Eric Oswald Shelton was born on May 24, 1886, in Stokes County, North Carolina. Shelton was sheriff of Stokes County from at least 1915 up to 1921. As a member of law enforcement, Shelton assisted in the enforcement of prohibition, busting several illegal distilling operations in the county. In a drunken rage in October 1921, Shelton pulled a pistol in a crowd at the Forsyth County Fairgrounds and began acting erratically. Two local policemen arrested him, and he was charged with drunkenness, resisting arrest, and carrying a concealed weapon. Shelton was fined $50—a heavy fine for the time—but was spared a sentence of forced road labor, even though such a sentence was typical for this offense. The presiding judge in Shelton's case did not mince words, saying of Shelton, "I will not send the defendant to the roads for this offense, but I will leave it to the people of Stokes county to say what they will do with a man of this caliber." Within a couple of weeks, local citizens introduced impeachment proceedings against him in superior court, but before he could be forcibly removed from office, he resigned. Shelton died in Danbury, North Carolina, on July 16, 1965.