Gunsmoke, Howard County, and the Old Elk County Jail

[W. Gray]

Just received the quarterly newsletter from the Chautauqua County historical society, which has an item containing a listing of all the sheriffs to have ever served in that county along with their years of service.

The sheriff's item brought up some old-time law enforcement memories of TV and movies.

In the TV series Gunsmoke, the producers had a U.S. Marshal as the chief law enforcement officer of Dodge City, Kansas. It seems that no one ever brought up the subject that US Marshals have no jurisdiction over law enforcement in a state's town. Or brought up the subject that Matt Dillon should have been out in what would have been his huge district looking for outlaws wanted by the Federal Government for one reason or another.

In the Gunsmoke series, there was never any mention of a town marshal or a county sheriff that I can recall. Dodge City is the county seat of Ford County so there should have been a sheriff around somewhere—perhaps complaining about Dillon encroaching on his responsibilities.

Also, in the movies, it seems that every western town had an onsite sheriff sitting in a chair in front of a store-front office and jail, whether that town was the county seat, or not.

I can recall seeing only one western in which a sheriff had his office in a courthouse.

In Howard County, it would have been appropriate for the sheriff to have a store-front office in the two official county seats, Belleville/Peru and Elk Falls, as Howard County never had a courthouse. All the other county officers also worked out of rented store front offices. The Howard County sheriff, though, had no jail. Howard County had a system of hiring an individual to look after a non-dangerous prisoner until needed for trial. When someone did need to be jailed they were taken to Cowley County or other area jails. In one case a prisoner was taken by the sheriff all the way to Iola.

A good number of Boston men were arrested in the months after the raid on Elk Falls. The man hired to "look after" Asa Thompson, was the future father-in-law of his son, Thomas E. (Polk Daniels) Thompson.

Both Elk and Chautauqua had courthouses soon after coming into being. In each case, the sheriff's office was located on the first floor.

Old timer's might recall the building that was located on the south lawn of the Elk County courthouse. This building housed the jail and the sheriff's residence. As I recall, the building style seemed to match the courthouse, so it may have been constructed after 1909.

When did it come down? Perhaps in the early fifties?

In this photo from courthouse.com, the rather substantial two-story building can be seen to the left rear of the courthouse. Some time ago Sheriff Janet posted a similar photo.