Hailed from a well-known family of Mormon settlers in San Bernardino,John Bartley and Jane(Cadd)Smithson. By age 29, he was not only the sheriff's deputy in the dusty outpost town of Daggett, east of Barstow, but also the town's constable and a railroad officer. In 1907, residents knew their deputy, so when Newt Millett got into a fight with one of his workers at the American Borax Company plant, he sought out Smithson. Millett, the mill's foreman said a night worker Ed Silver had struck him"a blow on the jaw" and stormed out.Armed with a .32-automatic, Silver was accused of lying in wait after the fight for those who came looking for him. The encounter came as night fell on Dagget on Oct. 19,1907. One account claims that Smithson sympathetically asked "What is the matter Ed?" before the killer swung around and shot him in the chest, stomach and arm. In court Silver claim it was a quick draw situation. Either way the nearest hospital was more than 120 miles. The deputy was carried into the nearest billiards hall, and he died the next morning with his wife, Sharon, at his side.
When they arrested Silver he was hobbling up the road , with a bullet in his leg. The killer had claimed self defense, but Judge Benjamin F. Bledsoe rejected that, saying Smithson could not have been set on shooting Silver, since "persons starting out an expedition to shoot or wrong or injure another, hardly ever take a woman along with them." Silver was sent to San Quentin where he died of peritonitis. Records show that the deputy and his wife had a daughter, Vivian Frances Smithson, May 1900. She married Earl Barr, and they had a child they named Phyllis E. Barr.
When they arrested Silver he was hobbling up the road , with a bullet in his leg. The killer had claimed self defense, but Judge Benjamin F. Bledsoe rejected that, saying Smithson could not have been set on shooting Silver, since "persons starting out an expedition to shoot or wrong or injure another, hardly ever take a woman along with them." Silver was sent to San Quentin where he died of peritonitis. Records show that the deputy and his wife had a daughter, Vivian Frances Smithson, May 1900. She married Earl Barr, and they had a child they named Phyllis E. Barr.
Hailed from a well-known family of Mormon settlers in San Bernardino,John Bartley and Jane(Cadd)Smithson. By age 29, he was not only the sheriff's deputy in the dusty outpost town of Daggett, east of Barstow, but also the town's constable and a railroad officer. In 1907, residents knew their deputy, so when Newt Millett got into a fight with one of his workers at the American Borax Company plant, he sought out Smithson. Millett, the mill's foreman said a night worker Ed Silver had struck him"a blow on the jaw" and stormed out.Armed with a .32-automatic, Silver was accused of lying in wait after the fight for those who came looking for him. The encounter came as night fell on Dagget on Oct. 19,1907. One account claims that Smithson sympathetically asked "What is the matter Ed?" before the killer swung around and shot him in the chest, stomach and arm. In court Silver claim it was a quick draw situation. Either way the nearest hospital was more than 120 miles. The deputy was carried into the nearest billiards hall, and he died the next morning with his wife, Sharon, at his side.
When they arrested Silver he was hobbling up the road , with a bullet in his leg. The killer had claimed self defense, but Judge Benjamin F. Bledsoe rejected that, saying Smithson could not have been set on shooting Silver, since "persons starting out an expedition to shoot or wrong or injure another, hardly ever take a woman along with them." Silver was sent to San Quentin where he died of peritonitis. Records show that the deputy and his wife had a daughter, Vivian Frances Smithson, May 1900. She married Earl Barr, and they had a child they named Phyllis E. Barr.
When they arrested Silver he was hobbling up the road , with a bullet in his leg. The killer had claimed self defense, but Judge Benjamin F. Bledsoe rejected that, saying Smithson could not have been set on shooting Silver, since "persons starting out an expedition to shoot or wrong or injure another, hardly ever take a woman along with them." Silver was sent to San Quentin where he died of peritonitis. Records show that the deputy and his wife had a daughter, Vivian Frances Smithson, May 1900. She married Earl Barr, and they had a child they named Phyllis E. Barr.
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