Edgefield County, SC
Total population (1850): 39,262
Enslaved population (1850): 22,725
Percent slave: 58%
Extant nineteenth-century inquests: 524
Date range: 1829-1899
Percentage of violent crimes in county sample: 39% (202/524)
The small, rural district of Edgefield, South Carolina was the Deadwood of its day, amassing a reputation for murder and mayhem unique in the nation. Forget the gangs of New York, the toughs in tailored suits strutting about Edgefield's Court House Square were up for almost anything. Take this typical exchange between Thomas Cherry and Charles Cobb.
Cherry: "You Damn puppy."
Cobb: "What are you?"
Cherry: "Do you mean to call me a Damn puppy?"
Cobb: "What are you?"
Cherry: "If you call me a Puppy, I will ag you in the face."
Cobb: "You are nothing else."
With that Cherry stabbed Cobb through the face with an umbrella.
"If we over in Edgefield insult each other, there is generally a fight or a funeral afterwards," noted Ben Tillman, one of the ten men of the district to serve the state as governor. Like Tillman, circuit judge Thomas Mackey took an almost perverse pride in the region's reputation. "I am going to hold court in Edgefield," he told a friend, "and I expect a somewhat exciting term, as the fall shooting is about to start."
Like most reputations, Edgefield's was at once deserved and exaggerated. At 39 percent, Edgefield County does have the highest proportion of violent crimes in the CSI:D sample. At 35 percent, Greenville County is not that far behind. More important, Edgefield's reputation for affairs of honor masks the mountain of dishonorable violence revealed by the morgue. Men spoiling for a fight on the street are rarely much different at home. In June 1893, Bill Gasten was sitting near his wood pile when his wife emerged from the house to draw some water from the well. Something she said set him off and he grabbed up a walking stick, hit her with it, then threw her down and began choking her. Emerging from the kitchen, her sister grabbed up the stick and told Bill to "let his wife alone." She had just started back to the kitchen when Bill cracked her head with a hoe.
Edgefield County, SC Inquests
Name | Deceased Description | Date | Inquest Location | Death Type |
Death Method![]() |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sam | negro, slave | September 18, 1846 | at the residence of Mrs Nancy Delaughter | Natural Causes | |
Samuel Harrison | February 18, 1881 | at [inelligible - faded] | Accident | ||
Robert W. Kincade | December 27, 1845 | at the house of Baley[?] Corley | Natural Causes | ||
Joel W. Warren | November 9, 1894 | at Joseph Mirren[?] House | Natural Causes | ||
Rhoda | female slave | July 4, 1857 | at Dorn's[?] Mill | Natural Causes | |
Nelson Smith | freedman, boy | October 4, 1866 | at Andrew Warts | Homicide | |
Wallace E. Bland | July 4, 1880 | at Edgefield C. House | Homicide | ||
William Anderson | April 14, 1864 | at the plantation of T.[?] S Boles | Natural Causes | ||
Selena Allen | child, boy, baby | December 12, 1890 | at Mrs Blacks[?] Plantation | Accident | |
Alexander P. Kennard | February 16, 1847 | in the District | Natural Causes | ||
Chaney | negro woman | December 11, 1855 | at the dwelling house of Mrs Randall in the Town of Hamburg | Natural Causes | |
Susan Medlock | April 7, 1894 | at Johnston | Homicide | ||
Ann Kimball | September 4, 1895 | at China grove church | Homicide | ||
Ben Shubrick | col | December 24, 1869 | at Negro heade Lane | Natural Causes | |
infant child | infant child | November 23, 1891 | at the plantation of Willis Owdom[?] | Accident | |
Milledge Stuard | October 8, 1881 | at Mount [??] Yard | Natural Causes | ||
Eunice Hogan | October 26, 1851 | at the house of John Briskey | Homicide | ||
Emanuel | slave | March 12, 1856 | at Matthew McGraw's plantation | Accident | |
Charly Washington | boy | November 22, 1891 | at the house of George Washington near Bauknights ferry | Accident | |
Anderson B. Branham | January 6, 1892 | at the plantation of M. C. Parker | Unknown | ||
Martha Lanham | January 29, 1892 | at Wilts[?] Curryes place | Natural Causes | ||
Jim McKie | October 26, 1898 | near John starks | Homicide | ||
Abram | slave | October 8, 1860 | at the Residence of H. B. Raborns | Natural Causes | |
Tephius[?] Cornwall | January 14, 1845 | on one of the Public Streets of the Town of Hamburg | Natural Causes | ||
A. G. Howard | February 28, 1860 | at Grannet Ville Depot | Accident | ||
William White | December 10, 1898 | at Savanah River | Accident | ||
John Hester | May 13, 1846 | at Hamburg in the shop of J.J. Kenedy | Accident | ||
Elmira Jackson | May 18, 1884 | at George Holingsworths House | Accident | ||
Frank Milton | child | January 26, 1894 | at Sanders Loricks | Natural Causes | |
infant, child | infant, child | November 29, 1894 | at the plantation of J. P. Roton | Natural Causes | |
negro man | negro man | April 10, 1850 | near Kilcreases Ferry | Accident | |
Dinah | Woman Slave | May 22, 1849 | at Allen Griffith | Natural Causes | |
Edmond Smallwood | October 19, 1892 | at E. C. Ridgells Plantation | Natural Causes | ||
infant child | infant child | June 14, 1891 | at Kenny Grave Yard | Accident | |
Abram | negro man Slave | August 21, 1850 | at Henry L Maysons | Accident | |
Mary Grace Aldrich | infant child | August 11, 1856 | at Graniteville | Homicide | |
Larrence Valentine | December 28, 1893 | at Mt[?] Willing | Accident | ||
Nancy | Slave | June 19, 1847 | at the house of Mrs G. Rily's | Suicide | |
John E. Paul | June 14, 1892 | at Edgefield CH | Homicide | ||
Gus West | October 11, 1883 | at Jack Holms | Unknown | ||
Tom Waldrum | colored man (Free) | January 20, 1857 | in the woods near Mr Avory Franklins | Accident | |
Dave Gillam | August 25, 1892 | at the house of Cal Smiths | Homicide | ||
John H. Anderson | March 21, 1891 | at Tom Anderson place | Homicide | ||
George Ross | June 29, 1898 | at Adoms[?] place | Homicide | ||
Charles M. Creswell | August 5, 1869 | at Edgefield CH | Homicide | ||
Alice Adkinson | October 18, 1898 | at Republican Church | Homicide | ||
John David Twiggs | September 15, 1864 | in Hamburg | Homicide | ||
Elick Youngblood | child | March 21, 1881 | at S[?] R Warren | Homicide | |
Pink Williams | October 6, 1898 | at or near Mr E.F. Pickles residence | Homicide | ||
W. W. Miller Sr. | white man | July 10, 1891 | at J M. Mays place | Accident |