Confronted with serious issues of crime, disorder, vice, and violence, the pioneers of the old West turned to members of their communities to enforce order. With a multi-century background and history, the office of sheriff was a natural addition in this environment. Selection could be made by appointment, or in most cases by popular vote from community residents to select a sheriff. The county-wide jurisdiction of the office fit very nicely in the law enforcement efforts and supervision of the vast countryside. The ability of the sheriff to respond to the hue and cry and to raise a posse helped greatly with the issues of crime and the isolated nature of the frontier. The office that had evolved over the centuries was a "hand in glove fit" for local law enforcement in the Wild West.

The office of the sheriff spread from community to community throughout settled areas west of the Mississippi. In 1823 and 1824, the colony of San Felipe de Austin formed a set of community rules that included a justice of the peace and an appointed sheriff to enforce regulations. In 1836, the adaptation of a constitution for the newly created Republic of Texas formally required these positions and read in part:

"There shall be appointed for each county, a convenient number of Justices of the Peace, one sheriff, and one coroner, who shall hold their offices for two years, to be elected by qualified voters of the district or county, as Congress may direct. Justices of the Peace and sheriffs shall be commissioned by the President [of the Republic]".⁸⁹

The provisions of the Constitution remained unchanged and the Texas laws endured through the Civil War and Reconstruction period. With minor exceptions to the term of office and removal clauses, the office of sheriff continues in the State of Texas largely as it was in 1836.⁹⁰

In other regions of the West, these developments ran parallel to the Texas experience. California, for example, had similar laws that provided for the election of sheriffs and other county officials. Even isolated areas of the West generally had a sheriff as their governments developed. By 1861, laws evolved in Colorado that brought an elected sheriff to even the most remote counties of the district. In 1868, Wyoming had appointed sheriffs, as directed by the Governor. Newer legal provisions varied but essentially statutes called for an elected sheriff to be the primary police agent for the organized county governments. Terms usually varied between two and four years and a variety of checks and balances were placed providing for the removal of an official.⁹¹

Sheriffs were generally allowed to hire assistants or deputies to help with the day to day responsibilities of his office. He was also allowed to appoint citizens to perform certain functions to preserve the peace. The posse comitatus, or power of the county, enabled sheriffs to summon aid. An 1861 Colorado statute formally called for this procedure:

"When any felonious offense shall be committed, public notice thereof shall be immediately given in all public places near where the same was committed, and fresh pursuit shall forthwith be made after every person guilty thereof by sheriffs, coroners, constables, and other persons who shall be by any of them commanded or summoned for that purpose"⁹²

Similar statutes were formalized in other areas of the West recognizing the doctrine of posse comitatus to preserve the peace.

Along with general powers of arrests, states gave sheriffs widely divergent privileges. Wyoming allowed for sheriffs to use a residence for his law enforcement purposes at county expense. New Mexico extended jurisdictional limits of the sheriff to permit him or his deputies to enter all counties in the state to affect an arrest and to have concurrent rights of posse comitatus in every county. While the duties of sheriffs and their deputies were multitudinous, the primary law enforcement functions were virtually identical throughout the early West. A 1861 Nevada statute illustrates typical duties of the sheriff:

"It shall be the duty of Sheriffs and of their deputies to keep and preserve the peace in their respective counties, and to quiet and suppress all affrays, riots, and insurrections for which purpose, and for the service of process in civil and criminal cases, and in apprehending or securing any person for felony, or breach of the peace, they may call upon of their county"⁹³

As chief law enforcement officer of the county, the sheriff performed diverse duties. In many jurisdictions he served as tax collector, similar to the duties of the colonial sheriff. Also in contrast to its colonial forerunner, the sheriff had to administer corporal punishment, as directed by the courts. The sheriff often times was required to carry out the sentence of death. Rustic executions in the Wild West were performed primarily by hanging an offender. Sometimes sheriffs constructed formal gallows for this purpose, and other times a rope was simply tossed over a stout tree limb to accomplish the execution. Other duties of the office, collateral to the crime fighting duties, were rather mundane and involved the service of process or other civil enforcement functions, that were performed usually under peaceful conditions. Some counties prescribed rather peculiar duties like inspecting cattle, fighting fires, or eradicating prairie dogs. No matter what the specific duties of a community required, universally by the later part of the nineteenth century, the sheriff occupied the preeminent position in law enforcement throughout the West.⁹⁴

There were many laws directing the appointment of sheriffs, but there were none directing prescribed procedures for the post. Most times the sheriff simply did things by the way his personality guided him. There was no formal training for the position and there was no standardization. That is until David J. Cook, a 1860's Colorado sheriff and an 1870's Denver police chief, compiled a basic set of rules which became somewhat of a standard operating procedure for Western peace officers. Reputed to have arrested some three thousand criminals during his years as a Colorado peace officer, Cook developed rules called "Self-Preservation" in his 1882 book, Hands Up! or Twenty Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains. The rules are as follows:

I. Never hit a prisoner over the head with your pistol, because you may afterwards want to use your weapon and find it disabled. Criminals often conceal weapons and sometimes draw one when they were supposed to have been disarmed.

II. Never attempt to make an arrest without being sure of your authority. Either have a warrant or satisfy yourself thoroughly that the man whom you seek to arrest has committed the offense.

III. When you attempt to make an arrest, be on your guard. Give your man no opportunity to draw a pistol. If the man is supposed to be a desperado, have your pistol in your hand or be ready to draw when you make yourself known. If he makes no resistance, there will be no harm done by your precaution. My motto has been, "It is better to kill two men than to allow one to kill you".

IV. After your prisoner is arrested and disarmed, treat him as a prisoner should be treated - as kindly as his conduct will permit. You will find that if you do not protect your prisoners when they are in your possession, those whom you afterwards attempt to arrest will resist you more fiercely, and will be inclined to sell their lives as dearly as possible.

V. Never trust much to the honor of prisoners. Give them no liberties which might endanger your own safety or afford them an opportunity to escape. Nine out of ten of them have no honor.⁹⁵

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Part of the significance of the office of the sheriff was derived from the rural conditions of the area. The vastness of the territories required broad jurisdictional enforcement needs. The other significance resulted in the general need for law enforcement in a relatively untamed and lawless condition that was rampant in the West. Because of the lawlessness, a need for powerful and unique personalities to control the crime issues was called for. As a result, colorful and dramatic persons were to hold the office of sheriff in the Wild West. These personalities have provided imagination fuel for our concepts of how the West was won. The next portion of this work will deal with some of the exciting and unusual characters that held the office.