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“E” is for Ensor, Joshua Fulton (1834-1907)

“E” is for Ensor, Joshua Fulton (1834-1907). Physician. A native of Maryland, Ensor studied medicine at the University of Maryland. During the Civil War he served as a surgeon in the United States Army. After the war he became active in the Republican Party and moved to South Carolina. In 1870 Ensor was appointed superintendent of the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum. He proved to be competent, honest, resourceful, and adamant in defense of the needs of the institution and its patients. His tenure at the asylum was politically significant. Ensor publicized the asylum’s plight in the state’s newspapers providing fodder for the Democrats who overthrew the Republican regime in 1876. He stayed in South Carolina and remained a Republican. In 1897 Joshua Fulton Ensor was appointed postmaster of Columbia and remained in that post until his death.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.