Forget The Whales -
Save The Cowboys!
Anything about 'the old West' should be of interest to all Americans.
(naturally that excludes all demoncRATS)
Posted on 04/04/2004 6:15:05 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Seeking a piece of history An historic badge of one of Laramie County's most beloved sheriffs somehow ended up in England, and Deputy Raymond Nelson wants to get it back
By Juliette Rule rep9@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - He was one of the most popular officials ever in Laramie County, and when he was shot down two miles south of the Wyoming border 90 years ago, he was mourned as a "fearless and efficient" leader.
But what might have been just a tidbit of Cowboy State trivia arrived in a Laramie County Sheriff deputy's e-mail inbox as an invitation to revisit the story of Sheriff Frank B. Roach.
A badge layered in 14-karat gold and bearing a five-pointed cut-out star framed with the words "Laramie County Wyoming Sheriff," was deemed a trinket 40 years ago when it was found in an English jewelry store. But a little more than a month ago, the thin, half-inch circle weighing just half an ounce became an item of interest to a history buff doubling as deputy Raymond Nelson.
When Englishman Barry Ellis e-mailed Nelson, he only wanted to authenticate the badge - just in case he shouldn't melt it down - but the initials "FBR" engraved on the back might get Ellis more than help.
"To the state itself, he's just another law enforcement officer, but to us, Roach is one of us," Nelson said.
As the unofficial curator of the unofficial museum in the lobby of the Laramie County Sheriff's Department, Nelson is coordinating efforts to buy the badge from Ellis. Negotiations began with an offer to donate the badge in lieu of airfare, room and board in Cheyenne. Ellis' idea was met with a counter offer of $300 cash, which exceeds the value of the gold.
"This is the first opportunity we've had to get a badge from this far back, so it's something we'd really like to do," Nelson said. But he is more interested in outright buying the badge.
Nelson said he and Ellis settled on a $900 cost for the badge last week, despite the fact Ellis has been offered twice that by auction houses in England.
"He really wants to see this return to Laramie County," Nelson said Friday.
Public money can't foot the bill for a vacation or to buy a special badge, thanks to state law, Nelson said. So the department is seeking public donations to help pay the cost to get the badge back in Cheyenne. Once the badge is returned, it will be part of a display in the sheriff's department lobby that will include the names of donors who helped secure its return, Nelson said.
There's little doubt the badge is the real deal, but the story of Roach's death mesmerized readers of the Cheyenne State Leader: it made banner headlines for three days after the May 1, 1916, shooting.
"Dead officer was known as fearless man," read a three-deck headline in the next day's edition. Under it five stories ran, detailing the death of Roach and a Webster Ranch hand, trumping news of home rule in Ireland, World War I troops in Mexico and baseball scores.
But the decidedly handsome Roach was an unlikely man to be voted sheriff. The Delaware-born son of a farmer, 20-year-old Roach moved west in 1894, a year after his brother, Alonzo, moved to Wheatland. He worked as a cowpuncher and moved up the ranks to ranch foreman in Platte County, where Alonzo was sheriff.
The death of Laramie County's sheriff delivered Roach, then an undersheriff, to office in 1912, despite opposition from both Republican and Democratic parties.
Two years after his marriage to a wealthy Scottish banker's daughter in Denver, and two weeks after the birth of his first child - a son christened Frank - Roach was shot with a revolver while confronting two horse thieves near Granite Canyon.
A Danish man named Nels Nielsen also died at the robbers' hands, but it was Roach's story that riveted readers of the pages of the State Leader, which reprinted the jailhouse confession Clyde B. Pearsons made to the owner of The Plains Hotel.
Pearsons pointed the finger at his accomplice, whom he knew as Pete Burns. For the May 4 edition, Burns was discovered to really be Cornelius Gray, who pointed the finger at Pearsons. Both men claimed the other shot the sheriff, but in the end, Pearsons was convicted of murdering Roach, who had turned his back to the bandits.
Roach never opened fire on the bad guys he chased, the State Leader reported, "believing that the men he sought to arrest would not have the courage when facing him to fire."
On May 3, a funeral was held at the Roach family's home, 1910 Carey Ave., which now is a bank parking lot. Church bells tolled and, by mayoral proclamation, businesses closed for the two-hour service.
The 42-year-old sheriff was idolized by the prairie town, and it was reported that his life was richly defined by his "courage, coolness and daring."
While his widow, Allie, shouldered the news with a steadfast determination, she told the paper it was likely she would return to Scotland to raise her son. That short story buried on page three of the May 3 edition proposes one answer to Nelson's question: How did the badge get so far away?
"You know, it's not something you'd expect somebody in England to come up with," Nelson said.
If the badge won't come to Laramie County, Nelson could be willing to go get it. In May, he's traveling to his homeland, Scotland.
From there, London isn't so far away, Nelson said, the faint roll of his r's revealing his own Scottish roots.
Anything about 'the old West' should be of interest to all Americans.
(naturally that excludes all demoncRATS)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.