Past Sheriffs

Past Sheriffs

Breckinridge County, later to be renamed Lyon County.

Sheriff terms in Kansas were 1 or 2-year terms until the 1970s.

1. John B. Foreman—Appointed in 1855, served 1855-1857 (Breckenridge & Lyon Co.) 
   1. Sheriff Foreman served as Sheriff of Breckinridge, Madison (Greenwood) and Wise (Morris) counties, at the same time.
2. Elisha Goddard—Appointed then elected in 1857, served 1857-1861 (Lyon Co.) 
3. James B. Cox—Elected in 1861, served 1861-1862
   1. Sheriff Cox did not finish his term as he left to fight in the Civil War.
4. Robert Parham—Appointed in 1862, served 1862-1862 
5. Daniel W. Appleby—Elected in 1862, served 1862-1863 
6. Samuel J. Mantor—Elected in 1863, served 1864-1865 
   1. 
7. Asa R. Bancroft—Elected in 1865, served 1866-1869 
   1. Civil War veteran with Company C of the Seventeen Kansas Volunteer Infantry.
8. Elijah Higbee Coats—Elected in 1869, served 1870-1871 
9. John Bay—Elected in 1871, served 1872-1875 
   1. Civil War veteran. Prisoner of War. After serving as Sheriff, Bay was elected Mayor of Emporia and later served at a City of Emporia Councilman.
10. Hiram Conner—Elected in 1875, served 1876-1878 
    1. Sheriff Conner became ill during his second term as Sheriff. After one month of sickness, Sheriff Conner died on August 15, 1878.
11. H.B. “Hank” Lowe – Appointed 1878, served 1878-1879
    1. 
12. J.B. Moon—Elected in 1878, served 1879-1882 (Deputy James Spillman, Sheriff Moon’s brother-in-law and Undersheriff, was killed 1881) 
    1. Civil War veteran. Served in the Kansas State Militia.
    2. 
13. Thomas Ryan—Elected in 1881, served 1882-1883 
    1. The only known, foreign-born Sheriff. Sheriff Ryan was born in Lanark County, Ontario, Canada.
14. Jeff Wilhite—Elected in 1884, served 1884-1885 
    1. Civil War veteran. Served in Company B of the Twenty-First Indiana Volunteers and later in the First Regiment of Heavy Artillery. At the Battle of Baton Rouge on August 5, 1862, he was shot in the right leg. This injury would never heal properly and become a source of chronic pain for Wilhite. Interestingly, the Confederate force that Wilhite fought at Baton Rouge was led by Major General John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, the man for whom Breckenridge County (which became Lyon County) was originally named. Wilhite moved to Lyon County in 1875 and ran a grocery store. He later had a veterinary practice and, after his time as sheriff, he retired to a farm east of town until his death on December 15, 1904.
15. Waldo Worster—Elected in 1886, served 1886-1891 
    1. In 1904, Worster was appointed a Deputy United States Marshal, and soon after moved to Fort Scott, Kansas.
16. Tom Evans—Elected in 1892, served 1892-1896 
    1. 
17. Daniel Gaughan – Elected 1895, served 1896-1899
18. Tom O’Connor—Elected in 1899, 1899-1903 
19. Edward B. Newlin—Elected in 1902, 1902-1904
    1. While not in the line of duty, in 1912, Newlin jumped into the Cottonwood River to save two young women who fell in. Unfortunately, all three died.
20. Stephen C. Hinsaw – Elected 1904, 1905 – 1906
    1. The first elected Sheriff born within Lyon County to pioneer parents in 1858.
21. David P. Cowan—Elected 1907, 1907 – 1910 
22. Tom O’Connor – Re-Elected 1910, 1911 – 1914
23. Walter Davis—Elected in 1914, served 1915-1916 (Davis was killed in the line of duty August 16, 1916.)
    1. 
24. Wallace Jones—Appointed in 1916, served 1916 
25. Thomas Owens—Elected in 1916, served 1917-1921 
26. Charles Gibson—Elected in 1921, served 1921-1925 
27. Samuel T. Crumley—Elected in 1925, served 1925-1927 
28. Tom Owens—Re-elected in 1927, served 1927-1930 
29. Joe T. Dailey—Elected 1930, served 1930-1934 
30. Roy Earl Davis—Elected 1934, served 1935-1938 (Son of Walt Davis)
    1. 
31. Daniel Rowland—Elected 1938, served 1939-1942 
    1. 
32. Ernest Owens—Elected 1942, served 1943-1946 
33. Eugene Hastings—Elected 1946, 1947-1950 
34. Al Locke—Elected 1950, served 1951-1954 
    1.     November 1954, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA — Original caption: Mrs. Nannie Doss, confessed rat poison slayer of four of her five husbands. Tulsa, Oklahoma: Mrs. Nannie Doss is questioned in the arsenic poisonings by Sheriff Al Locke of Lyon County, Kansas; Wayne Owens, of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and Tulsa County Attorney J. Howard Edmondson. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS[/caption]
35. Clarence (Click) Carle—Elected 1954, served 1955-1957 
36. Bert Johnson—Elected 1958, served 1959-1962
37. Percy ‘P.T.’ Harder – Elected 1962, served 1963-1967
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38. Robert Duncan – Elected 1966, served 1967-1970
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39. Frank Coburn – Elected 1970, Served 1970-1973
40. Daniel Andrews – Elected 1973, Served 1973-1984
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41. Clifford Hacker – Elected 1984, served 1985-2001
    1. 
42. Gary A. Eichorn – Elected 2000, Served 2001-2010
    1. 
43. Jeffrey A. Cope – Appointed then Elected December 1, 2010 – Present
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