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![]() |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lewis | negro man | March 20, 1846 | at & in the Revd Mr. Brooks Plantation | Accident | |
Lona May Hamilton | child | October 18, 1893 | at or near Longmires PO[?] | Natural Causes | |
Milledge Fuller | freedman | February 18, 1867 | at John Ransford plantation | Accident | |
infant | infant | January 10, 1898 | at Johnston | Homicide | |
Charles M. Creswell | August 5, 1869 | at Edgefield CH | Homicide | ||
Mahlon Jones | December 25, 1891 | at Landrams Farm | Homicide | ||
Elick Youngblood | child | March 21, 1881 | at S[?] R Warren | Homicide | |
Jim | slave | June 10, 1859 | at M, L, Bonham Esqr residence on the Pine House road | Natural Causes | |
Victor | male slave | April 24, 1859 | at A. L. Dearing Plantation | Natural Causes | |
John H. Anderson | March 21, 1891 | at Tom Anderson place | Homicide | ||
John David Twiggs | September 15, 1864 | in Hamburg | Homicide | ||
Apling | negro man | April 5, 1849 | in the woods in said district near the Lexington line on a branch of McGier Creek | Homicide | |
Eddie Watson | Infant | April 25, 1892 | at Bob Stevens | Natural Causes | |
Charles | slave, boy | September 25, 1861 | at Elijah Watson | Homicide | |
Charles | slave | July 31, 1851 | at the house of John M. Norris Esqr in Edgefield | Accident | |
Howard Gale | June 13, 1879 | at Jacksons Holinns[?] Mill | Accident | ||
Elijah Sullivan | April 24, 1898 | at Cow-buel[?] place | Accident | ||
Isaac Jones | July 1, 1881 | at Ridge Spring | Natural Causes | ||
Henry | negro man | June 3, 1849 | at the house of Mrs Mary Harrison | Accident | |
Joe Elam | February 16, 1882 | at Nicholson premises | Natural Causes | ||
Julia Hightower | child | November 9, 1890 | at Mr Sam Marshes Place | Accident | |
Blassingame Wise | April 27, 1848 | at or near the Negro quarter of Mrs Wiley Glover, on Savannah River | Suicide | ||
Caroline Coleman | July 25, 1893 | at Brisel[?] Blacks Residence | Natural Causes | ||
Edmund Brown | December 24, 1853 | at the house of Wm Merchantile[?] | Homicide | ||
Albert Watson | June 15, 1892 | at the plantation of W.B. Maffett | Natural Causes | ||
Lucius Walker | October 5, 1869 | at James Doziers plantation | Accident | ||
Presley Wise | July 11, 1891 | at D W. Padgetts plantation | Homicide | ||
Susan Churchwell | October 6, 1884 | at Allen Simkins House | Unknown | ||
George Hatcher | freedman | June 19, 1867 | at B. W. Hatchers Mill on Shaws creek | Natural Causes | |
Tilman Attaway | April 14, 1849 | at the corner of the Oharer[?] old field | Accident | ||
Cland Elam | child | March 17, 1892 | at A. J. Norris Place | Accident | |
Al White | October 12, 1898 | at Mundy[?] Place | Homicide | ||
Toby | negro man | July 10, 1844 | near Bauskett Bridge on Stevens Creek | Accident | |
Unknown | April 11, 1860 | at or near W.J. Walkers | Unknown | ||
Richard Lundy | December 7, 1891 | at Edgefield Court House | Homicide | ||
A. R. Steel | girl child | August 28, 1869 | at Graniteville | Accident | |
Joseph Ruffington | January 9, 1893 | at Thos O Attaways | Accident | ||
Nelson Smith | freedman, boy | October 4, 1866 | at Andrew Warts | Homicide | |
Eunice Hogan | October 26, 1851 | at the house of John Briskey | Homicide | ||
infant, (male) | infant, (male) | April 29, 1857 | at Potterville | Homicide | |
Henry Jones | September 21, 1855 | Accident | |||
infant | infant | January 24, 1893 | at Clintonwards | Accident | |
Rufus Harling | September 16, 1897 | at Clarks Hill | Homicide | ||
Ernest Bean | April 6, 1884 | at the Mill of B[?] Hill | Accident | ||
Joseph Shaw | July 26, 1858 | at the residence of John H Shaw near Edgefield C.H. | Accident | ||
James Frazier | Babie | October 24, 1890 | at D. B Hollingworth | Accident | |
Kenneth Martor[?] | January 15, 1852 | at Thomas Samar's[?] Mills on horse creek | Accident | ||
John Shumport[?] | November 7, 1851 | at John Shumports[?] | Accident | ||
Robert W. Kincade | December 27, 1845 | at the house of Baley[?] Corley | Natural Causes | ||
Charley Ryan | May 9, 1892 | at T. H. Ramsford Plantion | Homicide |