History of the Valley County Sheriff's Office
|
The following information was taken from "Footprints in the Valley" A History of Valley County. Much of this information can also be found at Valley County's Pioneer Museum.In 1893 Valley County was created out of Dawson County and included everything north of the Missouri River to Canada, and from the North Dakota border to a point west of Malta. In that same year the Valley County Courthouse and Jail were built. James Deegan was appointed Sheriff, and the first elected Sheriff was Sid Willis in 1894. In 1913 a portion of the county was chopped up to form Sheridan County, and in 1915 Phillips County was formed out of the western part of Valley County. Once again the county was chopped in 1919 to form Roosevelt County to our east, and then in 1920 to create Daniels County, reducing Valley County to it's present size of 5,064 square miles. At present, the Valley County Sheriff's Office and Jail are housed in the courthouse which was built in 1972. |
Valley County Sheriffs & their Terms of Office
| 1 | James Deegan | Appointed Feb 6th | 1893 |
| 2 | Sid Willis | First Elected Sheriff | 1894 |
| 3 | Dan Kyle | 1896 | |
| 4 | Bob Conatser | 1898 | |
| 5 | Walter "Leather" Griffith | 1900 | |
| 6 | Harry Costner | 1902 | |
| 7 | Walter "Leather" Griffith | 1904 | |
| 8 | Colfax Small Schyler, | 1906-1908 | |
| 9 | James R. Stephans | 1910 | |
| 10 | Patrick J. Nacey | 1912 | |
| 11 | Courtland W. "Puck" Powell | 1914-1918 | |
| 12 | Charles A. Hall | 1920 | |
| 13 | Julian Haydon | 1922 | |
| 14 | R. B. "Doc" Rogers | 1924 | |
| 15 | Ben Olson | 1926-1930 | |
| 16 | Al G. Fassett | Died in Office 09/1935 | 1932-1934 |
| 17 | Charles E. Reed | Acting Sheriff | 1935 |
| 18 | Warren L. Thornton | Appointed in October | 1935 |
| 19 | Ed L. McPherson | Resigned 08-14-1943 | 1936-1944 |
| 20 | J. Mason Melvin ** | Resigned 11-06-1950 | 1946-1950 |
| 21 | Byron E. "Bud" Richter | 1950-1956 | |
| 22 | Hugh Borton | Two 4 year terms | 1958-1966 |
| 23 | Frank Powell | Resigned 11/72 | 1966-1972 |
| 24 | Daniel R Taylor | 1972-1994 | |
| 25 | Clifton Cook | Appointed 1994 | 1994-1995 |
| 26 | Richard Britzman | 1995-1998 | |
| 27 | Richard Wessler | 1999-2002 | |
| 28 | Glen Meier | Retired 12/31/16 | 2003-2016 |
| 29 | Vernon Buerkle | Appointed 1/1/2017 | 2017-2018 |
| 30 | Thomas Boyer | Elected by Write-In | 2019- |