Sheriff Tim Cameron (r) poses with former sheriffs (l to r) Dave Zylak, Dick Voorhaar and Joe Lee Somerville
Leonardtown, MD — Four of the six living current and former sheriffs of St. Mary’s County gathered Friday for an event that was all about them. The occasion was the formal release and book signing for the new book called St. Mary’s County Sheriffs — 375 years. The book details the names of all 119 commissioned sheriffs since the first, James Baldridge in 1637. The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office is the oldest in continuous service in the country.
At the event at Ye Olde Towne Café in Leonardtown, Sheriff Tim Cameron noted the front cover of the book showed Sheriff John Coade, Jr. in 1704 locking the doors of the brick chapel in St. Mary’s City to prevent worship there. The book’s back cover shows Cameron symbolically reopening the doors of the reconstructed chapel. He said that shows that “we have become the people’s police. We no longer work for the king or the governor.”
Cameron used the occasion to honor one of the team of researchers and authors who were responsible for the book – Tyler Mattingly, who died in a car accident while the book was being developed. Mattingly was an intern with the sheriff’s department and his dream was to become a deputy. Cameron said, “He was a very special part of the team.”
“There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t think of Tyler,” Cameron said as Mattingly’s family looked on. A plaque with the book’s cover was presented to the family as a remembrance.
Others of the research team, Cindy Allen, Linda Reno, Carol Moody and Grace Mary Brady, also spoke briefly. Reno noted that a second book is in the works that will give more information about the sheriffs, their methods of meting out punishment and the “crimes of the times.”
The book signing was part of Leonardtown’s First Friday that included an Art Walk and an impromptu “Flash Mob.”