When Judge H.H. Hancock sentenced Pogy Bill Collins to 90 days in the Fort Pierce Jail near the end of 1915, he was surprised to discover that there was substantial pressure for him to commute the offender’s sentence.

Doc Anner (Dr Anna Darrow) and her husband had been trying to get Pogy Bill to reform, to quite his drinking and fighting, as had other members of the community. Due to their efforts, Judge Hancock made the trip to Fort Pierce to talk to Pogy in jail. To his surprise, Pogy Bill agreed to give up the fun, and to help enforce the laws he had so often broken. The judge released him from jail, and Pogy Bill never broke his promise to Judge Hancock.

Okeechobee City was incorporated on June 4, 1915. The first City Marshall was Benjamin F. Hall, who was appointed on July 14, 1915. He served in the post only until September 1915. J.W. Raulerson was selected as his replacement on October 12, 1915, and held the office until the following march.

Their lack of success in maintaining law and order in the rip-roaring young town no doubt contributed to their short terms in office. The job was next offered to Pogy Bill, and he was appointed the City Marshall on march 14, 1916. He held the job for the next two-and-a-half years. Upon the death of Okeechobee County’s first sheriff, Smith Drawdy, in 1918. Pogy Bill moved into the sheriffs office and remained there for the next 14 years.

There has probably never been a sheriff who brought a more comprehensive knowledge of the wily ways of lawbreakers to the office than Bill. Only the foolish ever defied him, and even they exhibited a certain amount of caution in doing so. He knew all the nooks and crannies along the entire shoreline of Lake Okeechobee where the outlaws hit out, and he was invaluable in identification since he knew everyone on the lake. When the community reached the stage where he required a deputy, he hired a rugged, gutsy assistant, Charles Lee. He was a former Texas Ranger and one of the Rough Riders who fought with Teddy Roosevelt at the battle of San Juan Hill.

Pogy Bill’s turn to the lawful life was not just limited to maintaining law and order and keeping the fighting and gambling in the county to a minimum. He took an active interest in the youth of the county. He said that the young needed an outlet for their energy and emotions. First, he organized a baseball team. Any new arrival in town was given the choice of coming out to play baseball or going to jail. The sheriff never lacked for team members. Later, Bill bought boxing gloves and taught boys how to box.

The late Wade Walker recalled in 1988, with fondness, the man he considered his friend. "I played on the ball team when East Okeechobee played West Okeechobee. He furnished all the equipment. He knew when the game was over there would be a big fight, so he’d leave before the game was over. He thought the world of us boys. He took care of us just as though we were his own boys. He was a good man.

He’d take us kids everywhere. We’d go to Fort Pierce, Miami, anywhere there as a big fight or some other big thing going on. He’d take us kids and load us up in his big car. He had a big Lincoln, He’d load us up and take us with him and it never cost us a dime, " he said.

"If he knew of someone out there who didn’t have anything to eat, he didn’t ask them if they had anything. He’d just go into the store and buy a bunch of groceries and carry them out and set it on their steps. That’s the kind of man he was. He didn’t want to be one of them big shots, you know, that’d do this and do that. He’d just go buy the folks what they needed," Mr. Walker recalled.

When a Boy Scout troop was started in Okeechobee, it soon had Pogy Bill as an active troop leader. He also helped raise founds to keep the troop going and active.