Limiting the list of influential Beaufortonians to just nine was no easy task. Several notable people appeared on the ballot but didn't make the final list. Here are other people the nine panelists were asked to consider.

1711 to 1810

Paul Hamilton (Oct. 16, 1762– June 30, 1816) — Hamilton was born in Saint Paul's Parish. He left school at 16 because of financial problems, but during the American Revolution, he served in military roles in the southern states and fought under Gen. Francis Marion.

After the war, he was a planter and public figure. Hamilton served South Carolina in many public offices, including state representative (1787), state senator (1794) and comptroller (1800), and he was the 42nd governor (1804). In 1809, President James Madison selected Hamilton to become the third Secretary of the Navy. His term included the first months of the War of 1812, during which time the small U.S. Navy achieved several remarkable victories over British warships. Hamilton was a proponent of military preparedness, especially with regard to sea fortifications. Although he wanted to strengthen the Navy, he found the Congress hostile and the president indifferent to his ideas. However, he was responsible for the Naval Hospitals Act of 1811. Secretary Hamilton resigned at the end of 1812 and returned to South Carolina, where he died in Beaufort on June 30, 1816. Three Navy destroyers have been named USS Paul Hamilton in his honor, along with the USS Hamilton and one Liberty ship named SS Paul Hamilton. He is buried at Clarendon Plantation on Port Royal Island.

John Mark Verdier (1759-1827) — John Mark Verdier was merchant and planter who twice made fortunes in Beaufort. He also built the house on Bay Street that still bears his name, on land which before the American Revolution belonged to another prominent local merchant, Francis Stuart.

Verdier rose to great stature and wealth before the Revolution as a merchant trading in indigo. As indigo markets disappeared with the war, Verdier's fortunes declined and his financial troubles were made worse by his heavy land speculation. After a short stay in a Charleston debtors' prison, Verdier returned to Beaufort and caught the next wave of prosperity: sea island cotton.

Verdier was able to eclipse his earlier success, reestablishing his mercantile interests and acquiring extensive plantation holdings and owning 216 slaves by 1810. He also was a trustee of Beaufort College.

Unfortunately, his new-found fortune would also prove short-lived, and by the 1820s, Verdier had moved to Charleston. The inventory of his estate showed few possessions and indicated his diminishing wealth and gradual transfer of assets to his children in the later years of his life.

James Black — Black gave Beaufort arguably its first non-agricultural industry, shipbuilding. He purchased land on what today is known as the Point — but once was called Black's Point — and produced one of the few permanent-location shipbuilding facilities in the area. Usually, large ships were built on sites near a supply of timber that later were abandoned, but Black's operation has a bit more permanence. The industry in Beaufort gained an international reputation, according to "The History of Beaufort County" by Larry Rowland, Alexander Moore and George C. Rogers Jr. The shipbuilding industry required carpenters, blacksmiths, loggers and shipwrights. It also likely involved training slaves as sawyers, boatswains, caulkers and riggers, which increased their value, according to "The History of Beaufort." Beaufort’s colonial ships were built of native live oak timbers, making them the strongest ships in colonial America.

1811 to 1910

William Fripp — One of the wealthiest planters in the region, William Fripp was the son of Captain John Fripp and Martha Scott Fripp. He owned Pine Grove Plantation on St. Helena Island and spent the summer social season in the city of Beaufort, building the Tidewater home on Federal Street. He was a justice of the peace, a free-school commissioner and a trustee of Beaufort College. Known as "Good Billy Fripp" for his benevolence, at the time of his death, Fripp is reported to have owned more than 3,000 acres of land on St. Helena Island, encompassing nine plantations and 313 slaves.

Richard Fuller (1804-1876) — Fuller was a founder of the Southern Baptist movement. Born to a respected family in Beaufort, he entered Harvard at age 16 or 17 (sources conflict) and graduated with his class despite health problems. He became an attorney, but despite his success in that profession, he abandoned it for the ministry after the Beaufort Revival of 1831, led by Presbyterian evangelist the Rev. Daniel Baker.

Fuller copied the style of French preacher James Saurin. In 1844, he and others founded the Southern Baptist movement, which split from the northern Baptists over slavery, which Fuller and the Southern Baptists supported. He was ordained and made pastor of the Baptist Church of Beaufort, where he served for 15 years. In 1847, he accepted the pastorate of the Seventh Baptist Church in Baltimore, where he served until 1876. He also helped found the Southern Baptist Convention in 1842 and was its longtime chaplin.

Rachel Crane Mather — Born in Boston, Mather came to Beaufort shortly after the Civil War to help found the Mather School, which served black families from Beaufort and across the United States for 100 years before it was given to the state for use as a technical school. It closed in 1968 after serving as a boarding school for black girls and a coed junior college.

The Mather School was one of several efforts to educate freed slaves and their families in South Carolina in the years during and after the Civil War. Penn School, founded six years earlier, was one of the first schools in the country for freed slaves.
When Mather came to Beaufort in 1867, she expected to train teachers to educate former slaves. But so few people in Beaufort were qualified for such a school, she began by teaching basic household skills, according to a history provided by the TCL Foundation. For the first several years, she taught women how to sew, cook and launder while children practiced spelling and simple math.

Robert Woodward Barnwell — Barnwell was an American planter, lawyer, and educator from South Carolina, who served as a senator in both the United States and the Confederate States of America. He was born in Beaufort on Aug. 10, 1801, into a prosperous and influential family. His father, Robert Barnwell, had served in the Continental Congress and the U.S. Congress. This Barnwell began his advanced education at Beaufort College, then graduated from Harvard, where he was valedictorian of the class of 1821.

He returned home to manage the family plantation. Barnwell’s political career began in 1826, when he served in the South Carolina state House of Representatives for Beaufort County. He held that office until 1828, when he was elected to Congress. He served as a congressman from 1829 until 1833. (He declined to run again in 1832.) From 1833 to 1841 he was head of the South Carolina College, now known as the University of South Carolina, in Columbia. Barnwell was appointed to the U.S. Senate after the death of Franklin H. Elmore on May 29, 1850. He served only from June until December, when after a special election, Robert Barnwell Rhett replaced him. During this period, the tenuous balance between the northern and southern Senators required such short-term appointments. His one distinction in the Senate involved the admission of California as a state. He opposed statehood in vain, but then had the good grace to introduce and present the credentials for one of her its senators, John C. Frémont.

In 1861, Barnwell was a delegate to the Confederate States of America Provisional Congress held in Montgomery, Ala. At its first meeting Feb. 4, 1861, William P. Chilton moved that Barnwell be appointed to preside temporarily over the Congress until its permanent organization. The Congress approved that proposal, but later that day, Barnwell handed the office over to Howell Cobb. In that Congress, he cast the vote that ensured the election of Jefferson Davis as the first and only Confederate president, and he also signed the Confederate Constitution. He represented South Carolina in the Confederate Senate from 1861 until 1865. After the Civil War, he returned to Columbia and the university as an instructor. He was the chairman of the faculty at the South Carolina College from 1866 until 1873, when he retired. He died in Columbia on Nov. 5, 1882, but was buried in St. Helena's Churchyard back in Beaufort.

Stephen Elliott (bishop) — Elliott was the 37th bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He was the first bishop of Georgia and provisional bishop of Florida. He was also the first and only presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America.
He was born Aug. 31, 1806 in Beaufort, the son of botanist Stephen Elliott, who was named to The Beaufort Gazette's list of the "Nine Most Influential Beaufortonians." He attended Harvard and graduated in 1825 from South Carolina College, where he was president of the Clariosophic Society. He studied law and practiced in Charleston (where he was one of the founders of the Forensic Club) and Beaufort from 1827 until 1833, when he became a candidate for holy orders in the Episcopal Church. Elliott's pursuing ordination followed a conversion experience on hearing the Presbyterian evangelist Daniel Baker preach at the Episcopal Church in Beaufort. He was ordained a deacon in 1835 and took priest's orders the following year.

Elliott was a professor of sacred literature and revealed religion at South Carolina College from 1835-41. He married his cousin, Mary Gibbes Barnwell, daughter of Col. Robert W. Barnwell in 1828. After her death, he married another cousin, Charlotte Bull Barnwell, daughter of John G. Barnwell and granddaughter of Gen. John Barnwell and of Gen. Stephen Bull, of the Revolutionary army. Among their children were Brigadier Gen. Stephen Elliott, Jr. (1832-1866), the Rev. Robert Woodward Barnwell Elliott (1840-1887), missionary bishop to West Texas; John Gibbes Barnwell Elliott, M. D.; R. Habersham Elliott; and their youngest, the novelist and Tennessee sufragette Sarah Barnwell Elliott (1848-1928).
He died on Dec. 21, 1866 in Savannah.

Niels Christensen Jr. (1876-1939) — The son of a prominent businessman who started real estate and hardware companies in Beaufort and was once intendent at the Beaufort National Cemetery, the junior Christensen was influential in his own right. He served on the Beaufort County Board of Education and was editor and publisher of The Beaufort Gazette near the turn of the century, positions he held for nearly 20 years. He also served as a state senator from 1905-24, a tenure that included a stint on the powerful Finance Committee. During World War I, he served in the Navy, although that did not preclude his service in the state legislature. During his time as a senator, he also worked with the Carnegie Foundation to build a library for Beaufort. A Progressive Democrat, he supported women’s suffrage and introduced a joint resolution in the Senate to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1920.

He also helped his father and older brother, Frederick H. Christensen, in the family hardware and building-supply business until 1925, when he left to become president of the Christensen Real Estate Company. He was president of the S.C. Chamber of Commerce from 1920-22 and a member of the Federal Social Security Board in Washington.

Col. Duncan Campbell Wilson — Wilson’s influence was great, but not widely remembered, perhaps because his descendants did not remain in Beaufort after his death in 1903. Nonetheless, Wilson was a post-Civil War titan in three industries that helped shape Beaufort. Born in Greenock, Scotland, he emigrated to New York City in 1844 and became a building contractor. When the Union Army came to Hilton Head Island during the Civil War, he was hired to build structures at Mitchelville and surrounding areas. He thereafter made Beaufort County his primary home.

In addition to construction contracting, Wilson helped finance the railroad from Augusta to Port Royal, a piece of infrastructure that linked the port to the inland and was central to Beaufort’s economy for decades to come. He then twice served as president of the railroad company. The port also flourished as a destination for international steamship lines; the new steamships drew too much water to navigate the Charleston and Savannah channels at low tide, and the railroad meant the boats could have access to coal.

He also was the founder of Sea Island Chemical Company, a leader in the late 19th-century phosphate industry in Beaufort, and he founded the Port Royal Sawmill. The latter venture included a lumber yard on Pigeon Point (Wilson Drive in that Beaufort neighborhood is named for him, as is Wilson Park on Ribaut Road), and he built the Pigeon Point landing that is still there today, as a place to load and move lumber by sea. That business also included a fleet of lumber schooners.
Wilson also was a founder of the First Presbyterian Church.

1911 to present

Kate Gleason (Nov. 25, 1865 - Jan. 9, 1933) — Catherine Anselm "Kate" Gleason was an American engineer and businesswoman known both for being a revolutionary in the predominantly male field of engineering and for her philanthropy. Her father was the owner of a machine tool company, later named Gleason Works, which later became (and still is) one of the most important makers of gear-cutting machine tools in the world. She moved to Beaufort in 1926, where she built the Gold Eagle Tavern, developed Colony Gardens on Lady's Island and was a main benefactor for the opening of Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

Pat Conroy (Oct. 26 1945 to present) — Conroy is a New York Times bestselling author who has written several acclaimed novels and memoirs, including several set in the South Carolina Lowcountry. The son of a Marine colonel, Conroy moved around as a youth but graduated from Beaufort High School, where he made several lifelong friends and found many mentors. He also taught in Beaufort County schools, including a stint in a one-room school house on Daufuskie Island that became the subject of his book "The Water is Wide" and a movie, "Conrack." It could be argued he is played a prominent role in Beaufort's modern tourism industry through the exposure his books — and, in most cases, subsequent movies — lent to the area. They include "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides." Today, he lives on Fripp Island with his third wife, Cassandra King, author of four popular novels.

Herbert Keyserling — Beaufort's "Doc K," Herbert Keyserling came to Beaufort Memorial Hospital in 1946 after serving as a Navy combat surgeon during the invasion of Guadalcanal. He was awarded the Silver Star for his valor and heroism on New Guinea. He retired in 1996, but remained on Beaufort Memorial's emeritus staff until he died June 19, 2000. A cancer center on Ribaut Road is named for him. He practices in Beaufort for more than 50 years and was an advocate of health care for the poor.

Harriet Keyserling — Wife of Herbert Keyserling and mother of the city's current mayor, Billy Keyserling , Harriett Keyserling was a community and political force in her own right. She was the first woman to serve on the Beaufort County Council. She later served in the state House of Representatives, from 1977 to 1993, advancing the arts, environmental protection and education. She died in late 2010, becoming ill after entering the hospital for a knee-replacement operation.

G.G. Dowling — Born Sept. 29, 1915, in Greenwood, he was a son of the late Grafton Geddes Dowling and Leonora Mauldin Dowling. He attended Blake Elementary School and Greenwood High School, graduating in 1932. He won a scholarship to the University of South Carolina and received three degrees — A.B., L.L.B. and Juris Doctor.

He began his legal practice in Beaufort in 1938 and continued the practice of law for more than 50 years. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army and served in World War II.
He was a member of the state House of Representatives; member and chairman of the S.C. Highway Commission; chairman of the Port Royal Ports Authority; chairman of the S.C. Probation, Parole and Pardon Board; nember of the S.C. Reorganization Commission; president and chairman of the State Chamber of Commerce; president of the University of South Carolina Alumni Association; and member for more than 40 years on the board of the S.C. State Fair Association.
Dowling also served as president of the Beaufort Rotary Club, the Beaufort Propeller Club and the Beaufort Navy League. He belonged to Masonic Lodge No. 22 for more than 50 years and was also a member of the Beaufort County Public Education Foundation, the Beaufort County Historic Society, the American Legion, the Beaufort Chamber of Commerce, Lady's Island Country Club, Dataw Island Country Club, Beaufort Yacht Club, Beaufort Yacht and Sailing Club, Palmetto Club, Oglethorpe Club and University of South Carolina. Dowling served as president of Royal Gardens, Inc., Sea Island Development Company, First Beaufort Corporation, Family Finance and Investment Company and Capehart Development Company. In 1958, he, with others, founded the Bank of Beaufort. He served as its president and chairman.

In 1973, he was appointed presidential delegate to the United Nations Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Rules of Warfare, and served at all sessions of the conference until it adjourned in 1978. He was an active member of the Baptist Church of Beaufort and taught the men's Sunday school class for many years. He, his wife and others, helped start the University of South Carolina at Beaufort, and he taught there for 10 years as an adjunct professor of economics and political science.

John Trask Sr. — Born to George W. Trask and Emma Borneman Trask of Wilmington, NC; he helped bring the family truck-farming business to Beaufort. He moved here in 1934, and developed other business interests, as well — real estate, City Dry Cleaners and Laundry, Piggly Wiggly, Sea Island Motel, WBEU and WQLO radio stations, Rose Supply Corp., Garden City Supply Co., and Kane Island Farms. He served as a director of SCE&G and the Peoples Bank. He had long association with Clemson University, serving on its Board of Visitors. He also served on Beaufort City Council (1947-51) and Beaufort County Council (1955-62).

Calhoun Thomas — Calhoun Thomas was born in Beaufort to William Joseph and Tennessee Calhoun Thomas. He attended the University of South Carolina, receiving an A.B. degree in 1924 and an LL.B. in 1926. He practiced with his father and later with his son, in the firm of Thomas and Thomas.

In 1928, he began 20 years of service in the state House of Representatives. He was Judiciary Committee chairman for 14 years and House Rules Committee chairman for 10 years. He also served a number of years as county attorney.
In 1937, Thomas organized the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Beaufort and served as president, manager, director and attorney of that organization. He was a leader in organizing the local United Fund, USO, Rotary and Beaufort County Memorial Hospital. He was president of the Community Club, The Beaufort Gazette Corporation, and the University of South Carolina Alumni Association. He was a charter member of the chair fund of the University of South Carolina Educational Foundation. He was chairman of the Beaufort County Democratic Party for 20 years.