Jesse & Ruth Garfield
On June 24th, 1920, Golden Valley county was formed, and with it Jesse Calvin Garfield was elected the first Sheriff with 764 votes. He was voted Sheriff again in the first general election held on November 6th, 1920 with 840 votes. However, Jesse was killed in a shooting before ever being sworn into office.
Jesse was born in 1883 in Virginia as Oscar Calvin Hoover, striking out on his own in his early teens and changing his name. Jesse met his future wife, Ruth Lane, on a trip to Lavina. Ruth herself was visiting from Independence, Iowa. The couple married in 1912 and lived on a homestead southeast of Lavina.
Homesteaders were complaining to the Sheriff that their neighbor, 55 year old James Lampson, was acting strange and was “showing symptoms of violent insanity.” Lampson, as well as his oldest son, had been questioned before on the “suspicion of insanity.” On December 6th, 1920, Jesse brought two of Lampson’s sons with him to speak with Lampson on his property. Lampson sent the young Sheriff away, telling him to get a warrant. Jesse returned later that day again with a signed warrant and two neighbors. When Jesse arrived Lampson shot him in the back with a shotgun at close proximity.
Lampson fled into his cabin, locking himself in. Jesse retreated to his vehicle and drove himself until his vehicle ran out of gas. The tank had been hit from the gunfire. Jesse’s wounds were described as ,“lay[ing] open practically his entire pevlic cavity,” yet with the help he was able to walk a mile on foot before being transported by wagon and then car to the Franklin hotel. Jesse was taken to Billings by train where he stayed until he passed on the 18th of December.
Jesse’s Undersheriff, Harry Ringwald, rounded up a posse to take Lampson into custody, dead or alive. Ringwald brought the two Lampson boys as well. The sun had not yet risen when the posse reached Lampson’s cabin. The silence of the early morning was broken by a burst of fire from Lampson’s Winchester toward the posse, who quickly returned fire.
The shooting continued from before sunrise well into the evening. Lampson’s sons called out to him, urging him to give himself up. Lampson’s only answer was gunfire. Lampson was armed with two revolvers, a Winchester, and the shotgun he used on the Sheriff. The posse did not leave concealment for many hours.
One member had brought dynamite along, and it was seen as an end to the bitter stalemate. There was however, no detonator on the sticks. A lone volunteer rushed the cabin, lit the fuse, and ran back to the posse. The dynamite did not explode. Later attempts to detonate the explosive were fruitless.
It was decided to force Lampson out of his cabin. Covered by darkness, the posse moved in and lit ablaze to the outer walls. Lampson did not flee, and they found his body in the charred remnants of the cabin. It is unknown whether Lampson died in the fire, by gunfire, or by suicide.
The Golden Valley county Commissioners met on January 3rd, 1921 where they appointed Ruth to serve in the stead of her husband for the remaining two-year term in the Sheriff’s office or until another election could be held. Ruth was the first female Sheriff in the state of Montana.
Ruth dealt with assaults, bootlegging, stolen horses, grand larceny, suicides, insanity, and pool hall offenses. Ruth did not carry a gun, quoting “Certainly I know how to shoot, but I never carried a gun. If I had, some man could have taken it away from me. Not too much violence in my county, Golden Valley. Mostly bootlegging, stock rustling, and homesteaders fighting over boundaries.”
Ruth served during Prohibition, and dealt mostly with bootleggers. “No matter how fast we acted, or how secretive we tried to be about it, those stills were always gone when we got there. All the bootleggers had friends. And nobody in the county took Prohibition very seriously,” she said.
Ruth died in 1974 at the age of 82, she was living at the Fratt Ranch in Cushman where Jesse and her had enjoyed the early years of their marriage.