Sheriff Carlton was involved in a shootout in the back alley of the business district of Fort Pierce in 1915 and died. Daniel S. Carlton was the first member of the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office to be killed in the line of duty.
He died in a gunfight right on the street of Fort Pierce, between these two buildings.
Sheriff Carlton at his home which was also contained the Jail
He was a friend of the Seminoles. On one occasion he returned the bones of Tom Tiger, and, by so doing, he stopped an Indian uprising. Ironically, he was a close friend of Billy Bowlegs, a descendant of the Billy Bowlegs whose banana patch destruction led to the Billy Bowlegs War of 1855-1858, in which Alderman Carlton, Daniel's great-grandfather was killed and his grandfather, Daniel Wilson Carlton, was wounded on June 14, 1856.
Back in 1907, a guy names John Flourney, who worked for an amusement park up in Pennsylvania, robbed the grave of the much loved Seminole chief Tom Tiger. He was looking to make some money by selling the bones and pipe artifacts and such to the Smithsonian Institute. (Of course later on, the Smithsonian Institute claimed they had no idea he had robbed a grave...) He took artifacts and all the bones out of the Big Mound City grave of the chief and packed them in a box to ship up north and jumped on the same train.
Billy Bowlegs
Chief of the Seminoles, Billy Smith, said "Kill white man ojus (much) if bones no taken back by big Yankee by next moon." County Commissioner Peter Raulerson informed the county commissioners of the situation and how citizens were so scared by the Indian threats that many were even packing up and leaving their homes. So, Sheriff Dan S. Carlton was sent to the Indian settlement to arrange terms of peace.
And then, in the March 22 issue of the Tribune, appeared:
INDIAN VENGEANCE DEFERRED: Chief Billie Smith, on Sheriff Carlton’s assurance of friendship, grants an extension of two moons.
And then, in the June 14th issue of the Tribune, appeared:
TOM TIGER’S BONES AT REST: Sheriff D. S. Carlton returned Wednesday from Hungerland, where he went to return the bones of Chief Tommy Tiger that had been carried away by John Flournoy.
Tom Tiger
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