We had a "town marshall" when I was a kid. I don't know how much "marshalling" he ever did as he had other duties as well, one of which was garbage collector. As I got older, we had a "night watchman" who filled the role of "town cop". One exciting day we got to see him mace a muskrat that had come up through the storm sewer and was hiding under a car. As you said, eventually the town contracted with the county for law enforcement and one of the deputies lived in town. As an aside, Dad was the "town marshall" in Varina back in 1940 when he and Mom ran a cafe there.
