History
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Past Sheriffs of Clatsop County
April 1845 to November 1846
December 1846 to 1847
1847 to September 1848
1850 to July 1851
July to September 1851
September 1851 to 1852
1852 to 1853
1853 to 1855
1855 to 1856
1856 to 1859
1859 to 1868
1868 to 1870
1870 to 1872
1872 to 1880
1880 to 1884
1884 to 1888
1888 to 1894
1894 to 1898
July 1898 to December 1898
1899 to 1906
1906 to 1911
1911 to 1919
1919 to 1923
1923 to 1933
1933 to 1937
1937 to September 1958
September 1958 to 1959
1959 to 1983
1983 to 1987
1987 through 2004
2005 - present |
Thomas Owens
Joseph Caples
Obadiah Cephus Motley
David Egbert Pease
James Wilson
James Welch
Ira Hicks McKean
Thomas Hart
John Bartlett
Hiram Bliss Parker
John Montgomery
William Chance
Joseph Franklin Barrows
William H. Twilight
A.M. Twomby
William G. Ross
H.A. Smith
James W. Hare
Jack W. Williams
Thomas Linville
Merritt R. Pomeroy
Jack V. Burns
Ole Nelson
Harley J. Slusher
Jack V. Burns
Paul Kearney
Clem Ingalls
Carl Bondietti
Almond L. Eastman
John P. Raichl
Thomas Bergin |
Pioneer Thomas Owens was elected in April 1845 to serve as the first sheriff of Clatsop County. He had come to Oregon two years earlier. He held the position for about 1-½ years before resigning.
Joseph Caples was appointed to take his place until Obadiah Cephus Motley was elected in 1847. Motley, a Virginian, had moved to the Oregon Territory in 1846. He had fought in the Indian Wars before 1836 and was a member of the First Madison County Volunteers in Iowa. He had also been a navigator, running a maritime service on the Mississippi River.
Motley resigned as sheriff in September 1848. The records aren’t clear as to who succeeded him.
David Egbert Pease, who had come to Oregon from New York a year earlier, became the sheriff in 1850 and resigned in mid-1851.
James Wilson put in two months as sheriff. He was followed by James Welch, a native of Kentucky, from 1851 to 1852. Welch had been a brick and stone mason in Oregon City and worked in the mines in California during the Gold Rush of 1849.
Ira Hicks McKean was elected in 1852 and served through 1853.
Thomas Hart served as sheriff from 1853 to 1855. He was born on the East Coast and was a carpenter and owned a butcher shop. Records show that H.S. Badollett received sheriff’s pay for a period in 1855.