In December of 1899, Methodist Circuit Preacher, Rev. Adney McSwain
Attaway had come home to Pickens, S.C. for Christmas but by the 29th
had to bury Bowman, his 11-year-old son. A previous stint in the state mental
hospital for both he and his wife did not adequality prepare them to cope with the
loss of a child.
In early January, he was in a frenzy at home. He decapitated
the family dog with an ax, and then began to destroy the furniture. He grabbed
his wife, Belle pulling the clothes around her neck with his teeth in an
attempt to strangle her. Belle cried out for their daughter, Janie, who grabbed
a knife. Belle screamed for her daughter to stab father before he kills me and “all
of you”. Janie merely cut away the clothes, but the reverend was dead.
Belle testified that she had strangled her husband, but
Coroner Jones of Pickens County, found that Rev. Attaway died of heart failure
induced by “a violent attack of insanity”.
Belle was recommitted to the mental hospital for a short
time before resuming a quiet life as a widow in Pickens. She died in 1955 from pneumonia
and was buried next to her husband at Sunrise Cemetery.
Sources:
“Said She Choked Him to Death”, The Watchman and Southron,
Sumter, South Carolina, 17 Jan 1900, newspapers.com, accessed: 19 August 2021
South Carolina, U.S. Death Records, 1821-1969, entry for
Belle Harris Attaway, Ancestry.com
Find A Grave Index, entry for Rev. Adney McSwain Attaway,
findagrave.com
