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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Milledge Denny | colored child | June 23, 1868 | at Rev. H.T. Baitleys | Homicide | |
Auson Peeler | July 25, 1868 | near Kalmia[?] Mills | Accident | horse | |
Isaac Grimer | December 10, 1868 | at Jacobs Branch on the Spaun Church road | Accident | ||
George Low | col | June 6, 1869 | at Sand Bar Ferry | Accident | stems of yellow jasmine |
Hartwell Roper | June 17, 1869 | at the residence of Rev. J.P. Mealing | Natural Causes | ||
Jesse Limbecker | June 18, 1869 | at Hamburg | Accident | ||
Hampton Weaver | colored | July 17, 1869 | at the house of and on the farm of James T Outz | Accident | shotgun |
James Thomas | colored | July 20, 1869 | at Liberty Hill County | Homicide | |
Charles M. Creswell | August 5, 1869 | at Edgefield CH | Homicide | ||
A. R. Steel | girl child | August 28, 1869 | at Graniteville | Accident | |
John Whitlock | boy | September 8, 1869 | at Grainteville | Accident | |
Thomas O'Donald | September 13, 1869 | at Dr. John E. Padgetts | Homicide | pistol | |
Dilsey Seigler | September 20, 1869 | at Miles Mills | Natural Causes | ||
Peyton Bird | colored | September 29, 1869 | at Edgefield CH | Natural Causes | |
Lucius Walker | October 5, 1869 | at James Doziers plantation | Accident | ||
Unknown | October 10, 1869 | at Graniteville | Accident | train | |
Louisa Laudon | October 11, 1869 | at Dorns Steam Mills near Rocky Creek | Homicide | knife | |
John Laudrum | October 11, 1869 | at Dons Steam Mills near Rocky Creek | Homicide | knife | |
John E. Elsmore | November 28, 1869 | at the house of John E. Elsmore | Homicide | pistol | |
Andrew Trapp | December 4, 1869 | near Trapps Mills | Homicide | knife | |
James Ramsey | December 12, 1869 | at the residence of Andrew Ramsay Sr | Homicide | pistol | |
Ben Shubrick | col | December 24, 1869 | at Negro heade Lane | Natural Causes | |
Lee Ryan | September 27, 1877 | at the plantation of Abram F Broadwater | Homicide | iron instrument | |
Michael Long | October 11, 1877 | near the Residence of E.N. Youngblood | Suicide | knife | |
Willis Asbell | December 7, 1877 | at Ridge Spring | Homicide | ||
infant child | infant child | December 14, 1877 | at Dr. K N Hudsons plantation | Homicide | |
Yancy Hardy | December 31, 1877 | at Dr. GJ[?] Butlers Plantation | Homicide | pistol | |
Elijah Reynolds | April 11, 1878 | at Johnstons | Homicide | pistol | |
infant child | infant child | August 5, 1878 | at the residence of H J Wright | Homicide | |
W. Brooker Toney | August 12, 1878 | at E. C. House | Homicide | pistol | |
James Booth | August 23, 1878 | at E. C. House | Homicide | ||
Thomas Booth | August 23, 1878 | at E. C. House | Homicide | pistol | |
Henry Turner | September 24, 1878 | at Johnstons | Homicide | ||
Alick Croker | boy | September 29, 1878 | at Mrs. Marshes premises | Accident | |
Charles S. Harrison | November 25, 1878 | at E.C. House | Accident | pistol | |
Ezekiel Thomas | February 4, 1879 | near Johnstons | Accident | train | |
James Mitchell | February 18, 1879 | at L D Laudrums | Natural Causes | ||
Lila Washington | February 20, 1879 | at Wesley Barns Mill | Accident | ||
Howard Gale | June 13, 1879 | at Jacksons Holinns[?] Mill | Accident | ||
Edward Horton | August 7, 1879 | near Wesley Barrs[?] | Accident | sunstroke | |
Adam Barker | August 10, 1879 | at the Residence of Adam Barker Decd | Suicide | ||
Enoch Douglass | August 11, 1879 | near Wesly Barrs on the rail road | Accident | ||
Joseph Powel | August 18, 1879 | at [??] | Accident | ||
Lilla Olophant | female infant | August 18, 1879 | at Simpton[?] Pinns[?] | Accident | |
Margaret Simpkins | September 21, 1879 | on Jas C Brooks Plantation | Homicide | shotgun | |
Lizzy Rardon | September 28, 1879 | at Clansey Holloways plantation | Accident | ||
Carey Ashley | October 11, 1879 | at J W Wises[?] plantation | Homicide | pistol | |
Wallace E. Bland | July 4, 1880 | at Edgefield C. House | Homicide | ||
Isaac Boseley | July 5, 1880 | at Ridge Spring | Homicide | pistol | |
Garett Doby | October 11, 1880 | at William Rufus | Natural Causes |