Baruchs of Hobcaw Barony

Baruchs of Hobcaw Barony is the story of an extraordinary woman who broke many barriers during her lifetime and left the state of South Carolina an enormous gift upon her death.

General - South Carolina History, Environment

It is the story of an extraordinary woman who broke many barriers during her lifetime and left the state of South Carolina an enormous gift upon her death. Belle Baruch was the daughter of Bernard Mannes Baruch, one of the most famous and influential Jewish Americans of the first half of the twentieth century. A South Carolina native, he purchased Hobcaw Barony, a 17,500 acre estate on the Waccamaw Neck near Georgetown, as a winter home in 1905. Belle grew up spending winter vacations at Hobcaw and eventually bought the property from her father.

With Woodrow Wilson and her father, Belle fought hard for the League of Nations, and during WWII she served as a coastal observer, contributing to the capture of at least one German spy along the beaches of Hobcaw. At a time when environmentalism was a nascent concept, she created the Belle W. Baruch Foundation in her will, preserving Hobcaw for education and research and the people of South Carolina.

Funded in part by a grant from the Humanties Council SC.

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