Edgefield was the home of ten governors: Andrew Pickens, II, George McDuffie, P.M. Butler, J.H. Hammond, Francis Pickins, M.L. Bonham, J.C. Sheppard, Ben Tillman, J.G. Evans, and Strom Thurmond. W.W. Ball wrote that Edgefield had more dashing, brilliant, romantic figures, statesmen, orators, soldiers, adventurers, and daredevils than any other county of South Carolina, if not any rural county of America.