More than three decades ago, Wiley Sherman Pinkerton Sr. left a farm in Belzoni to become one of Meridian’s first mounted police officers, patrolling the streets, investigating crime and parading at local schools on his horse named Buck.

Pinkerton died on Jan. 10 at the age of 59, donating his body to Genesis Legacy in Memphis, a medical research institution, to study the effects of pulmonary fibrosis in hopes of finding a cure, his son, Wiley “Lee” Sherman Pinkerton Jr., said.

David Hall, who started as Meridian’s first mounted police officer a few months before adding Pinkerton, remembered their days as mounted officers from 1985 until 1989, when both left the force for other positions in the state.

Hall, 62, left the Meridian Police Department to serve with the Forest Police Department, which was closer to his home in Lake. But former Meridian police chief Jerry Marlowe approached him in 1985, only two years after he joined the department, and asked him to start a mounted officer force.

“He knew I would break and train horses… so I started with one and we eventually grew to four,” Hall said. “Four or eight months after I started they decided they wanted to add another one… and then we added Wiley and Buck.”

Hall and Pinkerton were partners, training together in methods of crowd patrol, searching woods in the rain for murder suspects and patrolling the streets with their horses.

Hall rode Major, a white American Quarter horse, while Pinkerton rode Buck, a brown American Quarter horse.

“We enforced the laws just like anybody else,” Hall recalled. “And everybody liked to see the horses.”

Hall remembered going to New Orleans to train with the mounted officers there, and he and  Pinkerton were assigned crowd control at a concert. He and several officers were on foot, with the horses at either end of the concert stage.

“At the end of the concert, the crowd trampled the guys on foot, so Wiley and I turned the horses and walked along the edge to meet in the middle,” Hall said. “When (Major and Buck) were nose-to-nose we started side-stepping together toward the crowd for crowd control… one of the officers on foot looked up and said, ‘I’ve never been so glad to see a horse in my life!’ “

Hall retired in December after 44 years with the Forest Police Department but spoke excitedly about his time spent riding Major with Pinkerton and Buck.

“We were on the same page. We had a lot of good times,” Hall said. “One of the best partners I could have had.”

Fond memories 

Pinkerton’s son also looked back fondly on his time with his father, recalling a time he spotted a would-be burglar across the street from his home at his elementary school.

“I told my mom and she called my dad, because he was on-duty,” Pinkerton, 39, said. “And he went over and arrested them. It just made you feel very safe as a kid.”

Pinkerton recalled his father showing the horses to his sister’s class at Magnolia Middle School and visiting his class at West Hills. 

“It was like my show-and-tell,” Pinkerton said.

Pinkerton called his father an animal lover, who always kept animals since he was a child. Mostly, Pinkerton said he looked up to his father.  

“I always wanted to wear his hat,” Pinkerton said, remembering the motorcycles his father rode and the two-seater plane he flew to visit his parents, who still lived in Belzoni. “I thought he was the coolest man in the world.”

The elder Pinkerton once snapped a photo of his son wearing his hat and posted it to his son’s wall on Facebook every birthday to embarrass him.

“He would always post, ‘All I could give you is my name and I’m proud of how you wear it,’ ” Pinkerton said.  

Pinkerton’s father died the day before his birthday this year.

“My stepmom logged into his account and shared it for me just one more time,” Pinkerton said. “And I was looking back at the memories on Facebook and seeing how many times he’d posted it. He’d really done it a lot.”

Different lives

Both of Pinkerton’s children pursued careers in the health industry, with his daughter Kim Bartholomew, training to be a neonatal nurse practitioner and the younger Pinkerton working as a case manager at Regency Hospital. 

“He was proud we went that route because he knew how dangerous police work was,” Pinkerton said.

Pinkerton said his father pursued law enforcement after serving in the military. Before coming to Meridian, he worked at several departments, including Houston, Texas and Yazoo, Mississippi.

After the casino in Philadelphia opened, he left to become a craps dealer and then pursued commercial driving. 

“I think my dad had several different lives,” Pinkerton said. “But I’m most proud of the last ten to 12 years of his life, because that’s when he really gave himself to God. He had a nicer spirit, more of a softness.”

Pinkerton said he felt his father’s faith gave him peace in his final days.

“When I saw him last, we both knew it was the last time. I prayed with him, asked him for a lifetime of advice… He said to me, ‘I hope my death inspires someone to be a better person and to have a greater, closer relationship with God,’ ” Pinkerton said. “He felt strongly about where he knew he was going. Most 59 year olds don’t have that.”