Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1919-02-26
Report on Edgefeld County
Changing.

Mr.. T. c.. Broadwater, foreman.
Visited November 7, 1918, by As
sistant Secretary Broyles and Fiscal
Agent Dixon, with Mr.. H. c. Porter.
Camped ten or twelve miles from
Edgefeld, working the Dixie High
way. IS convicts present, of whom 8
were TRUSTEES. The camp site was
good one, except that the mule pen
was too near the sleeping quarters
of the prisoners and guards.
We found this gang located for
the winter in snug little cove, sur
rounded by wooded hills. A fairly
good spring, in the center of the
camp, furnishes abundant water, and
the foreman has constructed the best
shelter for his mules that we have
seen put up at any camp. He has
built a regular, tight stable, using
pine slabs for the purpose.
The greatest need on the Edgefeld
gang is for proper place to cook. A
rude shed, not water tight, has been
erected, and cooking is done under
this in bad weather, but at other
times it is done in the open air. No
stove is used at any time. Food cant
be properly prepared over an open
ire except by an expert camper, and
and no one can cook thus without
poorly prepared, and waste of, food.
Besides, in very severe weather it be-
comes an impossibility to cook at all,
and this subjects the negroes to un-
necessary hardships. We strongly re-
commend that the supervisor and
commissioners purchase a good stove,
and provide either tent or a screen
ed wooden car on wheels for kitch-
en-. The car is much better, and is
cheaper in the long run, as the best
of tents very quickly wear out, or are
torn up by storms.
We further recommend that the
supervisor have the prisoners cage
screened early next summer; that he
keep in his office suitable book,
complete record of the convicts on
the gang, showing the name, date of
commitment, age, race, length of SEN
tence, date of discharge, and reason
for the discharge, and some personal
description of the prisoner, with dis
tinguishing scars, ETC., which would
make Identification easy should he
escape; and finally, that the county
commissioners employ a physician on
a salary to make complete physical
examination of each new convict
within 4S hours of his commitment
which could often be done at the Jail
before taking him to camp-to vac
cinate against smallpox when indi-
Gated, and to make regular weekly
inspections of the prisoners food,
quarters, and particularly the sani-
tary arrangements of the camp.
We recommend that the foreman
at camp require the negroes to keep
the cage cleaner and the hunks in
better order; that all blankets in use
be washed at least monthly, and that
each new prisoner brought to the
gang be given clean blankets for his
bed; and that he keep in a suitable
book at camp similar record to that
recommended above to the supervi-
sor. These two records will act as a
check against each other, and will
serve as guard against unintention-
al injustice to the men or the fore
man himself, should charges ever be
brought against him of having kept
prisoner over his time, or of having
disposed C. prisoners illegally. We
realize that these things happen very
seldom, but they have happened in
this State, and a complete system of
duplicate records makes irregularities
practically impossible unless the men
keeping both sets of records agree.
We have no idea that such things
have ever happened or ever will hap
pen at this camp, but The general
principal of accurate, systematic
record keeping should be carried out
at every camp. Finally. we recon-
mend that the foreman take more
pains with camp sanitation. When
camp is made, dig a pit at least $50
yards away from camp and the water
supply, and into this pit dump the
sewerage buckets every morning, i'm
mediately covering the focal matter
with three inches of dirt. When the
buckets are put under the cage at
night, put three or four inches of
water into it, and on the surface of