‘NEWT’ BOLES DEDICATION CEREMONY

August 12, 2024 marked one hundred years since the late Newt Boles lost his life while serving his community as Sheriff of Taney County. Now this true public hero is remembered in a public way. Coon Creek Road at BB Highway has been designated a Heroes Way for Sheriff Newton Dangerfield “Newt” Boles.

In the evening of August 11, 1924, Sheriff Boles and his deputy, Ben Layton, were searching for a suspect wanted in connection with the robbery of the Bank of Protem.  The two drove to Kirbyville where they left their car and walked to a residence where they believed the suspect was located.  They arrived there at dusk and at a distance spotted the suspect inside the house.  Boles and Layton stayed hidden hoping they could apprehend the suspect when he came outside.

They watched the house until about 11 o’clock when they decided they would need to raid the house. The two walked to a neighbor’s house and deputized the neighbor and his two sons to help.  The group waited until the occupants of the house had extinguished the lights, which was about 3 o’clock in the morning. Since the enlisted men had no guns, Sheriff Boles asked them each cut a heavy, green club and posted one at each door. After the group had surrounded the house, Sheriff Boles went to the front door.  

The Sheriff knocked several times until the owner of the house finally answered the door.  The Sheriff informed her he was looking for the suspect, but was refused entry.  The Sheriff, however, threatened the break down the door and was finally let in.

The Sheriff walked calmly up stairs, with his revolver drawn, and told the suspect to come down. The suspect came down, unarmed, and surrendered without resistance. Sheriff Boles searched his clothes and handed them to the suspect, who put them on.  He was taken outside and handcuffed.  Unfortunately the suspect refused to walk to the car which was parked about two miles away.  Deputy Layton was sent to obtain the car and meet Sheriff Boles at the Gobbler Knob schoolhouse, which was about a quarter to half a mile away.  The suspect agreed to walk to the schoolhouse.

When Deputy Layton last saw Sheriff Boles, the suspect was sitting down, Sheriff Boles was leaning against the fence and the owner of the house was on the inside of the fence.  Deputy Layton went to get the car and shortly before daylight failed to find Sheriff Boles at the Gobbler Knob schoolhouse.  He then drove to the house where the suspect was located but the lights were out and he failed to see anyone. 

The morning following the arrest of the suspect, a local resident walked out to milk her cow at a spring just east of the junction of the present Highway BB and Coon Creek Road about 5 o’clock in the morning.  She found Sheriff Boles’ broad-brimmed white hat in the watering trough.  The hat had been pierced by a bullet from the rear.  Searchers found Sheriff Boles’ mortally wounded about fifty feet from the watering trough. He died in his wife’s arms while being driven to Forsyth.

On the 14th of August the suspect was arrested hiding in a coal chute in Branson and was in possession of Sheriff Boles’ revolver.

Sheriff Boles left behind five boys and one daughter.  His first wife died and left him with five boys to raise.  He remarried a few years later to Janey Ray Praither who had two girls from a previous marriage.  Sheriff Boles and Janey had one daughter, Ray Lambeth.  Ray was seven years old when her dad died and talked about the day he died in great detail.  She remembered him as a fun and loving father.  Ray passed October 6, 2022 in Tampa Idaho. Sheriff Boles and his daughter Ray are buried in the Garrison Cemetery in Christian County.

Sheriff Boles loved to fish, hunt and play the fiddle.  He was a very kind man and the community loved him. He was well respected and serving a second term as sheriff when he was killed.  

The spirit of Newt Boles lives on.