CONWAY — Three Faulkner County sheriff ’s deputies have died in the line of duty in the past almost 100 years, and they’re finally getting a memorial.
Former Lt. Jack Pike of Conway, who designed the memorial nine years ago before the project fizzled, has been called in to take up the cause again.
Pike was the public information officer for the Faulkner County Sheriff ’s Office when Detective Jim Wooley, 60, of Enola died on Aug. 5, 2003, from internal injuries he received from a fall the day before.
“Jim Wooley died, and it became apparent we did not have any kind of memorial erected for him, and we knew there were a couple of deputiesin the past that literally no one knew their names,” Pike said.
Pike researched the fallen officers and sketched out a design for a sheriff ’s memorial, but fundraising efforts stalled.
“I found enough to get their pictures and their information so we could have at least their pictures on the wall in the sheriff ’s department. Then we started the process of building a fitting memorial,” Pike said.
Pike said he and former Chief Deputy Steve Wallace, who now lives out of state, worked on the project.
“We did not get that accomplished, and everybody involved in that left office,” he said.
The two other deputies who died were Oscar L. Honea, 36, who was shot on Oct. 22, 1914, when he and aposse were tracking a Faulkner County Jail escapee, and William Edward Hathaway of Mayflower, 52, who was shot on Aug. 5, 1931, when he was trying to serve an arrest warrant on a man in the theft of a bushel of peaches.
Pike made a rough sketch of a memorial in 2003, and as a fundraiser later, bricks were sold, which people could have engraved with names.
“Hopefully, that was going to be the start and get publicity, and I thought, surely, money would come,” he said.
Only a few bricks were sold.
“It wasn’t enough to do a thing with, and those bricks never got made,” he said.
Pike said the money was handed over to the Sheriff ’s Office, and those names will be incorporated into benches at the memorial.
Faulkner County Sheriff Karl Byrd was one of those who bought bricks.
“Jim Wooley was my best friend,” Byrd said. “His family and I are still close.”
It’s been so long, Byrd said, that he doesn’t remember whose names he placed on the bricks he purchased.
Pike said he got a call several weeks ago from Jeff Johnston, county administrator, that the project was back on.
“I was pretty excited about the call that we’re ready to build it, and I didn’t even ask anything about the money, anything about anything else. It’s about the memorial and these three guys,” Pike said.
The memorial will be placed on the north end of the courthouse grounds.
The Faulkner County Sheriff ’s Officer Memorial is part of a long-range plan. It includes expanding the veterans memorial, which stops with the Vietnam War, to include conflicts since then, and creating two plaza areas.
The original design Pike drew was taken to Conway architect Rik Sowell, who also drew the long-range plan.
“We took the idea that was shown in that drawing that Jack did, and we created a memorial based on that drawing,” Sowell said. “We didn’t vary from it a lot; we just made it a little more realistic.”
The memorial will have a curved wall, “a semicircle, maybe a little more defined than the veterans memorial,” Pike said. “We wanted to complement the colors of the veterans memorial,” so it will be gray textured brick.
A 3-foot-tall granite piece, which is referred to as a podium, will include the three officers’ names, dates of birth and death, and a brief explanation of how they died.
One quote that will be engraved on the wall is, “It’s not how these officers died that made them heroes; it’s how they lived their lives.”
Pike said it is odd that two of the officers, Wooley and Hathaway, each died on Aug. 5.
“When I saw those two dates, … I went back and looked at those archives at UCA [to confirm they were correct].”
Pike said he thinks it’s “fantastic” that the work is finally being done.
“As a matter of fact, it has spurred me now to go back and finish all the research I did not do,” he said.
“I have been back to UCA, and I’ve been other places, and I’m going to do complete research on the two older deputies.Equipped with all the documentation, I hope I can find death certificates, birth certificates,more about the story.”
For example, Pike said, he found out that when Honea died, “they were planning a festival in downtown Conway, and they postponed that until after his funeral. It’s stuff like that I want to gather up.”
Pike said he plans to publish his research.
He and Wooley had known each other “a really long time,” he said.
Pike called the detective “amazing,” because in addition to his job with the Sheriff ’s Office, he ran a farm and Wooley’s Grocery and Feed store in Enola.
“The fact that he made a career out of law enforcement is not a surprise because he was so interested in helping people solve crimes,” Pike said. “He never wanted to close a case until he solved it. He had a back seat full of old cases he would constantly work on.”
Wooley’s grandson, Chad, is a criminal investigator with the Faulkner County Sheriff ’s Office.
He was “shocked” and pleased when he was told the project was up and running again.
“It had been talked about a long time ago, and I haven’t heard anything,” he said. “Not to sound bad, but it’s long overdue, I guess. I’m glad they’re putting something up to honorthese people - something for the public to see and remember them by.”
Chad Wooley said he was 18 months old when his father died, so his grandfather was his father figure and taught him about farming and law enforcement.
When the first memorial effort started, Pike said the goal was to raise $10,000.
The cost of this memorial will be at least three times that.
Johnston said the foundation and brickwork, done by Tru-Star Properties of Conway, will cost $18,000 to $19,000, and the granite podium and benches from McGee Monument of Morrilton will be $8,000 to $9,000.
Rik Sowell Architects waspaid $2,620 in May, which includes work on the sheriff ’s memorial, the longrange planfor the courthouse grounds and expanding the veterans memorial.
Taking the minimum, that’s $28,620, plus the bronze star that will be inlaid into the floor of the memorial.
Johnston said he is still pricing the bronze star, adding that a similar one at Central Baptist College cost $10,000.
Faulkner County Judge Preston Scroggin said the project is being funded from a line-item budget, money that he can use at his discretion for courthouse grounds maintenance.
“[The memorial is] something we had on our mind for four or five years - we finally saved up the money,” he said.
“We’ve spent the past five years on different projects just trying to beautify things.”
County Treasurer Regina Oakley said the fund contains $65,000.
Improvements the past few years on the courthouse grounds have included installing irrigation and putting in St. Augustine grass, Scroggin said.
“We’re not going to be able to do it all at once,” he said.
An 1893 obelisk, west of the Faulkner County Detention Center, eventually will be movedto the front lawn, too, Scroggin said.
“Nobody knows it’s there,” he said.
Not many people knew about the officers killed in the early 1900s, but they will now.
That’s satisfying to Pike.
“I really in my mind thought it would never happen,” he said.
He located Honea’s grave in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Conway.
“It’s been almost 100 years since Deputy Honea died, and now he’ll have a fitting memorial,” Pike said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.
River Valley Ozark, Pages 59 on 05/24/2012