Bad Neighbors (Part I): The Bigham Family of Florence County

Bad Neighbors.  Most of us have had them.  Maybe they leave an old junk car out on their front yard or play loud music at all hours of the night and day. Maybe they let their dog do his business on your lawn without cleaning it up.  There are many ways a neighbor can prove themselves troublesome to those who have the misfortune to live near them.  They may also prove themselves to be dangerous.

My maternal grandfather passed down an interesting story of bad neighbors to my mother and eventually her to me, that leads to the topic of this post of Palmetto Leaves.  My great grandparents, William & Telitha Perritt Keefe, lived near the town of Pamlico in Florence County SC in the early 1900s.  According to family lore, Telitha was sitting at her dressing table one day, brushing her hair, when a bullet flew by her head barely missing her.  The family immediately knew who was responsible: the Bigham family who were their neighbors.  Whenever this story was brought up I always had one big question: why?  The answer was always that they were mean people and wanted all the land that surrounded them.  My grandfather, who was born in 1900, claims that anytime their buggy was passing the Bighams on the road they would look straight ahead and not make eye contact.

As I got older I became increasingly interested to learn more about this family.  Were they really as bad as the lore that had been passed down?  It did not take me long in my inquiries to realize that these tales were just the tip of the iceberg.  The Bighams were a bit notorious in that region of South Carolina and would for a time in the 1920’s be at the center of a horrendous crime.

I think it is important as I begin to tell this tale that some of the things that were eventually said about the family may be exaggerations and hearsay.  As I read newspaper accounts of the time, I quickly came to the conclusion that sensationalism has been alive and well long before the dawn of 24-hour news.

To begin, let’s take a closer look at who the Bigham family were. At the time my great-grandparents were their neighbors the family was made up of the patriarch, Leonard Smiley Bigham Jr, also known as Smiley, and his wife Mary Medora Smith Bigham who went by the name Dora. The couple had 3 sons: Leonard Smiley III, Edmund Dalrimple, and Grover Cleveland; as well as two daughters: Letha and Marjorie Ann. The family was considered wealthy and successful planters and through inheritance and work had amassed a substantial amount of land in the area.

Their success had not come without controversies, however, concerning their morality and violence that seemed to surround the family. Around 1848, the first Leonard Smiley Bigham and his brother were found guilty of beating a neighbor’s slave to death for which they were each fined $10. There were six witnesses stating that they had heard the brothers discussing their plans to kill the man. Apparently, the slave had been spreading a rumor that the senior Smiley had killed his nephews who had been in his care so that they would not get a part of his father’s inheritance. Around 1872, the senior Bingham was again brought to trial for the murder of William Jackson, an African American man who worked for him on his land. In this trial, he was found not guilty but many people had their doubts. The wife of the murdered man then brought charges of assault and battery against him of which he was found guilty. He was sentenced to 3 months in jail or to pay a $50 fine. In the end, he did neither as he convinced his neighbors to sign a petition of leniency, attributed to his ill health. The senior Bigham died around 1879 following an accident with some lumber. There were many rumblings among neighbors, however, that the man’s death resembled cyanide poisoning and felt that the junior Smiley may have hastened along his father’s death.

Leonard Smiley Bigham, Jr. was a man with political interests and he held office in the South Carolina legislature for many years. His life, however, was, like his father’s also marked by violence. A little before his mother died in 1890, Smiley, Jr. killed an African American man on his farm. He claimed self-defense and the coroner’s jury ruled it justifiable homicide. When his mother passed away, her will divided all the Bigham property between himself and his sister Mary. Smiley Jr fought the will all the way to the S.C. Supreme Court where in the end it was upheld. Strangely enough, a little after this, Smiley Jr produced another will which he said was a more recent version and made him the sole heir. He is said to have thrown his sister and her disabled husband off the Bigham land and that both died in extreme poverty and degradation. Smiley Jr passed away in 1906 and his death was surrounded by rumors that like his father he had been poisoned. Only this time it was speculated that the murderer was his wife Dora who had suffered many cruelties from the man who had married her when she was only 16 and was ready to be rid of him.

In 1908, a Smiley Bigham was once again accused of murder, only this time it was Leonard Smiley Bigham III, who had taken over as the patriarch of the family since his father’s death. Again the murder arose out of a dispute with an African American who worked on his farm, a boy of only 16 years of age named Arthur Davis. Smiley blamed him for an injury to one of his mules. The boy’s mother stated that Smiley and a group of men, all wearing masks came and dragged her son from their home. She testified that while she could not see his face that she recognized his voice.  It was also believed that Smiley’s brother Edmund was among this group of men.   Arthur was later found beaten and a nail had been driven into his head which had caused his death. Smiley was arrested with two other men and then released on bond to await trial which was scheduled for October. It is said that at the time of these events, his brother Cleveland who was a doctor in Harpers, SC was at the family home with his new bride, Viola Ruth Crisp. As the family discussed how to handle the situation, Ruth made it clear to the family that she would not lie about the fact that Smiley was not at home all evening on the night of the murder. How anyone could know what was said in those private family discussions, however, is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps, it was thought probable after the next set of unfortunate events took place.

In September of that year, Cleveland and his young wife, Ruth were invited to visit William Avant and his wife at his home in Murrell’s Inlet, S.C., William Avant was a young successful farmer of the area. On the night of September 5th, Ruth took a stroll outside on the beach, a common pastime in the area. Her husband and Mr. Avant were said to be sitting on the porch having drinks when they saw a figure moving toward the beach. The men claimed that they called out to the figure but after receiving no response, Mr. Avant retrieved his gun and fired shots at the figure. They then approached the figure only to discover Ruth’s dead body. Both men claimed that the event was an accident and there was speculation that they had been spooked by tales of hauntings in the area. They were both arrested and both men were convicted of involuntary manslaughter on October 23rd and sentenced to three and half years in prison.

There were many people in the community who felt that there were still a lot of unanswered questions about the shooting. Ruth’s family who had originally believed her death to be an unfortunate accident came to believe something else entirely. Her brother even later had her body exhumed and buried in her hometown of Mountainville in Laurens County, S.C in a family plot. Her gravestone does not acknowledge her marriage as it refers to her only as Viola Ruth Crisp. Speculation began to grow when Cleveland did not show back up at jail when his bond was revoked as he was awaiting an appeal. The Bigham family had posted his $1500 bond and had all signed it except for Letha. Newspapers speculated about his whereabouts and family members stated that he was not on the run and that he was only visiting with family in Greenville. During this time, Mr. Avant had turned himself in and there were rumors that he had admitted to family members that he had shot Ruth for money.  Was this Cleveland’s plan to get rid of a troublesome witness to his brother’s crime?  Even if it meant the death of his wife?  After the appeal failed, Cleveland had still not made an appearance and no one was sure of his whereabouts. Mr. Avant also skipped bail but was later captured in Texas and brought back to serve out his prison sentence. Cleveland was never found. There were rumors that he had left the country and others claimed that he had a new family in Atlanta. Neighbors were later heard to say that Cleveland made visits to the family over the years. This mystery still remains unsolved.  Maybe one day DNA testing will find unknown descendants and they will be able to fill in the blanks.

The Bigham family did not want to pay the $1500 bond that they had been left with when Cleveland left, so the family decided to deed over 5/6th of the property to their sister Letha who had not signed the bond and 1/6th to Marjorie. Letha was married to John Bogan Cain who was Deputy Sheriff and not well liked among the other family members. Smiley the Third was also accused by a county clerk of tampering with documents, primarily family deeds at the office of the Florence Clerk of Courts. The matter was under investigation and Smiley feared being charged. Things began to get even more complicated for the Bigham family when Letha passed away from pneumonia on February 20, 1920. At this point, her widowed husband and son had a claim on the Bigham fortune. Her husband also was not showing any signs of cooperation and there seemed to be a fight on the way.

In October of 1920, Edmund returned home with his wife and two daughters after spending about 11 years in Greenville and southern Georgia. Things had not gone well for him over the years and he had lost a hand in a train accident that many felt had been an insurance ploy gone wrong.  He would later tell people that he came home because his mother and sister Marjorie needed him to help with the family’s financial situation.  Marjorie was also living in the home at the time. She had taught school in Greenville but after becoming estranged from her husband Richard A Black had moved back into the family home. She had also adopted two young boys around this time: John and Leo McCracken.

And so the stage was set for the event that, in the end, would destroy the Bigham family and shock people across the country. 

Continued in Part II