Bluefields

Front inscription

“Bluefields,” named for the Blue family, was built by 1870. Annie Evans Blue (d. 1912) was given this land in 1872 by her father William Evans (1804-1876), Marion District planter, militia general, and state representative. Annie Blue and her husband, John Gilchrist Blue (1829-1889) raised their family here. John Gilchrist Blue, born in N.C., was an attorney and Confederate officer who served as a S.C. state representative 1876-80 and 1884-85.

Reverse inscription

Two of the Blues’s sons were nationally prominent. Victor (1865-1928), a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, was promoted for heroism during the Spanish-American War and commanded a battleship during World War I; he retired as a rear-admiral. Rupert (1867-1948), a graduate of the University of Maryland medical school, was surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service; he led in eradicating the bubonic plague in San Francisco and Los Angeles.