live through,” said Helsley. However according to Helsley’s research in 1893, before hurricanes were graded, one hit Beaufort while thousands of people were on the islands. “Those were slower times. There was no warning, just a blurb in the Savannah paper that a storm had hit Cuba.”

Among the pleasures Helsley revisited in writing Beaufort’s most recent history were contacts with old friends and colleagues. “Larry Rowland, who was in graduate school with us and now teaches history at USC–Beaufort, wrote my Forward.” He is the author of A History of Beaufort County and serves on the SC Archives and History Foundation board of directors.

The challenge of finding the black and white pictures her publisher wanted to use was made easier by long–standing contacts. “Ned Brown had taken my wedding pictures. He had some great pictures of Beaufort, including some of early Beaufort Water Festivals. I used a lot of family pictures, and there are some documents in the book I found at the (SC) Archives, as well as some Beaufort and Fripp Island materials the Christensen family had donated to the SC Caroliniana Library,” said Helsley. Those are among the 120 pictures Helsley was able to include in the new book.

Beaufort: A History, was released this summer by The History Press headquartered in Charleston. Since putting this manuscript into the hands of her publishers, Helsley has cranked out a third grade book on the history of SC.