Bio & Incident Details
Age: Not available
Tour: 1 year, 9 months
Badge # Not available
Cause: Gunfire
Incident Date: 8/30/1894
Weapon: Handgun
Suspect: Escaped
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Precinct 8 Constable John Pivoda was acting as the Schulenburg City Marshal in the absence of City Marshal Henry Ellers. Constable Pivoda had received a writ from Luling in Caldwell County to arrest an unnamed man. At about 10 o'clock he went over to the freight depot to look for the wanted man, and from the suspicious sounds emanating from a box car he knew that several men were in there gambling. He walked up to the car and, putting his head inside, asked who was there. Someone replied, "Who are you?" and an instant later a shot was fired. The ball struck Constable Pivoda about three inches below the left nipple, ranging downward, inflicting a fatal wound. The constable managed to fire one shot, and then fell. The wounded, dying constable was taken home and given every attention, but the wound was a fatal one, and he breathed his last at 9 o'clock Friday morning, August 31, 1894. In his dying statement he named a "Rhine" [Ryan] Stewart as his assassin. Stewart was a local gambler who worked at the compress as a cotton tier. Stewart escaped and a $200 reward was issued. In February 1895 the Fayette County sheriff obtained extradition papers on Stewart who was reported hiding in Mexico. It is unknown at this time if Stewart was ever arrested and tried for the murder of Constable Pivoda.
The Texas State Election Records report John Pivoda was elected the constable for Precinct 8 in Fayette County on November 8, 1892 and was bonded on December 5, 1894. He had served about one year and nine months. No other information is known about John Pivoda at this time.
