Palo Pinto County Sheriffs have been a colorful lot.  The first sheriff, Roy Hittson, was a fearless officer who had a job to do and he did it.  This has been the pattern all the way through this 100 years.

The names and dates they served, these officers from Mr. Hittson to 1890 are not at hand but beginning with R. N. Maddox (1890-1894), they are: O. L. York (1894-1898); T. C. Hindman (1900-1904); James Owens (1904-1906); R. A. Peak (1906-1910); A. C. Jordan (1910-1914); W. G. "Gib" Abernathy (1914-1930); John Bond (1930-1938); John Edmondson (1938-1944); Charlie Edmondson (1944-1947); and at that time Fred Foreman became sheriff and has continued to the present time.

Gib Abernathy served the longest term of any sheriff as far as it could be learned, serving 8 terms.  He later became a Texas Ranger and served in that capacity for several years.

While Palo Pinto County was never a "Dodge City," had no "boot hill" and mercifully missed having a great deal of violence among its citizens, it was not without lawless element.  Most of the citizens who came here did so to build homes and live their own lives, but there were some drifters who were searching for they-knew-not-what and at times, violence broke out.  Settlers were not to be chased out of their homes by such occurrences, so they took steps to curb violence and keep order.  Sheriffs were never without the assistance of the citizenry when they needed their help.