Minutes of the Vestry of St. Helena's Parish, SC 1726-1812 (Beaufort County) By A. S. Salley, Jr., 1919, 296 pages, indexed, searchable - Bonus Book - Address to the People of St. Helena's Parish By Hon. William Elliott, 1832 15 pages, searchable ************************************************************************* Digital Ebook CD Requires Adobe Reader 7.0 or higher to View ************************************************************************* $10.99 + $1.99 shipping and handling http://cgi.ebay.com/St-Helenas-Parish-Vestry-Beaufort-Co-SC-Genealogy-/130341929128?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e58fc00a8 vestry (in the Protestant Episcopal Church: a committee elected by the congregation to work with the church wardens in managing the temporal affairs of the church) The Commons House of Assembly, under the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, established St. Helena’s in 1712 as a colonial parish of the Church of England. The church was built in 1724 and is one of the oldest active churches in North America. Construction of the church building was delayed by the Yemassee Indian War of 1715. Built of brick, much of which originally was ship’s ballast, and smoothed over with stucco, the church has excellen t exterior proportions and fine interior detail. During the Civil War, when Union forces occupied Beaufort in November 1861, the entire congregation fled. Initially during the occupation, church services were held in St. Helena’s, but eventually Federal troops converted the church to a hospital. The church was stripped of its furnishings, marble tombstones were brought in for use as operating tables, and the balconies weredecked over to make a second floor. A hurricane in 1896 destroyed the east end of the church. When the debris was cleared away, the altar remained intact. The building was subsequently rebuilt in its present form.