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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Belle Baruch, a prominent resident of Hobcaw Barony, was very protective of her land, and worked to preserve her region; saving it from development. This is the story of Belle Baruch’s life, and the...
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The Reconstruction years were tough for the Baruch family, and the last straw for Simon was when he was asked to be the medical doctor at the famed Cash-Shannon Duel, in Camden. Simon Baruch moved his...
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Belle Baruch shared her father’s love for Hobcaw Barony when she was as young as five years old, for it was the perfect place for hunting and fishing. The home which the Baruchs resided in was known...
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The outbreak of World War One meant the beginning of change for the Baruch family. Bernard Baruch became an advisor for President Woodrow Wilson, and was considered the most powerful man in America...
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With the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Europe during the 1930’s, Bernard desperately wanted Belle to return home. Bernard enticed her by bribing her with owning a piece of the property, and...
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Bernard Baruch would spend much more time in Washington D.C. during World War Two. With his practice of meeting reporter and politicians at his unofficial office, which was a park bench, Bernard...
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The land around Hobcaw began to see changes. Developers had started draining some of the wetlands, and local wildlife began to diminish. Belle knew that preserving the habitat would be no easy task...