Sheriff Robert Maxwell, 45, was ambushed and fatally shot on the morning of November 10, 1797, while riding on horseback toward the courthouse in Pickensville. The attack occurred as he attempted to cross the Saluda River near where the Piedmont Mill Dam later stood; gunfire came from a hidden assailant or assailants and Maxwell was killed at the scene.

Authorities arrested one man and brought him to trial for the ambush, but the prosecution failed to obtain a conviction and the suspect was acquitted. No one is officially recorded as having been proven to have fired the fatal shots, and the murder remains unresolved. Maxwell was a Revolutionary War veteran and lawman in the Washington District; he was survived by his wife and son and buried in the Maxwell family cemetery on his plantation near Ware Place in Greenville County.

Did anyone in the area or with family ties to the Maxwell plantation ever pass down stories or information about who might have been responsible?