James R. Barton
On January 1, 1852, James R. Barton became the second Sheriff of Los
Angeles County.
During the first year of Barton’s administration the Legislature created the
office of Board of Supervisors which superseded the Court of Sessions as
the governing body of the county.
The Board of Supervisors consisted of fire representatives elected from
different parts of the county, as it does today. The first Board had its
premiere meeting in July 1852.
Barton was re-elected in 1853, 53, and 54, then again in 1856.
Barton did not run in 1855, apparently experiencing a sense of frustration
at his failure to stop a lynching. Two men had been convicted of a murder
in Los Angeles. One was hanged while the other received a stayed of
execution. The enraged citizens, led by Los Angeles Mayor Stephan
Foster proceeded to the jail. Barton and his few deputies attempted to
disperse the mob, but they were completely overwhelmed. The vigilantes
battered in the jail doors and dragged the prisoner across the street, then
hanged him from a cross beam over the gateway to a corral.
Voters were so please by this act that, at a special election, Foster was re-
elected mayor by an almost unanimous vote.
A year later, Barton changed his mind and ran for a fifth term. His fifth
term was short-lived, for within a month after taking office, James Barton
would become the first Los Angeles County Sheriff to be killed in the line
of duty.