On a drizzly, overcast October afternoon in a place once known as Belew’s Creek but now part of Cedar Hill, about 100 people gathered on a hilltop to remember a fallen police officer and mark his grave.
Constable Samuel T. Herrington of Concord Township in Washington County died Oct. 4, 1871, after responding to a call about a brawl in a saloon in Irondale, where he was mortally wounded, said his great-granddaughter, Norma Fuchs, formerly of Imperial.
Herrington, 32 years old when he was killed, left behind three young sons: Edward, James and Samuel, along with his wife: Jeanette. The story of his service and his tragic death passed down through his family in Jefferson and Washington counties.
However, his resting place, a cemetery in a remote part of Jefferson County, was nearly forgotten, that is until earlier this year when “cemetery detective” Tim Ogle located Herrington’s gravestone. Later, members of the Hellenic American Progressive League helped clear the property, and then state officials, law enforcement agencies and family members gathered there to honor the long-gone policeman on Oct. 4, the 146th anniversary of Herrington’s death.
From one generation to another
Fuchs, 93, who now lives in King’s Mountain, N.C., said that when she was a child, her great uncle, Ed, told her about her great-grandfather’s death.
“Late at night, two men knocked on (the constable’s) door and said there was a fight in the saloon and asked if he would settle it. So, he put on his coat and went, and he was walking up the steps when a man came out of the saloon with a knife, cut him open and he bled to death,” Fuchs said.
Newspapers also tell the tale of Herrington’s murder, but the stories from the Missouri Democrat in 1871 reveal an even more gruesome tale.
According to the paper, Herrington was attacked by several men when he was looking for stolen property and attempted to serve a warrant to search a home that belonged to the mother of William and John McCarron. Those two McCarrons, joined by Patrick and James McCarron, as well as a brother-in-law, John Fatchett, and a cousin, James Carr, allegedly were involved in the attack.
Just before Herrington died, he said it was William McCarron who “struck him with a rock and stabbed him with a bowie knife.”
After his death, Herrington’s wife loaded their three young children onto a horse and headed to a settlement named Flucom in Jefferson County where her sister lived, Fuchs said.
She also said her great-grandfather wanted to be buried near his mother, Sarah (Drennan) Herrington, on the Cedar Hill property where he was raised and where his gravesite has been restored.
Finding Samuel
The cemetery was far off the beaten path, on what used to be a farm that belonged to Herrington’s grandfather, William Drennan, a Revolutionary War veteran who was given the parcel for his military service. The former Drennan property encompassed more than 700 acres, Fuchs said.
In 1966, Fuchs looked for and found the cemetery and the place where her great-grandfather and his mother were buried off Regina Road on property that by then belonged to the Hellenic American Progressive League, an organization that in the early part of the 20th century helped Greek immigrants become American citizens.
She found Sarah Herrington’s headstone but there wasn’t one for her great-grandfather’s grave.
“I was told that kids had taken the stone, broken it and it ended up in the creek,” Fuchs said.
Later, Fuchs had Sarah Herrington’s headstone and Samuel Herrington’s footstone relocated from the Cedar Hill cemetery to the Herrington family cemetery in Pevely.
A few years ago, after Fuchs had lost track of the old, overgrown cemetery in Cedar Hill where her great-grandfather was buried, she met Ogle, who lives in St. Louis. It was the same day Ogle discovered a new passion for cemeteries and history after he inadvertently found one of his own ancestor’s stones.
“I was walking around on my own when I found this gravestone covered with tall bushes. The name on it was Thomas Ogle,” he said.
He later learned to repair headstones and now works to connect the lost with their living relatives, he said.
Ogle was trying to do just that and find the grave of William Drennan when he discovered Herrington’s stone in the Cedar Hill cemetery.
Fuchs had told Ogle about her great-grandfather and the Drennan cemetery but she couldn’t remember where it was.
Ogle found Drennan’s property with the help of Lisa Gendron of the Jefferson County Heritage and Historical Society, who had an old map and a transparent new map that she superimposed on the original to find it. Once Ogle located the old farm property, a member of the Hellenic League helped him find the cemetery there.
“I never thought to look for (Herrington’s stone). I just put the probe in the ground the first time and the rod hit Samuel’s gravestone,” Ogle said.
He dug it up and realized it was the constable and Fuchs’ great-grandfather, so he called her.
“When I got the call that he had found it, I almost cried,” Fuchs said. “I don’t know who I called first, the genealogical society or the family.”
The memorial
In addition to Fuchs, Ogle called the state of Missouri. He then was contacted by Drew Juden, director of the Missouri Department of Public Safety, who worked with family members to plan a service honoring one of the earliest fallen officers on record in the state.
Ogle repaired the broken headstone. Members of the League, led by Dennis Plesons, worked for days to cut down trees, remove brush, clean up the cemetery and cut a road to it so people could come for the service.
Juden enlisted great-great-granddaughter Patti Stenger to inform the family and gather them and great-great-grandaughter Nancy Harrington-Patterson helped with the service. On Oct. 4, Herrington’s family members came from as far away as California to honor their ancestor. The Sheriff of Washington County, where Herrington once served, spoke at the memorial. Juden also spoke and presented a medallion and a resolution from Gov. Eric Greitens to Fuchs and other family members. Kevin Ahlbrand from the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police spoke, as did Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak, who also gave Fuchs a medallion.
Marshak said he visited the grave after he heard the story and knew that a service was being planned.
“I told them, we’re all in, whatever you need from us,” he said.
Marshak said commemorating the officer’s service was important.
“This grave is long forgotten, the history forgotten. This is important because he sacrificed his life for his community and he was a person who wanted to make his community better,” Marshak said.
The Jefferson County Special Operations Division Honor Guard presented the colors, and Jefferson County officers presented a 21-gun salute.
Fuchs, who traveled to Jefferson County for the service, said the memorial meant the world to her.
“I knew I had to come for Grandpa Sam and Dad and Grandpa,” she said. “I love history, and I love family.”
Herrington’s name is listed on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Missouri Law Enforcement Memorial in Jefferson City.
