Reconstruction in Chesterfield County

Northwest corner of Chesterfield County in 1825. The Blakeney plantation is roughly the location of modern Pageland. Note also location of the Wadsworth plantation
Mills, Robert. Chesterfield District, South Carolina. [1825] Map via Library of Congress

Chesterfield County after the War

At the end of the Civil War, Chesterfield County was left devastated. During Sherman's march, many families saw Union soldiers seize their food stores, often a full year's harvest meant to sustain them through the year. One out of every four white men eligible for military service had been killed, and many more were seriously injured. In Old Store township, Alfred Agerton had seen three of his five sons killed and one of his brothers sent to a Union prison. State-wide, civil government had broken down, and the emancipation of slaves had created rapid and unprecedented social and economic change.

During the first years after the war, many in Chesterfield County faced hunger if not outright starvation. In a May 1867 letter, Governor Orr reported that the county needed at least 10,000 bushels of corn to feed the poor. The situation was described in detail by "prominent citizens" from the county in a July 1866 public letter to the federal government requesting aid: 

There is now great suffering among the poorer classes of the white people of the District for want of the necessaries of life, and the distress is increasing and extending every day, while there are none there able to give relief or save these destitute ones from actual starvation.

This District suffered more severely by the march of Sherman's army than perhaps any other in the state, from the destruction of provisions and the means of providing for the future, and there is now neither grain sufficient to keep the population nor money to purchase it with. The state of affairs is becoming truly alarming. Every day, poor women are begging, in the streets of Cheraw for meal or corn to save themselves or children from starvation, and the petitioners would gladly afford it, if they had it

A close reading of the letter points to another source of tension. The authors ask for aid for the poorer classes of the white people but make no mention of the freedmen and their families who made up about one-third of the county. In many respects, they were left in the most straits. Emancipation had freed them from bondage, but would this mean anything other than a freedom to starve?

The federal government played a crucial role both in helping former slaves adapt to freedom and in having people of all races avoid starvation through the activities of the Freedmen's Bureau. Among its other activities, the bureau distributed rations to people of all races. Receiving rations was not easy for residents of Chesterfield. They had to travel twenty or thirty (at least a day's journey) to the bureau's regional headquarters in town of Darlington. 

Conditions in the county were dire enough that many regularly made the trip. A newspaper writer, publishing under the pseudonym "Traveler," reported on the scene in July 1867. On the days that the bureau distributed rations, he wrote that every road to Darlington was crowded with people traveling from Chesterfield County and other regions. They made for a sad sight, traveling in "non-descript, antediluvian vehicles, drawn by animals, that appear but remotely descended from the genus equus, poor and bony, spavined and scrawny, most piteous looking objects." After arriving, people would camp in the town square, waiting their turn for rations. Many were noisy and generally disruptive, and situation would get worse after rations were distributed as some would immediately trade for whiskey. 

To "Traveler," conditions in Darlington demonstrated problems with Republican policy. Republican politicians presented themselves as saviors of poor white farmers in the south. Bureau rations were to be only a first step towards uplifting them. The end of slavery and the break-up of plantations would bring even greater benefits by creating for them more opportunities to find wage labor and to purchase land. "Traveler" pointed to the scene in Darlington as evidence that this plan was failing. One Darlington farmer had expressed frustration because poor whites were spending two or three days every week traveling to town for bureau rations when they could feed themselves if instead they spent that time farming. The farmer had offered to employ some of the men on own farm, but the men illogically responded by saying that they could not leave their own crops, the very crops which they were abandoning to get bureau rations.

"Traveler" generally described the poor whites living the Sandhills as unfit for productive labor. During the past year, many had contracted to work for wages or to rent farmland, but they abandoned their duties when the blackberry season came, and they were able to live off the land. 

"Traveler" described the freedmen as even more debased than poor whites. Bureau rations were offered on a per-person basis, and freedmen would bring elderly and infirm relatives, some "more dead than alive," so that they could get a larger share. Every week in town, "[o]ld and diseased negroes may be seen ... crawling up and coming many miles, who three years ago, 'in slavy time,' could not have walked in a hundred yards." 

Freedmen's bureau distributing rations. 
The artist only depicts freedmen receiving rations, but the bureau also issued rations to white people
Taylor, James E., Artist. Glimpses at the Freedmen's Bureau via the Library of Congress

Throughout the region, land-owning farmers were frustrated at the difficulty in getting freedmen to work their land. In December 1868, the Cheraw Democrat reported that freedmen were seeking work on the railroads or establishing their own farms rather than working as house servants or farm laborers for whites. It disapprovingly described this as a "very doubtful policy."

Freedmen themselves were frustrated at their treatment by employers. Henry J. Maxwell, a free person of color who had served in the Union army and would later serve in the state senate, wrote about the condition of freedmen in the village of Oro in a July 26, 1867 letter to the head of the Freedmen's Bureau. While staying there, Maxwell became concerned because whites were taking "undue advantage" of freedmen. Cases where freedmen were mistreated were "too numerous and general" to describe in detail.

Henry J. Maxwell
From Radical members of the first legislature after the war, South Carolina

Maxwell's letter points to the difficulty of enforcing newly enacted laws. While the bureau was supposed to help freedmen resolve disputes over labor contacts and other legal matters, a lack of manpower limited what it could do. No bureau agent was assigned to Oro, and in his letter, Maxwell requested that one be sent. The request was declined as an agent was already stationed at Cheraw, but this was hardly a satisfactory solution. Freedmen in Oro seeking the agent's help needed to travel over thirty miles (at least a day's journey).

Even if they could secure help from a bureau agent, the agent was often limited in what he could. The federal government had only a limited ability to intervene in the county. Despite complaints of "bayonet rule" from white conservatives, few military forces were stationed in the area. Immediately after the war, roughly two-hundred Union soldiers were stationed in the county, half in Cheraw and half at Chesterfield Court House. This was a tiny contingent compared to Sherman's massive army, but it was more than enough to militarily overwhelm any resistance conservatives tried to offer. However, these troops were removed following a major nation-wide demobilization. For the remainder of Reconstruction, the nearest Union troops were more than a day's ride away, in towns like Darlington and Chester or in the city of Columbia. Freedmen and white Unionist could expect the government to offer only limited protection.

The Political Situation: Presidential Reconstruction

During the first years of Reconstruction, there was little need for conservatives to resist the government as political power remained in the hands of the men who had led the state during the antebellum. In June 1865, President Johnson appointed a provisional governor and directed the state to convene a convention for the purpose of revising the state constitution so as to repudiate secession and ban slavery. Once this was done, Johnson intended to restore the state to its normal relations with the rest of the country. 

Chesterfield County sent to the constitutional convention two of the men who had promoted secession at the 1860 convention: John A. Inglis and Henry McIver. A new state constitution was adopted, and a new state legislature was elected. Only white men who had lived in the state for the last two years were allowed to vote, and they elected an all-white legislature in which the antebellum elite were strongly represented. Chesterfield county was represented by the planter/lawyer elite that had long dominated local politics. In the legislature, the county was represented by senator Alexander McQueen and congressmen S. W. Evans and M. J. Hough. Evans and McQueen were planters, while Hough farmed and also maintained a law practice. Both McQueen and Evans had served in the legislature during the antebellum and had served in the Confederate army during the war. 

Not only was the new state government run by the men who had run it during the antebellum, but those men sough to preserve traditional race relations. While the government banned slavery, it denied freedmen important political rights, including the right to vote and serve on juries, and used vagrancy laws to force them into the workforce. 

John A. McInglis
From Dickson College

Henry McIver
From Wikipedia

National politics resulted in an abrupt change in state government in 1867. Following conflict between President Johnson and Congress, Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts which placed each former Confederate state under military rule and required it to make further revisions to the state constitution before civil government would be restored. Central to the requirements was that freedmen be granted the right to vote.

The Political Situation: Congressional Reconstruction

Following the Reconstruction Acts, the South Carolina government was transformed at a dizzying speed. That fall, a state-wide election – the first one in which Freedmen were able to vote – was held to determine whether to hold a convention and, if so, who should act as delegates. The election came out in favor of a convention, and the newly elected delegates met in January to draft a new constitution. Over the summer, the new constitution was ratified, and a new state government was elected. The outcome was a shocking change. A legislature dominated by planters and ex-Confederates was replaced by one in which a majority of members were former slaves.

In Chesterfield County, the electoral outcomes followed those state-wide. The election for holding a convention had 1,927 registered voters in the county, of which 1,094 were white and 833 black. The vote went in favor of the convention with 877 votes for, 245 against, and 805 abstaining. The vote on ratification was similar: 722 voted for ratification, 644 against, and 550 abstained. Abstaining was essentially the same as voting against as passage required a majority of registered voters voting in favor.

The electoral outcome was the result of conservatives' political strategy. Arguing that military rule was preferable to a civil government where freedmen could vote, they encouraged whites to stay at home or cast a "no" vote. Chesterfield whites appear to have been convinced. The Cheraw Advertiser reported that the vote split along racial lines, and this is consistent with the reported votes. For both the vote on holding a convention and the vote on ratification, the combined number of abstentions and votes against is close to the total number of registered white voters. 

The conservatives' strategy backfired disastrously. The convention delegates were determined by the ballots in favor, so the delegates were chosen by Chesterfield's black minority. Instead of the former secessionists who represented the county at the 1865 convention, Chesterfield –  a county of poor white farmers – was represented by two Republican politicians: a black man from Charleston and a white preacher from New Hampshire. 

The black man was H. L. Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury was from a prominent family of free persons of color living in Charleston. He had moved to the town of Cheraw only a year earlier to work as a Freedman's Bureau teacher. He received as much acceptance as could be expected. In general, affluent free persons of color in Charleston were positively regarded by conservatives as they had avoided challenging race relations and maintained good relations with the planter-elite during the antebellum. Shrewsbury was also able to avoid becoming entangled in the political corruption that was endemic during the early years of Reconstruction in South Carolina. Raised in urban environment and educated in common schools, he cut an unusual figure in backwoods Chesterfield, but the Charleston Mercury reported that "his neighbours speak well of him." By 1870, his standing was so high that the Chesterfield Democrat endorsed him as the Union Reform candidate for US Congress. (Ultimately, the nomination went to a Captain Dunn, a white former Union army officer.)

H. L. Shrewsbury is pictured in the center
From Radical members of the first legislature after the war, South Carolina

The New Hampshire preacher, R. J. Donaldson, was another matter. Donaldson (also spelled "Donelson," "Donalson," and even "McDonald") was born in Ireland, although he considered himself to be an Englishman. He had left Europe for America six years earlier. It's unclear what he did during the first few years, but by 1865, he was serving as a Methodist pastor in the town of Raymond, New Hampshire.

Donaldson moved to South Carolina around late 1867. The Methodist church stationed him in the village of Oro in Chesterfield. However, Donaldson appears to have had other ambitions as well. He ran two stores: one in Cheraw and one by a gold mine near Oro. These stores likely represented part of a coordinated effort by New York-based investors to develop northwestern Chesterfield. We'll explore this topic in a later blogpost on land sales and Henry J. Fox. 

In contrast to Shrewsbury, Donaldson was hated by conservatives. The Charleston Mercury newspaper described him as motivated by "vile ambition." Among Chesterfield residents, it reported that he had a reputation as someone whose character was "not an enviable one." At least among conservatives, his reputation would only decline over time. Three years later, he was called "Chesterfield's most inveterate enemy" by citizens in a public letter to the state government.

Unfortunately for conservatives, Donaldson gained even more political power shortly after the ratification of the new constitution. He was elected state senator for Chesterfield. Shrewsbury received one of the two seats in the House. The other was held by a Republican, D. J. J. Johnson. Johnson was a black man living in Cheraw. He was not very active as a legislator, and little is known about him.

It is not entirely clear how Republicans were able to win all the legislative seats. The vote on ratification was determined by state-wide votes, so with the state's large black population, the outcome was bound to be in favor. This was not the case with the votes on elected offices. In fact, several counties with large white majorities elected conservative Democrats to both the senate and the house. Chesterfield would have been represented in the legislature by conservatives if they had managed to convince 78 of the 550 voters who abstained to show up and cast a vote for them. Yet it appears that conservatives did not even run candidates. In seeking to explain why electoral outcomes in Chesterfield were different from those in other majority-white counties, there are many explanations that one could point to, such as the county's lack of wealth or its underdevelopment or the greater destruction it experienced during the war, but all such explanations are speculative.

Already by June, conservative Democrats in Chesterfield had rallied. Local elections for county offices were held, and white Democrats won a number of offices in Chesterfield County including sheriff, coroner, and county commissioner. Developments in December further suggested upcoming political difficulties for Republicans. The election for US senator for the First District, which included Chesterfield, was held that month. In Chesterfield, the Democratic candidate Harris Covington, a former Confederate soldier, received a comfortable majority of 240 votes over his Republican challenger B. F. Whittemore. (Covington received 960 votes against Whittemore's 720). Whittemore had a strong showing in other counties and won the election, but it was becoming increasingly clear that Republican political control of Chesterfield County was tenuous. 

Efforts to consolidate Republican political power were led by Senator Donaldson. Donaldson had multiple tools at his disposal. In addition to the legislative powers that his senate seat provided, he also had significant control over the local electoral system as he was given a gubernatorial appointment as election manager. Donaldson used these tools to promote his business interests. He successfully proposed a bill to incorporate a railroad company charged with connecting the Low County to Old Store township. In turn, he used his business interests to strengthen his political base. A land development company he was involved with sold plots of land to people from the north and from England. He hoped these newcomers would become Republican loyalists who would shift voter demographics in his favor. He also tried to protect freedmen from economic retaliation. When freedmen were evicted by their landlords for supporting the Republican party, the land development company offered them land leases, and a mining company Donaldson worked with offered jobs to freedmen. With all this, he built up a network of political supporters. His brother-in-law Alfred T. Peete moved to Cheraw and received employment as a deputy tax collector. 

The Election of 1870

In seeking solidify political power, Donaldson had set a challenging task for himself.  Donaldson's term of office was only for two years. Under the new constitution, only senators elected after 1868 would serve a full four-year term. During his two years in office, Donaldson needed to overcome the support that opposing Democratic politicians could draw from the county's two-thirds white majority.

A positive development during this time was that agriculture in the region was beginning to recover. In June 1869, the Cheraw Democrat reported that it had been a good growing season, and it looked like farmers would harvest a solid crop of corn and cotton. The Charleston Daily News was similarly positive about the prospects for farming. In addition to favorable weather, it reported that the labor problems were subsiding and "both whites and blacks are doing all they can to improve their conditions."

The political situation was very different. Tensions between Republicans and conservatives began to escalate to violence. In August 1869, township elections (for offices like selectman, constable, etc) were held. In the town of Mount Croghan, a fight broke out on election day between an (unnamed) freedman and a former Confederate soldier and farmer laborer, Archibald Nicholson. Archibald was struck on the head with a gun wielded by a second freedman, Jacob Brewer, who came to aid the first. Archibald's brother John joined the fight and was struck by a rock. The fight ended when some young men drove the freedmen away. Later that day, Archibald died from of the blow to his head. (John survived his injury.) In confirmation of conservatives concerns about how law had broken down, no legal actions were taken against Jacob Brewer even through a court of inquest found that he had feloniously murdered Nicholson.

R. J. Donaldson himself was present at the fight at Mount Croghan because he was serving as an election manager. Never passing up an opportunity to criticize Donaldson, the Charleston Daily News reported that, when the fight broke out, Donaldson ran off with some of the ballot boxes, although he returned with them after the fight was over. 

The county was also subject to arson attacks that year. In Old Store township, two white farmers, Henry W. Funderburk and Naret Dees, were victims of such attacks. In December, Funderburk lost his barn, and Dees lost his home and an outhouse. The arson attack on Dees's property took the lives of a white boy and a black girl (both unnamed in newspapers). The incendiaries were never caught, but attacks of this nature were often thought to be perpetrated by freedmen for political or economic reasons (for example, to enact revenge against a landlord). After reporting on the attacks, the Charleston Daily News remarked that many residents of Chesterfield County were leaving the county for the west.

General state elections were to be held in October 1870, and as election day drew nearer, political pressure on Donaldson increased. State-wide, conservatives sought to make electoral gains by allying themselves with moderate Republicans seeking political reform. They united as the Union Reform party. The proposed electoral ticket was a fusion of the two political parties. The candidate for governor was the moderate Republican Richard N. Capenter, a circuit judge who had recently moved to Charleston from Kentucky. Reformists ran a conservative, M. C. Butler, for the lieutenant governor's office. Butler was an ex-Confederate officer and planter living in Edgefield. He later led efforts overthrow the Reconstruction government. 

In Chesterfield County, local candidates were nominated at a meeting held at Chesterfield Court House in mid-August. The meeting drew several hundred whites and a "considerable number of colored people." The meeting was not announced as a meeting of the Union Reform party, but a list of the speakers shows that it was organized by the county's traditional conservative political leaders. The audience heard speeches by former state senator Alexander McQueen, prominent Cheraw lawyer W. L. T. Prince, and Henry McIver, one of the signers of the state's Ordinance of Secession. The upcoming election was described not as a political contest but rather as an existential fight for the county's future: "Old Chesterfield calls upon every one of her sons, native and adopted, white and colored, to do their duty; to ... never relax their efforts until ... our good old district [is] redeemed from carpet-bag rule."

Despite the brief appeal to Chesterfield's "colored sons," no effort was made to reach out to freedmen or moderate Republicans. Meeting participants nominated a ticket consisting of the local elites who had dominated politics during the antebellum. At the meeting, the proposed candidates were Alfred Moore Lowrey for state senate and Minor Jackson Hough and Gideon Walker Duvall for state congress. The nomination was changed after the meeting, and G. W. Duvall ended up running for senate while M. J. Hough and Burwell Christmas Evans ran for state congress. This ticket represented no real effort to reach out to moderate Republicans. G. W. Duvall was a wealthy farmer in Cheraw, M. J. Hough a lawyer in Chesterfield Court House, and B. C. Evans a merchant in Mount Croghan. All were white, and Evans and Hough were ex-Confederate officers. 

B. C. Evans
From Debbie Gibbons via FindAGrave

Donaldson ran for re-election on the Republican ticket, but the state congressmen did not. Shrewsbury appears to have had a falling out with Donaldson and his supporters over problems with political corruption. The candidates for congress were two men new to local politics: William Littlefield and J. P. Singleton. Singleton was a black mason living in Cheraw about whom little was recorded.

William Littlefield, the other candidate, is described as a "colored Republican" in Reynold's history of Reconstruction in South Carolina, but this is an error. Littlefield was a thirty-something year old white Union army veteran from Pennsylvania. In 1870, he was living in Cheraw and working as a printer. He likely came to South Carolina with John J. Patterson. Patterson was a highly influential and controversial figure in Reconstruction South Carolina. Although he would later serve in US senate, he originally moved to the state to pursue businesses interests in banking and the railroad industry, work that brought him into close contact with legislators. Patterson was widely regarded as corrupt and was alleged to have secured legislation by bribing officials. In an 1878 report, conservatives alleged that Patterson was behind efforts to get Littlefield and Singleton elected.

During the electoral campaign, Union Reformists ran on a platform of good governance and a commitment to fighting the political corruption, a growing problem for the state. Donaldson was a particular focus of criticism. A major issue was his involvement in land sales. In 1869, the state government created a commission charged with purchasing land, subdividing it into small plots, and then selling it to landless farmers on favorable terms. The commission soon became a vehicle for corruption as politically connected landowners bribed officials to buy worthless land at inflated prices. During the summer, the press began publishing reports of these transactions, and Donaldson was accused of being at the center of two of them. In July, he was accused of helping facilitate the purchase of 1,004 acres of land in Lancaster County from J. F. G. Mittag, a prominent lawyer known for his scientific writing. The land was sold to the commission for $8032 even though Mittag had purchased it for $1507 only eighteen months earlier. Donaldson was alleged to have shared in the profit.

Donaldson was a target of further criticism in September. That month the Reform gubernatorial candidate Judge Carpenter was on the campaign trail, touring the state. To provide conservative representation, he was joined by John Doby Kennedy, a planter/lawyer who had fought with distinction for the Confederacy.

Judge Carpenter launched new accusations against Donaldson. He accused him of making a large fortune in bribes while serving in the legislature. As an example of the fraud and corruption that Donaldson had been involved with, he produced a deed for a plot of land in Old Store township. With help from Donaldson, Henry J. Fox had recently sold the plot to the state commission for $36, 000, more than triple the original $10,000 price he'd purchased it for.

Carpenter further accused Donaldson of using his ill-gotten fortune to bribe people into supporting him and misusing his political office. One of his schemes, Carpenter claimed, involved changing the location of voting precincts. Some of Donaldson's strongest political support came from blacks living near the Pee Dee river. Using his authority as Commissioner of Election, he had consolidated two voting precincts in the area into one that was located in the middle of a black community. In doing so, he sought to suppress the conservative vote as many white voters lived over thirty miles away. 

In the lead-up to the election, more rumors spread about Donaldson's plans to engage in voter fraud.  On October 11, the Charleston Daily News reported a rumor that Donaldson was openly telling people that he was going to misuse his position as an election commissioner to win: "Yes; I'm certain of it [i.e. my electoral victory] -- I count the votes." 

The Daily News also reported that Donaldson had asked the governor's office for military aid on election day. At the time, there were only about 250 federal soldiers in the entire state, but Governor Scott controlled two armed forced that had been newly created by the legislature: the state constabulary and the state militia. Of the two, the militia was the most controversial as it was to be racially integrated. White conservatives scorned the militia as the "negro militia" and avoided service. By fall 1870, the government had purchased and distributed over seven thousand firearms to militia, but the distribution was uneven. On paper, Chesterfield County was supposed to be home to three companies of troops, but by election day, the government had not only failed to issue arms to the units, it had not even appointed officers.

State-wide, the constabulary force consisted of about one hundred and fifty constables, many of whom were armed with state-issued Winchester and Spencer rifles. Two constables were assigned to Chesterfield County: one John H. Donaldson and William Littlefield, one of the Republican candidates for state congress. (It's unclear if J. H. Donaldson was related to Senator Donaldson.)  In October (the month of the election), J. C. Bonsall (a constable stationed in Union County), was assigned to Chesterfield. He was joined by three other constables including J. P. Wharton.

Conservatives complained that Governor Scott planned to misuse the militia and the constabulary to intimidate Democratic, but the effectiveness of the organizations was hindered by widespread fraud. Men received pay and rations despite performing no service, and tens of thousands of dollars earmarked for purchasing firearms were given to state officials as "commissions." Officers felt the militia was overmatched by white paramilitary groups. In a letter to the chief constable, one militia officer (B. G. Yocum) wrote that his troops were "ignorant colored men with clumsy muskets" who were militarily overmatched by conservative paramilitary groups which included "experienced soldiers on blooded horses." In the run-up to the election, the "negro militia" was a source of tremendous anger and anxiety among conservatives, but their activities were largely limited to drilling and marching. 

On election day (October 19), federal troops were stationed in up-state counties like Union to prevent violence, and special police were appointed to Charleston, but the forces in Chesterfield were limited to a few constables. It appears that election day in the county passed without major public incident. Senator Donaldson would later allege that Republican voters at the precincts of Cole Hill and Alligator were prevented from voting by fraud and threats of violence, but he never produced convincing evidence. The day after the election, the Daily News triumphantly declared on the front page that "Both Chesterfield and Marlboro give heavy reform majorities." It appeared that Donaldson had been defeated, and conservatives in Chesterfield were among the first to "redeem" local government. The announcement proved premature as it would take months to establish who had actually won the election.

Election Day 

The Daily News's announcement that Reformists had won elections in Chesterfield County was based on "private sources," and the ballots had not yet been counted. The counting process would drag out for weeks. Two days after the election Daily News quantified the margin of Reform victory: a rumor held that the party won by 900 votes. If true, this number represented a major Reformist victory as it was only possible if the Reform party had picked up about half of the county's black voters. As time passed, the rumored margin of victory became smaller and smaller. On October 24, the Daily News reported a margin of victory that was about half what was originally reported, 436 votes. Republicans were reported to have won at Cheraw (where blacks made up a majority) and came within 19 votes of winning Oro. At the end of the month, the Daily Pheonix reported that the rumored margin of victory had shrunk even further, to only 140 votes (less than a quarter of what was first reported). 

The official outcome of the election was supposed to be declared by the state board of canvassers on November 4. However, on that day, the board announced that it had rejected the report that Donaldson had submitted. As conservatives had feared, Donaldson, as election commissioner, reported that he had won the election by a small margin. The board privately deliberated on what to do and announced its decision on November 8. After adjourning, it announced that it had overturned the result Donaldson had reported and awarded election certificates to the Reform candidates. 

The reasons for their decision became clear as time went on: Reformists alleged that Donaldson had won the election by stuffing the ballot boxes. The alleged ballot stuffing had occurred in the northwestern part of the county, at the Oro and Old Store precincts. Members of the local Reform party had their tickets printed with numbers as a precaution against voting fraud. When the ballots for the Old Store precinct were counted, a total of 379 ballots were counted with the Republican party receiving a majority of 89 votes. However, there were only 215 people registered to vote, and by consulting a list of the numbered Reform tickets, they found that the Reformists should have won by 128 votes.

A different scheme was alleged at the Oro precinct. There a number of the Reform ballots were missing from the ballot box. Some ballots had been replaced by ballots where the Donaldson's name was pasted over the name of the Reform candidate. Other ballots were replaced by ones with typographic errors (e.g. the name of "M. J. Hough was misprinted as "M. L. Hough") which rendered the ballots invalid.

In an article reprinted in the Charleston Daily News, the Cheraw Democrat even described the manner in which the fraud was committed. On the Saturday before the election, Donaldson had asked the newspaper to print 500 Republican tickets and suspiciously asked that they be printed using the same paper and type-setting that was used for the Reform ballots. Then he conspired with his brother-in-law Alfred T. Peete and one John McCulla (an Irishman working as a farmer in Mount Croghan) to use the printed ballots to stuff ballot boxes. After polls closed, the paper claimed Donaldson gave the ballot boxes to McCulla. McCulla brought the ballot boxes to Chesterfield Court House for counting, but on his way, he met with Peete who allegedly removed valid ballots and inserted fraudulent ones. 

Even with the alleged ballot stuffing, Donaldson and the other Republican candidates hadn't received a majority of votes, so Donaldson took another step. He had the county board exclude the votes from two precincts (likely Cole Hill and Alligator, the two with the largest white majorities), claiming that the Republican vote had been suppressed by voter intimidation. This last measure was enough to change the electoral outcome to a Republican victory.

After the allegations of ballot stuffing were made public, arrest warrants were made for Donaldson, the chairman of county election commissioners (J. H. Donaldson), and ten precinct managers of election. A preliminary examination held on November 4 (the day election certificates were issued to the Reform candidates). One precinct manager testified that he had received a list of fictitious names written in Senator Donaldson's handwriting that were to be added to the poll list. Senator Donaldson, his brother-in-law Alfred T. Peete, John McCulla, and one Aaron Plyler were bound over for a January trial.

On November 22, the newly General Assembly met for regular session. The Reform candidates from Chesterfield were sworn into office after presenting their credentials. The speaker of the House then declared Robert K. Scott the elected governor after presenting the official returns he had received from the secretary of state. These returns recorded that Chesterfield County had returned a 147 vote majority for the Reform party candidate. Throughout Chesterfield, conservatives celebrated the overthrow of the local "carpet-bag" government that they'd been burdened with. As we'll discuss in a later blogpost, these celebrations proved premature.

Sources

1). "Suffering in South Carolina" The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], May 8, 1867, p. 1.

2) "On the Wing." The Charleston daily news. [volume], July 11, 1867, Image 1

3) "The Election for Convention." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], December 18, 1867, p.  2.

4) "Additional Election Returns: Chesterfield." Charleston Daily News [Charleston, SC]. April 22, 1868. p. 1.

5) The daily phoenix. [Columbia, SC], December 5, 1868, p. 3.

6) The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], December 28, 1868, p. 4.

7) "Chesterfield." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], February 08, 1869, p.  1.

8) "Colonizing South Carolina." Yorkville enquirer. [Yorkville, SC], May 13, 1869, p. 2.

9) "Affairs in the State: Chesterfield." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], June 7, 1869, p. 4.

10) "Chesterfield." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], June 09, 1869, p. 1.

11) "Chesterfield." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], August 02, 1869, p. 1.

12) "Fires in the State" The Charleston daily news. [volume], September 21, 1869, p.1

13) "Shreds of State News." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], December 14, 1869, p. 3.

14) "Proposed Nomination of a Respectable Man." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], March 8, 1870, p. 1.

15) "The New Regime." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], March 14, 1870, p. 1

16) "A Colored Man for Congress." The Sumter watchman. [Sumter, SC], April 13, 1870, p. 2.

17) The Anderson intelligencer. [Anderson, SC], April 14, 1870, p. 2.

18) "Chesterfield." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], May 30, 1870, p. 1.

19) The daily phoenix. [Columbia, SC], May 29, 1870, p. 2.

20) "Another Land Swindle." The daily phoenix. [Columbia, SC], July 23, 1870, p. 1.

21) "The Reform Meeting at Chesterfield." The Fairfield herald. [Fairfield, SC], September 21, 1870, p. 1. 

22) The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], October 11, 1870, p. 2.

23) The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], November 03, 1870, p. 2.

24) "Local Items." The daily phoenix. [Columbia, SC], November 09, 1870, p. 4.

25) "Radical Justice" The Camden journal. [Camden, SC], November 17, 1870, p. 2.

26) "Chesterfield Election Fraud." The Anderson intelligencer. [Anderson, SC], November 24, 1870, p. 1.

27) The Camden journal. [volume], November 24, 1870, Image 1

28) "The Chesterfield Democrat and the Reform Movement." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], June 28, 1870, p. 2.

29) "The Chesterfield Democrat and The News." The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], July 05, 1870, p. 2.

30) "Our People Suffering." The daily phoenix. [Columbia, SC], July 10, 1866, p. 2.

31) "Contest of Mr. Ducall's Seat."  The Charleston daily news. [Charleston, SC], December 16, 1870, p. 1.

Unionists in a Confederate stronghold: Chesterfield during the Civil War

An artist's depiction of a typical resident of the Carolina Sandhills, circa 1874
From Schribner's Monthly, Vol. VIII, p. 157.

This blogpost continues a series of posts on Chesterfield County and the Fox family. Other posts are:

1. The Melton Murders
2. Letters from the Fox Family: Violence in Chesterfield County
3. The law students of the Radical University: Henry A. Fox
4. The students of the Radical University: Clarence W. Fox
5. The prep students of the Radical University: Irving P. Fox
6. The law students of the Radical University: Gil Dixon Fox

What was Old Store township in northwestern Chesterfield County like at the dawn of Reconstruction? The area is part of the Carolina Sandhills. As the name suggests, the land is characterized by sandy soil which supports large pine tree forests. The climate was mild and believed to be healthful. Physicians recommended the area to invalids seeking to recover from illnesses like tuberculosis. The soil supported only limited crops of cotton and cereal, but fruits and vegetables grew in abundance. 

The area contained some valuable mineral deposits, and a gold mine, one of the most productive in the southeast, was located in neighboring Jefferson township. However, the vast majority of residents were farmers. Most were men of modest means who owned no slaves and cultivated maybe twenty or thirty acres, growing subsistence crops and sometimes small amount of cotton. The area did include plantations, and about one-third of the inhabitants were enslaved. A typical slave-owner enslaved a family or two, a labor force too small to make them a member of the planter class, but some enslaved many more. The planter John Blakeney owned fifty-five slaves. 

Compared to other parts of South Carolina, the Old Store township was poor and undeveloped. Lacking a rail line or major waterway, an ambitious farmer who grew cash crops had to spend at least a day transporting them thirty miles to Cheraw, the nearest market town. County-wide, the average farmer was satisfied with just growing enough food to feed their family. Of all the counties in the state, the total cash value of farm products was the second lowest in the state and the amount of land under cultivation was the third lowest. 

Outsiders viewed Chesterfield as a primitive region inhabited by ignorant subsistence farmers. Representative of attitudes towards the region is an 1874 description written by a journalist for Schribner's Monthly magazine. In a survey of the south, the journalist wrote that 

The inhabitants of the hill-county ... are decidedly primitive in their habits, and the sobriquet of "sand-hiller" is applied by South Carolinians to some specimens of poor white trash, whom nothing but a slave-aristocracy system could ever have produced. The lean and scrawny women, without any symptoms of life in their unlovely frames, and with their faces discolored by illness, and the lank and hungry men, have their counterparts nowhere among the native Americans at the north; it is incapable of producing such a peasantry. The houses of the better class of this folk, – the prosperous farmers, as distinguished from the lazy and dissolute plebeians, to whom the word "sand-hiller" is perhaps too indiscriminately applied, –are loosely built, as the climate demands little more than shelter. At night, immense logs burn in the fire-place, while the house door remains open. The diet is as barbarous as elsewhere among the agricultural classes in the South – corn bread, pork, and "chick'n;" farmers rarely think of killing a cow for beef, or a sheep for mutton; hot and bitter coffee smokes morning and night on tables where purest spring water, or the best of Scuppernong wine might daily be placed – the latter with almost as little expense as the former. 

While the people living in Old Store may have been unsophisticated, they included some who displayed remarkable courage and moral clarity during the Civil War. Living in Old Store township were a small but significant number of Union loyalists, a rarity in the secessionist heartland of South Carolina. The loyalists included Alfred and John Agerton, Hartwell Harris, John Melton, Ransom Pigg, Thomas H. Watts, and William Vicks. 

Some of the Unionists later spoke about their political beliefs in testimony they provided to the federal government (in support of claims for compensation for war losses). They were all opposed to secession and favored the Union during the war. The Confederacy, they felt, was waging an unjust war to maintain slavery. After the outbreak of the war, Alfred Agerton spoke about the issue with remarkable candor. He told Edward Wadsworth, the enslaved foreman on the planation of Alfred's neighbor Daniel Wadsworth, that he did not want his children forced into war just to keep slaves in bondage.

Alfred and most of the others owned no slaves. Of modest financial means and with limited education (Alfred was illiterate), they held little political power and stood to gain nothing by the supporting South Carolina's planter elite. However, a few of them had significant financial investment in slavery: Thomas H. Watts owned fifteen slaves.

Despite his ownership of slaves, Thomas had become disgusted with the practice by the time of Secession. Shortly before the war broke out, a religious camp meeting was held near his farm. Only whites attended, and after learning of the meeting, Thomas asked Edward Wadsworth (then enslaved by Thomas's neighbor) if the people attending the meeting were Christians. Edward replied "yes," and Thomas followed up by asking if it was right for slaves to be working the fields instead of going to church. He added that "the slaves had souls just as well as white people." Edward felt too frightened to respond as statements like this were beyond the pale. However, later, during the war, Thomas gained Edward's confidence, and they regularly discussed the war and their hopes for a Union victory.

The issue of secession and Unionism came to head after Lincoln's election in fall 1860. That November the South Carolina legislature called for a state-wide election of delegates to a convention to discuss secession. Chesterfield County was a stronghold of secessionist sentiment. Shortly before the election, the county's two battalions paraded and then were addressed by their commanding officer as well as the county's state congressmen. Each battalion held a vote on whether to support secession, and both voted "unanimously to a unit" in favor of immediate secession, an outcome that was loudly cheered when it was announced. The Cheraw Gazette reported that it had "no hesitation in saying that old Chesterfield is a unit in favor of withdrawing from the Union." In this atmosphere, Unionists had few political options. When the election for convention delegates was held, Ransom Pigg and others decided not to cast votes since none of the candidates opposed succession. Ultimately, Chesterfield County sent as delegates John A. Inglis, Stephen Jackson, and Henry McIver. All three lived in Cheraw. They owned slaves, although only Jackson and Inglis were members of the planter class. Inglis worked as a lawyer, but he had achieved enough success that he had been able to purchase a large rice plantation in Marlboro County which he ran as an absentee landlord. Jackson had achieved more modest success. He oversaw twenty-seven enslaved workers who grew cotton on the 850 acres of land he owned. McIver served as solicitor (an elected position similar to district attorney). Inglis and Jackson were active in state politics and had served multiple terms in the state legislature. At the convention, they, along with all other delegates, voted in favor of secession.

Ransom P. Pigg
From SCFINER via findagrave

Residents of Old Store township had an opportunity to discuss the outbreak of the war several months later, around the time of the firing on Fort Sumter. A public meeting to discuss secession and the possibility of war was held at the Zion church grounds, near the planation of Daniel Wadsworth. The meeting was attended Alfred Agerton and Thomas H. Watts. Most people in attendance were in favor of secession, and a number gave speeches in favor of leaving the Union, even if it meant war. Both Alfred and Thomas held fast to his views and argued with others. Thomas said that secession was wrong and unnecessary. At one point, he was invited to make a speech, but the invitation was rescinded after he said that he was opposed to the Confederacy and in favor of the Union. 

Many families first felt the impact of secession around the time of the church meeting. Following the firing on Fort Sumter, the Confederate government called on men to volunteer for the Confederate army. Large number of young men went to Cheraw to enlist. Volunteers from Chesterfield County made up the Chesterfield Rifles and the Chesterfield Guard (two companies of the 8th Regiment, South Carolina) as well as the Chesterfield Light Infantry.

Opposed to the war, the Unionists tried to keep their families out of the army. Unfortunately, Alfred Agerton saw his worst fears realized: three of five sons served in the army. Alfred said he did everything he could to prevent this, but they were forced to join by conscription laws. Tragically, all three were died in the war. Two died from illness, and the third in battle.

Alfred's brothers John and William also served. The nature of John's service was contested. John was widely regarded as a Union loyalist, and he claimed that he was conscripted into the army. However, his loyalty was questioned by federal officials who later reviewed his record when processing a claim he submitted for war losses. The officials noted that the conscription laws were not in force when John first enlisted and, after a detailed examination of his record, concluded that his loyalty was unproved. 

Regardless of why John joined the Confederate army, he contributed little to the war effort. When war broke out, John was in his forties, the upper age limit for military service, and he never left the state. He first joined the Pee Dee Legion in spring 1862 for a 12-month term. He was stationed in the town of Georgetown for training, but before his enlistment term ended, he fell ill and was discharged. He was sent into the army a second time in fall 1863 when he joined the 4th South Carolina State Troop. He repeated his previous experience: he was stationed in Georgetown, but he was discharged a few months later after falling ill.

John's most significant military service was his third term of enlistment. In fall 1864, he joined the 5th Battalion South Carolina Reserves. John's company was sent to the town of Florence to guard Union prisoners held in a stockade. The stockade had recently been built to replace prison facilities in Georgia. Georgia was being invaded by Sherman's army, and Florence was a more secure location. 

The stockade in Florence, SC
From Wikipedia

Artist's depiction of the stockade at Florence
Taylor, James E., Artist. Florence military prison series

By this time, the Confederacy was in dire straits, and the prisoners at Florence were kept in difficult conditions. Few supplies were provided. Many prisoners fell ill, and men died daily. The horrible conditions at the stockade hardened John's opposition to the war, but he had few outlets for expressing his views. John served alongside his brother-in-law Madison Jordan. Madison recalled that John regularly spoke out against secession to other privates, and once he even said that the rebellion was wrong and that he was opposed to it in the presence of soldiers who were committed rebels, an act that Madison thought was "rather dangerous." While on guard duty, he occasionally offered food and tobacco to Union prisoners, but he only did so during the infrequent occasions when he could do so without being noticed.

John remained on duty at the stockade until February 25, 1865. By this time, Sherman's army had not only advanced into South Carolina, but they had even captured the state's capital of Columbia. When the soldiers at Florence learned of Sherman's advance, John decided that the military situation was hopeless, and the Confederate army was now unable to enforce conscription, so he and three other solders abandoned their posts and began to return to their homes. John walked for 2 days, traveling twenty miles, but before making it home, he was captured by Union soldiers. He was imprisoned at Point Lookout for three months, until he was paroled. 

The other Unionists were able to avoid military service. During the war, Alfred Agerton was an old man in his early fifties, so he was only sought for service towards the end of the war. In February 1865, he and many other old men in Old Store were ordered to go to Florence to join the State Reserves. Alfred grudgingly went, although he told his friends that, if forced into the army, he'd desert and flee to Union lines as soon as he had a chance. The issue never came up as he was discharged from service because of his bad eyesight.

Thomas H. Watts was also ordered into the State Reserves at Florence. He took a firmer stand than Alfred. Thomas told his friends that, if they were willing to refuse to serve and "fight the rebels as long as we had life or were allowed to return," he would lead them. They did not take him up on his offer, so he simply told the sergeant who give him the order that he refused. With the Confederate government collapsing in the face of the advance of Sherman's troops, there was nothing the sergeant could do. 

Ransom P. Pigg took more extreme measures. Younger than the others (he was in his mid-thirties), he was repeatedly ordered into the Confederate army, but each time he "outflanked" the conscription officers by hiding out. A few times he even left the state for months to avoid them. 

The path of Sherman's army. The yellow line indicates the path of Kilpatrick's cavalry
From the Library of Congress

For most of the war, the Unionists had limited opportunities for opposing the Confederacy. In addition to avoiding military service, they continued to speak out against the rebellion and in support of the Union. Thomas H. Watts, after hearing of the poor treatment of the Union prisoners at Florence, suggested to his friends that they organize a party to bring food to the prisoners, but his friends responded by saying that prison officials would not let them deliver the food, and they would only get themselves into trouble. Thomas then dropped the plan.

The Unionists' political talk made them unpopular with their neighbors, and they lost a number of old friends. Sometimes things got "pretty hot." Confederate supporters were upset by the Unionists' refusal to join the army, and some voiced threats. Alfred Agerton was a particular focus of anger. People were especially upset that he openly spoke in favor of the Union to slaves. Some Confederates said they should "handle him rough." A few times people started for his home with plans to injure him, but before they got there, others dissuaded them. While tensions were high, during the war, conflict between Unionists and Confederates in Old Store township never escalated beyond talk.

The Unionists had first had an opportunity to directly support the Union in March 1865. In the first week of that month, Sherman's army entered Chesterfield county, and General Kilpatrick's cavalry camped in Old Store township. The campgrounds were on Daniel Wadsworth's plantation, and Kilpatrick himself took Wadsworth's home as his personal residence.

The Yorkville Equirer published a terrifying account of the conduct of Sherman's army in Chesterfield. It reported that Sherman's march was "lit by blazing roofs and marked by dead horses and cattle." The article described Union soldiers searching the countryside for valuables in the most brutal manner: older men and even women "had ropes put around their necks, with which they were jerked about in order to compel them to disclose the hiding places of their valuables." The author wrote that the county was left devastated and many residents faced starvation, but he remained thankful that people continued to resist the Union army: "A crust of bread and independence are preferable to Union and luxury."

Artist's depiction of Sherman's troops entering the town of Chesterfield
From Harper's Weekly via the South Carolinians Library

At least in Old Store township, Sherman's troops certainly brought hardship to many, but their occupation was more far prosaic than the Yorkville Equirer's prose. When they arrived in Chesterfield, Sherman's troops had been on the march for over four months without supply lines. There are no reports of soldiers burning buildings or injuring citizens, but they did appropriate supplies. Alfred Agerton recalled that the Union soldiers were "badly off for clothes," and they took civilians' clothing to replace the rags they were wearing. The soldiers also took possession of people's horses as well as stores of corn, bacon, fodder, and other provisions. Upon the arrival of the troops, many Confederate supporters tried to hide themselves and conceal their possession. However, the Unionists stayed at home and willingly offered provisions to the troops.

The experience of Alfred Agerton is representative. On Wednesday March 1 around 10 am, two mounted Union soldiers came to his home and explained that they needed horses. Alfred brought them to a field where he had put up of his two horses. The soldiers put their saddles and bridles on them and then rode away with them. Before leaving, they told Alfred that General Kilpatrick could provide him with a guard if he asked for protection. Alfred left for the Wadsworth plantation and met with Kilpatrick. After asking Alfred about his loyalty, Kilpatrick said that the "colored people" had said he was a Union man and then told him to ask a colonel stationed nearby for a guard. Alfred went at once to the colonel, but before meeting him, he heard the sound of a horn blowing at his home. The horn was used by his family to alert each other in case of an emergency, so thinking a family member was in danger, Alfred abandoned his plans to meet the colonel and rushed home. Upon arriving, he was met by a large group of maybe one-hundred soldiers. One of them had found the horn and was blowing it for his amusement.  

The soldiers had been brought there by the two soldiers Alfred had met earlier. Accompanying them were two slaves, Edward and Joseph Wadsworth, from the Wadsworth plantation. The soldiers had made them come to Alfred's farm to help hold their horses while they took Alfred's possessions. Alfred's family had a large store of provisions: seventy-five bushels of corn, two-hundred pounds of bacon, and one-hundred and fifty pounds of forge. The Union soldiers spent the day transporting these provisions to their camp in sacks. Alfred was raising some pigs on his farm, and the soldiers also shot the pigs and then, after skinning them, took the meat to their camp. Bee hives on the farm were destroyed by soldiers who wanted the bee's honey. While the soldiers were taking provisions, Alfred and his family remained at home. They were friendly with the soldiers, although the soldiers largely ignored them and focused on transporting the provisions. Alfred ultimately abandoned his plans to act on Kilpatrick's suggestion to request a guard since there was no need after the soldiers requisitioned his belongings.

The Union soldiers were especially appreciative of their treatment by Thomas H. Watts. Thomas maintained a small grist mill on his farm. When the Union soldiers arrived to requisition supplies from his farm, he helped them grind his corn before taking it away. After they were done, one officer urged Thomas and his family to follow Sherman's army, explaining that the rebels would likely retaliate against them after the Union troops left. Thomas declined the offer because his wife was experiencing health issues and was unable to travel. Before leaving, the officer and some other soldiers presented Thomas with notes attesting to his loyalty and service to the Union. One note, signed by "four soldiers," reads: "Soldiers of the Union pleas [sic] show respects towards Thomas M. Watts as he saved our lives through his diligence and pleas [sic] don't molest anything he has got."

The Union troops stayed in Old Store for about five days. Their stay passed without violence. A small group of Confederate soldiers, part of Joseph Wheeler's cavalry regiment, camped nearby, but they did not engage with the Union troops. 

Union troops occupying the town of Cheraw
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper via the South Caroliniana Library

By the time Kilpatrick's troops left, the Civil War was winding down. That month Sherman's army fought Confederate troops at Cheraw. The Confederates succeeded in delaying the Union army by destroying an important bridge over the Pee Dee river, but battle was of limited military significance. The Confederate forces were militarily overwhelmed by Sherman's army and could offer only limited resistance. Later in March, Sherman's army proceeded to North Carolina. In mid-April, Sherman accepted a signed armistice from the opposing Confederate general (Joseph E. Johnston). This largely brought the war to a close as Geneal Lee had already surrendered his forces earlier in the month.

The end of the war by no means brought an end to the underlying political issues. The year after the war Henry J. Fox and his New York-based financial backers began their efforts to found a colony of northerners and Englishmen by purchasing 3,721 acres of land from the Edgeworths, a family of wealthy Chesterfield farmers. The year after that, in an act of defiance against the outcome of the war and the changes men like Rev. Fox sought to bring to South Carolina, residents in Cheraw erected a memorial to Confederate soldiers. In a later post, we will explore how these issues played out during the early years of Reconstruction.

Cheraw Confederate memorial 
William D. Workman, Jr. Papers Photographs at South Caroliniana Library

The Confederate memorial at Cheraw
By Anna Inbody via Hmdb

Sources

1) "From Cheraw." Yorkville enquirer. [Yorkville, SC], March 29, 1865, p. 1.

The prep students of the Radical University: Robert A. Stewart

 Robert Adger Stewart 

South Carolina.
Occupation: post office clerk.

Robert Adger Stewart first appears in the historical record as a student at the University of South Carolina. He was a member of the second class of the preparatory program. He described as being from Columbia, and he remained in the city after Reconstruction. In 1883, he was working as a clerk in the city post office.

Sources Cited

1) 8) Official Register of the United States, Containing a List of Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service: 1883.

The Melton Murders

Location of Old Store, SC
From South Caroliniana Library

This blogpost continues a series of posts on Chesterfield County and the Fox family. Other posts are:

1. Unionists in a Confederate stronghold: Chesterfield during the Civil War
2. Letters from the Fox Family: Violence in Chesterfield County
3. The law students of the Radical University: Henry A. Fox
4. The students of the Radical University: Clarence W. Fox
5. The prep students of the Radical University: Irving P. Fox
6. The law students of the Radical University: Gil Dixon Fox

Reconstruction-era University of South Carolina Professor Henry J. Fox took on his professorship after unsuccessfully trying to help found a farming colony in the Pee Dee. With support from an out of state development company, Fox had purchased a large amount of land in the hope that he could sell land tracts to northerners and Englishmen interested in farming in the south. His plans collapsed in the face of strong resistance from white conservatives. The low point occurred early on the morning of Monday April 17, 1871 when his neighbor Robert Melton, a Republican deputy tax collector, was murdered by disguised men. 

Henry's sons Gil and Henry A. published an account of the Melton murders which we recalled in the blogpost "Letters from the Fox Family: Violence in Chesterfield County." Here we take a close look at the legal records documenting the murder.

Background

The farming colony that Professor Fox tried to found was located in the township of Old Store in Chesterfield County, roughly at the location of the modern town of Pageland. Chesterfield is in the Pee Dee, and Old Store lies in the northwest part of the county, near the border with North Carolina. This was a somewhat isolated location as both the largest town (Cheraw) and the county seat (Chesterfield) are in eastern part.

About two-thousand people lived in Old Store township. Like much of the Pee Dee, the township was majority white, although African Americans made up almost a third of the population. Most African Americans had been enslaved prior to the Civil War. The county was largely rural. There was little industry, and most residents were famers.

Chesterfield county strongly supported the Confederacy. The first call for secession was made there, and one of Chesterfield's representatives to the state Secession Convention chaired the committee that drafted the Ordinance of Secession.

The region was left devastated by the Civil War. The Pee Dee was not directly impacted by the war until the last year, but then it came with a fury. In spring 1865, General Sherman's forces invaded the state following the capture of the city of Savannah. Sherman's troops marched on Chesterfield County in March, and the town of Cheraw was the site of a battle between Union and Confederate troops. No battles took place in Old Store, but General Kilpatrick's Union cavalry stayed in the area around Pageland for the first week of March. While there, they requisitioned supplies from families in the region. Soldiers took families' horses, food, and even eating utensils and clothing.  

Robert Melton

In many respects, Robert Melton was a typical resident of Chesterfield. At the time of his death, he was an old man of sixty-two. He had been born in North Carolina, but he'd been living in Chesterfield, working as a farmer, since before the war. Reconstruction created new opportunities for him. Landless until Reconstruction, at the time of his death, he owned 150 acres of land on which he raised milk cows and swine and grew Indian corn and a small amount of cotton.

Robert ran the farm with the help of his large family. He and his wife Harriet had seven children. The eldest three, the sons Alexander and William and the daughter Harriet A., had left the farm, but his son Robert C. and his daughters Mary Jane, Sarah, and Emaline remained at home.

In his politics, Robert was an outlier. During the war, he had supported the Union. When Sherman's troops occupied the county, his family not only provided them with provisions, but they even milled their corn for them. Robert became active in the Republican government after the war. He was appointed tax collector by Governor Scott, an act that was likely a reward for his political support. This appointment was a demonstration of how Reconstruction had changed Robert's fortunes. In the antebellum, small farmers like him were largely excluded from state politics. 

The Incident

Newspapers debated whether or not Robert was murdered because of his political activities. However, there was broad consensus on the basic facts about the incident.

Around 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning of Monday April 18, the Melton household was awoken by the sound of men outside their home. The family dog began barking at the men, and the Meltons became concerned when one man responded to the dog barks with gunfire. Deciding to investigate further, Robert armed himself with a bayonet and then he and his son Robert C. ran outside the house. Upon opening their front door, they were met with gunfire, and Robert was wounded.

The gunfire came from five to seven armed men who were standing about twenty feet from the house. Robert was undeterred by his injury. He proceeded to rush one of his assailants and attempted to grab his firearm. However, he was unsuccessful, and after being shot a second time, he ran back into his home.

The Melton women had followed the men outside. Sarah ran up to one of the men and begged him not to murder the family. When she did so, another assailant shot her, and then all of them ran away. The Meltons returned to their house, but upon doing so, they discovered Harriet lying on the ground. Mary initially thought her mother had simply fainted, but when the family tried to bring Harriet back into the house, Mary saw that her mother had been shot. The family laid Harriet on her bed, but by that time, she had already died of her wounds. Robert's injuries were severe, but he remained conscious. 

The gunfire awakened Robert's neighbor Robert A. Allen, and he rushed to the Melton home to see what had happened. He was horrified to find Harriet dead and Robert near death. After discussing the incident with Robert and examining his wounds, he ran to get a local constable, G. W. Carter. When the constable arrived, he discussed the attack with Robert and then examined the area for evidence. However, his search only produced a hat.

Robert remained bed-ridden, in pain, throughout the day. His condition worsened, and on the next day (Tuesday April 18), he succumbed to his injuries. Sarah survived her injuries, although they necessitated the amputation of one leg.

The Coroner's Inquest

Under state law, the county coroner was charged with conducting an inquest into all violent deaths in the county. This involved first submitting a warrant to the local constables, requiring them to summon a jury of fourteen men. Then the coroner met with the jury, and they were to determine the cause of death (whether it was an accident or a homicide, etc).

To make their determination, the jury typically took witness testimony, and the coroner had the ability to compel witnesses to testify by issuing warrants. All testimony was recorded by the coroner and became part of the record of the inquest. Once the jury had determined the cause of death, they were to render the verdict in writing under their signature and seal. 

In the case of the deaths of Robert and Harriett Melton, there was no real question as to the cause of death, and predictably, each of the two juries rendered the verdict that the Meltons had been murdered. Still, the inquest created important records about what transpired. 

The witness testimony recorded is the basis for the narrative account of the murders that we provided above. Beyond this narrative, the jury foreman, a medical doctor, provided testimony about the nature of Robert and Harriett's injuries, confirming that each had gunshot wounds that caused their death. The jury also interviewed three of the four Melton children, the Meltons' neighbor Robert A. Allen, and the constable George W. Carter.

Although Robert Melton was alive during the inquest on his wife, he did not provide testimony. Certainly, he had important information to offer. The records are silent on his lack of testimony, but given the severity of his injuries, he may have been unable to respond to questioning. His daughter Emaline also did not testify. It is possible she was not present (none of the witnesses mention her) or the jury may have chosen not to question her because of her age (she was only seventeen years old).

The witnesses provided some information about the assailants. Some of the assailants were disguised, but they were not wearing the elaborate costumes traditionally associated with Ku Kluxers. Mary A. Melton said one man was disguised in a garment she described as a "cloth wrapper." Others wore no disguise at all. 

Unfortunately, the witnesses provided little information about the question that mattered the most: who committed the murder. The Melton children gave contradictory testimony about the race of the assailants. Sarah said that all the men were white, but her brother Robert C. said that some were black. The neighbor Robert A. Allen supported Robert C.'s claim. He had not seen the assailants, but he reported that, before dying, Robet Melton had told him that there had been black men among the crowd.

Exactly what Robert Melton told people about the attack is unclear. The neighbor reported that, beyond mentioning the race of some of the men, Robert Melton said he did not know anyone in the group. The constable reported a different conversation. He said that Robert believed one of the assailants might have been "Simpson," but Robert gave no further details, and several Simpsons lived in the area. Robert's daughter Mary A. said that one person had laughed like Bud Evans, but he was too large to be Evans himself.

No witness offered a theory or explanation for why the Meltons were attacked. Mary even said that she hadn't heard of any threats against this family. Her testimony stands in stark contrast to contemporaneous personal correspondence by Henry J. Fox's family and Robert's neighbor Louise Lane. They all thought Robert had been murdered because he was a prominent Republican, and they feared their families would be targeted next. Henry J. Fox was so concerned that he took to sleeping outdoors for weeks. Fox's son Henry A. wrote that Robert's murder was not entirely unexpected. It was the culmination of threatening behavior: local Republicans had received threatening letters, had their mail searched, and had their crops destroyed.

Beyond the witness testimony, the only evidence the jury collected was a pistol and a hat that the assailants left behind. Looking just at the records of the coroner's inquest, it certainly appears that murderers left no clues to their identity. However, Louisa Lane and members of the Fox family wrote that local Republicans generally claimed white South Carolinians were united against them and there was "neither law or justice" in the area. In light of these claims, it is worthwhile to look more closely at the jury of inquest, and how they performed their duties.

The Jury

Two separate inquests were held, one for Harriett and one for Robert. The inquest for Harriett was held around 9 am on the day of her murder, while the inquest for Robert was held the next day, when he died. There was nothing unusual about the timing; the coroner was supposed to investigate the deaths as soon as possible.

Two different constables summoned the two inquest juries. The first jury was summoned by J. T. Pigg, the second by G. W. Carter. Carter was the first constable called to the scene of the murder, and he also gave testimony to the first jury.

Each jury consisted of fourteen men. There was significant overlap between them: nine of the fourteen men on Harriet's jury returned the next day to serve on Robert's jury. The five new jurors included G. W. Carter.

Who were the men who conducted the inquest?  Like most people in the area, almost everyone was a farmer. The main exception was the jury foreman T. Threatt. He worked as a physician and was probably chosen as a juror because of his expert medical knowledge. However, he also ran a farm.

The racial make-up of the jury stands out. In a township where one-third of the residents were African American, both juries were all-white. This raises the question of whether local officials even made a serious effort to find the assailants. Certainly, local Republicans did not think so. In a letter to  President Grant, the Meltons' neighbor Louise Lane wrote that there was "neither law or justice in our midst" and begged the President to send federal troops. Gil Fox wrote that, with few exceptions, white South Carolinians in the area were constantly working in secret, trying to undermine the Republican government.

There is only limited documentation for most of the jury members, but the evidence is more mixed than one would expect from Gil Fox's account. The jury foreman, Dr. Threatt, was likely active in the Democratic party. (He later successfully ran as the Democratic candidate for state congress.) However, three of the jurors, Alfred Agerton, John Agerton and Ransom P. Pigg, were committed Unionists. They had been outspoken in their opposition to the rebellion during the war. When General Kirkpatrick's Union troops were in the area, they gave them gave hundreds of dollars of supplies (nearly everything they owned). In testimony later offered in support, Rev. Fox said he believed that, around the time the Meltons were murdered, Alfred himself was in danger of being attacked by Ku Kluxers because of his outspoken Unionism. 

Certainly, Alfred had no sympathy for the Ku Klux. About a year later, he served as a member of the jury in Ku Klux Klan trials in Columbia, a jury that convicted a number of alleged Ku Kluxers.

The Coroner

The coroner W. J. Hanna stands in contrast to the jurors. Simply stated, he was an unreconstructed Confederate who likely had no interest in apprehending the Meltons' assailants. Not only had Hanna served in the Confederate army for the entire war, but afterwards, he was highly active in veterans' societies. In Chesterfield, he led local efforts to defeat Reconstruction. He had been elected on a conservative ticket at the last election. Later, he actively campaigned for the Democratic party in the contested election of 1876. He efforts in that election were significant enough that they were positively mentioned in the opening paragraph of his 1911 obituary.

As coroner, Hanna had significant control over the historical record of the Meltons' murders. He was responsible for transcribing witness testimony, and the Meltons had limited ability to check his work. Two of the Melton children Sarah and Robert C. were not only illiterate, but they couldn't even sign their names. (Mary J. appears have been at least partially literate.)

While we can only speculate about how Hanna influenced the recorded testimony, parts of it were seized on by conservative newspapers that sought to downplay Ku Klux violence. Robert C.'s statement that some of the assailants were African American was presented as evidence that Robet Melton was killed by African Americans who were upset over taxation, not Ku Kluxers.

Hanna's position as coroner illustrates the difficulties the South Carolina state government had during Reconstruction. While the Republican party held governorship and a majority of the state legislature, in counties like Chesterfield, the Republican government could act only in limited ways because conservative Democrats maintained control over many local offices. 

Aftermath

The coroner's inquest appears to have been the end of legal efforts to hold the men who attacked the Meltons accountable. Five days after the attack (on April 22), the governor's private secretary (John Heart) wrote the county sheriff that the governor's office had been informed that Chesterfield was "infested by a gang of lawless men, who are committing wanton and unprovoked outrages." He further notified the sheriff that, unless the situation was rectified, the governor would organize a military or constabulary force in the county to protect citizens and enforce the law. The governor was bluffing. South Carolina was experiencing an epidemic of Ku Klux violence that year, and he was wholly unable to counter the Ku Kluxer without the aid of federal forces. 

Governor Scott offered a five-hundred-dollar reward for the arrest of anyone connected with the murders, but nothing came of it. The coroner's inquest appears to have been the end of legal efforts to hold Robert and Harriett's murderers accountable. 

The sheriff was a conservative, and it appears that he not only made no effort to apprehend the Meltons' murders, but he may even have facilitated efforts to defeat efforts. In September, an anonymous public letter (probably written by Gil D. Fox) was published in the Daily Union newspaper claiming that the identifies of the murderers were well-known and deploring the fact that they had not been brought to justice. The sheriff and a number of prominent Chesterfield men published a public response condemning the letter as a falsehood and a "gross libel." They further asked to be told who the author was so they could peruse legal charges. While the anonymous writer never received the justice he asked for, he at least did not experience legal consequences as the Daily Union withheld his identity. 

The anonymous writer pushed the issue even further later that year. In a second public letter, he claimed that the assailants had included a brother of M. J. Hough, a prominent local conservative politician who had recently been unseated from the House. Predictably, Hough responded by angrily denied the accusation.

The governor was finally able to take effective action against South Carolina Ku Kluxers in October. That month President Grant suspended habeas corpus (providing protection against arbitrary arrest) and sent federal troops to help arrest Ku Kluxers. Although hundreds of arrests were made, nobody in Chesterfield was arrested, and it's unclear if troops were even sent there. The governor offered a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the men who murdered the Meltons, but no information was forthcoming. By the end of the year, public interest in the Chesterfield murders appears to have died down. Over the next few years, conservative Democrats, who likely had supported or at least celebrated the murders, gained almost complete control over the county, ending any hope of holding the murderers accountable. 

Sources

1)  "Senate and House." The Fairfield news and herald [Fairfield, SC], October 19, 1898, Image 1.

2) "Official Report of the Board of State Canvassers." The daily phoenix [Columbia, SC], November 10, 1870, p. 3.

3) "W. J. Hanna." The State [Columbia, SC], August 18, 1911. p. 3.

Testimony in Robert Melton Murder

G. W. Carter

On last Sunday night at a very late hour I suppose about 1 or 2 oclock Robert Allen came to my house and ask me to come up to Mr. Meltons, that some persons had come there and killed Mrs Melton and nearly killed Mr. Melton. I told him I would go. I started and when I got to the house I saw Mrs. Melton on the bed a corpse. Robert Melton (the deceased) was lying on the same bed complaining as if he was hurt very bad, about light I went into the road in front of the house and found a hat. Never saw the hat before he found it in the road. I asked the deceased if he knew who shot him. He said he thought he did, but was not certain. He thought one of them was Simpson, deceased did not say what Simpson it was. Never examined the deceased, saw one wound in deceased stomach, a little on one side. Deceased died about Sundown 18th April 1871

Robert C. Melton

On Monday morning 17th just some time before day, I was lying in the bed awake, I heard some body tramping about the home, the dog was barking at some person and there was a gun fired. Father and myself jumped up an[d] ran to the door, and father said shoot him again. Father and myself then jumped into the yard, as soon as we got into the yard some person commenced firing across the [?] at us. Father then went into the lane and tried to take a gun or stick from one of the men. He then came back to the house and said he was shot. He (the deceased) then lay down on the bed and said he was going to die. I examined the wounds next morning and found two, one in the breast and one in the hip. Think he was wounded in the hip before he got into the lane. Every time the men would shoot some of them would say “fetch him down.” (Pistol exhibited). Witness say he found the pistol in front of the house near the gate, where the men were shooting, found the pistol about day break. I saw six or seven men in the lane. They fired a good many times. Did not know any of them. Some of the men were disguised. Think some of the men were black. The men hitched their horses near the house. Saw where they had [stampeded?] about next morning. The deceased had a bayonet in his hand when he went out the door. Did not see him strike at any of them with the bayonet

Sarah S. Melton

The first I hear the door crashed. The next I recollect I was going out by father and brother Rob, between the house and the gate. I went out at the gate and saw five men. There was four low [chunky?] ones and one high one. I am certain the four small men were white or had white faces. I put my hands on one of them and begged him not to kill us. About that time the high one shot me and then they ran. I then went into the house and found Father (the deceased) lying on the floor in front of the fire place. He said he was shot. Did not know any of the men. Thought I know who one of them laughed like. He laughed like Bud Evans but he was too large for Bud.

Mary J. Melton

Monday morning 17th just between 1 and 2 o’clock I was awakened by some person opening the front door. The door was opened by Father (the deceased). Just as the door was opened some person fired a gun or pistol from the direction of the lane. Father then went out of the door and I followed after him. I saw five or six men in the lane. The men in the lane kept shooting at the deceased, the deceased received two wounds and then he (the deceased) went back in the house, and the men who did the shooting turned and walked off. When father got back in the house he said he was shot. Did not see where the deceased was wounded, only saw the blood. Could not tell who the men were, that did the shooting. Never heard the men say anything only “fetch him down” the deceased did not say whether he knew any of the party or not. The deceased died yesterday afternoon 18th April 1871

Robert Allen

I was awakened on Monday morning 17th [April?] between 1 and 2 o’clock by hearing several guns firing in the direction of Robert Melton’s (the deceased) house. I heard some person screaming, as if they were in great trouble. I went over to the deceased as soon as I could. When I got to the house I found Mrs. Harriet Melton lying across the front door dead, and Robert Melton (the deceased) said he was shot and expected to die. I examined him and found that he was wounded in two places, in the stomache and also in the left hip. The deceased told me he thought there was some black people in the crowd that shot him but did not know any of the party. Just after the firing ceased and before I got to the deceased’s house I heard some person riding off in the direction of the Charlotte and Camden Road. Did not see any person about the hours only the family. (Hat and pistol found near the house exhibited) Never say the pistol or hat before. I think the deceased was shot with a pistol from the looks of the wound.

Testimony in Mary Melton Murder

G. W. Carter

I heard yesterday morning that Mrs. Melton was killed. I went to Mr. Meltons and found her dead, she was on the bed. I went out into the lane and found a hat, didn’t know whos hat it is found it about 20 steps from the door

Mary J. Melton

Before day, about 1 or 2 O’Clock Saturday morning I heard father open the front door. I went out the door with him, heard several guns fire from the lane, saw the fire from the guns. Father turned back and say “daughter I am shot” he went back into the house and I followed. When I stepped back into the house I stepped on mother’s [the deceased] hand. Did not know what was the matter with mother until I felt the bullet hole on the breat. Thought she had fainted. I saw five or six men in the lane, 15 or 20 steps from the house. I think mother (the deceased) went to the door and was shot while standing there. She was lying on her face with blood coming out of her mouth. I assisted in putting her on the bed, I think she (the deceased) was dead before we laid her on the bed. Think that one of the men I saw in the lane was disguised with some sort of clorth wraper around him. All that I heard the persons say who were shooting was “bring him down.” Did not recognize any of the voices. They (the persons shooting) left immediately after the shooting. Never heard of any threats made concerning this shooting. Heard father say after he was shot that he felt as if the crowd were waiting for him.

R. A. Allen

That on Monday 17th [?] between 1 and 2 o’clock in the morning he heard some guns firing in the direction of Robert Melton’s house. Thinks there was six or seven guns fired. Lives about 300 hundred yards from Robt Melton’s. Went to Robert Meltons as soon as I heard the firing. Heard some person hallowing like they were in trouble. I found Harriet Melton, the deceased, lying across the front door dead. Heard some person riding off from Robt Melton house. I examined the deceased and found a wound on her breast. Think it was done with a pistol. Examined the yard did not see any tracks. Saw the tracks of several persons in the lane about 20 steps from the front door. I assisted in moving the deceased from where she fell and laid her on the bed

Robt C. Melton

Saturday morning about 2 O’clock heard some persons stomping about. Thought at first it was some persons riding. Heard some person shoot at the dog, who was barking at them. Witness and his father went to the door. Just as father opened the door a gun fired and, I think, wounded father in the hip. Father and myself went out in the lane among the crowd that were shooting. One of the men had a gun or stick in his hand. Father took hold of it and tried to take it from him. Father went back into the house and said he was shot. Witness went back in the houe and saw his mother (the deceased) lying on the floor. Saw his mother (the deceased) breath once. Saw a wound in her heart. Looked like it was done with a little ball. Did not know mother was dead until I went back into the house. There were several shorts fired, did not know any of they party. Went out to the gate and found a pistol. Some of the barrells had been fired off. Never saw the pistol before. There were six or seven men in the lane. Don’t know when the deceased was shot. Thinks she died immediately

The professors of the Radical University: Anson Cummings, Part 2

Riverside Seminary (Cummings not pictured)
Images of America: Wellsville

Riverside Seminary
History of Allegany County, N.Y.

In summer 1872, Anson W. Cummings was elected to the chair of mathematics and engineering at the University of South Carolina. He replaced T. E. Hart who had served in the position since 1869. At the same meeting where Cummings was elected, Professor James Woodrow was replaced by T. N. Roberts.

As is described in the entry for Roberts, the exact nature of Woodrow's departure from the university is unclear, and the same is true for Hart. At the time, the Greenville Enterprise simply reported that his position was vacated by the university trustees. However, in a later history of the university, Irwin Green uses stronger language: "[Hart] was removed . . . by the alien Negro government forced upon the state." 

Hart's replacement by Cummings marked a major change at the university. Hart was a native South Carolinian who had graduated from The Citadel. He was among the most talented academics in the state. He had spent the Civil War studying at German universities and wrote a dissertation at Heidelberg in mathematics under the supervision of Otto Hesse. While Cummings had much more experience with teaching (over three decades; Hart had only started teaching in 1866), his academic training was much weaker. He had not earned a single university degree for academic studies; all his degrees were honorary.

Conservatives disapproves of Cummings' election. The Charleston Daily News was especially critical. "Can It Be?" was the headline of one article, which referred to Cummings as the "notorious Dr. Cummings." A lengthier article called him a "clergyman of not particularly good standing" and included a highly negative overview's of Cummings's record in the south. They called attention to the fact that ministers of the Holston Conference found him guilty of defrauding the Female College in Asheville, and it claimed he had been rumored to have engaged in similar misconduct while living in Spartanburg. it mockingly described the misconduct as a "series of ingenious but discreditable experiments with figures of the college account books," activities which demonstrated his "love for the exact sciences." The paper also drew negative attention Cummings' efforts to oppose Ku-Kluxism in Spartanburg County. 

A letter to the editor submitted to the Daily Phoenix newspaper by "Ecce Ecclelesia [Behold the Church]" that called attention to the fact that Cummings was associated with the northern Methodist church, not the southern one. Privately, many white Conservatives appear to have deplored Cummings's election. When they attended the graduation ceremony, both Cummings and Roberts (the other newly elected professor) were "hooted at" three graduating students, an incident celebrated in Conservative newspapers. The incident is described in detail in the entry for Professor Roberts. 

In his history Reconstruction in South Carolina, John S. Reynold provides description of Cummings  likely reflects the opinions held by South Carolina conservatives. Reynolds writes that Cummings owed his professorship to the support he had given the state government in their efforts to fight the Ku Klux Klan in Spartanburg. He dismisses Cummings' qualifications, writing that Cummings was "a man of ordinary intelligence and small scholarship, and was otherwise unfit for a professorship at any reputable college."

Cummings' students at the university appear to have held him in positive regard. In an account of his time at the university, the former student C. C. Scott wrote that, "As an instructor, Prof. Cummings was painstaking, exact, thorough, evidently a born mathematicians, and well earned the sobriquet – 'old mathematics.'"

In 1875, Cummings was elected chair of the faculty (a position similar to that of university president). An article in the Southern Home newspaper derisively described the new position as "President of the [expletive deleted]-ed University of South Carolina" and then mockingly repeated a suggestion by the Columbia Register: when conferring degrees, Cummings should forgo the traditional academic gown and instead wear the "terrible [Ku Klux Klan] costume, horns and all, which he wore when on a lecturing tour North, against the bloody Ku Klux." 

Despite his past support for the Confederacy, Cummings was an enthusiastic supporter of the admission of African American students to the university, and more generally of efforts to educate formerly enslaved workers. In a 1874 article published in the College Courant, he wrote positively about the development of the University of South Carolina under the Reconstruction government:

The enemies of equal political and educational rights for a time hoped that the ruin of the institution would follow [the admission of the African American students]. In this they are not to be gratified. The law class, composed of white and colored students, is now larger than for years before, and the two races of students are now progressing in all departments in greatest harmony. Each regulates his own social relations, but in all other respects the question of color is ignored. . . .

The opening of the State University to colored students, as well as to white, marks an educational era in the State, and is hailed with joy in all portions of the country. Those desiring classical, medical, or legal education can find here all the advantages they desired. It is believed that as soon as these facts are known, students will come from all parts of the South, until our spacious accommodations are all in demand.

He continued to write positively about political developments at the university throughout Reconstruction. In an 1877 article on the university, he summarized the current state of the university as follows:

Its halls are now filled with white and colored students, pursuing their studies in perfect harmony, and with equal success. We are here exemplifying in practice what is regarded as impracticable in theory, and find both races benefited by the experiment. Each is stimulated by the other to the highest exertion

Cummings was one of the last of the Reconstruction faculty to leave the university. After Daniel Chamberlain conceded the governorship to Wade Hampton in April 1877, the newly formed state government began to take steps to shut close the university. A new university board of trustees was elected, and Cummings appeared before them at their first meeting, held on July 30. The trustees informed Cummings that the General Assembly had directed that the university was to be closed on the next day (July 31). Cummings asked that the faculty receive three-fourths of their yearly salary, and the trustees granted his request. By September, Cummings had left South Carolina and returned to New York state.

In New York, Cummings settled in the town of Wellsville and purchased the Riverside Seminary. The seminary had been founded in 1873 as part of a general effort at developing Wellsville. Cummings ran the school as a college preparatory boarding school. The faculty consisting of himself, his wife Isabelle, his son Olin, and one Sue V. Fleming.

The year after he began running the seminary (in 1878), Cummings was awarded an honorary LL.D. degree by Rutherford College in North Carolina.

Cummings remained in Wellsville for the rest of his life. He ran the seminary until around 1881 or 1882 (account vary) when poor health led him to retire. The seminary continued to operate until 1888. That year a fire destroyed several buildings, and rather than rebuild, the seminary was closed.

During his retirement, Cummings published the book The Early Schools of Methodism. This volume collected short histories of schools that had been founded by the Methodist church. Much of the volume consists of solicited contributions from other Methodists, but Cummings himself wrote the histories on Allegheny College, the Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary, and McKendree College (the last jointly with S. H. Deneen)

In his retirement, Cummings' activities became limited by memory problems and other health issues. In October 1894 (when he was in his late 70s), Cummings was stricken with paralysis. He remained in this condition, suffering greatly, until his death on December 7. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Wellsville. 

Sources

1. The Greenville enterprise. [Greenville, SC], July 3, 1872, p. 4.

2. "University of South Carolina." The Intelligencer [Anderson, SC]. June 27, 1872. p. 2.

3. "Professor Cummings." Charleston Daily News [Charleston, SC]. July 12, 1872. p. 4.

4.The Southern Home [Charlotte, NC]. October 25, 1875. p. 3.

5. Daily Charlotte Observer [Charlotte, NC]. October 22, 1875. p. 2.

6. "The South Carolina University." Charleston Daily News [Charleston, SC]. June 21, 1872. p. 1. 

7. "Can It Be?" Charleston Daily News, June 24, 1872. p. 1.

8. "The State University." Charleston Daily News, June 28, 1872. p. 2.