Deputy Sheriff Ulysses Grant Holliday

Ulysses Grant Holliday

Deputy Sheriff Grant Holliday was shot and killed as he attempted to serve a warrant on two brothers. He and two deputized civilians located the brothers outside of the Jackson city limits and informed them they were under arrest.

The two suspects approached the deputies in a threatening manner, and Deputy Holliday raised his shotgun in defense. One of the brothers and Deputy Holliday exchanged shots, and Deputy Holliday was fatally wounded.

One of the suspects was also wounded and both were taken into custody. Charges against the wounded 19-year-old suspect were dismissed, although evidence and investigations then and years later proved that he was the killer. A few days before Deputy Holliday was killed, the suspect had been released from prison after serving most of a 5-year sentence for killing a young boy after a fight at a turkey shoot at Lost Creek on January 3, 1900. During the same incident, he shot and killed his cousin but was acquitted of his murder. In 1909 he shot and killed a man in Breathitt County. On November 10, 1910, he shot and killed Wesley Turner, a Breathitt County Jailer. Four days later, it was mistakingly reported that he had been shot and killed by a posse. Twice in 1911, he was reported captured in Williamstown, West Virginia, and later in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Both times it was discovered they had the wrong man. On May 26, 1915, Governor James B. McCreary added another $250 to his reward, making it more than $1000. The last known information about him, "Kentucky Bad Man Jake Noble," was in a Kentucky newspaper dated June 5, 1916, which reported he had killed another man in Breathitt County.

The other brother was tried, but the result is not known.

Deputy Holliday had served only a few weeks. He was survived by his wife and three children. He was preceded in death by a daughter.

He is buried in Combs Graveyard, Breathitt County, Kentucky.