Sheriff Joseph S. Dawson

Joseph S. Dawson

Sheriff Joseph Dawson was shot and killed in Haywood County, North Carolina, while accompanying a posse in a search for illegal stills.

The posse had located a still and had arrested one person. As they headed back to Cocke County in the darkness they stopped to discuss the prisoner. They deputies were illuminated by a lantern when a shot was fired from the woods and struck Sheriff Dawson in the neck.

Two men were arrested and charged with murder.

Sheriff Dawson was murdered approximately 400 yards from where Posseman John Carver, of the United States Department of the Treasury, was slain on January 10th, 1905, while attempting an arrest.

Sheriff Dawson had served with the Cocke County Sheriff's Department for three years. He was survived by his wife and two children and is buried Campbell Cemetery in Cocke County, Tennessee.