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Timeline
100,000 BCE
Spring Island formed bordering the Atlantic seaboard during a period of falling sea level due to global glaciation.
18,000 BC - 13,000 BCE
Sea level reached its lowest recent level at 150 - 350 feet lower than today. Port Royal Sound was a 'blackwater' river swamp draining into the Savannah River, east of present day Hilton Head. Present day Spring Island was located 50 - 60 miles from the ocean. Sea level begins to rise as polar ice caps melt.
10,000 BCE
Oldest dated Native American artifacts from Port Royal Sound found on Dawes Island.
4,000 BCE
Holocene epoch ends. Height of ocean waters reaches present levels causing modern day barrier islands to form. Slight fluctuations in sea level continue to occur.
1,000 BCE - 500 AD
Native American artifacts found on Spring Island, dated to the Woodland Period.
1493
Columbus' 2nd expedition to the New World (Hispaniola). Several hundred indigenous Taino people are shipped back to Spain—the first trans-Atlantic slave voyage.
1525
Spaniard Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon builds fort on St. Helena, SC.
February 8, 1562
Sailing from the port of Le Havre in France and accompanied by diarist/artist Jacques le Moyne de Morgues, sea captain Jean Ribaut enters and names "Portus Regalis." He establishes Charlesfort honoring heir to the throne, Charles IX.
1576
Spanish destroy French colony at Charlesfort, reclaim area for Spain.
1663
William Hilton arrives in the area hoping to establish a British colony.
1670
Territory of Port Royal granted to Lord Ashley (Anthony Ashley Cooper) by King Charles II. Lord's Proprietors decide to move infant British colony to Charleston.
1706
Indian Trader John Cochran secures Spring Island through a Crown grant.
1715 – 1717
South Carolina and Georgia ravaged by Yemassee War; John Cochran killed in Pocataligo, SC.
1715 – c. 1885
Spring Island owned by the heirs of John Cochran, including Mary Cochran Barksdale and John Edwards, Jr., George Edwards' parents.
1776
George Edwards born. In 1800 he is recorded as residing permanently on Spring Island.
1816
George and Elizabeth Edwards purchase 14 Legare Street in Charleston, SC.
April 11, 1859
George Edwards dies. His son, George Barksdale Edwards dies in June of 1860.
November 7, 1861
Battle of Port Royal Sound.
January 1, 1863
Harriet Tubman hears the Emancipation Proclamation read in Beaufort, SC.
December 16, 1910
Freed slave Collins Mitchell dies on Spring Island.
1920
Colonel William Copp purchases Spring Island.
1966
Mr. and Mrs. Elisha Walker, Jr. purchase Spring Island from Mrs. John F. Lucas.
1990
Chaffin Light Associates purchase Spring Island. The Spring Island Trust is established.