The newly formed Cleveland County held its first court session on March 8, 1841. In that session, the court appointed the county’s first Sheriff; Charles Blanton served the county until August of 1848.
In 1842, county commissioners were tasked with developing a plan for building a county jail. Notices were sent to be published in newspapers in neighboring counties.
The contract to build the jail was let to John Dameron. Joseph Carroll was the first jailer, followed by Martin Roberts after Carroll became Deputy Sheriff.
Jailer Martin Roberts was tasked by the court to “furnish four copper vessels, not to exceed $2 each, to serve for chambers.”
In 1848, elections were held and Joseph Carroll became the county’s first elected Sheriff.
Cleveland County Sheriffs
| term | Sheriff dob-dod | photo/portrait |
| 1841-1848 | Charles Blanton1 1804-1866 |  |
| 1848-1852 | Joseph Carroll2 1808-1877 | |
| 1852-1854 | Charles Puryear “Peter” Wilkins3 1817-1854 | |
| 1854 | Ancel Irvin Hardin4 1811-1870 |  |
| 1854-1858 | Christopher Grigg 1824-1881 | |
| 1858-1864 | George McSwain Green 1817-18895 |  |
| 1864-1866 | Martin Collins Roberts6 1806-1885 | |
| 1866 | Alfred V. Falls7 1819-1886 | |
| 1866-1868 | John Zemri Falls 1811-1895 |  |
| 1868 | Joseph Crayton Byers 1832-1915 |  |
| 1869 | Albert Irvin Borders 1836-1922 |  |
| 1870-1871 | Benjamin Franklin Logan 1842-18908 |  |
| 1871-18xx | Albert John Borders 1837-1888 |  |
| 1880-1882 | Drury Dobbins Suttle 1838-1914 | |
| 1884-1894 | Marshall Newton Hamrick 1844-1921 |  |
| 1895-1896 | Franklin Sylvanus Fortenberry 1856-1927 |  |
| 1896-1908 | Albert Benjamin Suttle9 1853-1918 |  |
| 1908-1914 | David Durbro Wilkins 1871-1952 |  |
| 1914-1919 | William Dixon Lackey 1857-1928 |  |
| 1919-1928 | Hugh Allison Logan 1877-1931 |  |
| 1928-1933 | Irvin Marion Allen 1866-1966 |  |
| 1933-1947 | J. Raymond Cline 1895-1986 |  |
| 1947-1951 | Hugh Allison Logan, Jr. 1912-1978 |  |
| 1951-1980 | John Haywood Allen 1916-1996 |  |
| 1980-1982 | Dennis Dale Costner 1933-2012 |  |
| 1982-1994 | Buddy McKinney |  |
| 1994-2002 | Daniel Glenn Crawford 1948-2015 |  |
| 2002-2010 | Raymond Carlton Hamrick 1955-2017 |  |
| 2010-present | Alan Norman |  |
| Notes |
| 1. 1st Sheriff, appointed by the 1st CC Court |
| 2. 1st elected Sheriff |
| 3. died just prior to his 2nd term |
| 4. filled the remainder of Wilkins’ term; served Jul. 25-Aug. 1854. |
| 5. Many thanks to Lisa Poteat of the CC Sheriff’s Office for the photo. |
| 6. appointed by the provincial governor (Civil War era) |
| 7. elected, but did not take office |
| 8. served only one year of his term; left the county due to his affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan |
| 9. was shot by an inmate but survived, the city police chief did not. |
| Biographies and burial information are provided on Find a Grave. |
Boiling Springs Police Department
| term | Chief | photo |
| -2006 | James Lee Clary |  |
| 2010- | Randy Page |  |
| -2025 | Nathan Phillips | |
| 2025 (interim chief) | Tommy Sheehan |
Grover Police Department
| term | Chief | photo |
| -2002 | Robert Edward “Eddie” Pheagin |  |
| -present | Eric Buff |
Kings Mountain Police Department
| term | Chief | photo |
| Thomas Richard Reynolds |  | |
| 2017-2018 | Jerry Harold Tessneer |  |
| 2002- | Melvin Proctor | |
| -2022 | Lisa Proctor | |
| 2022-present | Gerald Childress |  |
Shelby Police Department
| years as Chief | Chief dob-dod | photo |
| 1893-x | Charles H. Hardin 1856-1920 |  |
| x-1901 | Robert Shelton Jones1 1860-1901 |  |
| 1901-1904 | Barnette Edgar Hamrick2 1868-1904 |  |
| 1904-1917 | Harvey E. Jetton |  |
| 1917-1927 | Burris Olan Hamrick 1877-1960 |  |
| 1927-1929 | A. L. Richards |  |
| 1929-1933 | Samuel M. Poston 1890-1969 |  |
| 1933-1935 | D. D. Wilkins | |
| 1935-1939 | D. L. Willis |  |
| 1939-1967 | W. Knox Hardin |  |
| 1967-1977 | B. W. Lee |  |
| 1978- | J. D. Fish |  |
| -1994 | Charles D. Cochran |  |
| 1994-2004 | Charlie H. Vanhoy |  |
| 2004-2008 | Tandy P. Carter |  |
| 2008-2023 | Jeffrey H. Ledford |  |
| 2023-present | Brad Fraser |  |
| Notes |
| 1. killed in the line of duty |
| 2. killed in the line of duty |
Cleveland County Law Enforcement Fallen Heroes
Eight officers and one K-9 have died while serving in law enforcement in Cleveland County:
| George Allen, Chief Deputy, Cleveland County Sheriff’s Department Timothy James Brackeen, K-9 Officer, Shelby Police Department Edgar Hamrick, Chief of Police, Shelby Police Department Donald Henderson, NC State Trooper Robert Shelton Jones, Chief of Police, Shelby Police Department Carl Proper, Officer, Kings Mountain Police Department Sandford Pruett, Deputy, Cleveland County Sheriff’s Department Ewart Sander, Deputy, Cleveland County Sheriff’s Department |
Their photographs and stories are below in the timeline of infamous Cleveland County cases.
Crime and Punishment
In the early years of Cleveland County, the types of crimes that took place were the same, age-old crimes of theft, assault or murder, but the types of punishment were quite different from those of today.
Soon after the creation of Cleveland County, the governing magistrates ordered the installation of a whipping post and stocks on the court square in Shelby. Used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation, stocks differed from pillories in that only the feet of the person who committed a crime were restrained. The person may have been restrained for hours or a few days. Branding irons were also used as punishment.
Timeline of Infamous Cases
September, 1847
John Pryor was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Jeremiah White. The letter “M” was burned on the back of Pryor’s left hand with a branding iron. This punishment was carried out by the Sheriff in open court.
September 25, 1879
After a verbal altercation, Richard O. Williams of Lawndale shot and killed his step-mother, Emily Hord Williams. After the shooting, Richard fled the area. A reward of $200 was posted for his return, but he was never found. Case details.
February 27, 1886
Andrew Beam, millwright at Beam’s Mill near Fallston, dies of apparent apoplexy. Later, an inquiry into his death by poisoning makes statewide news due to the sensational details of the case. Case details.
November 1, 1888
Cleveland County farmer James Philbeck and his wife are shot by Van Canady; Mr. Philbeck died; his wife was seriously injured. Canady is apprehended and confesses to the crime. He was lynched by an angry mob on December 1.
May 13, 1889
Charlie Armstrong (born Lee Carson) is hanged after having confessed to numerous crimes of theft; he never confessed to murdering anyone. His confession was published by New Era.
August 4, 1901
Chief Robert Shelton Jones was Shelby’s Chief of Police at the time of his death. He was attempting to serve a warrant on a man and was shot twice; he died at the scene. The shooter escaped and was never apprehended. News coverage.
August 28, 1904
Chief B. Edgar Hamrick was shot and killed at the county jail after arresting four men for being drunk in public. The shooter was convicted and was hanged. It was the last public hanging in the county. News Coverage.
December 12, 1911
Married couple, John and Clayton Cline Dixon, were brutally murdered in their home near Fallston. John Ross and Frank Gladden were charged with first degree murder. Ross was found guilty and given the death penalty; his sentence was commuted to life in prison. Frank Gladden was acquitted. Read news coverage here.
1928
Eleven-year-old Yoder Martin kills his father, Bill Martin, when the enraged man attacked his sister and mother. Yeodar Lee Martin grew up to serve in the U. S. Navy during World War II. He is buried in Mooresboro.
July 5, 1930
Deputy Sheriff Sanford Pruett was intentionally struck and killed by the driver of an auto which he, four other Cleveland County Sheriff’s Deputies, and a U.S. Federal Revenue Officer had stopped. Read more. . .
January 1, 1933
Deputy Sheriff Ewart Sanders was shot and killed by a prisoner he and another deputy were transporting to the Cleveland County Jail.
February 15, 1934
Florence Jones Drake, a 23-year-old employee of the Byrum Hosiery Mill in South Shelby is gunned down by coworker, Louis Sentell. She died 10 days after the shooting. Sentell was tried and executed the following year. News coverage.
July 27, 1966
Eleven-year-old Brenda Sue Brown was abducted and murdered. Her body was found by rescue workers in a wooded area in south Shelby. With no leads and insufficient evidence to make an arrest, the murder became a cold case. Read more. .
June 22, 1968
Two years after the Brown case, Mary Helen Kendrick Williams was murdered. At first it was believed the two cases were linked; they were not.
November 2, 1968
Patrolman Donald Henderson was killed in an automobile crash during a high-speed pursuit on NC 216.
April 11, 1972
A standoff took place April 11, 1972 at a rental house on Powerhouse Road in Lawndale. The renter, who was being evicted, refused to leave. The conflict resulted in an accidental fire that burned the house to the ground. Deputy Sheriff Jim McKinney was wounded in the gun battle.
September 4, 1974
Chief Deputy George Allen According to his sister, Freida Allen Hawkins: “He died from a very tragic automobile accident. He was taking a prisoner to Raleigh, when a truck came across center lane and hit his car head on, on the bridge. He was killed instantly; he was decapitated. He had a friend with him, who was also killed. The prisoner was not touched and was sitting on the side of the road when the highway patrol arrived.”
June 2, 1979
Cleveland County law enforcement accepts custody of James W. Hutchins from Rutherford County. Hutchins had murdered three Rutherford County law enforcement officers two days earlier. The case was later documented in the Earl Owensby film, Rutherford County Line. Read more. . .
April 1980
James Jeffries is found guilty on five counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of burning property that led to the May 25, 1979 explosion and fire on West Warren Street in Shelby. He served 11 years in prison.
January 17, 1987
A mass shooting takes place at the Shelby III bookstore. Three men die and two others are wounded. Later, two men were indicted for the crime, but were released. Case details.
September 26, 1993
Charles Alvin “Chuck” Porter, 39, is murdered at the I-85 rest stop in Cleveland County. Porter was working at the rest stop with the N.C. Department of Transportation. His would be the first of eight unsolved homicides in Cleveland County between 1993 and 2016. See all here.
February 14, 2000
Nine-year-old Asha Jaquilla Degree went missing in the early morning hours of February 14, 2000. For reasons unknown, she packed her bookbag, left her family home north of Shelby and began walking along nearby Hwy. 18, despite heavy rain and wind. She has not been seen since.
Read more, including a break in the case. . .
February 19, 2015
K9 Mako died of injuries sustained three months earlier when he was attacked by another dog while helping members of the agency’s Vice/Narcotics Division serve a warrant near Shelby. Read more. . .
June 17, 2015
During a Bible study on June 17, 2015, at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, Dylann Roof killed nine people and injured a tenth person–all African Americans. After several people identified Roof as the main suspect, he became the center of a manhunt that ended the morning after the shooting with his arrest in Shelby, North Carolina. Read more. . .
September 12, 2016
K9 Officer Timothy James Brackeen died from gunshot wounds while trying to serve a warrant.
November 26, 2019
Sheriff Alan Norman receives the state Attorney General’s Dogwood Award, an annual award created in 2017 by North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein to recognize individuals and organizations dedicated to improving the health, safety, and well-being of their communities.
September 17, 2021
Police Officer Carl Proper died from complications as the result of contracting COVID-19 in the line of duty.
Cleveland County History 
