A Roman Revival-style courthouse, the Page County Courthouse was completed on December 23, 1833 at a cost of $6,000.  The building was designed and built by two of Thomas Jefferson’s master builders, Malcolm F. Crawford, carpenter, and William P. Phillips. mason.  For safekeeping, court records were stored in a cave outside Luray during the Civil War.  The courthouse was occupied by both armies.  Photo is estimated to have been taken in the early 1960s. 

The front page of The Page Courier, dated November 14, 1907, shows Nathan Sedwick winning his election for Sheriff of Page County (4th column from left).  Note the price for a subscription to the newspaper is $1 per year. 

[Summarized] Rockingham and Page County Officers received a tip that Alger was hiding in a house in Jollet Hollow.  A posse was formed around the house at 2am.  Shortly before daybreak, Alger and a companion left the house.  Lucas yelled for the men to stop.  The companion fired buckshot at Lucas, missing him.  “Alger then began to run,” said Deputy Lucas.  “As he passed up the hill along the road, the other officers leaped from the bushes and he was called upon to halt.  He answered by firing at the officers.  He fired his pistol four times.  The fire was returned, three bullets hitting him, stopping his flight.”  Alger, escaped convict from a Nelson County road camp, was reported this morning to be in a critical condition at Rockingham Memorial Hospital with chances against recovery.  Alger is suffering from bullet wounds in his back, his leg and his stomach.

Born April 1, 1874, died August 15, 1958, Ruffner wins election to become Page County’s 22nd Sheriff on November 5, 1935.  Pictured above is downtown Luray at the corner of East Main Street and Highway 340.  Photo was taken in the early 1940s.  The coffee shop on the right is now being renovated into a new restaurant, the Watch and Warrant (2022).  Photo credit: Ann Vaughn Collection, pictured in Images of America, Luray and Page County, Dan Vaughn. 

Deputy Aldine Painter confiscating a moonshine still in Jollett / Weaver Hollow. 

This was a proposed drawing for the new Page County Jail, approved in 1967 by the Board of Supervisors.  The jail would be two stories plus a basement.  The basement will include offices for he Sheriff and Deputy and a reception room.  The first floor will house will house 12 security and 2 isolation cells, a male clean-up room, a holding cell, kitchen laundry, visiting area and jailors office.  The top floor will contain 12 more security cells, two more isolation cells, matron’s office and a three bedroom apartment for the jailor.  Estimated cost of the new jail is $280,000.

“A 25 year Republican hold on Page County offices was broken Tuesday of this week when Democrat Kenneth E. Kerkhoff , a former state trooper, was elected to the office of Sheriff.  Kerkhoff had pledged to give his full time to the office and train his deputies in law enforcement practices.  The result of the balloting was Kerkhoff, 3,800 to 3,556 for GOP incumbent Clark Long for a victory margin of 244.”  November 1968, The Page Courier News. 

A convicted murderer has been charged with the wounding and attempted murder of State Trooper on Monday night in Stanley.  Police arrested Wilmer Sylvester Lucas at his home after a shootout which left state trooper John B. Thomas injured and three police cruisers damaged.  The investigators say the shootout began when Thomas went to the Stanley home to investigate a hit and run accident.  Lucas previously served a prison term for murdering his wife, using a 12 gauge shotgun.  He served seven years of a 20 year sentence.  Lucas also shot Trooper Thomas with a 12 gauge shotgun, hitting his face and shoulder, damaging his left eye.  At the time of this article, there was no update on the condition of his eye.  Police stated Lucas fired at Thomas and others apparently because he was afraid of going back to prison. 

John B. Thomas would be elected Page County Sheriff in 2009.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested several persons after a fracus broke out on June 14 on Al Good Drive near Stanley involving the use of guns, baseball bats, and other lethal objects.  (Nothing further is included with the article.)

Picture was taken when Gov. Baillie was in office.  He gave the Page County Sheriff’s Office a Certificate of Appreciation.  Picture taken around 1987 or 1988, under a large tree in the Mimslyn lot.

Kneeling down Left to Right: Earl Embery, Todd Painter, Ikey Good, Ronnie Frady.  Ladies in the Middle: Marie Pence, Christie Bosley.  Standing Left to Right: John Atwood, Dickie Pullen, Sheriff Pap Sedwick, Mary Boyle, Gene Stewart, James Moomaw, Charlie Cavey, Tommy Rothget, Gov. Baillie, Nelson Powell, Bob Daugherty, Captain Philip Mims, Donald Breeden, Jerry Baker, and Chuck Robbins.

Officers from left to right – First Row: Corporal Bud Jenkins, Sergeant James Moomaw, Sergaent Jason Pettit, Major Russell Montgomery, Sheriff Daniel Presgraves, Lieutenant Philip Mims, Sergaent Bob Dougherty, and Corporal Jim Reamey.  Second Row: Bridgett Gochenour, John Brown, Lieutenant Investigator Jay Jenkins, Investigator Bow Cook, Investigator Tom Mitchell, Investigator Becky Hilliard, Rusty McCoy and Paul Davis.  Third Row: Jeremy Keyser, Scott Morris, Elvena Price, Aaron Good, James Morris, Chad Cubbage, Earl Embrey, and Jason Pettit.

Sheriff Thomas’s career has spanned forty years with twenty-six in the Virginia State Police (1976 to 2002), where he retired as the Special Agent in Charge of the Culpeper Field Office of the VSP’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.  Starting in 2002, he spent two years as a part-time investigator for the Page County Sheriff’s Office.  Upon leaving the Sheriff’s Office in 2004, he was the pastor of a small church and subsequently took the job as associate pastor for a 350-member church in Page County. God called him from this position to the appointment by the Circuit Court as acting Sheriff of Page County in May of 2009. Six months later, the voters elected him to a full term, and he served as Page County’s sheriff until 2016.