Carson City sheriff: A history

Former Carson City deputy Diane Bertram gave this speech Friday about the history of the Sheriff's Department, during a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the new building.

I have been given 10 minutes to share roughly 145 years of Carson City law enforcement's colorful, maybe somewhat embellished, questionable and debatable past.

I use the word questionable because, for starters, Sheriff Kenny Furlong is recorded as our 27th sheriff.

If given the opportunity to speak today, I'm sure Sheriff John L. Blackburn would argue Furlong is the 28th sheriff, for Blackburn was elected sheriff during the organization of Carson City, Utah Territory in 1860.

Money was allocated to pay for his services as "high sheriff" and find a building to be used as a jail. He was given $68.40 to hire two horses to transport prisoners. Of course it didn't matter that the county never got around to paying his salary, or that he had to rent a log cabin to be used as a jail facility using his own finances. He would be considered a hero by the grand jury investigating the abrupt end to his tenure in office in 1861 when he was stabbed to death by a gambler named William Mayfield in the St. Nicholas Saloon located on North Carson Street across from the Capitol.

A deputy serving under Blackburn, William L. Marley, would then be appointed sheriff. The murderer Mayfield would be sentenced to be hung by the neck until dead. Mayfield would later escape to Idaho only to be killed by someone he would threaten in a card game.

The log cabin, rented by Sheriff Blackburn for a jail, was long forgotten until it was "accidentally" discovered in May 1986 in a backyard of a home at 202 N. Curry St. The building, which had since been used as a root cellar and shed, was being razed for a parking lot. Fortunately, someone had the foresight to photograph the building before it was reduced to rubble.

The first official election for the office of sheriff for Ormsby County was in January 1862. Sheriff Marley, believing he was a shoe-in, lost his bid to Deputy D.J. Gasherie.

Gasherie was elected to a second term and remained in office until Timothy G. Smith was elected sheriff in September 1864.

Smith was elected to a second term and served until he was killed in the line of duty on Dec. 17, 1867.

To date, according to debate, we've had only 27 sheriffs starting with Smith. Some of those were:

A.W. Nightingill appointed Dec. 19, 1867, resigned Sept. 7, 1868, and T.J. Edwards was appointed.

Sheriffs Harold Brooks, Lester Smith and Howard Hoffman, all died of natural causes while in office.

Two females, Anita Smith and Ruth Hoffman, were appointed to sheriff after their sheriff-husbands' deaths.

Sheriff Shubael T. Swift seemed the most popular. He served two separate terms: 1869 to 1879 and again from 1881 to 1885. He was involved in both law enforcement and fire protection at a time when volunteer fire departments were very competitive. Carson City housed three such volunteer departments: Warren Engine Company, Curry Engine Company and S.T. Swift Engine Company formed in 1873 and named for the sheriff.

When Carson City purchased its first steam engine they christened it the S.T. Swift Engine.

When Swift died in 1888, he had the largest funeral procession ever witnessed to date in Carson City.

Three former sheriffs came from the V&T Railroad: William Crisler, John Stern and Harold Brooks.

Robert Humphrey was the last sheriff of Ormsby County and the first sheriff of Carson City when county and city were consolidated in July 1969. On a sad note, Humphrey, who was instrumental in the building of our existing law enforcement facility, died at age 80 in Paradise Valley in December.

Our current building is the third to house the sheriff's office since its inception. This building was the first built for the sole purpose of serving law enforcement.

When the county was first created in 1861, commissioners spent $42,500 for the Great Basin Hotel on the corner of Carson and Musser streets to serve as a court house. A jail was added at the cost of $5,954.35.

The Sheriff's Office remained in this location for almost 60 years.

It is rumored a saloon with billiard tables and "around the clock" fargo games, operated out of the basement of that county building.

In 1920, county commissioners agreed to pay $65,735 to build a new courthouse and sheriff's department. This exceeded the available funds of $47,800 and a few "insignificant" features such as lighting, heating, plumbing and interior finishes were put on hold until additional funds could be obtained from the 1921 Legislature. The Great Basin Hotel, partially destroyed by fire, was demolished for the construction and the Sheriff's Department moved in March 16, 1922. The building housed the courthouse and the sheriff's office with four jail cells. The Sheriff's Office would remain there for 40 years.

On May 5, 1965, a $757,922 bond issue passed to build what was then called "The Sheriff's Executive Offices Police Headquarters and Jail Facility." Property for the building was purchased at the department's existing site on Musser Street, former home of the Nevada National Guard and 1887 site of a world famous prize fight between Bob Fitzsimmons and Gentleman Jim Corbett.

The new building was described by then-sheriff Humphrey as being "state of the art," with 18,570 square feet in which to house the sheriff's office, Carson city police department, administrative offices, dispatch, records, crime lab, a shooting range in the basement and a 40-bed jail.

Forty years later, in an article in the Nevada Appeal of January 2005, the description was slightly different:

"Construction of a new multi-level building for the Carson City Sheriff's Department could begin late this year, a long-awaited remedy to an overcrowded, ramshackle police headquarters. The existing sheriff's building at 901 E. Musser St., built in 1966, is in shoddy condition, and its replacement couldn't be built too soon, said Sheriff Kenny Furlong. The basement, built over groundwater flow, has flooded several times in the last decade. Water has damaged crime evidence, kept in the basement's vault. Mold and calcium deposits line the basement walls as well, posing potential health risks to employees. The building's small size and absence of interview rooms is hindering deputies from doing their jobs properly, and is also a disservice to the public. In addition, 60 percent of the police building is condemned, forcing 144 employees to share less than half the space originally built for 30 employees in 1966."

Which brings us to why we are here today. An old shoddy building, but a shared dream realized. Today we say good-bye to an old friend who - for the most part - served us well.

- Sources: "Territorial Law Men of Nevada" by Robert W. Ellison and "Carson City Yesterdays" by Raymond M. Smith.