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Two Fallen Lawmen of Chambers County, Texas
By Kevin Ladd
JOHN LIGHTER FROST (1862-1900)
SHERIFF, CHAMBERS COUNTY
He was boyishly handsome and a bachelor popular with the ladies. He was also well-liked by men and young boys of Chambers County ever to die in the line of duty. Although the man behind the legend has been dead for over a century, there is much that we know about Sheriff John Lighter Frost.
His parents, Samuel C. and Nancy Ann (Merriman) Frost, married in Kentucky in 1849 and settled in Jessamine County. Their first child, a boy named Charles Porter Frost, was born in 1850 but died one year later. Their second son, often called Johnny, wasn't born until 1862, a dozen years after his brother. The family came to Texas in the 1870s, settling first at Denton County. Soon thereafter they moved to Chambers County.
One contemporary wrote: "The latch-string of every house was out to this bright, courteous, laughing boy. He was given a common school education, was apt in mathematics, and would have made a fine Technological scholar." Following the death of his father in 1879 and his mother in 1884, Frost inherited a considerable amount of property. He also became interested in county politics, running and winning the office of county commissioner at Anahuac in 1890 when he was only 28.
Two years later he ran for county surveyor and was reelected in 1894. He was elected as sheriff and tax collector (a combined office at that time) in 1896 and was reelected in 1898. The 1900 election campaign turned nasty, with his opponents accusing him of cowardice in not moving immediately to evict the Kennedy family from Colonel W. L. Moody's Lake Surprise hunting lodge at Smith Point. Colonel Moody had hired the family to run the lodge but afterward found he couldn't get them to leave.
Not wanting to give his critics the upper hand, Sheriff Frost waited until after he was reelected in November 1900 and set out for Lake Surprise immediately after the election. He wanted to go it alone. Although several men offered to accompany him to the lodge, he politely declined. His horse was found wandering later on the prairie, but his body was never found. An extensive search of the Smith Point area was conducted by law officers from across the area, but to no avail. Three men accused in his murder were arrested but their cases were thrown out on a legal technicality. A handsome Woodmen of the World grave marker honoring his memory was erected and dedicated in the Wallisville Cemetery in 1904.
EDWARD D. FITZGERALD (1903 - 1930)
HOUSTON POLICE OFFICER
The Progress
Friday, September 26, 1930
Slain Houston Officer, Chambers County Boy
Edward D. Fitzgerald, the Houston motorcycle officer killed Saturday night while attempting to arrest J. J. Maple for his alleged connection with the holdup of several business places in the city, was a Chambers County boy, having been born at Barbers Hill in this county.
Officer Fitzgerald was the grandson of F. M. Fitzgerald, one of the pioneer settlers and who is prominently connected with the earlier history of Chambers County. He was at one time county commissioner from his district and held vast cattle interests on the west side of the county.
The slain officer was laid to rest in the family burial plot in the Barbers Hill cemetery, following the funeral services which were held at Houston Monday morning.
Remarks by Kevin Ladd:
Few people today seem aware that a simple tombstone in the Methodist Cemetery in Mont Belvieu marks the grave of slain Houston Police Officer Edward Davis Fitzgerald. He was a native of Chambers County, having been born at Mont Belvieu on February 3, 1903, a son of Joseph Amos Fitzgerald and his wife Edith Louise Davis. The young fellow was apparently named for his father's younger brother, Edward C. Fisher, who died young. The middle name, of course, was his mother's maiden name. Two sisters rounded out the family. The young fellow lost his father when he was six years old, and the made their home in Harris County. He attended public schools there.
Fitzgerald joined the Houston police force on his 24th birthday in 1927, coming in as a probationary patrolman and was assigned to the downtown mounted traffic squad. He first worked the intersection of Texas and Travis, but that particular squad was later disbanded. Afterwards, he moved over to motorcycle duty, a hip and happening place for a young man to be at that time.
Before joining the police force, he had been in the Texas National Guard and took easily to the whole chain of command. He followed and obeyed orders well, fitting in easily to the structured atmosphere of the Houston Police Department.
The event that claimed the lives of Fitzgerald and another motorcycle officer, W. B. Phares, began on the night of Sept. 20, 1930 when two employees of the Touchy Furniture Store at 720 Milam Street were locking up the store for the night. Two well-dressed young men came up on them quickly, pulled guns and ordered them back in the store. It was 9:45 p.m.
The robbers forced the men to empty the cash registers, and their take came to a little over $300, a lot of money in Depression-strapped 1930 America. The robbers forced one of the men into their Chevrolet coupe, but released him a few minutes later at the intersection of Bagby and Rusk. The man got his wits together, called in the license number and make of the car to the police, and hot-footed it back to the store. The police dispatchers sent telegraphed an all-points bulletin to officers across the huge city.
Fitzgerald and Phares, on a routine patrol, saw the car stopped at Anita and Milam. When they arrived on the scene, Fitzgerald was the first off of his cycle, but Phares was the first struck by a shot. As Fitzgerald approached the left hand side of the car, one of the men fired two shots and hit him Some reports say he died at the scene, while others say he died at the hospital. Phares hung on for several days but eventually died of his wounds.
J. J. Maple, a former World War I sharpshooter, was convicted of the murders of the two men and executed 69 days after the incident.
An article by Nelson Zoch described all of these events and presents a moving account of Fitzgerald's funeral service: "On Monday afternoon, Sept. 22, 1930, at the Morse Funeral Chapel, Houston said farewell to the gallant young officer. The Rev. E. A. Peterson, Fitzgerald's pastor, friend, and neighbor, described him as a splendid young officer. He also said, 'Nations pay tributes of respect to those who lay down their lives for their country in war. Far more should we respect this man who laid down his life for us in time of peace.'
"The Christian burial service included several of his favorite renditions, 'The Indian Love Call'" and 'Dancing with Tears in My Eyes.' The funeral cortege headed by a squad of motorcycle officers also included the HPD band, in which Officer Fitzgerald had played the saxophone. After the service a long procession traveled north on Caroline Street en route to a rain-soaked country cemetery at Barbers Hill, northeast of Houston, where he was laid to rest."
Sheriff John L. Frost