The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Highlands County Inaugural Officer Resignations and the Fee System (1921–1922)

When Highlands County was established from DeSoto County in April 1921, Governor Cary A. Hardee appointed an initial slate of constitutional and district officers to organize the new local government until the general election in November 1922.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][wpa-hrs-highlands] During this eighteen-month formative period, three inaugural officials resigned their commissions: inaugural Sheriff W. M. Griffin, District 1 (Avon Park) Constable Curtis Mathews, and inaugural Supervisor of Registration L. L. Henderson.[fl-secstate-1921-1922] Contemporary newspaper reports, official opinions from Florida Attorney General Rivers Buford, and executive commission registers document the operational and economic pressures that prompted each departure.

Sheriff W. M. Griffin and the statutory fee deficit

Governor Hardee commissioned W. M. Griffin, an Avon Park resident, as Highlands County’s inaugural sheriff on 16 May 1921.[metropolis-1921-05-18] Griffin presented his official commission and statutory $2,000 bond to the Board of County Commissioners at its organizational meeting in Sebring on 23 May 1921, where it was accepted and approved under Board Chairman William King of Avon Park.[wpa-hrs-highlands] Because the county possessed no courthouse or permanent offices during its first summer, Griffin initially operated from Avon Park, coordinating with temporary county headquarters established in Sebring.[fl-ag-report-1921-1922][wpa-hrs-highlands]

During his nine months in office, Sheriff Griffin repeatedly sought formal legal guidance from Florida Attorney General Rivers Buford regarding statutory law enforcement powers and official compensation under Florida’s fee system:[fl-ag-report-1921-1922]

  • Cost bonds and defendant commitment (26 July 1921): Attorney General Buford addressed an official opinion to “Hon. W. M. Griffin, Sheriff, Avon Park, Fla.” construing Section 6122 of the Revised General Statutes regarding ninety-day cost bonds, outlining the sheriff’s legal duties to enforce bond forfeitures against solvent sureties and commit defaulting criminal defendants to custody.[fl-ag-report-1921-1922]
  • Prohibition vehicular search warrants (26 August 1921): In response to Griffin’s inquiry from Sebring regarding searches of automobiles transporting contraband liquor, Buford advised that Florida law did not authorize a general search warrant issued against a motor vehicle by make and license plate number alone; warrants were required to name a specific individual and vehicles operated by or in possession of that person.[fl-ag-report-1921-1922]
  • Strict fee limitations on court venires (12 October 1921): Griffin queried the Attorney General regarding fees allowable for summoning jury panels across Highlands County’s vast, sandy interior. Attorney General Buford issued a restrictive ruling: “My construction of the statute is that the Sheriff is only entitled to $5.00 for executing a venire and his mileage actually traveled in accomplishing the execution of the same. The statute does not, in my opinion, contemplate that the Sheriff is entitled to any other fees for executing the venire.”[fl-ag-report-1921-1922]

Under Florida law in 1921, county sheriffs received no fixed state salary; compensation depended entirely on statutory fees collected for service of process, court attendance, and mileage, from which the sheriff had to pay deputy salaries, maintain vehicles or horses, and absorb travel across deep flatwoods sand roads. In a sparsely populated county of fewer than 3,000 residents, the fee schedule generated severe operating deficits.

On 23 February 1922, Sheriff Griffin formally submitted his resignation to Governor Hardee.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][desoto-news-1922-03-03] Reporting on the resignation, the Highlands County Pilot of Avon Park detailed Griffin’s financial explanation:[kvg-1922-03-03]

“Mr. Griffin stated that he had lost money ever since accepting the office; that he had thought of making the race at the next election, but that when he took into consideration the expense of a political campaign and the fact that if elected it would be for two years, he decided he would be money ahead to accept the loss now rather than risk losing more.”[kvg-1922-03-03]

Governor Hardee accepted the resignation on 23 February 1922 and immediately commissioned Deputy Sheriff Robert H. (R. H.) Hancock, a seasoned former deputy sheriff in undivided DeSoto County who had served as Griffin’s chief deputy in Highlands County.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][desoto-news-1922-03-03][hcso-history] Hancock ran for the office in November 1922, was elected, and served as sheriff through 1927.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][fl-secstate-1923-1924][hcso-history]

Constable Curtis Mathews and the Avon Park justice district

Governor Hardee appointed Curtis Mathews of Avon Park as constable for District 1, Highlands County, in mid-July 1921, alongside pioneer resident S. F. Tucker as justice of the peace for the same district.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][metropolis-1921-07-15] District 1 encompassed the northern sector of the county centered on Avon Park.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][wpa-hrs-highlands]

Mathews served five months before resigning his commission on 22 September 1921.[fl-secstate-1921-1922] His departure coincided with a cluster of resignations among Avon Park’s appointed county leadership, including Professor I. C. M. Ellenberger (who resigned the county superintendency on 9 September 1921 to retain the Avon Park High School principalship) and William A. Marshall (who resigned from the school board on 18 September 1921 to succeed Ellenberger as superintendent).[fl-secstate-1921-1922]

Following Mathews’s resignation, the governor appointed no successor constable for District 1.[fl-secstate-1921-1922] The official registers of executive commissions for 1921–1922 and 1923–1924 show that the constabulary in District 1 remained entirely vacant for the remainder of the inaugural term and the subsequent biennial cycle.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][fl-secstate-1923-1924] Because Avon Park maintained an active municipal police department with a town marshal to handle in-town disturbances and ordinance enforcement, and because county deputies handled broader criminal matters, the statutory fees available to an elected or appointed district constable in Avon Park were negligible, leaving no practical incentive for any citizen to qualify for the post. Mathews subsequently relocated to Florence Villa in Polk County in October 1923 to work in citrus packing and marketing operations.[arcadia-ent-1923-10-25]

Supervisor of Registration L. L. Henderson and the county seat contest

Leonardi Lucas (L. L.) Henderson (1887–1963), a citrus grower who homesteaded on Lake Mirror in Lake Stearns (later Lake Placid) with his wife Sarah “Sallie” Octavia Hendry circa 1918, was appointed Highlands County’s inaugural Supervisor of Registration on 30 April 1921.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][votehighlands-past-soes][wpa-hrs-highlands]

Henderson organized the initial voter registration rolls across the county’s seven original precincts: Avon Park, Sebring, DeSoto City, Lake Stearns, Venus, Hicoria, and Bassenger.[wpa-hrs-highlands] He managed voter rolls through the pivotal June 1922 primary elections. However, on 28 June 1922, Henderson submitted his resignation to Governor Hardee.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][votehighlands-past-soes]

Henderson’s resignation occurred immediately prior to the contentious autumn campaign for the permanent county seat, in which Avon Park and Sebring mounted aggressive voter drives leading to the mandated November 1922 referendum.[wpa-hrs-highlands] With county administrative offices centralized in Sebring’s Sebring-Hainz Building and registration books requiring frequent oversight at the county seat, the thirty-mile round trip over unimproved sand roads from Lake Stearns proved administratively burdensome. On 17 July 1922, Governor Hardee commissioned James Carlton (1870–1953), a resident of Sebring and former DeSoto County commissioner for District 5, to fill the vacancy.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][votehighlands-past-soes] Carlton oversaw registration for the 21 November 1922 county-seat referendum—which Sebring won by fifty-six votes over Avon Park and other candidates—and served as Supervisor of Registration through 1928.[fl-secstate-1921-1922][fl-secstate-1923-1924][votehighlands-past-soes][wpa-hrs-highlands]

Henderson remained active in civic governance. On 6 June 1923, Governor Hardee appointed Henderson to the Highlands County Board of County Commissioners representing District 4 (Lake Stearns), filling the unexpired term of Harvey L. Waters, who had resigned on 28 May 1923.[fl-secstate-1923-1924] Henderson was subsequently elected to multiple successive terms on the county commission, directing public road and infrastructure projects for the Lake Stearns area throughout the 1920s and 1930s.[fl-secstate-1923-1924]

References

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Sources

  1. State of Florida, Office of the Secretary of State, Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida for the Period Beginning January 1, 1921, and Ending December 31, 1922 (1923)
  2. State of Florida, Office of the Secretary of State, Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida for the Period Beginning January 1, 1923, and Ending December 31, 1924 (1925)
  3. Rivers Buford, Attorney General, Report of the Attorney General of the State of Florida for the Period Beginning January 1, 1921, and Ending December 31, 1922 (1923)
  4. The Florida Metropolis, The Florida Metropolis (Jacksonville, Fla.), 18 May 1921: W. M. Griffin Named Highland's Sheriff (1921)
  5. The Florida Metropolis, The Florida Metropolis (Jacksonville, Fla.), 15 July 1921: Curtis Mathews Appointed Constable for District 1 (1921)
  6. The Kissimmee Valley Gazette (reprinting Highlands County Pilot), The Kissimmee Valley Gazette, 3 March 1922, page 4: Sheriff of Highlands Resigns His Position (1922)
  7. The De Soto County News (citing Highlands County Pilot), The De Soto County News (Arcadia, Fla.), 3 March 1922, page 8: R. H. Hancock Sheriff (1922)
  8. The Arcadia Enterprise, The Arcadia Enterprise, 25 October 1923, page 3: Curtis Mathews Leaves for Florence Villa (1923)
  9. Highlands County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff History: Highlands County Sheriffs (2026)
  10. Highlands County Supervisor of Elections, Past Supervisors of Elections (2026)
  11. Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey, Historical Sketch of Highlands County / A Brief Sketch of the Creation and History of Highlands County (1939)

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