Chapter 13 -I am a Sheriff!
I met Mr Crawford in front of the Sheriff’s office at 8AM on Monday morning, as he and I had agreed. He unlocked the door and showed me my new office. He had a handful of papers with him and a ring full of keys. The extra keys he gave to me and said, “Welcome Sheriff”. I took them, shook his hand and replied, “Glad to be here.” Then we sat down and went over the most important things I would need to know - things such as who the town magistrate was and where to find him, the location of the two taverns (I already had found one of them) and when the Wells Fargo coach came into town. He didn’t need to tell me where the Doctor’s office was. His wife had already told me. Just before he left, he said I wasn’t really the Sheriff quite yet. I needed to sign one of the papers he had brought with him. It was a contract for six months which was renewable by both him and me if agreed. I signed it straightaway and then he gave me a plaque to hang from the wall that read, “Homer Bolton, Sheriff of Duncan Flats“. He then gave me my badge, some papers to read over and told me my horse’s name was Thunder, a three year old that I was to get over at the blacksmith’s, just down a hundred yards from my new office.
Thunder was a beauty. He and I hit it off right away. He reminded me very much of one of the horses on my Pappy’s ranch. They both had a white patch on their right sides. Thunder’s looked like a lightning bolt and that is obviously how he got his name.
So it was on Monday, the thirteenth of June, 1867, that the town of Duncan Flats had its first Sheriff. I was to serve the town twenty-five years, twenty-five years of many adventures and a few mishaps, I should add.