Edmund Scarborough (Holmes County)
State House: 1870-1871
Born: May 1840 in Greene County, AL
Methodist Episcopal minister and farmer. Listed on the 1900 and 1910 census in Holmes County with wife Martha.
"While he has never attended school, he has by some means acquired a knowledge of books that would startle the most casual critic. He served as a member of the legislature for a goodly number of years. It was there he proved himself a ready speaker, profound thinker, and strong in debate. He has since served as Deacon Elder of his church, baptizing fully 500 souls. He was married in 1857. This happy union has done much for Mr. Scarborough's welfare. He owns six acres in city lots, and has accumulated much of this world's goods. For sound advice, he maybe sought to great advantage. He believes that Christian education is the only thing that will serve as a factor in the solution of the Negro problem."
(Isaiah Wadsworth Crawford and Patrick H. Thompson, Multum in Parvo: An Authenticated History of Progressive Negroes in Pleasing and Graphic Biographical Style, 1912)
"The first negro Methodist church in Holmes county was built by Ed Scarborough and his brother-in-law, Jordon Weatherby in Durant in 1866. They went into the woods cut the logs, for the erection of a church, got out enough boards to cover it, bought the nails and with the help of another negro named Laskley built a crude building which was used for a number of years as a place of worship by the Methodist negroes in that community."
(WPA history of Holmes County)
