Sheriff John Boyle - 100% Policeman At all Times

Patrolman John Boyle

Seems like Huron's patrolman John Boyle always got his man.  Well, maybe not always, but he got a lot of them and in his amazing 40-year career in local law enforcement, he kept Huron just a little bit safer. Over the years, he busted bootleggers, transported dangerous criminals, shuffled gypsies out of town, broke up brawls, escorted a US president, found lost children and put out fires.  Literally.  He was on the fire department as well.

John Boyle was not the only lawman in Huron, but in reading through early Huronites it's John Boyle's name that you see repeatedly.

And although he served as deputy sheriff under the notorious gangster Sheriff Verne Miller, he couldn't have been more different. Said one of the unlucky men John Boyle arrested, "If you drive through Beadle County, for the love of Mike, don't look guilty."   

A hobo by the name of Donald Cook was spotted breaking into the J. C. Oliver house just west of the fairgrounds.  Despite Officer Boyle's prompt response, Cook managed to get away.  But Boyle caught up with him, overtaking him by automobile, and brought the burglar and the stolen goods back to town.

And then there was the case of a stranger in town who made a spectacular getaway from the chief of police.  The chief spotted the man near some box cars just south of the C. & N. W. passenger station.  When asked who he was he claimed to be a switchman standing guard over a boxcar with a dead man in it.  As the chief went to examine the dead man, the stranger ran like a rabbit around the station, then past the pumping plant, "making championship time" to the James River.  He swam across and then was quickly over the hill.  The chief took the train to Cavour in hopes of heading him off, and Patrolman Boyle took off by automobile.  Boyle caught up with him about halfway between Huron and Cavour and hauled him off to jail.  And the "dead man" in the boxcar?  He was actually "dead drunk."

The police force and sheriff's office in Beadle County had a reputation for being suspicious of everyone and everything, particularly during Prohibition.  H. R. Carpenter, who was arrested by Deputy Boyle, complained "Don't carry anything in your car which looks like a bottle, a case, a package or a parcel," he said.  "Drive strait and slow and piously -- look meek and saintly if possible.  If you can't, don't go through Beadle County.  That county sheriff's office is composed of some of the most suspicious men I ever ran up against... Take it from me, they would haul in a man with a sour stomach on a charge of starting fermentation."   Joked the newspaper: "He has reasons for his praise of the efficiencies of the officers in question, especially the efficiency of Deputy Sheriff Boyle."  Incidentally, Carpenter was carrying a box of preserves in his automobile when arrested.

Later on, the chief of police was tipped off to a liquor party in town and with officer Mitchell and Deputy Sheriff Boyle and State Deputy Charles Wright raided the home of E. K. Albert, 1170 Beach Avenue.  Nearly a half-gallon of alcohol was confiscated, but that wasn't the biggest catch of the night.  Newly appointed State Deputy Sheriff L. W. Barnett was also nabbed and arrested for disorderly conduct.  Witnesses said Barnett assured them that due to his position in law enforcement they would be protected.  He even went so far as to pin his badge on the dress of one of the women at the party.  However, no one got protection and he was dismissed from his new position by the State Sheriff despite his claims of a "frame-up." 

During this period of time the jail was overcrowded; the Evening Huronite tells of 17 prisoners in a jail with capacity for 14, but that didn't slow the arrests.  Three more prisoners who were being held elsewhere were about to be brought in.  "Omaha Joe," a bootlegger, had escaped a federal raid in Huron just a few days later after bringing a carload of liquor into town.  Omaha officials had caught up with him and Deputy Boyle was enroute to get him, after bringing in the writer of a bad check from south of Virgil.

Gypsies also kept Boyle busy.  On one particular occasion then Chief of Police Boyle had his hands full.  As the Daily Huronite told it:

"Four wagon loads of gipsies [sic] arrived in the city this morning and stopped for a short time, but only for a short time, being instructed by the police to move on.  One of the dusky beauties of the party was availing herself of the opportunity given by the stop to circulate about town and tell fortunes, but one of her young men clients claimed she has picked his pocket of a dollar and raised a cry for the police.  John Boyle [chief of police] took her in charge and to the police station, where one of the men of the party made good the dollar, and she was given her liberty.  After returning to the vicinity of the wagons she hunted up her pipe and after smoking up in good shape began to tell the world in general what she thought of Huron and its police force.  Quite a crowd had by that time assembled, and her remarks would undoubtedly have been of great interest if anyone had been able to understand them.

While this was going on a fire started in the sorting room of the laundry, in front of which the teams were stopping, but it was quickly extinguished..."

Boyle's duties didn't always deal with crime.  In 1911 President William Taft visited Huron and was taken through the business section of town.  A very poor picture was printed, identifying "the officer with the old-fashioned helmet" with the President as John Boyle, who at the time was a patrolman.

And then, there are the pennies.  Many of us have joked about paying a bill or a ticket that we weren't happy about with pennies.  Well, it happened to Sheriff Boyle.  The Evening Huronite reported, "Sheriff John Boyle, who has never collected coins, today is the possessor of an aggregation of pennies that would make the eye of many a devoted collector pop.  He has 700 Indian Head pennies.  G. F. Babcock brought them to his office as payment for taxes owed to the county."

The Weekly State Spirit, in 1917, published an annual report of the city's police department.  1,003 arrests were made, $2,142 in fines were collected, and the police department expenses were $5,627.  As far as the types of crimes the police force dealt with, "drunks" accounted for most of them.  Disorderly conduct, vagrancy, prostitution, thievery, gambling, speeding, and people using "profane language" were also common.  Less common were "wife beaters" and beggars.

John Boyle's career in law enforcement lasted nearly 40 years, from 1904 to 1943, with the exception of one year he farmed.  Boyle was a patrolman, Chief of Police, Deputy Sheriff, and Sheriff.  He was deputy under 5 different sheriffs, and it was only death that ended his career as a civil servant.  He died of pneumonia after surgery.  His appendix had ruptured, and he had felt ill for several days, but the night before his emergency surgery he was fighting a fire downtown at the Sauer building.  Oh, and he was 72 years old.  The Huronite editor summed it up:  Boyle was "100 per cent policeman at all times."