news-record.com

Was Joseph Hoskins the first Guilford County sheriff from the Summerfield area? It's possible that some of the earlier sheriffs were from this area. One possibility was William Moore, who was sheriff in 1771. Was he the Col. William Moore who was fined 50 pounds for contempt of court in Randolph County, for riding his horse into the courthouse while court was in session?

In Guilford County deed records, Joseph Hoskins is shown as constable in 1787, and in 1788 he is shown as deputy sheriff. In 1790, 1794 and 1796, he's shown as sheriff and in 1797 as deputy sheriff again.

James Doak served as sheriff from 1825 through 1846. His gravesite has been preserved in the current Ridgewood subdivision, which is off N.C. 150 West. Our current mayor, Mark Brown, was instrumental in getting the site preserved.

Joseph A. Hoskins served for 6 years as sheriff, according to his obituary. The records indicate that he was sheriff in 1888, 1894 and 1896 and deputy sheriff for 3 years. Was he the grandson of the first sheriff, Joseph Hoskins? He was the father of Katherine, Nelle, Richard and Ben Hoskins. In January 1896, the Greensboro Patriot reported: "Sheriff Hoskins is looking after the spiritual as well as the temporal welfare of the prisoners in the county jail. Yesterday he distributed among the county's charges a number of religious books and tracts."

Robert M. Stafford served as sheriff from 1865 through 1880. During his tenure, both the jail and the courthouse burned. When the courthouse burned, most of the books, papers, etc. were saved.

Thirty-two years later his son, David B. Stafford, was elected sheriff. "Dave" Stafford was born near Summerfield and attended a one-room log school at Ridgefield and later Oak Ridge Military Academy. He was a farmer and country storekeeper in Oak Ridge in 1910 when he decided that he wanted to become sheriff. He traveled in his buggy to many, if not all, of the townships asking people to vote for him. He wasn't elected that year, but two years later he won the election and remained as sheriff for 20 years.

"Sheriff Dave" waged a war on bootleggers and even arrested people he'd known from boyhood. He remarked that his one rule was "to follow one's duty, regardless of friends, foes or politics." After 13 years in office, he said he'd never been fired upon and his obituary said that he didn't once fire upon another human being.

One night, when he had a black man as a prisoner, he heard that a mob might come to the jail. He took the prisoner to another part of the courthouse and sat down to watch, wait and guard. He said later that he was bound to protect the prisoner to the same extent as any other man, and he was going to do it or find himself trying. Thankfully, the mob never arrived.

In earlier years, one of the duties of the sheriff was to collect taxes. During Sheriff Dave's first year in office, he collected about $275,000, but in his last year in office about $2 million was collected.

His hardest duty was to eject a family, but he said that if no one was ill, he had no choice but to put them out.

Many of the sheriff's deputies have also come from the Summerfield area. Among them are Robert Alsup Stafford, Lee Stafford, John H. Barker, Gurney Long, Austin Tuttle, John Wray, Mark Brown, David Thacker, Mike Bennett, Billy Case and John Daniel. There were possibly others.

Our present sheriff, BJ Barnes, wasn't born in Summerfield but was living here when he became sheriff 13 years ago.

For about 75 years, the Summerfield area has furnished Guilford County sheriffs. Could there be another sheriff from Summerfield sometime in the future?