Wednesday, August 28, 2019

William "Uncle Billy" Swinford

William Swinford, known to those who knew him locally as "Uncle Billy," served a two-year term as sheriff during the Civil War, 1862-1863. He was a farmer by trade, and later a hotel owner, and apparently very well liked in the community where he lived.

Sheriff Swinford was born in Harrison County, Kentucky on November 20, 1815 and moved to Nodaway County in 1856 from Putnam County, Indiana, to which his parents had previously relocated. He died in Maryville, Missouri on April 21, 1905, at the age of 90. On November 28, 1833, he married Rebecca Thompson. She died on February 14, 1879. They brought ten children into the world. Mr. Swinford, after living in Maryville for ten years, returned to his farm in 1881 and opened a hotel, the Western, in Barnard the same year. In October 1882, Mr. Swinford remarried to Rosa B. Shore, who was born in Huntington County, Pennsylvania in 1854. She was twenty-eight. He was sixty-six years old.  No children were born to their union. In 1890, he retired from business and they moved to the town of Guilford.

He served in the Civil War on the Union side of the conflict. Prior to the Civil War he was part of the Democratic Party, but during the war he switched to the Republican Party. He enlisted for the first time on June 5, 1861 and was mustered in on July 5, 1861, serving as a First Lieutenant in the Missouri Home Guard Volunteers, Nodaway County, Company C, under the command of Captain Allen. He was forty-five years old. He served until August 28, 1861. Records show he re-enlisted that same day, again with the Missouri Home Guard Volunteers, Company D, under the command of Captain Robinson, with the rank of private. The company disbanded on September 21, 1861. He served a total of three months. In November of 1861, he ran for the office of sheriff of Nodaway County, and won. His term began on January 1, 1862 and concluded on December 31, 1863. The following spring, on April 29, 1864, he reenlisted in the 36th Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, with the rank of private, serving under Captain Wright. He was ordered into active duty by General Fisk at St. Joseph, Missouri on July 20, 1864, and relieved of duty eleven days later, on July, 31, 1864, at the age of forty-eight, with the rank of captain. After the war, he switched party affiliations again. By January 1875, he had joined the Greenback Party, later known as the Independent Party or Populist Party, with many prominent citizens of the county. His affiliation with that party did not last very long.

Mr. Swinford again announced his candidacy for sheriff in the "Democratic county convention" in July of 1876 by posting a newspaper ad. He noted in the ad that he was unable to get around and announce it in person to the county voters due to an "illness in the family and a large crop on hand." Whether he was elected to run on the Democratic ticket or not is yet unknown. It is known that he never served a second term as sheriff.

As a hotelier in Barnard, for two years, he was quite successful. The Western was described as having "twelve fine large sleeping rooms, and his table is always provided with the best the market affords. Everything is scrupulously neat and clean, and "Uncle Billy," as he is commonly called, always exerts himself to make his guests feel perfectly at home. He is well posted in politics and the Scriptures, and generally wins in an argument." Uncle Billy and his wife, Rebecca were members of the Advent Christian church of Maryville, having been accepted as congregants there in 1871. According to a newspaper piece at the time, he had "ridden ten miles on horseback" to the "Maryville school house" where the church members met and offered himself for membership, "after referring to his demoralized and backslidden condition." Rebecca also joined that day.

There is much more to Sheriff Swinford's life, and I am continuing to research his life as part of this project. I hope to bring you another brief biographical sketch of another sheriff very soon.


Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Sheriffs of Nodaway County 1845-2020



UPDATED: June 2019

Compiled by Susan Cronk. 
Copyright. All rights reserved.
(If you use this data or quote, please provide a 
back-link to this page, and attribute the author.)

On June 3, 1813, the office of sheriff was created in what was then called the Upper Louisiana Territory. It would later become known as the Missouri Territory, and then the state of Missouri.
Initially, the sheriffs in Missouri were elected to serve two-year terms and were not supposed to succeed themselves in consecutive terms of office, even though many did. In 1908, the law changed allowing sheriffs to be elected to four-year terms. The restriction against consecutive terms was not removed until the 1945 Revised Constitution of Missouri took effect.

The Nodaway County sheriffs who served consecutive terms, despite the legislation, were James Pennington, Henry Toel, William Collins, Benjamin Pixler, James Anderson, Scribner Beech, and James Enis.

James B. Prather was and remains the youngest man ever elected to the office of sheriff in Nodaway County. He was twenty-two years old.

Only two sheriffs have died while in office. The first was Earl M. Anderson, who died in a fatal car crash while he and Chief Deputy Beverlin were responding to a call at the Iowa line. Deputy Beverlin was critically injured but recovered. Sheriff Anderson is the only Nodaway County sheriff to die in the line of duty.

Sheriff Fred Newton drowned while on vacation in Red Wing, Minnesota. There was speculation at the time that his death was not an accident. Just weeks prior to his death he and his deputies assisted federal law enforcement in breaking up a multi-state auto theft ring.

Sheriff John Middleton and family hold the record for the longest number of years in residence in the Nodaway County rotary jail at eleven years. Sheriff Middleton moved in as chief deputy and jailer, under Sheriff Newton, and remained there after taking office as sheriff following Newton's death.

Sheriff David McClain is the only Nodaway County sheriff to hold the office of sheriff. He was elected sheriff of Holt County in 2016.

Sheriff Ben Espey held the most consecutive number of years in office, sixteen. His record remains unbroken as of 2019.


Term
Name
Title
Political Party
Apr 1845-Dec 1845

1846-1847
Bartlett W. Curl
Sheriff/Collector
Unknown
1848- Aug 1849
Caleb S. Burns
Sheriff/Collector
Democrat
Aug 1849-Dec 1849
 1850
 1851-1852
 1853-1854
James Pennington
Sheriff/Collector
Unknown

1855
Stephen M. Jester
Sheriff/Collector
Unknown
1856
James B. Prather
Sheriff/Collector
Democrat
1857
John W. Evans
Sheriff/Collector
Unknown
1858-1859
Benjamin F. Torrance
Sheriff/Collector
Unknown
1860
Thomas J. McQuiddy
Sheriff/Collector
Unknown
1861
Thaddeaus K. Beal
Sheriff/Collector
Unknown
1862-1863
William Swinford
Sheriff/Collector
Greenback**
Republican
1864-1865
Joseph E. Alexander
Sheriff/Collector
Democrat
1866-1867
Isaac N. Wray
Sheriff/Collector
Republican
1868-1869
John Ham
Sheriff/Collector
Republican
1870
John F. Bainum
Sheriff/Collector
Republican
1871-1872
Isaac N. Wray
Sheriff/Collector
Republican
1873
 1874-1875
1876-1877
Scribner R. Beech
Sheriff/Collector (1873); Sheriff
Republican
1877-1878
Joseph M. Cooper
Sheriff
Democrat
1878-1879
1880-1881
Henry J. Toel
Sheriff
Republican
1882-1883
 1884-1885
James Anderson
Sheriff
Democrat
1886-1887
Frank Owens
Sheriff
Democrat
1888-1889
Thomas J. Parle
Sheriff
Republican
1890-1891
Bernard Moran
Sheriff
Democrat
1892-1893
1894-1895
1896
Benjamin F. Pixler
Sheriff
Republican
1897-1898
1899-1900
William H. Collins
Sheriff
Democrat
1901-1902
1903-1904
James N. Enis
Sheriff
Republican
1905-1906
George L. Evans
Sheriff
Republican
1907-1908
1909-1912
William R. Tilson
Sheriff
Republican
1913-1916
Samuel E. Wallace
Sheriff
Democrat
1917-1920
John F. Dowden
Sheriff
Republican
1921-1924
Steve A. Roach
Sheriff
Republican
1925-1928
Lowell B. Campbell
Sheriff
Democrat
1929-1932
Harve England
Sheriff
Democrat
1933-1936
Samuel E. Wallace
Sheriff
Democrat
1937-1940
Royal E. Sellers
Sheriff
Republican
1941-1944
Delma E. Carmichael
Sheriff
Democrat
1945-1948
1949-1952
1953-1956
1957-Feb 1958
Earl M. Anderson
Sheriff
Republican
Feb 25, 1958-March 10, 1958
George M. Atchison
Deputy Coroner/Interim Sheriff
Democrat
March 11, 1958-Dec 1958
1959-1962
1963-1964
James E. Tucker
Sheriff
Democrat
1965-1968
Jan 1969-June 27, 1969
Fred L. Newton
Sheriff
Republican
June 27, 1969 – July 22, 1969
Robert Dunshee, M.D.
Coroner/Interim-Sheriff
Republican
July 22, 1969 – Dec 1970
1971-1972
1973-1976
John F. Middleton
Sheriff
Republican
1977-Aug 6, 1980
Roger E. Cronk
Sheriff
Democrat
Aug 6, 1980 – Nov 4, 1980
John F. Middleton
Interim-Sheriff
Republican
Nov 4, 1980 – Dec 1980
1981-1984
Danny Estes
Sheriff
Deputy
1985-1988
David McClain
Sheriff
Republican
1989-1992
Danny Estes
Sheriff
Democrat
1993-1996
1997-2000
2001-2004
2005-2008
Ben Espey
Sheriff
Republican
2009-2012
2013-2016
Darren White
Sheriff
Democrat
2017-2020
Randy Strong
Sheriff
Republican

**The beginning of the Greenback Party isn't believed to have existed in the U.S. prior to 1874, so this affiliation is believed to have been to a later run for public office after the Civil War. In rechecking other documents, it seems Mr. Swinford had something of a political-identity crisis between after his arrival in Nodaway County. He began in the Democratic Party prior to the Civil War, changed to the Republican Party during the war, changed back to the Democratic Party after the war, but in 1875 was a member of the new Greenback (Independent Party), and then by 1876 was back with the Democratic Party. Of course his affiliation with the Greenback Party made sense as the Greenback Party (later Populists, Independent, Independent Labor party) were favorable among farmers and the party was set up to organize farmers. Gold and silver were still predominately used and still backing paper currency prior to this time. The first currency to be printed was in Massachusetts in 1690. But the Greenback Party favored paper currency over only gold and silver as it was easier for purchasing and doing trade in the market.