“Last Ferry to Beaufort” Dinner & Lecture - MAR 28

The untold story of Beaufort’s last ferryman who toiled from the downtown waterfront to the dock at Whitehall Plantation on Lady’s Island before a bridge was built in 1927 has been written by ferryman Capt. Willie Roberts’ great-grandson.  Roberts, of mid-south roots but mid-west born, appears to have landed in Beaufort as a young boy immediately after the Civil War, and contributed to and lived to see Beaufort’s bounce back from an “isolated deadly-quiet little coastal town” of the 1870s.  Great-grandson Charles D. Wersler will present his intriguing family history which was never documented until he began to investigate and found the extent to which his ancestor played leadership roles in the community.

His book could have easily been written as a novel spanning from the 1870s to the 1950s in Beaufort.  Aided by a treasure of old photographs and family letters, Wersler found some answers to the mysteries he encountered but not all.  He encourages all to not to wait to ask questions of the “older folks.”