MCSO Jeep Posse |
How it all started In the beginning there were seven men: Matt Clayborne, Jack Erwin, Eddy Jackson, Chet Oliver, J.D. Parker and Eddy Rock. The first meeting of the Maricopa County Jeep Posse was held at a small restaurant on the corner of 19th Avenue and Camelback Road. The owner of the restaurant was Jack Erwin. He was a good friend of the sheriff, who was Cal Bois. Jack was the instigator and big wheel at that time, which was in the early fall of 1955. At the first meeting there was not much done, but it was decided that there would be another meeting on the same night, Thursday, of the following week. At the next meeting there were 13 men. I am Bob Dearing and I was one of those 13 men, as were the Hatton brothers, Elvie, Dan, John and Leon. The club was gotten underway and it was decided that everyone there that night was a charter member and would pay no initiation fee, but everyone coming in after that would. If I am not mistaken, the dues were set at one dollar per month and there would two meetings a month. After several meetings we were fingerprinted, then Cal Bois came out one night and swore us in. Jack appointed some men to help him. He also picked sergeants; one for the east, west, north and south. I was chosen for the east end. Each sergeant was allowed to pick his own corporal.
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The restaurant was built with a horseshoe counter and we all sat on stools around the horseshoe. Jack sat on a stool with his back to the pie case. Free coffee was furnished to all members on meeting nights. You could make suggestions, but Jack ran everything. When election time came around, Jack had some ballots printed with his name on them for captain and no room for anyone else. Leon Hatton said he would run for captain, so everyone was called and told of another meeting place. We all went there and destroyed the ballots Jack had made, then elected officers which included Leon for captain. J.D. Parker was our first adjutant, but his bookkeeper, Mary, did most of the work and took the minutes. We never had another meeting at Jack's reasturant and Jack never came to any of our meetings. WEBMASTER'S NOTE: Bob Dearing says he was 90 on his last birthday. Over the last 40 or so years he has made many contributions to the Jeep Posse including serving as commander. He is also past commander of the "National Jeep S&R Ass'n." Now, "Jeep" has been dropped (I think Chevrolet donated a Blazer for a raffle) and it is now the "National S&R Ass'n." I think Bob was probably in the thick of a lot of happenings. We always told him to, "write it down" and he did. We will draw on some of his stories and his wisdom as time goes by. These stories are as Bob wrote them. |
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