Sheriff Robert Boone Harris was killed by a band of Confederate bushwhackers.

On May 17, 1865, Sheriff Harris along with an Army lieutenant were captured at a residence about twelve miles northwest of Lebanon by approximtely forty Confederate riders. The men were taken about a mile into the woods where the Confederate riders hanged Sheriff Harris and the Army officer and cut the throats of three other men who were riding with Sheriff Harris. The men were among thirteen murdered by the group of Confederate riders in Laclede and southwest Missouri following the end of the Civil War.

Sheriff Harris moved from Chase County, Kansas to Laclede County prior to the Civil War. He joined the Union Army and lost an arm due to a gunshot wound. Following his discharge from the army he was appointed sheriff in 1865 and was killed that same year.