Today’s Mystery is another older view when most photos were in black and white. There are several clues staring you in the face. See if you can identify today’s mystery. Send your idea to ebrack2@gmail.com, and tell us your hometown.
Susie Duke, Norcross, was dead-on with her identification: “I believe this is a picture of the ruins of the Old Sheldon Church outside of Beaufort, S.C. We stopped there many times en route to Fripp Island. I could just tell by looking at it. We went to Fripp Island for 45+ years. We stopped there many times to walk among the ruins. It was destroyed twice, as I recall – in the Revolutionary War and, after it was rebuilt, it was burned during the Civil War.”
Ross Lenhart of Stone Mountain added: “I am a born and raised lowcountry boy. This is Sheldon Church, also known as Prince William’s Parish in Beaufort County, S.C.
“I remember first seeing Sheldon Church when I was a boy traveling the lowcountry in the summers with my forester Dad. I also had the opportunity to visit Hilton Head Island by boat before the bridge, and it was beautiful, just inhabited by Gullah folks and large moss-hanging live oaks.”
Jay Altman of Columbia, S.C. wrote: “This is Old Sheldon Church Ruins, a historic site located in northern Beaufort County, S.C. near Yemassee and Beaufort. I have actually visited this site twice…awesome destination..”
Others recognizing this church include George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Kathy Mudd, Norcross; Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill; Elizabeth Truluck Neace, Dacula. The photo came from Stewart Woodard of Lawrenceville.
Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, contributed: “Although the mystery photo is dated, the ruins have always been a popular spot for photographers, especially when the sunlight filters through the Spanish moss hanging from the ancient oak trees that scatter about the property.
“But this leads us to another ‘mystery’ that many folks may not be aware of about these historic ruins. What was the real cause of its second destruction?
“For the longest time, it was believed to have been the result of General Sherman’s troops ‘March to the Sea’ campaign, where he is reported to have destroyed the church on January 14, 1865, just months before the end of the Civil War. However, many archival research and archaeological studies between the 1970s–1990s ultimately cast doubt on this version of events. The studies could find no definitive military records or documented eyewitness accounts confirming that the Union troops burned the church in 1865.
“Furthermore, materials from the church appear to have been salvaged or repurposed, suggesting intentional dismantling rather than violent destruction. Finally, the site showed signs of gradual ruin, more consistent with post-war scavenging than a single conflagration. As a result, most historians now believe that the church was likely stripped for building materials during the Reconstruction era, when local families were rebuilding their homes and plantations and lacked resources. The Civil War fire or destruction story, while dramatic, is now seen as a romanticized myth rather than a documented fact.”
- SHARE A MYSTERY PHOTO: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Click here to send an email and please mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
