GREEN COVE SPRINGS – At about 10 p.m., a Saturday night, on May 5, 1894, Clay County Sheriff Josephus Anderson Peeler was called out to a fight at the train station. In 1894, the station was located about where the Green Cove Springs Police Office headquarters building is today. Peeler didn’t have far to walk as he lived nearby on Walnut Street, a location where the Council on Aging building now sits.

When the sheriff Peeler arrived, he had to deal with two irate railroad workers. One of them, J.M. Boyett was accusing the other, J.K. Griffin, of getting Boyett fired. Apparently, Boyett had taken an unauthorized picnic lunch and Griffin dimed him out.

Sherriff Peeler stepped between the two arguing men just as Boyett pulled a .32 Smith & Wesson revolver on Griffin. A shot went off and the Sheriff lay gravely wounded.

Peeler was taken back to his home where he was sedated with opiates. He had a gut wound – a death sentence in 1894. In the five days it took for him to die, Sheriff Peeler did an extraordinarily selfless thing. Peeler called in County Judge Christian Black and told the judge that the shooting was not on purpose and that he was not the intended target. The Sheriff’s end of watch was 11:30 p.m., Thursday, May 10, 1894.

Sadly, Sheriff Peeler was the first law enforcement officer in Clay County to die in the line of duty. He was also the first sheriff to work out of the then “new” 1984 Jail and 1890 Clay County Courthouse.

As a younger man, Peeler worked as a teacher. His family had been in Clay County for quite some time, his father even served as a representative from Clay County in the State Legislature. His parents were William and Edith Carlisle Peeler. Josephus married a local girl, Alice Geiger, and had five children: Jessie, Hinton, Glover, Josephus and Blanch. Later, his brother William Peeler also served as Clay County Sheriff from 1901 to 1907.

As they use to say in those days, intent follows the bullet. J.M. Boyett was soon apprehended. He told investigators that he did not mean to shoot Sheriff Peeler. He threw the gun he had used into a well. Ironically, Boyett sat in the same jail run for years by the very man he killed. Boyett was overcome with grief and remorse.

Boyett went on trial in October of the same year. Sheriff Peeler had been a very popular man. When his funeral was held, all the shops in Green Cove Springs closed for four hours to honor him. So, it was with this kind of community sentiment in mind that Boyett went on trial for first-degree murder. He was facing a life sentence. It did not matter that he shot the wrong man; his intent was to shoot Griffin.

Judge Christian Black was every defense attorney’s dream. He came in and testified to what the dying sheriff had said about there being no ill intent in the shooting. The dying declaration was an exception to the hearsay rule.

That’s all it took to make a jury deliberate 17 hours before coming back with a “not guilty” verdict. J.B. Boyett was the first and the last defendant accused of murdering law enforcement officer in Clay County who got away with it.

Alice Peeler moved to Jacksonville, lived near her children, and died there in 1938. All five of their children have passed away, too. The house at 707 Walnut Street was Sheriff Peeler’s house. It was moved to its current location, across the street from the Council on Aging.