“Stars Over Texas,” a three-volume hardbound boxed book set of the histories of Texas’ 254 county elected sheriffs was recently gifted to The Freestone County Historical Museum by Dr. Ronnie E. Erwin.
The book details each county’s law enforcement history with the names, pictures, and dates of each Texas county sheriff, male and female from their county’s formation to the present. The book set is hardbound in tooled faux leather with inserted black and white, colorized pictures of all known sheriffs, their county jails and courthouses, date of service, etc. Western art embellishments are added randomly throughout the books making for an educational as well as entertaining read. Erwin also gifted a set to Freestone County Sheriff Jeremy Shipley.
The idea of taking on a massive assignment came from Erwin’s late wife, Lynn McKee Erwin, after their years of collecting sheriff badges (stars) and any memorabilia associated with Texas histories of sheriffs going back to the 1800s frontier era. Their first effort was the publication of “Stars over Tennessee” – their home state which detailed all that state’s sheriff histories by county.
