Texas Governor Greg Abbott has instructed state flags to be lowered to half-staff today across Texas in honor of former Brazoria County Sheriff and County Judge Joe King. Emory Joseph “Joe” King passed away at the age of 79 a week ago on Tuesday, August 1, 2023, following a hard-fought battle with cancer. Memorial services for King will be conducted at 11 a.m. today, August 8, 2023, at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Angleton. Joe King grew up in Anahuac in Chambers County, Texas, and leaves a legacy of his lifetime career in law enforcement and serving the citizens of Brazoria County. The U.S. Army veteran served 12 years as a Texas state DPS trooper and was a police officer in the neighboring town of Brazoria and a sheriff’s deputy before running for the job of county sheriff.
Joe King retired from public service in 2014 after serving as Brazoria County sheriff from 1980 to 2004 and as Brazoria County judge from 2007 to 2014. He was a tall, imposing figure who carried himself with honor and dignity. Joe King’s popularity was evident by the fact he was elected sheriff of Brazoria County five times.
E.J. “Joe” King served as Brazoria County sheriff for 24 years and county judge eight years
Mirroring the impressive law enforcement career of King was another former Brazoria County sheriff, John Wesley McKinney. The late West Columbian’s name is read each year when the names of fallen deputies who have been killed in the line of duty over the years are memorialized at a special ceremony conducted outside the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department near Angleton. The ceremony coincides with National Police Week and National Peace Officers Memorial Day. John Wesley McKinney, who is buried beside his wife Josephine at Old Columbia Cemetery in West Columbia, passed away 83 years ago in a Houston hospital on October 22, 1940, at the age of 78. He was a deputy sheriff at the time when he sustained serious injuries in an automobile crash on Highway 35 near the San Bernard River bridge outside West Columbia on October 19, 1940, while pursuing a fleeing suspect at a high rate of speed. “Walking John” McKinney was the sheriff of Brazoria County between 1928 and 1933 and had devoted 20 years working as a peace officer with the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department. He was born in Alabama on March 2, 1862, and when his life ended on October 22, 1940, John was survived by his wife, Josephine McCulloch McKinney; two daughters, Carrie Belle McKinney Bross of San Saba, Texas, and Mrs. W.O. McCulley of Sweeny; four sons, William Luther McKinney Sr. of Mart, Texas, J.S. McKinney and Robert Clarence McKinney, both of West Columbia, and Clyde McKinney of Markham, Texas; two sisters, Carrie Taylor of Goose Creek, Texas, and Evie McWilliams of Houston; and a brother, W.L. McKinney of Navasota, Texas.
The headstone of John and Josephine McKinney marks the burial site of the former county sheriff at Columbia Cemetery
His wife was born in Grimes County, Texas, in 1858 and died at the advanced age of 94 in Sweeny in 1953. Their son, Robert Clarence McKinney (1890-1957), and his wife, Emma Pauline Winslow McKinney (1889-1986), are also interred at historic Columbia Cemetery in West Columbia.
McKinney sustained what proved to be fatal injuries in an auto accident on Highway 36 near the San Bernard River bridge outside of West Columbia three days prior to his death. Still employed with the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department as a deputy at the advanced age of 78, McKinney was pursuing a felon when the wreck occurred. He was transferred by ambulance from the wreck scene to a Houston hospital but was unable to recover from his injuries. He was the sheriff of Brazoria County between 1928 and 1933 and was working as a patrol deputy for the sheriff’s department at the time of his death. The son of John Wesley McKinney Sr. (1832-1923) and Sarah “Sallie” Hearne McKinney (born in 1838), the former sheriff was born on March 2, 1862, in Barbour County, Alabama. His funeral was held at the Baptist church in West Columbia with Revs. R. H. Spraker and C. Pugsley officiating. Burial followed in the Old Columbia Cemetery. Sheriff McKinney lived in Grimes County, Texas, before relocating to Brazoria County. He and his wife Josephine were married in Grimes County on April 12, 1883. McKinney was a well-respected lawman in Brazoria County for many years who still has many descendants living in the West Columbia area today.
Former Angleton Times editor Marie Beth Jones writes about John Wesley McKinney Jr. in her 2009 book, “Trials and Tribulations: Early Texas Crime Stories”: McKinney “had already earned national fame for his work as a deputy United States Marshal before he was sworn in as Brazoria County Sheriff at the start of 1929. McKinney, whose nickname reflected his preference of walking to riding, was a native of Alabama. He moved with his family to Grimes County, Texas, when he was six years old, and grew up on a farm 12 miles from Navasota. By 1914 he was already a seasoned lawman who was working along the border between Texas and Mexico. McKinney and his family moved to Brazoria County in 1917 to farm land in the Sweeny area while he also continued his work in law enforcement. In 1927, while still serving as a Deputy U.S. Marshal, McKinney helped solve a crime known as ‘The Great Mail Robbery,’ which occurred near Newburyport, Massachusetts. In that case, a masked robber wearing an unusual ring entered a parked train, taking mail sacks containing thousands of dollars of weekly payroll money. The ring on the robber’s finger led to his identification…The man was arrested in Galveston by McKinney and other officers.”
A big man like Joe King, “Walking John” McKinney “was six feet, four inches tall and weighed just 165-170 pounds, giving him a spare, rawboned appearance,” Jones writes in her 2009 book, describing the late sheriff’s physical appearance. “His attire was generally topped by a ten-gallon felt hat.”
Also like King, McKinney was a well-respected lawman in Brazoria County. At his funeral at the Baptist church in West Columbia, “the mourners included at least two of the men he had sent to prison,” Jones wrote.
In the same book, Marie Beth Jones writes that Joe King was named Officer of the Year by the Brazoria County Peace Officers Association in 1976 and again in 1982. She said that Sheriff King also received the Leadership Award from the East Texas Peace Officers Association in 1988.
“During his term as sheriff, the size of the department increased from 92 employees to 325 employees,” Jones said of the late Sheriff Joe King, “and from a jail capacity of 120 to 1,163.”
Other former Brazoria County sheriffs buried at Old Columbia Cemetery in West Columbia include Samuel Ballowe, John W. Brooks, William H. Sharp, Rees Porter Sweeny and Harrison Perry Dance. Jones writes in her book that Rees Porter Sweeny was the last man to hold the combination post of sheriff and tax collector in Brazoria County. Sweeny was elected sheriff in 1888 and served until November 1890. He later moved to Columbia where he was employed as a banker and as a clerk in the old Weems Drug Store, according to Jones’ book.
William H. Sharp, a member of Terry’s Texas Rangers during the Civil War, served as Brazoria County sheriff from 1879 to 1888. Harrison P. Dance served as county sheriff from 1859 through 1860. Samuel Ballowe was sheriff from 1854 to 1858 and John W. Brooks served in the role as Brazoria County sheriff from 1845 to 1846.