The town of Bluffton, located in what was the King's grant to Lord Proprietor Colleton, has had quite an interesting and important history.

Situated on the "High Bluff" overlooking the beautiful May River, it came to be, in the early 1800's, the summering place where the families of the rice and cotton planters of the surrounding "Low Country" could escape the heat, insects and malaria of the near sea-level plantations. It was a merry place where everyone swam, boated, fished, crabbed, shrimped and, in the cooler weather, enjoyed the oysters, clams and scallops as the Indians long before them had done and as the present day residents still do.

In 1844 the planters around Bluffton became angered by Federal tariffs which were making the goods they imported from abroad excessively expensive. Out of this discontent grew the "Bluffton Movement." Incensed planters gathered beneath what became known as the "Secession Oak" and the secessionist movement was born. Sixteen years later South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. On June 4, 1863, several Union gunboats and a transport carrying 1,000 infantrymen steamed up the river to Bluffton because, as the officer in charge wrote in his report, "This town has been the headquarters for the rebels for a long time in this vicinity." Troops were landed with orders to fire the town. Confederate soldiers attacked but were outnumbered and outgunned. When shelling and torching ended and the Union forces withdrew, 34 or more homes, churches and other buildings had been destroyed. This, of course, was a severe blow to the town which took years to overcome.