New Sheriff in town; Chouteau County Sheriff history

On January 1, Chouteau County got a new sheriff, and Sheriff Vernon Burdick retired. Justin Smith started as the new Sheriff on the same day. He worked in construction in Ohio and began working with a deputy sheriff. "He told me about the job, and I was really interested. I was still in high school at the time. You can't be a police officer there unless you're 21 years old, so I joined the Air Force. And kind of the rest is history. I ended up in Great Falls and stationed at Malmstrom, and once I got out of there, I came out here and started working. I worked here one season for the BLM. I fell in love with the area. I've been working here 18 years now."

A plaque is on the wall at the Chouteau County Sheriff's Office. This Plaque is more than just a bunch of names. It shows 163 years in the history of Chouteau County and contains a list of 30 former sheriffs from 1862 to the present and the soon-to-be-added former Sheriff Burdick in 2025.

My sister, Dena, wrote all of the following: "I receive the Mountaineer at my home in Billings, so when my sister Lorrie asked if I would be interested in gathering information on the past sheriffs, I quickly said yes. I recruited a longtime friend of 50+ years, Liz Nelson, who lives in Washington state, to help me. You see, both Liz and I are genealogy hobbyists who love researching people who lived in the past. To understand who these people were, a researcher must dig into the history of the area where they lived. Some of these past sheriffs lived in the area before there were newspapers to document the lives of anyone living in the area. The newspaper in Fort Benton, "River Press," was first published on October 27, 1880, meaning there were 10 sheriffs who served the county before they could read about their lives. Some were amazing men, some were not, and a large majority were average men to serve the area with fortitude."

1862-James Stewart served as a Regional Sheriff from Idaho. No matter how much time and effort we put into this man, he was elusive.

1863--Henry Crawford, another man, no information could be found.

1863--Jeheil B Buzz Caven was born in Ohio in 1830. He married his wife Florence in 1861 in Colorado. They had six children in 10 years. All were born in the various towns in Western Montana. Divorced in 1876, Died in 1888 in Nevada. He was elected Sargent at arms for the Montana Territory in 1866 and served as Sheriff in Virginia City, Montana, during the heyday of the Vigilantes in Bannock and Virginia City in 1864. However, we could find no records documenting his time in Chouteau County,

1865-1868 William T Hamilton was born in 1822 in Scotland and died in 1908 in Billings. Bill moved West in 1842 and was a mountain man, fur trapper, and trail guide while working alongside famous men, including John Bozeman and Jim Bridger, and later as a scout for Custer, although he was not with him or the troops during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Hamilton was called Wildcat Bill by his peers and served the US Government, protecting pioneers from the Natives in California, Oregon, and Montana from the 1850's through the 1870's. He was the translator for Sitting Bull. Hamilton was first in Chouteau as a trapper, then became Sheriff of Chouteau County in 1865. Following his tenure there, he became a US Marshall in 1869. Hamilton wrote two books about his life, published between 1900 and 1905.

1868 --John R Morgan was born in Wales in 1816, arrived in the United States in 1850, and by 1860, he was serving as a Captain in the US Army in Fort Benton. The Library of Congress said he died on November 14, 1868, at 53 at Fort Benton. In one of his sons, Henry N Morgan's obituary stated that his father "was killed while on duty by a Blackfeet war Party ."John Married Rose La Bush, a French Canadian, and they had 2 sons born in Fort Benton in 1863 and 1866.

1868-1872. John Buckmaster was living in Helena in 1866, and following the death of Sheriff Morgan, he was appointed to complete the term as Sheriff, and again, he won his second term in an election in 1870. Before his appointment, he served as a railroad agent in Virginia City. His name was listed in a Helena paper in March of 1869 when he was delivering prisoners who were soldiers who were accused of the murder of Dr. Lehman in Fort Benton. We could not locate any additional information on him after he completed his duties in 1872.

1872--Henry Alfred "Fred" Kanouse was born in New Jersey in 1847 and died in 1922 in Washington state. During his brief stint as Sheriff, Kanouse was accused of killing a longtime Chouteau County resident, Jim or Sam Nabors. It was reported that they got into a quarrel over a horse that Nabors wanted to ride, and the Sheriff objected. Kanouse drew his revolver and shot Nabors in the head. At the time of the shooting, Kanouse was not arrested. About a year later, he was arrested after it was found that "law matters were rather slack in Chouteau County." Kanouse was placed under the care of a US Marshal. Next, we see news articles about Fred Kanouse, who never spoke of his past other than to tell that he came from Fort Benton, trading whiskey with the natives in Alberta from Calgary to Park areas. He set up a trading post but abandoned it after the arrival of North West Mounted Police in 1874. Kanouse returned to Montana with 21 cows and a bull and set to ranching. He became a well-known figure in the early days of Alberta, and it was said that his "tales grew taller as his years grew higher in number".