During National Police Week, a ceremony is held in Washington, D.C. to add the names of individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their communities.

This year, Greene County will be represented, due to the efforts of Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio he was searching the Iowa database for the fallen officers memorial to see if anyone from the county had been killed in the line of duty. Williams found two individuals, John Swearingen of the Jefferson Police Department on June 21, 1902 and Paton Town Marshal James Busby, who was killed on May 7, 1911.

Williams explains he then went to the national memorial website and could only find Swearingen’s name, but not Busby. He walks through the process of what he had to do to get Busby’s name added to the national memorial.

“So I contacted the memorial people who are in charge of it and I had to do some research, find newspaper articles, stuff to just prove that it really happened. And submit all of that and try and find a family member, which was the hardest thing to do. And basically just submit and see if he was accepted, and he was accepted.”     

Williams says the story of how Busby died over one century ago, was when he responded to a call of a burglary at the Paton Post Office. He details that two suspects had blown the safe open and stole $20 and Busby was in pursuit. 

“He followed them as they left to the old school, just outside of Churdan, and as they were running in the door, and he (Busby) was chasing after them, one of them turned around and shot and killed him there. And then, the townspeople basically put together the ‘old school posse’. And some of the newspaper articles I found said that the structure could barely stand, there were so many bullet holes in it. One was killed and the other one was severely injured but live and was convicted of the murder of James Busby.”    

Williams is proud to put the work into having Busby’s name alongside others, including Swearingen from Jefferson, at the national site in Washington, D.C. because he gave his life and he deserves to be honored with the other fallen officers.