At the Chouteau County Sheriff’s office there is a plaque with a list of every sheriff that has served in Chouteau County. I thought it would be easy to do some research but found it took a look of time. I think it would be awesome to have history of each by the time Sheriff Vern Burdick’ s retirement. Anyone want to help with this project?
James Stewart 1862 Served as Reginal Sheriff from Idaho
J.B. Caven/Henry Crawford 1863
WM. T. Hamilton 1865-1868
Born In Scotland. When he was 2 years old he arrived in New Orleans. Grew up in Missouri. He was friends with John Bozeman and Jim Bridger. He was given the name Wildcat Bill. His wife and son were killed. He was a scout for George Armstrong Custer. During this time period he was a trader at Fort Benton. He became a US Marshal after serving as Sheriff. He died of stomach cancer in Billings.
John R. Morgan 1868-11/14/68
John Buckmaster 1868-1872
H.S. Kanouse 1872
Trevanian Hale 1875-1877
William Rowe 1875-1877
John J Healy 1877-1882
There is quite a bit of information about him. He moved to the US from Ireland when he was 13. He lived through the Irish potato famine. He lied about his age saying he was 21, when he was really only 18, to volunteer in the army. That eventually brought him to the American west. I would say he couldn’t really settle down. Between being a mountain man, prospector of gold, ending up in Bannack Montana before travelling to Fort Benton. He got involved in the fur and alcohol trade going between Canada and Fort Benton which he stayed active in fort Benton before becoming Sheriff. He gave up being Sheriff to go prospecting again in Alaska.
James McDevitt 1882-1886
WH Black 1886-1888
B.F. O’Neil 1888-1894
George B McLaughlin 1894
Tom Clary 1896-1902
John Buckley 1902-1904
Frank MacDonald 1904-1908
George Bickle 1908-1912
Ike Rogers 1912-1916
Dick Crawford 1916-1918
Merritt Flanagan 1918-7/20/1921
U.W. Hammaker 1921-1922
George Brundage 1922-1926
Frank Zimmer 1926-1930
Oscar Marty 1930-1942
Jack Bradley 1942-2/1/58
Frank Anderson 1958
John Saska 1958-1/31/78
Paul F Williams 1/31/78-8/1/95
Douglas F. Williams 8/1/95 12/31/2005
