Perspective on the birth years 1900–1909

PERSPECTIVE ON THE BIRTH YEARS 1900–1909

The first decade of the twentieth century brought about significant changes that would affect Americans for years to come. Wilbur Wright flew an airplane thirty miles. Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company. The age of plastics began. Beatrix Potter wrote Peter The French staged the World Exhibition in Paris. The United States took control of the Panama Canal.

   Such milestones in history hardly had any impact on the still remote South Carolina Lowcountry. Except for wealthy Northerners who came to hunt the prolific wildlife, there was little back-and-forth between remote southern Beaufort County and the rest of the state, let alone the rest of the nation and the world.

   Shake hands now with sixteen of the Lowcountry’s characters, all of them born in the first decade of the twentieth century.