Over the years, the Pacolet area has been
fortunate to have had a number of dedicated, conscientious policemen
and law enforcement individuals working to protect it. Listed below are
the names of some of those individuals. Where known, some information
is given about the person. Unfortunately, at this time, all I know
about most of these men is their names and I do not know that even for
the most recent policemen. I ask you to send me information about the
men listed and the names of the ones that I have left off. Please send
to Pacolet Police.
In the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's
Haskell Burgess
Richard Byars
Grady Carter
Sgt. Billy Fallaw - Sgt. Billy Fallaw was
active in the Pacolet area. However, he was not a local policeman but
was with the South Carolina Highway Patrol in the Public Relations and
Safety Education Division. There are probably many people all over the
state of South Carolina who avoided being in an automobile accident due
to the untiring work of Sgt. Fallaw. During the 1940’s, 1950’s and
1960’s he traveled all over the state giving demonstrations and
speeches encouraging traffic safety. He spoke at schools, churches and
civic organizations. At Pacolet High School, he would first speak to
the student body in the auditorium. And then he would
get down to the real world and take us all out to the highway that ran
in
front of the school.
He had a patrol car that was fitted out with three pistols that would
each fire a yellow paint marker down onto the highway. He had a student
volunteer drive the car. He had the driver go down the road at about 45
mile
an hour. Sgt. Fallaw fired the first pistol. This was the signal for
the
driver to apply his brakes and try to stop the car. When the brakes
were
applied, the second pistol was fired. When the car stopped, the third
pistol
was fired. Those three paint marks, a long way apart on the highway,
showed
reaction time and stopping distance far better than anything in a book
or
a lecture. The paint marks weren’t theory.
Sgt. Fallaw was also in charge of training the student school bus
drivers for Pacolet High School and other Spartanburg County High
schools in the early 1950’s. He was a serious, no nonsense instructor
and paid attention to every detail of driving the buses, especially,
about safety.
Sgt. Fallaw had an expression that has stuck with me over all these
years. It was something like:
When driving, you can make a decision and be “dead right”. However, if
it is the wrong decision, “You will be just as dead as if you had been
wrong.”
John W. Henry - John W. Henry was a
remarkable man. He was a neighbor and good friend of my Dad and my
family
for many years. He was employed by the U.S. Treasury as a Special
Investigator
with the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Department. He also served as
Assistant
Supervisor and Acting Super- visor for South Carolina. Mr. Henry was
born
on May 19, 1918, at Cowpens, South Carolina, the son of Samuel M. and
Irene
Webster Henry. He passed away on May7, 1985. He lived in Spartanburg
from
age 4, attending Southside Grammar School. He graduated from Frank
Evans
High School and Wofford College, and was a member of Southside Baptist
Church. From May 1942 until November 1945 he served in the U.S. Air
Force,
and retired from the Air Force Reserve with the rank of Lt. Colonel.
He held a MAT degree from Converse College. He was Director of the
Criminal Justice Program at Spartanburg Methodist College from its
inception
until his retirement in 1982. From 1978 until 1982 he was mayor of
Pacolet.
Mr. Henry also was one of the first water commissioners for the town of
Pacolet and was instrumental in establishing the town water system.
Mr. Henry’s father, Mr. Sam Henry, was the sheriff of Spartanburg
County for a number of years.
Mr. Henry was married to the former Miriam Smoak, of Pacolet. Their
daughter, Cecilia H. Mims, lives in Myrtle Beach; they have a
granddaughter and a grandson.
Herbert Jones
Jessie Patrick
Jack Petty
Richard (Dick) Wells -
(Rudy Lumpkin
remembers
this about Mr. Wells.)
Dick Wells was the police officer at Pacolet 1955-1960. He
drove
a 49 Ford with a red light in the center of the front grill.
He lived between Pacolet and Union. His favorite stopping place was
Jesse
Allen's store near Hart's Drive-In.
Also, he and Jesse Allen cooked hash to sell on Friday and Saturdays .
Tom West
Since 1960
Bobby Bryant
Eddie Burkholder
Bobby Joe Gibson
David Mathers
Joe Moon -
Clarence P. McGee - Mr. McGee was the only
Pacolet policeman ever killed in the line of duty. He was slain in an
argument
with a local farmer in July, 1963.
Raymond Rhinehart
Tim Schulz
David Tripp
James H. Wyatt
