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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Peter White | March 11, 1898 | at Jacob White upon the Plantation Silvester Chipley | Homicide | ||
Elijah Sullivan | April 24, 1898 | at Cow-buel[?] place | Accident | ||
Arthur Morris | June 20, 1898 | at M. W Clarks | Homicide | pistol | |
George Ross | June 29, 1898 | at Adoms[?] place | Homicide | ||
John Williams | August 21, 1898 | at S H Nicholson | Homicide | stick | |
Sindy Brighthop | August 21, 1898 | on S.W. Gardners place | Homicide | ||
Pink Williams | October 6, 1898 | at or near Mr E.F. Pickles residence | Homicide | ||
Alfred Hollingsworth | October 10, 1898 | at David Strothers place | Homicide | razor | |
Al White | October 12, 1898 | at Mundy[?] Place | Homicide | ||
Alice Adkinson | October 18, 1898 | at Republican Church | Homicide | ||
Jim McKie | October 26, 1898 | near John starks | Homicide | ||
Luther Sullivan | October 26, 1898 | near John Stuarts | Homicide | ||
Pompy Robinson | November 1, 1898 | at Norris Place | Natural Causes | ||
Fannie Patton | November 18, 1898 | at Francis Williams house | Accident | ||
William White | December 10, 1898 | at Savanah River | Accident | ||
Willie Toney | March 26, 1899 | at Edgefield Court House | Homicide | ||
John Webb | March 26, 1899 | at Edgefield Court House | Homicide | ||
Luther Harris | May 26, 1899 | at the plantation of George F Towns | Homicide | ||
Henry Ethredge | June 2, 1899 | at the plantation of P.B. Mayson | Accident | ||
Lucy Roper | June 29, 1899 | on the pantation of S.W. Miller | Accident | lightning | |
Richard Mims | August 1, 1899 | at the plantation of Mrs. H. Carter | Accident | ||
Teague Tillman | October 2, 1899 | at the plantation of Thos. H. Ramsford | Homicide | pistol | |
Griff Zimmerman | October 9, 1899 | at Johnston Township | Homicide | pistol | |
Henry Mobley | December 11, 1899 | at Johnston | Homicide | pistol |