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. Continue reading “Bad Neighbors (Part I): The Bigham Family of Florence County”