Six Miles to Charleston Read Online Free PDF Page A

plat 6881 and a current map, one gets a general idea of where Six Mile House was. The Six Mile House would have been in an area now occupied by the Charleston Naval Health Clinic, previously known as the Charleston Naval Hospital. This nestles it directly between and across from the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office and the North Charleston Police Department Substation. It is quite ironic, and somewhat humorous, that this legend of one of the most vicious female serial killers in the state of South Carolina originated on the very doorstep of not one but two of this state’s largest law enforcement agencies. What is even more ironic is that one of those agencies evolved from the elected position of the person who arrested the Fishers. The Office of Sheriff of Charleston back then is now known as the Charleston County Sheriff ’s Office today. This agency now employs hundreds of deputies and is divided into numerous specialized divisions.

    Plat 6881 shows the location of Six Mile House near the intersection of Dorchester Road and Goose Creek Road, which is now Rivers Avenue. Courtesy South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

    Four Mile Lane in the vicinity of where Four Mile House once stood. Courtesy of author.

    Discher Street where Discher Farm once stood, a tract containing Four Mile House. Courtesy of author.

    Five Mile Viaduct where Five Mile House once stood. Courtesy of author.

    The Charleston Naval Clinic, formerly the Charleston Naval Hospital, now sits where Six Mile House once stood. Courtesy of author.
    With the wagon and stage trade prevalent, the traders themselves became targets for highway robbery. If a full wagon was heading into town, one could easily hijack the wagon and take the goods for themselves. If one were leaving town with an empty wagon, then one could assume that the goods had been sold and the trader was carrying cash.
    In the early months of 1819, highwaymen were busy. A citizen, James Addison, had been robbed of a little over $10.00 at dusk by a white man mounted on a white horse. John Brown had also been robbed and deprived of $140.00. Others had been lured into the inns where they were cheated in crooked gambling games. Added to those complaints was that of Stephen LaCoste, who had gone to his pasture to check on his cow and found the creature missing. Mr. LaCoste was quite certain the cow had not wandered off and had met with a much more diabolical fate.
    Those involved in the wagon trade, along with anyone else traveling to and from Charleston, felt it necessary to carry their rifles for protection. This frustrated the citizenry of Charleston, and they had had more than enough. They feared that the news of such robberies would deter trade and create even more problems to the already failing Charleston commerce. Younger and smaller towns such as Cheraw, Camden, Columbia and Hamburg were already in a position to intercept the wagon trade, and the threat of robbery was sure to divert these merchants to these smaller towns and their smaller wagon yards.
    On February 16, 1819, a mob set out from Charleston to take the matters into their own hands. Well armed, determined and riding under their own authority, they set out for the Five Mile House. They set forth under “Lynch’s Law” and no other authority at all.
    The term Lynch’s Law was used as early as 1782. A prominent Virginian named Charles Lynch created his own laws and terms in suppressing a suspected loyalist uprising in 1780 during the Revolutionary War. The suspects were given a trial at an informal court. The sentences handed down included whipping, property seizure, coerced pledges of allegiance and forced enrollment into the military. Charles Lynch’s extralegal actions were retroactively legitimized by the Virginia General Assembly in 1782.
    A second explanation of Lynch’s Law comes from another source. In 1811, Captain William Lynch claimed that the phrase “Lynch’s