Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1915-11-17
McKIE MERIWETHER.
Interesting Sketch Of the Death
of Hero of Hamburg Riot.
Taken From Bamberg
Herald.

past, mas peeu puUtiouihs ihoiS "
less about Thos. McKie Meriwether,
the hero of the Hamburg riot, and
of the act of the general assembly,
whereby the State of South Caro-
lima appropriated sum of money
to erect 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 l
have thought perhaps a short ac-
count of the riot. and the tragic
death of the young man, may prove
of interest 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
living who remember when it was a
thriving town of three or four thou
ssud souls and one of the most i'm
portant inland cotton markets in the
country.
In 1875, the time of which l
write, there was only one bu-
siness house. formerly occupied
by Sibley & Usher, and one res
idence, the Usher homestead-left
standing.
Only a few white families lived
there, and the negro population
numbered fully twelve hundred.
The place had become a
harbor for every negro COW and
|aco.ton thief, house burner, and
! other type of negro criminal, in the
i country.
\ The municipal government was
composed Of negroes, and the mar
shall was negro.
The negroes were exceedingly in
solent and it was dangerous for
white men to go through the place
unsrmed. ~
On July 4.h, 1876, two young
white men who were returning home
from Augusta in a buggy were de-
MED passage through the streets by
a negro militia company which was
parading, and had blocked the pub
lie highway.
The young men in question,
, Messrs. Butler and Getzen, swore
out warrant next day against Doc
Adams, the negro captain Of the
company, for obstructing the pub
lie highway.
The trial was set for July 9Th,
but instead of Adams appearing in
court, he was found with his COM
pany, one hundred strong, armed
to the teeth, ensconced in the Sib-
ley & Usher building in defiant
attitude.
Gen. NJ. G. Butler, who had come
to Hamburg to conduct the case
sor his young kinsman, realizing
that the time for action had come,
sent a demand 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.
Batter and the Sweet Water
Sabre club he commanded, and
to which McKie Meriwether be-
longed.
This young man of tweuty-four,
handsome and debonair and brave,
was one of five detailed to hold a
position at the abutment of the
railroad bridge, and when firing
on the negroes in the building was
ordered to begin. in the afternoon,
fred his rifle so long and persistent
ly that it became so hot he could
not hold it.
Leaning over to place it against
la 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 for
over.
q Thus died the hero of the Ham
urg riot, one of Edge6eld's bra
est and truest sons. the idol of a
oting father, and the pride of his
= amily.
But the sacrifice was not in vain,
pr, as D. S. Henderson, of Aiken.
prcibly expressed 1t:
His spilled blood sounded the
tarm which redeemed the State
rom corruption and misrule."
"A martyr to the cause of white
u upremacy in South Carolina"
Nettie Ogilvle Speaks.