The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-11
THE ANCIENT CITY OF THE HUGUENOTS Charleston Still Swayed By
 Their Descendants DID MUCH FOR THE NATION Stories of the Old Church and of the Bells Which Have Crossed the
 Broad Atlantic Several
 Times.
DID MUCH FOR THE NATION
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.

the DfOdd territory or the united states there is but one of the old Huguenot faith. It stands in the city of Charleston. which has been looked upon by outsld- CTS for a century as a Huguenot city. There were never many Huguenots, and they have never been able to claim nus merica1 ascendancy even here. But TO people have exerted so great an influence in America in proportion to their num- bers.
 In tho sixteenth century Admiral Co., ligny sent colony of French Huguenots under command of the Slour Jean Ribault to find an asylum in America. They land ed at Port Royal and named the country Carolina" in honor of King Charles TX of France. The colony was an utter fail ure, and when Charles II of England gave a patent to the lords proprietors there was nothing left of the first Hugue- not settlement but broken column cut with a four-de-lis, and the names Port Royal and Carolina
 It was in 1879 that the ''towne of trade,' which had been established by the Eng fish on the west bank of the Ashley river was ordered to be removed to the penin-
 
 rivers and to be called Charles Towne." There Charleston is today, occupying point of land between two broad rivers. The rivers run to the south, and there fore Charleston is situated just as is New York, except that there is no river to cut the peninsula into an island Charleston was thus founded entirely by Englishmen. The lords proprietors com- manded the men in the colony to lay out streets not less than eighty feet wide and somc-R them to be twice that wide. But theres was obstinate objection to wasting so much land on highways. Therefore the streets are extremely nar- row in Charleston until this day.
 When Charles Towns was Just one year old the influx of the Huguenots began. For about six years South Carolina was the haven of refuge for those French Protestants who had money and courage enough to escape from the persecution of the Church of Rome after the revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes. In South Carolina they found laws which forbade the Roman Catholic religion, and the in tensey anti-papal sentiment of the Eng fish made them welcome. The Huguenot
 
 only about 450 of them in all. South Carolina then had perhaps 2500 other Flu ropean inhabitants The Huguenot infiu- once was great from the beginning. They erected a church as early as 1887. having organized their congregation six years before. The successor to that church stands now on the original~ site, and Tn the yard about 1t are buried tho bodies of those first French refugees and descendants Not all the Huguenot infu- ence in society and politics has come from the Huguenot church. for many of the oldest and most eminent French fam flies went into the more wealthy and in- huential communion or the Church of England and are now identified with the Protestant Episcopal church. In the Episcopal burying grounds in Charleston one sees the names Huger, Mazyck, Hor- ry and others of those families who have given the designation "Huguenot" to their times and customs.
 Be that as 1t may one can not but oe impressed by the little Huguenot church There 1t has stood for two and a quarter centuries. Elias Prioleau, it's first pas tor is represented by his lineal descend ants in the church to this day, and he founded the long line of pastors which ! has reached without Interruption to the Reverend Charles s. Vedder, who has
 
 the leader of that flock.
 The church is unique in that majority of it's members live away from Charles ton. This is due to the fact that it is the only Huguenot church on this continent and members of French Protestant fam files all over the nation have desired to keep up their church relations. To do this they have become members of the Charleston church. Some of these absent members are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Huguenots who left Charleston years ago. It is charac- teristc of them that they cling so ten- aciously to their traditions
 When the lords proprietors gave South Carolina a form of provincial government they were quite liberal for the age. They permitted the colonists to make their own laws, to establish their own orders of mo- blity, to grant freedom of religion if they so desired, but required them to es- tablish the Church of England as the state religion. So 1t was that South Car olina had an order of landed nobility. There were barons, cassiques and land graves The amount of land owned was a more important consideration in grant ing patent of nobility and title than was blood and birth. but all noble lines must sometimes begin in common clay. While there are South Carolinians who trace their families to Landgrave Smith, and the like, everybody knows that Hu- guenot blood is a proud possession. How few know that there ever was such a thing as a South Carolina barony?
 Dr. Henry Woodward settled South Carolina by himself and when other Epglishmen came he obtained them food fr6m the friendly Indians to tide them over the first horrible winter when they were reduced to one pint of "damified peas'' a day. From Woodward are de- scended the haynes, Rhetts, Barnwells. Rewards and other families eminent in South Carolina history. but when one reads of the carers of Robert Y. Hayne