“S” is for Sheldon Church [Beaufort County]. Prince William’s Parish was established in 1745. In 1757 a sophisticated, temple-design brick church, was completed on land adjacent to Sheldon Plantation. Contemporaries considered it more beautiful than St. Philip’s and more elegant than St. Michael’s. The building was burned during the American Revolution, but was rebuilt in 1826. However, it was burned during the Civil War and has never been rebuilt. Today, moss-draped live oak trees shade the quiet burial ground that surrounds the ruined Sheldon Church of Prince William’s Parish. Its molded brick columns support a nonexistent portico and continue between arched openings along the sidewalls to lend a sense of enclosure to the unroofed building. Even in ruins, Sheldon Church symbolizes Beaufort County’s prosperity and sophistication during the colonial period.
Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.