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
