The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-11-11
MCKEE AIERIWETHER.
Interesting Sketch of the Death Of the
Hero of Hamburg Riot.

Editor The 1.-THE Colum-
bia State, for a year past, has been
publishing more or less about Thos.
Mckie Meriwether, the hero of the
Hamburg riot, and of the act of the
general assembly, whereby the State
Of South Carolina appropriated a sum
of money to erect a monument to
his memory.
This subject is to me of great in
terest, since the dead hero was a
brother to my first husband, and /
have thought perhaps short account
of the riot, and the tragic death Of
the young man, may prove of in
terest to your readers.
The town OF Hamburg was just
across from Augusta on the South
Carolina side of the Savannah river
1t has been almost wiped out of ex-
istence, but there are people now liv-
ing who remember when it was a
thriving town of three or four thou
sand souls and one of the most i'm
portant inland cotton markets in the
country.
In 1876, the time of which write,
there was only one business house,
formerly occupied by Sibley & Usher,
and one residence, the Usher home
stead-left standing.
Only few white families lived
there, and the negro population num-
bered fully twelve hundred.
The place had become an harbor
for every negro COW and cotton thief,
house burner, and other type Of ne
gro criminal, in the country.
The municipal government was
composed of negroes, and the mar
shall was a negro.
The negroes were exceedingly inso-
lent and it was dangerous for white
men to 90 through the place unarm-
ed.
On July 4th, 1876, two young white
men who were returning home from
Augusta in buggy were denied pas
sage through the streets by a negro
militia company who was parading,
and had blocked the public highway.
The young men in question, Messrs.
Butler and Getzen, swore out a war
rant next day against Doc Adams, the
negro captain of the company, for
obstructing the public highway.
The trial was set for July 9Th, but
instead Of Adams appearing in court,
he was found with his company, one
hundred strong, armed to the teeth,
ensconced in the Sibley & Usher
building in a defiant attitude.
Gen. M. c. Butler, who had come
to Hamburg to. conduct the case fo1
his young kinsman, realizing that the
time for action had come, sent de-
mand to Adams to give up their arms
which was refused.
The news spread like wild fire, and
soon men were rushing to the scene,
among them Col. A. P. Butler and
the Sweet Water Sabre club he COM
manded, and to which McKie Meri-
wether belonged.
This young man of twenty-four,
handsome and debonair and brave,
was one of five detailed to hold a
position at the abutment of the rail-
road bridge, and when firing on the
negroes in the building was ordered
to begin in the afternoon, fired his
rifle so long and persistently that it
became so hot he could not hold it.
Leaning over to place it against a
pier, bullet from the negro fort
ploughed it's way across the top OF
his curly head, stilled his heart, and
quenched the brave spirit forever.
Thus died the hero of the Ham
burg riot, one of Edgefeld's bravest
and truest sons, the idol of a dotipg
father, and the pride of his family.
But the sacrifice was not in vain,
for, as D. S. Henderson, of Aiken,
forcibly expressed it:
,"His spilled blood sounded the
alarm which redeemed the State from
corruption and misrule."
"A martyr to the cause of white
supremacy in South Carolina
NETTIE OGILVIE SPEAKS.
Bamberg, S. c., November Sth,
1915.
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