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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Caroline | Free negro | August 26, 1858 | four miles from Hamburg | Unknown | |
Fed Martin | convict | September 1, 1895 | at Poor House and CH | Unknown | |
Jim Brown | Child | April 19, 1882 | on Jasper Talbert Premises | Unknown | |
Infant Boy Child Colored | Infant Boy Child Colored | February 15, 1883 | at the residence of Charles Coleman | Unknown | |
Unknown | April 11, 1860 | at or near W.J. Walkers | Unknown | ||
infant child | infant child | July 24, 1892 | at Promised Land School house | Unknown | |
infant child | infant child | October 6, 1891 | at her Residence | Unknown | |
Joshua | negro man slave | June 26, 1860 | at Harmon Gallman | Unknown | |
Gus West | October 11, 1883 | at Jack Holms | Unknown | ||
Unknown | August 30, 1866 | at Fosity[?] Creek ford | Unknown | ||
Bartly | negro man | January 16, 1846 | in the woods near the plantation of Dr Wm M Bent | Unknown | |
Pete | slave | October 31, 1864 | at Liberty hill | Unknown | |
Susan Churchwell | October 6, 1884 | at Allen Simkins House | Unknown | ||
Minda | negro girl | August 17, 1851 | at Mr Geo Robinsons | Unknown | |
Ansabelle Brown | October 21, 1866 | near the Tambor[?] Soba[?] Rail Road | Unknown | ||
Joel Etheridge | November 29, 1893 | at Joel Etheridge Residence | Unknown | ||
Infant | Infant | December 18, 1894 | at the Rinheart Grave yard | Unknown | |
Mary Bright Hanpt[?] | October 6, 1881 | at Bright Hanpt[?] | Unknown | ||
Sam | slave, boy | October 10, 1857 | at the Carolina Hotel, Edgefield C.H. | Unknown | |
infant child | infant child | November 17, 1891 | at Mr M Toneys place | Unknown | |
Wade Medlock | July 12, 1894 | at Benjamin Boatwrights Plantation | Unknown | ||
Edmond Price | April 30, 1892 | at Kennys Graveyard | Unknown | ||
Edward Johnston | December 26, 1892 | at William Bushes | Unknown | ||
Hurnon[?] | April 4, 1862 | at Doct H R Cooks Plantation on Savanah River | Unknown | ||
A. P. Shultz | January 9, 1850 | at or near Solomon Clickleys[?] | Unknown | ||
Jane Glover | January 12, 1883 | at Handy Tanks House on John Wir[?] plantation | Unknown | ||
Anderson B. Branham | January 6, 1892 | at the plantation of M. C. Parker | Unknown | ||
Aggy Latily[?] | negro woman slave | June 21, 1848 | at the plantation of N L Griffin | Unknown | |
Griffin Mays | November 20, 1897 | at W. H. Pordew | Unknown | pistol | |
Andrew | negro man | October 6, 1855 | on the track of the South Carolina Rail Road | Accident | train |
Balus Harrison | November 14, 1893 | at Edgefield CH | Accident | cart | |
James Frazier | Babie | October 24, 1890 | at D. B Hollingworth | Accident | |
Milledge Fuller | freedman | February 18, 1867 | at John Ransford plantation | Accident | |
George Delaughter | April 30, 1861 | at the Hamburg Passenger Depot | Accident | train | |
infant child | infant child | December 9, 1891 | at a colored cemetary | Accident | |
Steve Yeldell | October 28, 1894 | at Edgefield | Accident | cart | |
Henry Jones | September 21, 1855 | Accident | |||
Henry | slave, boy | May 1, 1857 | at Arthur Glovers House, Horns Creek | Accident | |
Ezekiel Thomas | February 4, 1879 | near Johnstons | Accident | train | |
Tilman Attaway | April 14, 1849 | at the corner of the Oharer[?] old field | Accident | ||
Lidia Watson | January 26, 1894 | at J E Macks | Accident | ||
Sam | Slave | June 14, 1858 | at Henry Spiers[?] | Accident | |
Lilla Olophant | female infant | August 18, 1879 | at Simpton[?] Pinns[?] | Accident | |
Charles | slave | July 31, 1851 | at the house of John M. Norris Esqr in Edgefield | Accident | |
John Radford | April 12, 1860 | at the residence of John Radford | Accident | wagon | |
Fannie Patton | November 18, 1898 | at Francis Williams house | Accident | ||
John Rufus Russell | October 10, 1884 | at John L Russell House | Accident | ||
Ben Culbreath | July 24, 1895 | at Jno A Corleys plantation | Accident | horse | |
James Perry | December 27, 1894 | at Mt Enon Church | Accident | ||
Hampton Reynolds | July 30, 1892 | at J.W. Reynolds Plantation | Accident |