Much of the first sheriff's two-year term was spent with the newly incorporated Lincoln County's first court case, State of Nebraska vs. John Burley.
Between the two of them, Baker and Keliher had more years in law enforcement than the more popular lawmen that history remembers, Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett, and Wild Bill Hickok, combined.
In part, this was simply because the railroad companies, and the people who worked for them, made up the majority of the business and population of Lincoln County at the time up until 1880.
John Bangs, elected in 1884 as the successor to Con Groner, owned a North Platte livery business; Luke Haley, sheriff from 1886 to 1887, was the operator of a saloon and restaurant; David Baker owned a boardinghouse, a hotel, a restaurant, and a bakery; and Ira Miltonberter, sheriff from 1906 to 1911, had a general merchandise store.
A Nebraska county sheriff received no money if there were no criminals to arrest, no papers to serve, and no court or jail work to do.
The 1875 election, eventually won by 29-year-old Asa Bradley, was contested by several candidates in their twenties, something that the local newspaper, the North Platte Republican reported favorably.
[1] Almost all sheriffs in the 19th century kept their noses clean both in and out of office, with the two major exceptions being Haley (who, after he had left office, had to pay a fine of USD25 for violating a municipal ordinance requiring him to have screens on all of his saloon windows) and Stuthers (who, years after he had been sheriff, in Grand Junction, Colorado shot and killed a highwayman that had attempted to rob him, but with the resultant charges against him dismissed on the grounds of self-defense).
However, most of the work was performed by county sheriffs and their deputies, with state and federal agencies playing only minor rôles until the 20th century.
Even United States marshals, who dealt with enforcement of federal laws regarding the mail, counterfeiting, land fraud, and sale of liquor to Native Americans, form little part of the historical record in Lincoln County from the 1870s onward.
[1] The sheriffs and deputies were responsible for many tasks, including the investigation of serious crimes, the arrest of suspects, the guarding of people awaiting trial, the serving of court papers, the summoning of jurors to service, the opening of each session of the district court, the provision of courtroom security, and the transportation of convicted felons to the state penitentiary in Lincoln.
UP itself came to employ a sizeable private security force to police its own property and passengers, that worked alongside the sheriff's office, and in the period from 1890 to 1910 52% of all criminal cases in Lincoln County Court were crimes against the railroad.