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![]() |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Daniel | slave, boy | April 28, 1859 | at L. Halls Tisery[?] | Suicide | |
Hartwell Roper | June 17, 1869 | at the residence of Rev. J.P. Mealing | Natural Causes | ||
Cooper | slave | March 17, 1852 | at the plantation of L.H. Mundy decd | Natural Causes | |
Edinborough Ryan | December 30, 1882 | at Mrs D. L Bussy Plantation | Accident | ||
Rufus Harling | September 16, 1897 | at Clarks Hill | Homicide | ||
Dilsey Seigler | September 20, 1869 | at Miles Mills | Natural Causes | ||
Milledge Stuard | October 8, 1881 | at Mount [??] Yard | Natural Causes | ||
Willis Cumings | child | October 10, 1890 | at C. M. Lanhams | Accident | |
Enoch Douglass | August 11, 1879 | near Wesly Barrs on the rail road | Accident | ||
infant Boy | infant Boy | October 29, 1894 | at [?] Coleman | Natural Causes | |
Berry Butler | October 9, 1892 | at J. H Lagroons[?] plantation | Accident | ||
infant child | infant child | December 9, 1891 | at a colored cemetary | Accident | |
Rose | three negro children | October 2, 1846 | at the house of Philip Brogden | Homicide | |
Toby | negro man | July 10, 1844 | near Bauskett Bridge on Stevens Creek | Accident | |
white man | white man | October 21, 1849 | in the woods near Holsonbakers[?] old fields | Natural Causes | |
Warren Kirkland | November 16, 1858 | at Benjamin Bartons | Homicide | ||
infant child | infant child | November 17, 1891 | at Mr M Toneys place | Unknown | |
Thomas Prince | July 31, 1848 | at the Joal of Said District | Natural Causes | ||
Lousay | November 25, 1860 | at Doct John E. Padgett | Accident | ||
Albert Watson | June 15, 1892 | at the plantation of W.B. Maffett | Natural Causes | ||
Henry | negro man | June 3, 1849 | at the house of Mrs Mary Harrison | Accident | |
Charles | slave | July 31, 1851 | at the house of John M. Norris Esqr in Edgefield | Accident | |
Elick Youngblood | child | March 21, 1881 | at S[?] R Warren | Homicide | |
James Reynolds | December 20, 1860 | at the residence of James Reynolds | Homicide | ||
James Leppard | February 13, 1893 | at F. M. Leppards | Natural Causes | ||
Tandy Holmes | September 21, 1894 | at or on Dr. W.C. Prescotts Plantation | Homicide | ||
infant | infant | May 5, 1893 | at F. L. Foys | Natural Causes | |
infant, (male) | infant, (male) | April 29, 1857 | at Potterville | Homicide | |
Louisa Wooden | October 13, 1893 | at Mose Woden | Accident | ||
Mary | Slave | May 17, 1847 | at the Plantation of A. Perrin | Homicide | |
Jacob Horn | February 25, 1866 | at the hous of Jacob Horns | Homicide | ||
Robert | slave, boy | April 8, 1847 | at Edward Hampton's | Suicide | |
Doublin | male slave, boy | April 5, 1857 | at the Residence of Mrs Delila Philips | Natural Causes | |
Jesse Limbecker | June 18, 1869 | at Hamburg | Accident | ||
Gus West | October 11, 1883 | at Jack Holms | Unknown | ||
William Samuel | April 26, 1891 | at Scima[?] Hill Church | Homicide | ||
Richard Mims | August 1, 1899 | at the plantation of Mrs. H. Carter | Accident | ||
James Thomas | colored | July 20, 1869 | at Liberty Hill County | Homicide | |
infant child | infant child | August 5, 1878 | at the residence of H J Wright | Homicide | |
Henry Jennings | September 14, 1891 | at the residense of diceased | Natural Causes | ||
Jno. C Swearingin | April 24, 1895 | at Edgefield CH | Homicide | ||
Lilla Olophant | female infant | August 18, 1879 | at Simpton[?] Pinns[?] | Accident | |
Richard Lundy | December 7, 1891 | at Edgefield Court House | Homicide | ||
Dave Gillam | August 25, 1892 | at the house of Cal Smiths | Homicide | ||
Edmond Price | April 30, 1892 | at Kennys Graveyard | Unknown | ||
Levi S. Mathews | July 13, 1892 | at G. C. Wheerles[?] Residence | Natural Causes | ||
Mary Grace Aldrich | infant child | August 11, 1856 | at Graniteville | Homicide | |
Infred Padgett | July 12, 1848 | at the Joal of Edgefield | Natural Causes | ||
Charley Ryan | May 9, 1892 | at T. H. Ramsford Plantion | Homicide | ||
infant child | infant child | November 23, 1891 | at the plantation of Willis Owdom[?] | Accident |