(By Stephen Kelley from the Peoples Defender, 2008)
In our archives of historic Adams County photographs, we find a picture taken about eight declared so in the old jail building that still stands behind the courthouse today, facing Mulberry Street. Seated at a very wide desk are Adams County Sheriff Walter W. White on the left and his deputy, Carey Ammon Bartholomew.
Walter White served as the county sheriff from 1925 to 1929. In those days the sheriff’s budget only allowed for one deputy and following his successful election. White selected Bartholomew.
C.A. Bartholemew was born in Dunkinsville on July 9, 1881. By the turn of the twentieth century, he was living in Seaman. In January of 1903, he was married to Ora Alexander of Seaman. The couple eventually moved to West Union and Carey became an employee of the Talbert Lumber Company of Sardinia. It was during his employment with this company when Walter White approached him about serving as deputy sheriff.
How long Bartholemew stayed with White is not known, but he eventually left his law enforcement career and returned to his position at the Talbert Lumber Company. He later moved to a farm near Cherry Fork. Upon his death in 1950 at age sixty-nine, he was an employee of the state highway department.
Walter White was born on December 3, 1871, the son of a Brown County blacksmith who lived near Hiatt’s Chapel. Walter married Columbia “Lummie” Roush and the couple began housekeeping in the Hopewell neighborhood on Old Dutch Road in Sprigg Township, Adams County. Sometime later they moved to Manchester when Walter found work as a carpenter on steamboats. He worked in that trade for several years for the Suiter Material Company.
By 1901, Walter was working for the Norfolk and western Railway as foreman of a wrecking crew. During the years he worked for the railroad, he and his family made their home in Winchester. In 1923, Jodie L. Trefz was elected County Sheriff and asked Walter to serve as his deputy sheriff. White accepted and began learning the ropes of a law enforcement officer while on the job. Treftz decided not to run for a second team and encouraged White to begin campaigning for sheriff in 1924. This he did, winning the election and being sworn into office in January 1925.
Adams County was not exactly Toyland in those days. Moonshine stills dotted the landscape of the hilly eastern region, these were several unsolved murders on the books, and the fueding Cooper clan on Twin Creek kept new Sheriff White and his deputy, C.A. Bartholomew, quite busy. And, on top of that, the county did not provide the sheriff a vehicle at that time period and White had to use his own personal car for official business.
Perhaps one of the most unusual attributes of Walter White was his disposition. A man of slender build, he had a calm demeanor and even when he was working on a case where he had to apprehend and arrest a suspect, he rarely carried his gun, preferring to leave it in his office. Despite his lack of formal training in law enforcement, Walter White is well remembered in Adams County’s history for his investigative skills and cracking some very difficult cases.
