Bedsole History from 1673 With Documentation - NCGenWeb

Edward, listed as landowner several times, above, was born to Thomas Bedsole, Jr. and Charlotte English in
1819 in Beaverdam, NC. He died in 1909 and is buried in Clarke County, Coffeeville, Alabama. You can see
above, that others also moved to or were born in, Clarke County. He was about twelve years old when they
moved from NC to Alabama. He was married to Susan Blackwell and they lived in Crenshaw County,
Alabama initially, but he moved his family to Mossy Head, Florida about 1853, then to Clarke County.
(Coffeeville). About 1891, Edward moved to Grove Hill (Coffeeville), Alabama where he, his son Quincy and
Edwards sister Elizabeth’s son Rayford, built a log store at the crossroads between Coffeeville and Grove
Hill, Alabama. Over the next couple of years, they developed a group of drinkers, smokers, snuff users,
tobacco chewers, never-do-wells, hangers-on and trouble-makers, who frequently gathered at the store and
discussed politics and how they were all being wronged by the local politicians. Eventually, Edward and
Rayford began selling moonshine whiskey from the store and the gang which gathered there from time to
time now numbered perhaps 50-60 men. Over time, they turned to stealing from politicians at first, but that
practice grew until their victims included their own neighbors, who were just poor, ordinary farmers.
Over time, Edwards gang developed a hatred for the merchants in Grove Hill and in the county, who charged
outrageous prices and sometimes took any property the farmers owned in payment, and when they,
especially the sharecroppers, could not pay their bills after harvest time, the gang began stealing from the
merchants own stores and their harvested crops too. Big landowners also began to fall victim to the gang for
the same reasons. If the gang decided they wanted someones corn, cotton, pigs, cattle, or other property,
they simply showed up in the dead of night and took what they wanted. If the owner objected with violence,
he was simply shot, for his trouble. The local sheriff was always “too busy”, or “out of town”, to do any law
enforcement of this gang, after all the sheriff lived among them, and shortly, they began taking whatever
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they wanted from whoever had it. Their hatred spread to include local politicians. Finaly, five good men from
the area sent a telegram to the Governor of Alabama, explaining the situation to him and asking him to send
army troops to arrest the gang. Instead, the Governor, not being the brightest bulb in Montgomery,
telegraphed the Sheriff asking for clarification and the sheriff replied he had everything under control and
downplayed the problem to the Governor. When they saw the Governor was not going to do anything, the
same five men went to adjoining counties and rounded up a group of 300 men, each one armed with the new
Winchester repeating rifles.
These 300 men converged on Edwards house.They found Edward and son Quincy, there and killed Quincy
and a few others and ran the rest of Edwards gang out of the county. Ironically, although he was the
ringleader, Edward also held a high degree in the local Masons, who are pledge to always take care of each
other, and several of the three hundred men in the gang were also Masons. So Edward was allowed to go
because of that, provided he “left this country and never returned". Edward stayed away for about twelve
years, but moved back to Coffeeville, where he lived to the ripe old age of ninety-three. Proving the adage
that the meaner you are, the longer you live. Edward died in 1909 and is buried in Clarke County, Alabama,
in New Prospect Cemetary, along with Susan Blackwell, his wife and a few of their relatives.
That story can be found more or less in its entirety in a booklet entitled “The Mitchum War Of Clarke County,
Alabama”, obtainable from The Clarke County Democrat newspaper, P.O. Box 39, Grove Hill, Alabama
36451. I recently read in the newspaper that a writer, perhaps unrelated to the Bedsoles had rewritten the
Edward Bedsole story, in a much more comprehensive manner, perhaps flowering it up quite a bit and in fact,
downright making much of it up, and that it was becoming a best seller. I have since heard that the new
version portrays Edward as a sort of hero, born in Ireland !. In addition, a movie based on that new book is
being contemplated. The name of the new book is “Hell At The Breech”, which was actually what Edward
named his gang at Grove Hill. Wierd name for a gang of thieves and murderers.
James Larkin Bedsoles Fight For Food