(Town Marshal) John Yeomans
Jacksonville Police Department
Incident Details
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: May 24, 1840
Location of Incident: Unknown
Weapon Used: Firearm, shotgun
Suspect Info: McMullen, Bryant
Jacksonville's first law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty was named Yeomans, whom it believed was the next to succeed Daniel Hart in the post of Town Marshal. His first names and the exact date of his death in 1841 have been lost in the mist of time, but details of the incident remain.
T. Frederick Davis gives this account, "Two men from Tallahassee came to Jacksonville to paint the town red. They put a beam under the market building and turned it over on its side, then started for a high time in general." Davis goes on to say that Town Marshal Yeomans armed himself and went in search of the two men, whose names were McMullen and Bryant.
Sadly for Marshal Yeomans, the two rowdies found him first, standing in the doorway of a billiard room, and shot him down with buckshot without warning. A courageous citizen named Huffman rushed to Yeomans aid and was also shot by the men. Yeomans died but Huffman recovered. Both suspects escaped, one by switching his clothes with his mother while awaiting trial in the jail in Tallahassee for the Jacksonville murder. Yeomans' killers went unpunished.