Sheriff's Department - History

1870 - 1873 & 1876 - 1877 T. Jeff Carr
The Detective
Official Journal of the Police Authorities and Sheriffs of The United States.
Vol IX, March 1894. No. 108.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
One of the bravest and most distinguished Officers of the West.

T. Jeff Carr, at present Chief of Police at Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming, was born June 18, 1842, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he resided in his youthful days but came westward to Ohio before he was twenty-one years of age. He received a liberal education in those states, after which drifting with the ever-flowing tide of emigration he became a resident of the State of Colorado. This was in the spring of 1865. He was shortly after appointed policeman at Central City, then the great mining town of Colorado, where his future career as one of the most sagacious and successful detective officers of the Rocky Mountain region may be said to have begun.

In 1867 he located in Cheyenne, in the Territory, now the State of Wyoming, where ever since he has resided.

At that time, Cheyenne had the reputation of being the wildest, roughest place on the continent and was filled to overflowing with a crowd of thugs that have ever been assembled at anyone place in North America, and yet mingled with this rabble were a large number of reputable citizens.

It was at once discovered that Mr. Carr was just the man for the times, in a place of that kind and he was soon appointed by the Legislature as sheriff of Laramie County, in which county Cheyenne is situated. He declined to serve, as there was much doubt as to the right of the Legislature to make the appointment. This was in 1869, and in the following year he elected to the office of sheriff by a large majority, and at the expiration of his term, was reelected by a still greater majority.

In 1875 on account of a proviso in the law providing no county officer hold the same office for more than two consecutive terms he retired from the office he had filled so acceptably to all parties. In 1876 a heavy majority again elected him sheriff.

In the mean time Mr. Carr had been elected vice president and assistant chief of the Rocky Mountain Detective Association of which Gen. Dave Cook, of Denver, CO, was at the time and for many years after, the president and chief, Mr. Carr remaining with him in the next most important office in the organization. Mr. Carr served only one term as sheriff under this third call, and retired to devote his time and attention to his personal affairs, which he had neglected through his almost constant public service.

In 1881 he was called again into more active work by his appointment by Mayor J. H. Carey, now a U. S. Senator, to the position of marshal and chief of police of the City of Cheyenne. In 1884 he resigned this position and June 1885 was appointed United States Marshal for Wyoming, which position he held with honor to himself and credit to Wyoming. In September 1890, he was succeeded as U. S. Marshal by Jos. P. Rankin, who at once appointed him Chief Deputy U. S. Marshal, which position he held until April 1893, when he was appointed by Mayor E. F. Stahle as marshal and chief of police of the City of Cheyenne, which responsible position he now holds.

During all of the time covered by his official career of twenty years, Mr. Carr as vice-president end chief detective of the Rocky Mountain Detective Association, did, and is still doing a most noble and effective work. To T. Jeff Carr, more than any other one man, belongs the credit of converting the lawless regions of this portion of the high mountain plains into communities of law and ordered civilization. His exploits and adventures would fill a volume, and the many dangerous experiences he has had, would if written up, read more like an interesting romance, than a mere recital of actual facts.

The name of T. Jeff Carr, more than that of any other name known to the people of the Rocky Mountain region, strikes a terror into the hearts of evil doers and tramps, and as a faithful, vigilant and sagacious officer of the law, he today in reputation and deeds, stands without a rival anywhere in the far West.