A BEAUFORT GRANDMOTHER, Mrs. Helen Christensen, lived for a time at Fremont shortly after the turn of the century.
"My father ran the pumping station and Mother was the postmaster," she says. "I was just a school-girl then but I remember it as a pleasant place with rows of chinaberry trees and a big parade ground."
"There was a fine dock, too, and a little steamboat ran twice a day to Beaufort. I had to take a summer class in physics one year and I remember riding that boat back and forth every day."
It was a tight, self-contained little world with small room for the usual Army rank barriers, Mrs. Christensen recalls.
"All of the officers were married, most of the non-coms and some of the privates," she says. "The officers and non-coms had quarters at the fort. Mother helped when babies came and a lot of them were named for me, for some reason."
It was Mrs. Christensen's father who supervised the dismantling of the wooden buildings after the fort was abandoned.
The rest of the story comes from the yellow and brittle files of the Beaufort Gazette and the Palmetto Post, the county weeklies of that day. It is a fragmentary story, at best, revealing only glimpses of what went on at the island outpost.
Fort Fremont was one link in a $50 million chain of coastal defenses hastily ordered established after the battleship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor on the night of February 15, 1898. The land was acquired by condemnation and presumably construction began sometime after the war was declared that April 19.
But it took almost a year later - March 2, 1899 - before the Palmetto Post took note that fortifications were going up on Port Royal Sound. A terse little item informed readers that a "large" force of laborers was working at the Land's End Fort.
"TWO RAPID FIRE four inch guns have already been mounted and emplacements are being built for three 10-inch rifles," the Post reported. "Work is expected to be completed within two months."
A detail of 24 men from the Sixth Infantry Regiment were stationed there, the story added, and reinforcements were expected."""
This article goes on and on with the history. It is full of bits and pieces, and a lot is unknown about Fort Fremont. All articles that I found suggest that the government abandoned Fort Fremont because of lack of funds and lack of use. But why spend all that money ($22,000 was a lot of money in 1899!) and then simply leave it there to rot??
Fort Fremont is a forgotten bit of history. Most Beaufort visitors do not know it is here. So why has no one taken the time to (A) find out why the government doesn't at least declare it a historic spot! (B) clean the old fort up a bit - I mean, how disrespectful is it to spray paint disguisting pictures on something that is part of Beaufort's history, (C) if not clean it up, then organize a clean-up effort.
Below is the road in front of Fort Fremont. Notice the black "No Trespassing" sign high on the tree to the left.
IF anyone who reads this has information about Fort Fremont which I have not touched on, please do not hesitate to email me.
Also, this is the millennium for goodness' sake! It has been 101 years since Fort Fremont was first begun to be built. I think it is about time for some kind of a clean up effort. If you would be interested in joining a large group of people one Saturday to clean up Fort Fremont - no we're not building a new one, just picking up trash, scrubbing some graffiti off walls, etc - then please email me and tell me! I will keep in touch and we will do this, together. Because the south is strong when we are together as one.
summerlandsangel@aol.com
