Name of St. Bernard Sheriff’s Dep. Sam Gowland, slain in 1926, added to Louisiana Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in ceremony at Lake Lawn Cemeteries

Descendants of Dep. Sheriff Gowland and their families who attended the ceremony, shown with Sheriff Pohlmann.

Hundreds of survivors of officers whose names were added to the memorial and current law enforcement officers surround a stage for the ceremonies at Lake Lawn cemeteries.

Some of the deputies from the Sheriff’s Office who attended included, from left, Maj. Chad Clark, Sgt. Joey Alfonso and Capt. Ronnie Morgan. Also present were Capt. C.J. Arcement and Lt. Robert Broadhead.	Samuel D. Gowland Jr., left, grandson of the slain deputy sheriff, and his wife, Diane, receive a remembrance of the officer. With them are Sheriff Pohlmann and Melanie Cannatella, executive director of the Louisiana Law enforcement Officers Memorial.
St. Bernard’s Sheriff’s Honor Guard, which included that day, from left, Dep. Sheriff Clayten Burns, Sgt. Michael Lyons, and Deputies Eric Wickboldt and Chelsie Soulagnet, were among several honor guards from various departments.	Sheriff James Pohlmann addresses the crowd from the podium. Seated to his left are former U.S.Attorney Jim Letten and New Orleans Police Superintendant Ronal Serpas.

It was dawn on Nov. 16, 1926, four days before the start of muskrat-trapping season in the marshes of eastern St. Bernard Parish, a lucrative trade at that time, but also a cause of violence the past several years because of a dispute between trappers and landowners.

That dispute was about to get bloody that day and cost the life of St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Sam Gowland, 33, a former justice of the peace. The incident became part of the legendary Trappers War of St. Bernard.

Gowland was aboard an oyster lugger with a large number of guards allegedly hired by the historically controversial Judge Leander Perez of Plaquemines Parish. They set out for the community of Delacroix Island to protect leased trapping lands but, unknown to them, hundreds of trappers had gathered there to discuss the situation. As the boat passed the trappers, an intense battle broke out involving machine guns, shotguns and pistols, according to news stories afterward.

Both sides claimed the other had fired first but the trappers got the best of the exchange. The boat was riddled with bullets and when the trappers ceased fire, Gowland lay dead on its deck and many of the men who had been on board were seriously wounded and had to fight their way ashore.

Days later two men were arrested for murder but were never prosecuted.

Within months, the intentional breaking of the levee at Caernarvon during the Great Flood of 1927 would wash away the trappers’ livelihood. Then, before the muskrats could repopulate the marshes, the Great Depression would destroy the market for inexpensive furs.

Now, Sam Gowland’s death is being noted as an officer who died in the line of duty.

On May 8, Dep. Gowland’s name was added to the Louisiana Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in a ceremony at Lake Lawn Cemeteries in Metairie honoring all officers who have died in the line of duty.

Also, his name is being added to the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Two other St. Bernard Parish sheriff’s deputies have previously been recognized for their deaths in the line of duty, both killed on April 23, 1923. They are Dep. Sheriff Joseph Estopinal who was shot to death, and Dep. Sheriff August Esteves, killed by vehicular assault.

St. Bernard Sheriff James Pohlmann took part in the ceremony at Lake Lawn, in which the names of deputies from several other parishes’ sheriff’s offices, officers from city police departments and a federal customs inspector who all died in the line of duty were added to the Louisiana Law Enforcement Officers memorial.

Several other St. Bernard deputies attended the ceremony and an Honor Guard from St. Bernard’s department also took part.

Sheriff Pohlmann described to a large audience of survivors of fallen officers and current officers at the ceremony the circumstances in which Dep. Sheriff Gowland was killed.

“He made the ultimate sacrifice’’ an officer can make and should be remembered for that, the sheriff said.

“It’s been 87 years since a member of St. Bernard’s Sheriff’s Office has been killed,’’ Sheriff Pohlmann said. “Thank God for that.’’ But the possibility of it happening is something the men and women of law enforcement must face each day they put on a uniform, he said.

Two grandsons of the deceased deputy were present at the ceremony along with other descendants. The grandsons were Samuel D. Gowland Jr., who attended with his wife, Diane, and the other was Frank Mumphrey, who attended with his wife, Gail. Both men said they were proud to see their grandfather’s name added to the memorial. The Louisiana Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, whose executive director is Melanie Cannatella of St. St. Bernard native – widow of New Orleans Police Department officer Ronald Cannatella – was dedicated on May 20, 2002. There are now the names of 425 fallen law enforcement officers are inscribed on the memorial.

Among the latest new names besides Gowland were fallen St. John deputies Brandon Nielsen and Jeremy Triche, killed last August while investigating a shooting that injured two fellow deputies, and John Stout, a U.S. Customs Inspector shot to death on Jan. 20, 1814, while trying to arrest the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte for smuggling.