BELLE BARUCH: AMERICAN, PILOT, EQUESTRIAN & SPY!
Article by Jo Clark, images courtesy of Belle W. Baruch Foundation
Isabelle Wilcox Baruch was always known as “Belle.” Later in life, she legally changed her name to Belle. Born in 1899, Belle lived until 1964. The daughter of financier Bernard Baruch, Belle was a proud American, equestrian, aviator, philanthropist, and wartime coastal observer.
Family History
The German-Jewish roots of this family began in America when Belle’s grandfather, Simon, immigrated to Charleston from Hamburg in 1855, completed a degree at the Medical College of South Carolina, and served as a Confederate Army surgeon. When the war ended, he moved his family to New York City. Dr. Baruch rose to the top of his profession, lecturing at Columbia University, and he developed several now-standard surgical procedures, including the appendectomy.
The next generation, her father Bernard Baruch, searched for an escape from New York. He purchased the 17,500-acre Hobcaw Barony in 1905, comprised of 14 once thriving plantations, called the “Rice Princes”, on the Waccamaw Neck between the Winyah Bay, Waccamaw River, and the Atlantic Ocean. Six-year-old Belle loved the pine forests, salt marsh, shorelines, cypress swamps, and the Low Country’s nature and wildlife. Native Americans called the area Hobcaw, meaning “between the waters.” In 1718, the land became a colonial land grant known as a barony.
Most of the inhabitants of the original four black villages on the property had been born there. They worried that this new owner might force them out. But Baruch not only kept them on to work when he bought the land, but also improved their houses, enlarging them and adding amenities. He also built a church and school on the property.
Belle Grows Up
As an adult, Belle was interested in the residents’ welfare, particularly in the Hobcaw schools, serving as the self-appointed Hobcaw truant officer. Once, she saw a group of boys skipping school and pursued them on her horse. They ran into a swamp, thinking she would give up the chase, but they were wrong. She wrangled the wayward boys and delivered them back to the school principal to face their punishment.
During WWI, Belle taught Morse Code to men and women in the military. During WWII, J. Edgar Hoover asked Belle to work for Naval Intelligence but to claim to be part of the coastal observer volunteers. Belle worked for Naval Intelligence between 1942 and 1944, documented by a letter from Hoover in the Hobcaw archives.
World War II
Most Americans have no idea how close the war came to U S soil. German submarines were blowing up ships all along the East Coast. In February of 1942, they sank nine ships in one night. A month later, 84 Allied merchant ships slipped to their watery graves.
Belle set restrictions on gasoline usage on the property. She organized first aid classes for women living on the property.
Belle also spearheaded the efforts to roll bandages. Not above hard work, she worked right alongside the volunteers. When citizens were encouraged to plant victory gardens, leaving more rations for the troops, Belle planted a large garden at Hobcaw.
Belle’s war efforts went even further. The US Army Air Corps confiscated her seven single- and double-engine planes during the war. They used her hangars and runways as a base for field operations.
Perhaps influenced by her coastal observations and insider knowledge, Belle contributed even more by sponsoring a submarine, christening, and launching the USS Pargo (Pargo is commonly known as Red Snapper) in January 1943. The submarine sailed to the Pacific, arriving in Pearl Harbor in July 1943 to begin the first of her eight war patrols. Pargo received eight battle stars for her service, with nine enemy vessels sunk.
Belle and Her War Efforts
Belle set about patrolling South Carolina’s coastline on Hobcaw’s more than 100 miles of road and enforced blackout conditions on her property. If you were driving, you used only parking lights. Belle was so familiar with Hobcaw’s roads that she moved about in total darkness.
Belle watched for U-boat activity from her grass shack on the beach and sometimes from Clambank, which overlooks the salt marsh. Hobcaw has Belle’s daily reports of her sightings in their archives. Many nights on patrol, her records show that signal lights were observed on land and the horizon of the water.
Belle on Patrol
Still busy on the home front, she and a patrol partner spotted two men coming ashore in a rubber dinghy and a third man on the beach one night. He ran from them, and although Belle fired three warning shots, he continued to run and escaped into the woods.
Another night while patrolling on horseback, she and Lois spotted a man paddling ashore (from a U-boat) in a rubber boat. They pursued the man on the beach, who escaped and started up the highway toward Pawley’s Island. She couldn’t cross the inlet, so she galloped home, jumped into a vehicle, and sped to Georgetown for the sheriff. With her help, that German agent was caught and turned over to the FBI.
While patrolling with her friend Lois, they observed signal lights, followed an hour later by a low-flying plane. Rather than wait for the morning for her report, Belle decided to head to Georgetown. The two women were stopped at gunpoint by two men in Coast Guard uniforms. When the men realized they were facing women, they lowered their weapons. They wove a tale of walking to Pawley’s to get cigarettes but couldn’t cross the inlet.
Belle asked the men for identification, which they didn’t have, but did give names and said they hailed from Chicago. After receiving directions to the highway from the women, they departed. Belle, of course, went straight to Georgetown for help (oh, for a cell phone when you needed one!) When she returned to the spot with Chief of Police Nobles and Border Patrolman Tueton, she found that the men’s footprints led not to the highway but into the water! They also learned that the Coast Guard had no patrols in the area.
Chilling Revelations
Another man was seen by Belle’s hunting companion, signaling a ship from the upstairs window of his rooming house. When he was apprehended and searched, a hand-drawn map was discovered that detailed all the naval bases and airports from Charleston to Wilmington, North Carolina.
Interestingly, when men were recruited and trained to patrol the area and assumed night patrols in October, Belle was asked to continue her patrols during daylight hours. In early November, Belle and Lois had Alfred Legare take them by boat to DeBordieu Beach, where they found footprints and jeep tracks along with a two-strand insulated wiring system for communications strung along the beach.
Hobcaw Barony Will Live Forever
Belle protected Hobcaw Barony as fiercely after the war as she did during the war years. Before she died in 1964, she established a foundation to ensure the 16,000 acres remained undeveloped and protected forever from the development that plagued other coastal towns. She named the foundation in honor of her father, who was still living. He refused and insisted it be called the Belle W. Baruch Foundation in her memory. Today, it remains one of the most pristine coastal environments on the East Coast.
I wish I had known Belle. I think listening to her stories would have kept me up nights!!
To learn more about Belle:
– Miller, Mary E. (2006). Baroness of Hobcaw: The Life of Belle W. Baruch. The University of South Carolina Press. (Available in the Hobcaw Gift Shop, and they will ship the book to you.)
– Hobcaw Barony, Georgetown, South Carolina
– Belle W. Baruch, Belle Baruch Institute for South Carolina Studies at Francis Marion University
Jo Clark is a travel writer and photographer based on South Carolina’s Grand Strand. She has a thirst for knowledge, history, great food, and wine! She does her very best to live up to her podcast title and Instagram handle, “Jo Goes Everywhere!” Follow her there and on her Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/HaveGlassWillTravel/. She is the editor of http://www.RecipesTravelCulture.com
