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EDITORIAL |
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FAMOUS MAN HUNTER WILL BE PENSIONED SHERIFF JERRY COLLINS TO RETIRE JANUARY 1ST
Man who has made Wayne County behave for half century will be pensioned next week Most Feared and Loved Man in County. Sheriff Jeremiah Collins of Lyons, better known to literally thousands of Wayne County folks as "Jerry" will retire on January 1st, after fifty-one years of continuous service in the Sheriff's Office in Lyons. Sheriff Collins is without doubt the most feared and loved man in Wayne County. Feared by evil doers; loved by all who know him; and admired by all Wayne County for his bravery and justice in administering law and enforcing it in this county. The modest and self-effacing man who has ruled Wayne County for over half a century with an iron hand carefully concealed in a silk glove of courtesy, is known to millions of newspaper readers throughout the entire United States for his spectacular feat of capturing the most infamous and notorious train robber New York State has ever boasted. The episode of that sensational capture in Cedar Swamp, a few miles east of this Village has been the feature of hundreds of newspaper items; scores of magazine stories; and has been broadcast several times over the radio. That story is too well known to our many readers to be more than mentioned in this article. But there are many other instances of the great courage and bravery of Sheriff Collins, not so well known , single handed, and unarmed, he has faced desperadoes and maddened mobs of men and forced them to back down before his sheer display of willpower. It is that belief and policy that made Sheriff Collins the most loved man, even among his worst enemies, in all Wayne County. Throughout this entire article, he has been referred to as "Sheriff Collins". This may be a little confusing to some, since he hasn't always been sheriff during his fifty years of service. The very law which he has upheld and enforced so proudly, so nobly and so well for over half a century, prevented him from being re-elected. Therefore, for fifty-one years he has alternated between the offices of Sheriff and Undersheriff of Wayne County. But whether he was "Sheriff" or "Undersheriff" by title, made little difference to anyone outside of a few who are strickers for propriety. "Sheriff Collins" has been his unofficial title for half a century whether at the time he happened to be officially sheriff or undersheriff. Long after he has retired, and even long after he has passed on, to receive his Sentence from the Greatest of all Judges, he will be remembered in Wayne County, not as "Undersheriff" but as Sheriff Collins, a kindly and determined man, who did his duty as he saw it, both nobly and well. |
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