Marshal J. Edgar Chipley was fatally injured in a high-speed pursuit.

On January 7, 1961, Marshal Edgar Chipley was conducting a speed check on the south side of New Franklin when a car came by exceeding the speed limit. Marshal Chipley gave chase traveling south when an oncoming car turned left in front of his patrol vehicle at the south end of the MKT Highway 5 viaduct at the New Franklin City limits. He swerved to the left to avoid the car and swung back to the right to avoid an oncoming car. His patrol car skidded sideways into a ditch, rolled over several timse traveling 150 feet before it struck a tree. Marshal Chipley was thrown out of the car, seriously injured and died the next day at St Joseph Hospital in Boonville. His brother-in-law, Daniel Wagner, was riding in the car with him was also killed when he was thrown out of the vehicle and pinned beneath the patrol car.

Both the speeding vehicle that Marshal Chipley was chasing and the vehicle that turned in front of him left the scene. Marshal Shipley's brother-in-law, Daniel Wagner, was killed in the crash. Marshal Chipley's 15 year-old son was also in the patrol car but suffered only minor injuries.

Marshal Jesse Edgar Chipley was elected city marshal on April 1, 1957. He had served at intervals between being marshal and deputy sheriff of Howard County. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth, one son, parents and two sisters. Interred: Clark's Chapel Cemetery.