FOP honors Allendale County Magistrate Fred H. Edenfield in memorial tribute

The South Carolina Fraternal Order of Police marked Fred H. Edenfield’s sacrifice with a memorial tribute that placed the Allendale County magistrate among South Carolina’s fallen officers. The post, shared on May 30, 2025, recalled that Edenfield was shot and killed on May 30, 1913, while tracking a fugitive through the swamp.

Historical newspaper coverage said the killing happened near Barton, South Carolina, and that J. Frank Bowers of Luray was also killed in the same incident. The newspaper identified Richard Henry Austin as the suspect. Together, the accounts show how deeply the loss was felt in Allendale County, where Edenfield’s work on the bench put him at the center of local law enforcement and the risks that came with it.

A contemporaneous funeral notice said Edenfield was buried at Swallow Savannah Cemetery on May 2, 1913, with Masonic honors. The account said a large concourse of friends and relatives attended, a detail that points to the personal ties he had built across the county. For residents, the memorial is not just about a name in a state tribute. It is about a magistrate whose service reached into the daily life of Allendale County and whose death became part of the county’s law-enforcement memory.

The Fraternal Order of Police tribute was part of the organization’s broader tradition of honoring officers who made the ultimate sacrifice. By naming Edenfield alongside other fallen officers, the post renewed attention to a local figure whose service, death and burial remain tied to Allendale County’s history and to the community that gathered around his family more than a century ago.