Forgotten Heroes of Greenville, SC , livre ebook

Turner Publishing Company - William Wilbanks

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158 pages

English

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The stories of 33 officers, from the years 1797 through 1996, who were killed in the line of duty.

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SC

Informations

Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	15 juin 1997
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781681625942
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0548€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

FORGOTTEN HEROES
P OLICE O FFICERS K ILLED IN G REENVILLE C OUNTY
D R . W ILLIAM W ILBANKS
Turner Publishing Company
Copyright 1997 Dr. William Wilbanks.
Publishing Rights:
Turner Publishing Company
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of the author and publisher.
Author: Dr. William Wilbanks
All photos courtesy of Dr. William Wilbanks
Turner Publishing Company Staff:
Editor: Herbert C. Banks II
Designer: Ina F. Morse
Library of Congress
Catalog Card No.: 97-60577
ISBN 978-1-68162-593-5
Additional copies may be purchased directly from the publisher.
T ABLE OF C ONTENTS
Brief History of Law Enforcement in Greenville County
About the Author
1. 1797 (Nov. 12) Sheriff Robert Maxwell
2. 1877 (Feb. 12) U.S. Deputy Marshal Van Buren Hendrix
3. 1878 (April 19) U.S. Deputy Marshal Rufus Springs
4. 1904 (April 12) Greenville Officer J.P. Tucker .
5. 1904 (May 14) Magistrate William J. Cox
6. 1904 (July 2) Greer Officer Wm. Foster
7. 1911 (Feb. 17) Greenville Officer Oliver S. Gunnels
8. 1914 (Oct. 5) Deputy Sheriff John F. Lindsey
9. 1915 (May 30) Greenville Chief J.F. Holcombe
10. 1917 (Aug. 26) Deputy Sheriff James Arthur Stewart
11. 1919 (July 4) Sheriff Hendrix Rector
12. 1919 (Oct. 5) Greenville Officer Joseph L. Kitchens
13. 1919 (Oct. 5) Greenville Officer A.M. Blair
14. 1921 (May 6) Greenville Officer G.S. Burroughs
15. 1924 (Jan. 31) State Constable James Holland Howard
16. 1925 (March 3) Greenville Officer Arthur F. Lackey
17. 1926 (Sept. 22) Deputy Sheriff George Matthew Myers
18. 1927 (June 11) Sheriff Sam D. Willis
19. 1929 (Sept. 19) Convict Guard Dock M. Garrett
20. 1930 (Oct. 24) Deputy Sheriff Perry Paris
21. 1932 (May 1) Greenville Officer A.B. Hunt
22. 1934 (Dec. 25) S.C. Highway Patrol Trooper E.D. Milam
23. 1965 (Sept. 12) Deputy Sheriff John D. Martin
24. 1966 (Dec. 31) Chief Deputy Claude V. Southerlin, Jr .
25. 1970 (Aug. 8) Correctional Officer James P. Bagwell
26. 1971 (Feb. 21) Greenville Officer Frank Chasteen
27. 1973 (March 10) SC Hgw Patrol Trooper Fulton H. Anthony
28. 1975 (Jan. 31) Deputy Sheriff Rufus Frank Looper
29. 1983 (Sept. 20) Greenville Officer Mathew M. Beacham
30. 1985 (Nov. 28) State Constable Valdon Osborn Keith
31. 1989 (June 9) Deputy Sheriff William Mahon Banks
32. 1996 (Sept. 19) Greenville Officer Russell Sorrow
33. 1996 (Oct. 9) Fountain Inn Sgt. Carlton Pope
BRIEF HISTORY OF LAW ENFORCEMENT IN GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C.
The Upper Country of S.C. was sparsely populated in colonial days and, since the office of the Provost Marshal was far away in Charleston, the few residents of the area formed an organization called Regulation. The regulators were involved in debt collection and even in supervising morals. According to a history of the Upper Country of S.C. by Sheriff Johnny Mack Brown, by the winter of 1768 the Regulators were complete masters of the Back Country. However, the state of law enforcement was described by Sheriff Brown as being characterized by anarchy and lynch law.
In 1772 the Colonial Governor appointed sheriffs for each of the seven districts of S.C. (Charleston, Beaufort, Orangeburg, Georgetown, Camden, Cheraw, and Ninety Six (the Upper Country). Robert Stark was appointed as the first Sheriff of the Ninety Six District that included what is now Greenville County.
S.C. declared its independence from England in 1776 and the frontiersmen of the Upper Country had to fight the Tories and the Cherokees, who were incited by British agents to attack the Loyalists. The area later known as Greenville County had little or no law enforcement from 1777-1784 and was a favorite refuge of rogues and thieves.
After the War of Independence ended in 1783 the General Assembly divided the Ninety Six District into six counties and Greenville County was created in 1786. The area had been opened to settlement in 1784 and within two years practically all of the desirable lands in the county had been taken up, largely by Revolutionary soldiers.
Greenville County remained a part of Ninety-Six District until 1791 when the Washington District (comprised of today s Greenville and Pendleton Counties) was created and existed until 1799. In 1800 Greenville County became a separate judicial district with its own sheriff and court.
Several men served as Sheriff over what is now Greenville County in the pioneer years with the best known being Gen. Robert Maxwell who served from 1795 until his line of duty death in 1797. (A complete list of sheriffs for Greenville County from 1773 to the present is given in Sheriff Brown s history.) Early sheriffs received their income from fees, mostly for civil matters. However, the sheriff was involved in criminal matters and supervised local hangings before the state took over executions in 1912. The first known hanging in Greenville was on April 2, 1882, when three men were hung for burning the old Academy of Music in Dec. of 1879. A listing of hangings from 1882-1906 was given in the Greenville News on Feb. 25, 1906.
The town of Pleasantburg (Greenville) was laid out in 1797 and a courthouse was erected by 1800. The City of Greenville elected its first policeman (a marshal ) in 1845. A second marshal was added in 1851. The police force was comprised of only two men until 1871. Night policemen were added in 1876 and the first detective in 1891. By 1900 the Greenville Police Dept. had 16 men. The first black officers were hired by the Greenville Police Dept. in 1964. In 1996, the Dept. had 175 sworn officers.
Until 1914 the county area outside of the Greenville municipal limits was patrolled by a sheriff and one or two deputies. However, in 1914 a rural police force with a chief and 10 or 12 policemen was instituted but lasted only a few years. The Sheriff s Office had only 10 deputies as late as 1935. In 1996 the Sheriff s Office had 296 sworn officers.
The history of law enforcement in Greenville County, and especially the history of officers killed in the line of duty, cannot be told without explaining the role of federal law enforcement officers in the county. Federal troops were stationed in Greenville after the Civil War under Reconstruction and stayed until 1877. U.S. Marshals arrested (sometimes with the help of federal troops) more than 7,000 southerners for violations of the civil rights laws (i.e., terrorizing blacks) through 1877. That role ended when the U.S. Supreme Court (in the Cruikshank case) denied the federal government the power to protect individual rights and left such protection up to state governments.
After the Civil War the federal government enacted federal revenue laws (i.e., taxes) on whiskey. Since many of the residents of the Dark Corner (i.e., the mountainous areas) of Greenville County made and sold whiskey, a war of sorts began with federal authorities and the moonshiners. The federal Internal Revenue agents and the U.S. Marshals were supported by the U.S. Army until 1877.
Many local sheriffs and law enforcement officers were in sympathy with the moonshiners and, at best, gave little support to federal revenue agents after 1878 when U.S. troops left the state. At worse, some local officers actually arrested some federal Internal Revenue Agents and U.S. marshals. Also, when federal agents were assaulted or killed by moonshiners, the killers often went unpunished by local state courts where sympathy was more likely to be with the local moonshiners than with the meddling federal authorities.
However, a different twist on the War against Moonshiners resulted when the state of S.C., in 1892, created the State Dispensary giving the State complete control over the sale of alcoholic beverages. This law began a period when both federal and state authorities sought to confiscate untaxed liquor and destroy stills.

The most hated part of the new law was the section authorizing the State Constables to obtain warrants and to search private homes if they suspected that illegal liquor was stored there for sale. Darlington County openly defined the law and, in March of 1894, its citizens fought a pitched battle with the State Constables. In Jan. of 1907 the State Dispensary was abandoned and S.C. returned to local county option for liquor control until federal prohibition was enacted in 1919.
The shift from federal domination to state and local domination of law enforcement efforts against the moonshiners is reflected in that while two federal agents were killed in Greenville County by moonshiners in the 1870 s, the only law enforcement agents killed in the county from 1904 to 1924 were three state and local officers.
The most remarkable aspect of the history of law enforcement officers killed in Greenville County is the extremely high number of deaths for the 31 years from 1904-1934 (a total of 19) and the total absence of any such deaths for the 30 years from 1935-1964. There were only 11 officers killed during the 32 years from 1965-1996.
Given that the total number of local, state and federal law enforcement officers in Greenville County totalled no more than 100 men during the period of 1904-1934, the total of 19 killed over 31 years is a remarkably high total. The total of 11 officers killed in the past 32 years, though tragic, probably represents a rate of officers killed that is only a very small fraction of the rate of officer killings from 1904-1934. Also, the 11 killed in the past 32 years includes 3 officers killed in traffic accidents and it is likely that several such police traffic fatalities occurred in 1904-1934 but were not recorded as line of duty deaths.
The relatively high rate of killings of police in the early years of the 20th century is not unusual as Dr. Wilbanks found that the rate of murders against police (not including traffic accidents ) in Dade County (Miami), FL, was 50 times greater from 1910-19 as in 1980-89 and 6 times greater in 1920-1929 as in 19