Baltimore City Police History Insight
OUR POLICE
A HISTORY
OF THE
BALTIMORE FORCE
Folsom
BALTIMORE 1888
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OUR POLICE.
A HISTORY OF THE BALTIMORE FORCE
FROM THE FIRST WATCHMAN TO
THE LATEST APPOINTEE,
EDITED BY
d e F R A N C I A S FOLSOM.
ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS AND ETCHINGS.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.
18 88.
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COPYRIGHT BY
J. M. BEERS.
PRINTED BY
J . D. E H L E R S & CO.
AND
GUQGENNEIMER, WEII, & CO.
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PREFACE.
POLICEMEN are the heroes of peace as soldiers are heroes
of war. In many respects they are the soldiers’ superiors. They
pass stricter examinations, they observe more rigid rules, and
their exploits are without the glory that attaches itself to military
life. Their duties- are proverbially exacting. They must run
constant physical risks and endure all kinds of weather. To
unfaltering patience and fortitude they must add personal bravery
of a high and continuous order. They must not only discover
crime but they must prevent it. They must not only arrest
criminals but they must protect the innocent by keeping track of
the wrong-doers, be a restraint upon the idle and vicious.
Whether a burglar-alarm sounds, a fire breaks out or a baby
gets lost, it is towards the policeman that all thoughts immediately
turn. They are our friends in danger, our protectors
always.
The police of many cities have marked characteristics,
but the Baltimore force occupies an enviable position, being a notably
able and efficient organization. It suppressed the riotous
elements that at one time ruled here and has made this city one
of the safest and most orderly in the world. One can venture into
any alley or street at any time of the day or night without fear
or harm. “Crooks” of all kinds are as shy of Baltimore as
they are of the penitentiary itself. The city is free from great
crimes. Everywhere order and safety prevail. To the police
the credit belongs.
The history of the police is to a large extent the history of
Baltimore. It embraces the careers of prominent citizens, the
accounts of important political changes, the interesting records of
criminal sensations, the full details of great events and all those
valuable incidents which the cut-and-dried historian in his prosy
(III)
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TV PREFACE.
collection of dates and skeleton facts has either overlooked or disregarded.
In no volume have the police of Baltimore been given
the attention that by all the considerations of merit and importance
belongs to them. Nothing has been published in permanent
form to show the extent of their labors or to give the people an
adequate idea of their history and careers. This book, then, has
a large field all to itself and those who read it will be surprised
at the abundance of interesting fact and anecdote which is put forth
for the first time in its pages. It is a particularly fitting season to’
> give this material an enduring form. Many old policemen and
aged citizens whose reminiscences are priceless, are still alive to
tell of the old times. Valuable data procurable now will have
disappeared in a few years. The period now is when the police
force has reached a position of general and undoubted excellence,
and the history of its past—sometimes picturesque, sometimes
exciting and always interesting—must be written before the
records and the recollections have lost their freshness and
accuracy.
But it is not with the past alone that this volume concerns
itself’ for in the story of the present it will show how little
the citizen realizes of the varied experiences of light and shadow,
the romance and the darker side of the familiar blue-coated
guardian’s lot.
That the work will receive a kindly welcome is a hope that
should be shared by every friend of humanity’s friend—the
Policeman.
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CONTENTS.
PREFACE, ill
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, – – – – – – – – – – xiv
ROSTER OF THE FORCE, – – – – – 533
INDEX, – – – – 544
CHAPTER I.
BALTIMORE’S EARLIEST OFFICERS.
(1606-1784.)
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF THE PATAPSCO.—”WHETSTONE
POINT” MADE A TOWN AND PORT OF ENTRY (1706). — THE
TOWN OF BALTIMORE CREATED (1729).—THE EARLY CONSERVATORS
OF THE PEACE.—THE SHERIFF, CONSTABLES AND
PUBLIC EXECUTIONER.—AN OFFICE NOT SOUGHT AFTER.—A
CASE IN POINT WHERE THE OFFICE SOUGHT THE MAN.
CRUEL PUNISHMENTS INFLICTED ON MALEFACTORS.—BRANDING
WITH IRONS. THE PILLORY, STOCKS AND DUCKING-STOOLS.
BALTIMORE’S PILLORY AND WHIPPING-POST AT THE OLD
COURT HOUSE. , – Pp. 1 – 14
CHAPTER II.
(1784-1853.)
THE GUARDIANS OF THE TOWN ORGANIZED BY LEGISLATIVE
ENACTMENT.—ALL MANNER OF TAXES TO SUPPORT THE PEACE
OFFICERS.—AT THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION.—BALTIMORE
BECOMES A CITY.—INCREASING THE NUMBER OF WATCHMEN.
ESTABLISHMENT OF WATCH-HOUSES AND ERECTION OF CELLS.
THE POLICE FORCE IN 1848. Pp. 1 5 – 2 3
vii
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Till CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
(1853-1860.)
THE REORGANIZATION OE THE FORCE.—THE DUTIES OE ITS
OFFICERS.—FOUR POLICE DISTRICTS AND THREE HUNDRED
AND FIFTY PATROLMEN.—NO LONGER HIGH CONSTABLE, BUT
MARSHAL. FIRST POLICE HEADQUARTERS. THE PAY AND
UNIFORM.—THE POLICE AND THE MAGISTRATES.—NO PUNISHMENT
OF CRIME.—THE REORGANIZATION OF 1860.—MARSHAL
KANE AND HIS ADMINISTRATION. – – – – – Pp. 2 4 – 44
CHAPTER IV.
CIVIL WAR AND THE NEW FORCE.
THE ENTRANCE OF THE NORTHERN TROOPS.—MARSHAL KANE’S
PRECAUTIONS. PROTECTING THE MILITARY. THE MARCH
THROUGH THE STREETS. “KEEP BACK, MEN, OR I’LL SHOOT.”
—THE COMMISSIONERS AND MARSHAL ARRESTED.—UNDER
MILITARY RULE. THE RIVAL POLICE BOARDS. GOOD ORDER
AGAIN.—THE REORGANIZATION OF 1867.—THE FIRST BOARD.
Pp. 45-74
CHAPTER V.
FLOOD OF 1868, AND RIOT OF 1877.
BALTIMORE INUNDATED.—BRAVE WORK BY POLICEMEN.—COMMISSIONER
CARR’S GALLANTRY.—HIS TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE
IN THE FLOOD AND HIS RESCUE.—POLICEMF.N WHO AIDED
THE DESTITUTE.—THE POLICE SPECIAL 1’UNI AND ITS DISPOSITION
BY THE COMMISSIONERS. THE CD KGES IN THE
BOARD.—THE RIOTS OF 1877, AND THE MORA1 VHEY TAUGHT.
—THE POLICE FORCE IN 1885. PP. 7 5 – 1 16
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CONTENTS. ix
CHAPTER VI.
THE PRESENT POLICE COMMISSIONERS.
HOW THE BOARD IS NOW CONSTITUTED.—ITS DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES.—
HOW THE COMMISSIONERS CARE FOR THE
MEMBERS OP THE FORCE.—SKETCH OF PRESIDENT EDSON M.
SCHRYVER.—TREASURER ALFRED J. CARR’S DUTIES AND
ACHIEVEMENTS AS COMMISSIONER.—INCIDENTS IN HIS CAREER.
—COMMISSIONER JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ROBSON’S LIFE AND
HIS SERVICES TO THE STATE OF MARYLAND.—A SKETCH OF
SECRETARY GEORGE SAVAGE. – – – – – – PP. 1 1 7 – 1 47
CHAPTER VII.
THE MARSHAL.
THE INTERESTING CAREER OF MARSHAL FREY.—ONE OF THE
BRAVEST AND BEST KNOWN OFFICERS *IN THE COUNTRY.
THE CONSPICUOUS CRIMES HE HAS UNEARTHED.—HOLLOHAN’S
MURDEROUS ATTACK UPON HIM.—HIS MAGNANIMITY AND HIS
COOLNESS IN DANGER.—INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE
SOUTHERN DISTRICT POLICE.—THE ATTACK ON MRS. SARRACCO.—
THE WHARTON-KETCHUM POISONING CASE.—THE
MURDER OF MRS. LAMPLEY.—THE CUMBERLAND RIOTS AND
MR. FREY’S BRAVERY.—HOW HE CONTROLLED THE MOB.—
A RAID ON THE BALTIMORE BANKS BY FORGERS.—THE
UNGER-BOHLE TRUNK CASE. – – – – – – PP. 1 4 8 – 1 75
CHAPTER VIII.
DEPUTY MARSHAL JOHN LANNAN.
HIS RISE FROM PATROLMAN TO DEPUTY MARSHAL.—A TRIP TO
CHINA.—THE MINNESOTA AND A TYPHOON.—CLEARING OUT
DISHONEST SERVANTS.—RUNNING DOWN NEW JERSEY BURGLARS.—
A MURDERER IDENTIFIED INTUITIVELY.—THE RATS
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X CONTENTS.
HAD GNAWED HIS HANDCUFFS.—THE RIOTS OF 1877.—THE
CENTRAL STATION A HOSPITAL.—THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS
CONTINUOUS SERVICE.—A VERY SHARP NEGRO.—A DEPUTY
MARSHAL’S DIAMOND BADGE.—THE ONLY BURKING CASE IN
AMERICA. – – – – – Pp. 176-211
CHAPTER IX.
THE DETECTIVE FORCE.
ORGANIZATION OF THE SECRET SERVICE.—CHIEF DETECTIVE
CRONE.—CAPTAIN CADWALLADER.—CAPTAIN SOLOMON II. FREBURGER.—
WHAT SOME OF THE MEN HAVE DONE.—JOHN S.
PONTIER.—DETECTIVE CUNNING AND PLUCK.—ROBBING HARNDEN’S
EXPRESS.—JOSEPH C. MITCHELL.—AN EXPERT LOCKSMITH.—
THE ARREST OF HERR GOLDBACH.—A ROMANCE AT
BARNUM’S HOTEL.—THEODERICK B. HALL.—REAL AND BOGUS
DETECTIVES. – – Pp. 212-231
CHAPTER X.
THE DETECTIVE FORCE.—Continued.
ALBERT GAULT.—A REMARKABLE RECORD.—QUICK WORK WITH
SKILLFUL BURGLARS.—RESCUING FROM THE FLOOD.—CLEVER
CAPTURE OF JOHN KING.—CHRISTINE ELBRIGHT.—ARREST OF
TOLLIVER HARRIS, THE NEGRO TERROR OF VIRGINIA.—AMONG
THE MOONSHINERS.—TERRIBLE CONFLICT WITH AN ESCAPED
PRISONER.—DETECTIVE GEORGE W. SEIBOLD.—RISEN FROM
THE RANKS.—PURSUING THE CONFIDENCE MEN.—A COLORED
FEMALE FAGIN.—THEIR CHILD RESTORED AFTER EIGHT YEARS.
—A PRIESTLY SWINDLER.—DETECTIVE SEIBOLD AS A FAKIR.—
CLEVER WORK IN ELLICOTT CITY.—BARN BURNING IN HOWARD
COUNTY.—HOW AN AGED TRAMP REPAID FARMER RHINE’S
KINDNESS. – Pp. 235-275
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CONTENTS. SI
CHAPTER XI.
THE DETECTIVE FORCE. (Concluded)
WILLIAM HENRY DROSTE.—THE LAST WORK ON THE MERRIMAC.
A BAD EXPERIENCE AS A BLOCKADE-RUNNER. THE
EMANCIPATION CELEBRATION. — A BOGUS BILL-OF-LADING
THIEF. CATCHING THREE FORGERS. THOMAS BARRANGER.
PURSUING A CONVICT.—A DEAF MUTE AS A HORSE-THIEF.—
CAPTURING CHARLES H. HOCH. STEPHEN J. O’NEILL. FETTERED
BY STOLEN GOODS.—A YOUNG BUT NOTORIOUS BURGLAR.—
A STRUGGLE TO THE FINISH.—AQUILLA J. PUMPHREY.—
A CASE OF MUTUAL SUSPICION.—SWINDLING AS A MISSIONARY.—
JOHN E. REILLY.—A BRAVE DEED.—COMPLIMENTED
‘ BY THE DEPARTMENT. – – – – – – – – Pp. 2 7 6 – 3 02
CHAPTER XII.
COMMANDERS OF DISTRICTS.
ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY. THE LATE CAPTAIN WILLIAM
DELANTY. CAPTAIN FARNAN OF THE CENTRAL DISTRICT.
THE ASSAULT ON CAPTAIN CLAYTON.—MURDER OF LOUIS
SCHMIDT.—TOOK HIM TO THE STATION DESPITE THE MOB.—
CAPTAIN CADWALLADER OF THE WESTERN DISTRICT.—THE
KILLING OF HENRY MESNBRING.—HOW MURDERER FOSTER
WAS ARRESTED.—DETECTING THE MURDERERS OF DOUGLASS
LOVE. HE CUT HIS NECK ” I N HALF.” CAPTAIN AULD OF
THE EASTERN DISTRICT. RUNNING DOWN A GANG OF BURGLARS.—
THE RIOTS OF 1861.—AN EXPERT CHECK SWINDLER.
Pp. 303-360
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xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
COMMANDERS OF DISTRICTS (Concluded.)
CAPTAIN CLAIBORNE OF THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT. NAILING THE
FLAG TO FORT SUMPTER’S STAFF.—A RECORD TO BE PROUD
OF. CAPTAIN EARHART OF THE NORTH-WESTERN DISTRICT.
DRIVING OUT THE “GANGS.” HARRY GILMOR’S SPURS.—
STRONGEST MAN ON THE FORCE—CAPTAIN BAKER OF THE SOUTHWESTERN
DISTRICT.—A DASTARDLY CRIME.—THE MURDER OF
EMELINE MILLER.—CAPTURING BOARDING HOUSE THIEVES.—
CAPTAIN BARBER OF THE NORTH-EASTERN DISTRICT. HIS
CARE FOR PRISONERS.—A ROBBER’S SHREWDNESS—STEALING
TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND SHOESTRINGS. – – Pp. 3 6 1 – 4 22
CHAPTER XIV.
THE POLICE GYMNASIUMS.
THE LACK OF AMBITION IN THE OLD FORCE.—AN INCIDENT IN
SCALING FENCES. FIRST ORGANIZATION IN THE CENTRAL
DISTRICT. STARTING A GYMNASIUM WITH $ 1 0 0 . ENGAGING
PROFESSOR KIMBALL. SOCIETY AND ATHLETICS COMBINED.
THE FIRST EXHIBITION A GREAT SUCCESS. INTERIOR OF
THE CENTRAL STATION GYMNASIUM. IN THE NORTH-WESTERN
GYMNASIUM. CAPTAIN EARHART AS AN ATHLETE, AND HIS
FONDNESS FOR HEAVY WEIGHTS. HOW A FINE EXERCISING
HALL WAS FURNISHED.—THE EASTERN DISTRICT EXERCISING
HALLS, BOTH OLD AND NEW. A FINE GYMNASIUM FROM A
SMALL BEGINNING.—THE NORTH-EASTERN ATHLETES AT WORK.—
ORGANIZING A POLICE ASSOCIATION, AND ITS LIST OF RULES.
WHAT ATHLETICS HAS DONE FOR OUR POLICE. P P . 4 2 3 – 4 6 1
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CONTENTS. X l l l
CHAPTER XV.
THE PATROL-WAGON SYSTEM.—THE TELEPHONE AND ALARM
TELEGRAPH. MR. COLTON’S AND MARSHAL GRAY’S TRIP TO
CHICAGO. ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM. THE HARBOR
PATROL.—ITS WORK AND THE RESULTS OF IT.—POLICE CHARITIES
AND THE NOBLE WORK OF THE MEMBERS OF THE
FORCE. THE LIFE INSURANCE ASSOCIATION. – P P . 4 6 2 – 4 8 5
CHAPTER XVI.
CHARLES BECKER, THE FORGER.
LITTLE CARL ON THE BANKS OF THE SPREE.—IN AMERICA.
LEARNING TO ENGRAVE.—IN LOVE WITH CLARA BECHTEL.
AN OMINOUS WISH. THE FIRST CRIME. ROBBING THE BALTIMORE
THIRD NATIONAL BANK VAULT. IN A TURKISH
PRISON. THE ESCAPE AND THE MURDER OF MRS. CHAPMAN.
SWINDLING THE UNION TRUST COMPANY. A SCHEME TO DEFRAUD
THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT. THE 1 , 0 0 0 FRANC NOTE
FORGERY. FOR NEARLY SIX YEARS A PRISONER. ” YES,
PET, I’LL TRY TO BE GOOD.” – – – – – Pp. 486-509-
CHAPTER XVII.
A FORGERS’ RAID.
THE HISTORY OF THE OPERATIONS OF BROCKWAY’S GANG OF
FORGERS IN BALTIMORE IN 1880.—REMARKABLE CONSPIRACY
TO ROB THE CITY’S GREAT BANKING INSTITUTIONS. THE
SWINDLERS GET AWAY WITH MORE THAN $10,000 FROM TWO
BANKS.—PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF THE CRIMINALS.—THE
FORGERS IN PRISON AT LAST.—THE DROP GAME. P p . 5 1 0 – 5 32
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
FRONTISPIECE—MARSHALS OF BALTIMORE.
The Ducking-Stool 8
The Tillory and Whipping-Post 9
Old Watchman and His Box 14
Charles Howard 31
William H. Gatchell 35
Charles D. Hinks 39
Hon. George William Brown 47
Hon. John W. Davis 51
Samuel Hindes 55
Nicholas L. Wood .’. 59
William T. Valiant 63
James Young 63
Lefevre Jarrett 67
Hon. William EL B. Fusselbaugh 71
Hon. James K. Carr 77
Thomas W. Morse 85
John Milroy 89
Col. Harry Gilmor 93
Gen. Jas. B. Herbert 97
Hon. George Colton 101
Maj. J. D. Ferguson.. 105
John T.Gray Ill
Edson Marion Schryver, President of the Board of Police Commissioners 121
Alfred J. Carr, Esq., Treasurer of the Board of Police Commissioners 127
J . Q. A. Kobson, Police Commissioner 139
George Savage, Esq 143
Jacob Frey, Marshal of Police 149
John Lannan, Deputy Marshal 177
Rogues’ Gallery 213
William Delanty 305
John Mitchell 305
George W. Zimmerman 305
Thomas F. Farnan, Captain Central District 309
Old Middle District Station-IIouse 314
James II. Busick, Lieutenant Central District 320
Frank J. Toner, Sergeant Central District 320
James Harvey, Sergeant Central District 320
Louis Kirsch, Sergeant Central District 320
xiv
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ILLUSTRATIONS. XV
Martin P. Schimp, Sergtant Central District 320
William Barker, Sergeant Central District 320
W. B. Bcve, Sergeant Central District 320
Henry Shoemack, Sergeant Central District 320
“William H. Frazier, Lieutenant Central District 321
W.G.Scott, Sergeant Central District 321
Jas. A. Kippard, Sergeant Central District 321
Edward F. Meehan, Sergeant Central District 321
Ambrose A. Ryan, Sergeant .’ …Central District 321
J. J. Gilbert, Sergeant Central District 321
Charles Bernhardt, Sergeant Central District 321
George Clautice, Sergeant Central District 321
Lewis W. Cadwallader, Captain Western District 327
First Western District Station-House 334
F. Hamilton Scott, Lieutenant Western District 338
J. H. Clowe, Sergeant Western District • 338
William Kalbfleisch, Sergeant …..Western District 338
John Driscoll, Sergeant Western District 338
Benj. T. Allen, Sergeant Western District 338
Philip Berger, Sergeant Western District 338
John Joseph Fullem, Lieutenant Western District 339
J. H. Henneman, Sergeant Western District 339
Patrick E. Tierney, Sergeant Western District 339
Philip Whalen, Sergeant Western District 339
E. J. Hoffman, Sergeant Western District 339
Benj. F. Auld, Captain Eastern District 343
William R. Johnson, Lieutenant Eastern District 354
Michael F. Black, Sergeant ‘. Eastern District 354
J’. Andrew Roycroft, Sergeant Eastern District 354
Francis W. Jones, Sergeant Eastern District 354
Daniel E. Diggs, Sergeant Eastern District 354
Jas. K. P. Langley, Sergeant Eastern District 354
George League, Lieutenant Eastern District 355
Edward Schleigh, Sergeant Eastern District 355
Henry Poole, Sergeant Eastern District 355
Thos. T. Green, Sergeant Eastern District 355
Thos. E. Buckless, Sergeant , Eastern District 355
Station-House Clerks 358
Charles H. Claiborne, Captain Southern District 363
Geo. W. Aaron 367
W. H. Cassell 367
Benj. F. Kenney 367
Daniel Lepson 367
Calvin Sunstrom, Lieutenant Southern District 372
Philip Flood, Sergeant Southern District 372
Henry Streib, Sergeant, Southern District 372
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Xvi ILLUSTRATIONS.
Bernard Ward, Sergeant
George Dull, Sergeant
John A. Parks, Sergeant
A. C. Blacldston, Sergeant
David H. Bruchey, Lieutenant
W. H. Bowen, Sergeant
Louis Chaillou, Sergeant
Thomas B. McGee, Sergeant
Peter Kiley, Sergeant
Jos. D. Collins, Sergeant
Edward Schultz, Sergeant
Wm. C. Bayne, Sergeant
George W. Earhart, Captain
Wm. McK. Watkins, Lieutenant…
John B. Saunders, Sergeant
Cornelius L. Knott, Sergeant
John A. G. Schultz, Sergeant
Littleton B. Wessels, Sergeant
Matthew E. Quinn, Sergeant
Frank J. Flannery, Lieutenant
Charles P. Dorn, Sergeant
John Carlos, Sergeant
Daniel H. Cline, Sergeant
Theo. J. Foster, Sergeant
John Baker, Captain
Thomas A. Fitzgerald, Lieutenant.
Timothy A. Broderick, Sergeant….
Chas. A. Shoemaker, Sergeant
Michael Lanahan, Sergeant
C. H. Williamson, Sergeant
Harvey P. Morhiser, Sergeant
William B. Minor, Lieutenant
John Butler, Sergeant
Wm. T. Russell, Sergeant
Peter Montague, Sergeant
Henry C. Smith, Sergeant
Philip J. Barber, Captain
Daniel Shettle, Lieutenant
Wm. J. Carrick, Sergeant
Basil S. Wellener, Jr., Sergeant
F. T. Crate, Sergeant
P. F. J. Bosch, Sergeant
Jas. H. Carroll, Lieutenant
Thos. F. Hogan, Sergeant
Augustus Chaillou, Sergeant
George William Schafer. Sergeant
.Southern District 372
.Southern Distric 372
.Southern District 372
.Southern District 372
.Southern District 373
.Southern District 373
.Southern District 373
.Southern District 373
.Southern District 373
.Southern District 373
.Southern District 373
.Southern District 373
.North-western District 377
.North-western District 386
North-western District 386
North-western District 386
.North-western District 386
.North-western District 386
North-western District 386
.North-western District 387
North-western District 387
.North-western District 387
.North-western District 387
.North-western District 387
.South-western District 393
.South-western District 402
.South-western District 402
.South-western District 402
.South-western District 402
.South-western District 402
.South-western District 402
.South-western District 403
.South-western District 403
.South-western District 403
.South-western District 403
.South-western District 403
.North-eastern District 407
.North-eastern District 418
North-eastern District 418
.North-eastern District 418
.North-eastern District 418
.North-eastern District 418
.North-eastern District 419
.North-eastern District 419
.North-eastern District 419
.North-eastern District 419
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ILLUSTRATIONS. XVU
Benj. “VV. York, Sergeant North-eastern District 419
Henry Mittendorf, Sergeant North-eastern District 419
Central Station Gymnasium 430
In the Gymnasium Central Diitrict 435
North-Western Gymnasium Athletes 440
Police Athletic Club, North-eastern District Champions, 1887 451
Central District Police Base Ball Club 457
Police Patrol Signal Box, Baltimore and Charles Streets 465
Police Patrol Signal Box, with Officer Signalling Station 467
Central Station Outfit—Police Patrol Service 471
Police Patrol Wagon Central District 475
Police Patrol Wagon Eastern District 480
Police Patrol Wagon Western District 482
Bank Burglars’ Outfit 496
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ANNOUNCEMENT.
The historical material for this work was obtained chiefly
from the official records of the police department, though
much information was had from other sources.
For the early history the writer has drawn on the records of
the legislative assemblies and city councils, other historical
works, old guide-books, directories and papers which were
placed at his disposal.
To the ex-commissioners and ex-marshals who are now
residents of Baltimore, the writer is under obligations for
much information, and also to the present Board of Police
Commissioners and Marshal Jacob Frey, for like assistance, as
well as the means to verify the correctness of the work.
The illustrations are mainly ” I v e s ” etchings, and were
reproduced from photographs. The groups of officers are
from negatives from the studio of N. H. Busey, who, with
Jas. S. Cummins, W. Cetz and others, made the photographs
from which the portraits were obtained.
BALTIMORE, January 1, 1888
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OUR POLICE.
A HISTORY OF THE BALTIMORE FORCE FROM THE FIRST WATCHMAN
TO THE LATEST APPOINTEE.
an AFTER i.
BALTIMORE’S EARLIEST OFFICERS.
(1606-1784.)
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF THE PATAPSCO. “WHETSTONE
POINT ” MADE A TOWN AND PORT OF ENTRY (1706). THE
TOWN OF BALTIMORE CREATED (1729). THE EARLY CONSERVATORS
OF THE PEACE. THE SHERIFF, CONSTABLES AND
PUBLIC EXECUTIONER. AN OFFICE NOT SOUGHT AFTER. A
CASE IN POINT WHERE THE OFFICE SOUGHT THE MAN.—
CRUEL PUNISHMENTS INFLICTED ON MALEFACTORS. BRANDING
WITH IRONS. THE PILLORY, STOCKS AND DUCKING-STOOLS.
—BALTIMORE’S PILLORY AND WHIPPING-POST AT THE OLD
COURT HOUSE.
Baltimore’s police and Baltimore’s history are inseparable.
To treat of the former the latter must also be developed, more
particularly where it touches and affects the rise of the police
system, showing how the force of to-day kept pace with the
progress of Baltimore from the time it was but a little scattering
hamlet under the cliffs and among the marshes along the
banks of the Patapsco, down to the present, when, as a mighty
metropolis she takes her place in the foremost rank of great
American cities. It will be of interest to revert to those early
days in her history and see from what small beginnings great
results come.
The eyes of the white man first rested on the site of Baltimore
in 1606. In that year Captain John Smith ” some time
Governor of Virginia,” made his sixth voyage cf discovery
(1)
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2 OUR POLICE.
and penetrated the Patapsco river. Twenty-two years later Lord
Baltimore cast a careless glance over the land on which it was
destined would arise a city, the greatness of which should become
a mighty monument to his name and fame. This was in the year
1628, when Lord Baltimore at the time of his visit to Virginia
explored the country now called Maryland, and which was afterwards,
on June 20, .1632, conferred upon him by royal charter.
In the year 1634, Leonard Calvert, who had been appointed
Lieutenant-General and Governor of Maryland by his brother,
Lord Baltimore, together with another brother, George Calvert,
and about two hundred colonists, arrived in the new
province and settled at St. Mary’s.
It was not, however, until the year 1659 that any steps were
taken towards the systematic settlement of Baltimore county,
although it is not unlikely that some of the more adventurous
spirits, following in the track of Captain John Smith and
Lord Baltimore, had pushed ahead and settled about the head
waters of the Patapsco. In the year named Baltimore county
was established. Its limits, as then fixed, were far more
extensive than at present and embraced all of Harford and Carroll
counties and large portions of Anne Arundel, Howard and
Frederick. At that time the entire population of Maryland was
about twelve thousand and that of the newly created county but
about two thousand.
In the month of July, 1659, patents for land in the neighborhood
of Baltimore were issued to Robert Gorsuch, Hugh
Kensey, Richard Gorsuch, Thomas Humphreys, John Jones,
Thomas Powell, Howell Powell, William Ball, and Walter
Dickinson, each of whom was granted from 200 to 500
acres. Captain Thomas Howell, Captain Thomas Stockett
and Messrs. Henry Stockett and John Taylor, Commissioners
of the county, took up patents, and on July 20, 166L
held a court at the house of Captain Howell who was the presiding
Commissioner. Mr. John Collett was their clerk.
Charles Gorsuch, a member of the society of Friends, was
the next settler to take up ground, and he on February 24,
1661, patented 50 acres. This land afterwards, on June 2,
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OUR POLICE. 3
1702, passed into the possession of Mr. James Carroll, who
called it ‘ : Whetstone Point.” On the extremity of this stands
Fort McHenry. In 1668, ”Cole’s Harbor,” consisting of 550
acres, divided into nearly two equal parts by the stream,
” Jones’ Falls,” was granted to Thomas Cole. On this land
the town of Baltimore was originally laid out.
So the infant settlement continued to grow. Each year added
new settlers to the number who took up their plantations. The
principal planters were also merchants who traded with London
and other ports of England, and the large plantations, with their
groups of storehouses and other buildings, assumed the appearance
arid performed the office of little towns. Many of the earliest
courts and councils were held in these plantations. The
governors, privy-councilors and county court judges were all
planters.
For a long time ” Cole’s Harbor” afforded ample space for the
accommodation of Baltimore but the settlement gradually extended
its limits until all the surrounding lands and farms,
under various names, were finally taken into its boundaries. In
1706, by Act of Assembly, “Whetstone Point” was made a town
and declared a port of entry, the first within the present limits
of Baltimore.
The following year, ” Taylor’s Choice,” on Gunpowder river,
was made a town, and the county seat of Baltimore county. A
court-house was built and the name changed to Joppa.
Up to 1729, no name had been given the settlement upon the
northwestern branch of the Patapsco. In that year its inhabitants
emulating the example of some of their neighbors, desired
the village to be erected into a town. ” Moales Point” was first
selected as the preferable site of the future city but the projectors
were disappointed, fortunately, in securing this location,
the bill having that object in view being defeated in the Legislature
through the instrumentality of Mr. John Moale, a member
and the owner of the land in question. Being excluded from
this, the land of their choice, those interested in forming the
new town were driven to seek the site for the future metropolis
under the hills and amid the marshes of the northwestern branch
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4 OUR POLICE.
of the river. Accordingly a petition was prepared for the Assembly
by the County Commissioners or justices, and other persons
which, on July 14, 1729, was presented in the Upper House,
” praying that a bill may be brought in for the building of a town
on the north side of Patapsco river, upon the land supposed to
belong to Messrs. Charles and Daniel Carroll.” On August 8,
1729, the bill prayed for became a law under this title,
” An Act for erecting a town on the north side of Patapsco, in
Baltimore county, and for laying out in lots, sixty acres of land,
in and about the place where one John Fleming now lives.”
The commissioners appointed to lay out the town were Major
Thomas Tolley, William Hamilton, William Buckner, Dr. George
Walker, Richard Gist, Dr. George Buchanan and Colonel William
Hammond. They were all justices of the county except Dr.
Walker. These commissioners were practically appointed for life,
as they were empowered to fill their own vacancies. They were
authorized to purchase sixty acres of land on the tract known as
“Cole’s Harbor,” and to lay out the same into sixty equal lots
to be erected into a town. In January of the following year this
was done and the commissioners, assisted by Philip Jones the
county surveyor, laid off the town, whose original bounds made
the form of an ancient lyre.
The town was divided by Long, now called Baltimore street,
which was intersected at right-angles by Calvert street, then not
named; and Forrest street now Charles street. There were
also six lanes, which are now South, Second, Light, Hanover and
Belvidere streets, and three other lanes which retain their
original names of Lovely, St. Paul and German streets.
On January 14, the office of the commissioners was opened
for “taker’s-up,” the proprietor, Mr. Carroll, choosing lot No.
49 on the east side of Calvert street, next the river bank, Mr.
Gist taking one on the opposite side of Calvert street. Among
the others taking lots were Messrs. Walker, Jones, Jackson,
Hammond, Price, Buckner, Sheridine, Powell, Ridgely, Trotten,
North, Hewitt, Gorsuch, and Harris—all inhabitants of the
vicinity. Thus was the embryo city started upon its career.
The peace and good order of the new town was for many years
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OUR POLICE. 5
entrusted wholly to the officers charged with that duty throughout
the county. These were Commissioners of the County or Justices
of the Peace, and were also Justices of the County Court; a
tithing-man in each manor, a constable in each hundred, a sheriff
and coroner in the county and a public executioner for inflicting
all corporal correction and punishment.
The Justices of the Peace or Commissioners of the County,
terms used synonymously, forming the County Court, were
appointed by the Lord Proprietary or in his absence by his
Lieutenant-General. The tithing-man, whose duties were those
of a petty constable, was appointed by the Lord of the Manor,
and the High Constables of every hundred by the Commander
of the hundred. It was the duty of the constable to execute
all precepts and warrants to him directed, and had in all
things “the like power and authority within the said hundred as a
high constable of any hundred in England hath or ought to have
within his hundred by the law or custom of England.” A refusal
to serve incurred the forfeiture of five hundred pounds of tobacco,
the currency of those days. The Chief Judge of the County
Court appointed the sheriff and coroner of the county, one person
discharging the functions of both offices. The penalty of
a refusal to discharge these responsible duties was the forfeiture
of two thousand pounds of tobacco. The appointment to the
least desirable office within the county, that of public executioner,
was thus provided for: “And the said sheriff shall choose
one of his servants (and in case he hath no servant to accept
thereof, the Lieutenant-General and Council shall appoint some
person) for the execution of all corporal correction, shame or
other punishment to be inflicted on the body or person of any
one; and if the person so chosen and appointed by the Lieutenant-
General and Council shall refuse to execute the said office,
the Lieutenant-General, upon complaint thereof made unto him,
shall or may censure (a term applied to the speech of the Judge
in giving his judgment in any criminal case) the person so refusing
by corporal shame or correction as he shall think fit.”
That it was difficult to fill this office notwithstanding the pains
and penalties attached to a refusal, appears by the following,
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6 OUR POLICE.
where a malefactor is appointed to the post as one of the punishments
for his crimes.
The Assemby in addition to its legislative powers sometimes
exercised judicial functions. At one of the early sessions of that
body the Secretary of State had, on the first day of the session,
issued his writ to the “Sheriff of St. Mary’s,” to “have the
body of John Dandie, smith, before the House of Assembly at
nine of the clock this morning, to answer such crimes as on his
lordship’s behalf shall be objected against him.” What these
“crimes” were does not appear, but sentence of death
was passed upon the unlucky smith. On May 10, “upon
the petition of a great part of the colony for the pardoning
of Dandie, the Governor exchanged the sentence of death
into three years’ service to the Lord Proprietary; wherewith
the said Dandie was well content”—the record gravely
concludes. By a subsequent document, a further pardon
for John Dandie, it appears that in addition to his three years
service, one of the conditions attached to the commutation of his
death sentence was that he act as public executioner, the record
reading as follows: “Amongst other penalties he was adjudged
to be a public executioner within this province, but, for his good
service and particular fidelity to Governor Calvert, he was thereby
remitted from all former penalties whatsoever.”
A disinclination to perform the duties of the public executioner
is not surprising when some of the penalties to be inflicted upon
transgressors in those days are known. By “An Act for felonies,”
introduced into the Assembly in 1639, the following
offences were to be adjudged felonies, punishable with death :
” Homicide; bloodshed, committed by assault upon the person
of the Lieutenant-General; to shed the blood of any Judge sitting
in Court; burglary, robbery, polygamy, sacrilege, sorcery,
petit treason and rape.” It was also made “felony within this
province to commit idolatry, which is the worshipping of a false
god;” or to commit “blasphemy, which is a cursed or wicked
speaking of God;” or ” to sell, give, or deliver to any Indian, or
to any other declared or professed enemy of the province, any
gun, pistol, powder or shot, without the knowledge or license of
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OUR POLICE. 7
the Lieutenant-General, or to teach any Indian or other declared
enemy of the province the use of the said arms or the making
thereof.”
The offender in any of these felonies was to suffer the pains of
death by hanging and forfeit to the Lord Proprietary all the
lands in the province whereof he was seized at the time the offence
was committed and all goods and chattels which he possessed at
the time of his conviction: ” Provided,” the law goes on to state,
” that in petit treason the punishment of death shall be inflicted
by drawing and hanging of a man and by burning of a woman;
and in sorcery, blasphemy and idolatry by burning.” Accessories
before the fact were to be punished as principals.
Of the minor offences, the Justices of the Peace were given
jurisdiction and the power to deal with the offenders summarily.
Among these was ” withdrawing one’s self out of an English
plantation to inhabit or reside among any Indians not christened,”
for which the offender could be imprisoned until he found
” security to perform the order of the Judge therein.” Swearing
was punished by a fine of five pounds of tobacco or one shilling,
sterling; drunkenness, “which is drinking with excess to the
notable perturbation of any organ of sense or motion,” entailed
a fine of thirty pounds of tobacco or five shillings, sterling, ” or
otherwise shall be whipped, or by some other corporal shame or
punishment corrected for every such excess, at the discretion of
the Judge.”
The law of 1723, which embodied the substance of several
previous laws on the subject of blasphemy, provided that the
offender who should be convicted of this crime, consisting of
wittingly, maliciously and advisedly, by writing or speech, blaspheming
or cursing God or denying the Saviour’s divinity, the
Trinity of the Godhead of any of the three Persons, or their
unity, or uttering any profane words about the Trinity, should
be bored through the tongue and fined ,£20 or imprisoned for
six months for the first offence; for the second offence be
branded ” B ” in the forehead and fined £40, or imprisoned
one year; and for the third offence death. Coiners (counterfeiters)
were to be whipped, pilloried and cropped for
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8 OUR POLICE.
the first offence; for the second, to be branded in the cheek
and banished. Cursing or profane swearing in the presence
of any magistrate or other public officer, was to be punished
with a fine of 2s. 6d. for the first oath and 5s. for every succeeding
oath. Persons drunk in the presence of magistrates or other
public officers were fined 5s. If these fines were not paid the offender
was put in the stocks for three hours for each offence,
or received not exceeding thirty-nine lashes. Horse-stealing was
THE DUCKING-STOOL.
punished with death, as were burglaries of dwellings, warehouses
or tobacco houses. The penalty for Sabbath breaking was a fine
of two hundred pounds of tobacco and where the offender kept
an ordinary, a fine of two thousand pounds. Forgeries or any
sort of falsification in connection with the inspection of tobacco
were punished with thirty-nine lashes and two hours in the pillory.
In 1663, an Act was passed providing irons for burning malefactors
and for erecting a pillory, stocks, nnd ducking-stools in
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OUR POLICE. 9
each county. The ducking-stool for. scolding women was, however,
abandoned in 1G7G, that section of the Act being repealed;
but the stocks, the pillory, the whipping-post, with its handcuiFs
and the branding-iron, long remained “institutions” of the time.
In fact, the stocks, the pillory and the gibbet did not pass out
of vogue in Maryland until about 1810 when the penitentiary
system was adopted. About 1770 all of the cruel punishments
named above were used. Offenders were publicly exposed in the
THE PILLORY AND WHIPPING-POST.
most frequented thoroughfares; their ears nailed to the pillory
and cut off, the malefactors being whipped afterwards through
the public streets; the tongue bored with a red hot iron or
the nose slit, or the person branded with the initial letter of the
offense for which he suffered. Thus, ” S . L.,” branded on
either cheek, indicated that the culprit was so marked for being
a li seditious libeller ” ; ” M ” meant manslaughter ; ” T ” on the
left hand, thief”; ” R ” on the shoulder, rogue and vagabond
and ” P ” on the forehead, perjury. The most general form of
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10 OUR POLICE.
whipping was what was called “flogging at the cart’s tail ” when
the criminal was tied to the back of a cart, slowly driven, and
flogged through the town by the public executioner. Of course,
the spectacle was attended by crowds acting as a noisy escort.
In 1748 an old and gray-headed man who was convicted of blasphemy
at Baltimore County Assizes, had his tongue bored
through and was sentenced to remain in jail until the fine of
.£20 was paid.
In Baltimore was located the last pillory and whipping-post in
Maryland. They were on the spot where the Battle Monument
now stands, forming in fact one of the main posts of
the underpinning of the old court house. Underneath this
building, one above the other, was the pillory and whippingpost,—
a two-storied instrument of justice. It was here, in 1819,
the last man was pilloried in Maryland. The last public
whipping in this State, previous to the recent wife-beating law,
was of a postmaster, convicted in the United States Court at Annapolis
of tampering with the mails. There being no whippingpost
at the time in the town, the culprit was tied up to one of the
columns under the portico of the State House and the punishment
inflicted.
The new town had no police supervision independent of the
county officers of Baltimore County for many years. The powers
of the commissioners appointed in 1729 were enlarged by Acts of
Assembly until they had control of purely local affairs. Thomas
Long, in 1687, was the first Sheriff of Baltimore County. In
1705 Auquilla Baca was Sheriff, and he was succeeded by Francis
Dalahide in the following year. In 1682 John Boring was
Presiding Justice of the County Court, but in 1708 Colonel
James Maxwell assumed the office, and so continued twenty years.
During this time the Sheriff’s office was filled successively by
James Presbury, John Dorsey, John Stokes, Edward Hall,
Francis Holland and William Smith. In September, 1745, the
assembly consolidated Jones town and Baltimore town under the
name of the latter. The bridge over Jones Falls was declared
public and was to be kept at the charge of Baltimore county.
Seven commissioners were appointed with enlarged power-; they
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OUR POLICE. 11
•were Mayor Thomas Sheredine, Doctor George Buchanan, Captain
Robert North, Colonel William Hammond, Captain Darby
Lux and Messrs. Thomas Harrison and William Fell. They
were empowered to enforce the former Act of Assembly relating
to the towns, have them carefully surveyed and the lots
bounded and numbered. Then came the building of a fence
about the town in order to keep swine and geese from the
streets, one of the first precautions against nuisances ever taken
by the town; but these fences speedily disappeared, because in
1750 there was an excessively cold winter and the logs of which
the palisade was composed were burned for fuel. The town grew
gradually, adding to itself one by one the necessities of a settlement.
Near the court house, which has been already referred
to, was erected the jail. This building was two stories high, built
of stone, and was used until 1802. The sanitary condition of
this jail seems to have been sadly neglected within the next few
years. It is recorded that the American Congress, in 1776,
then in session in Philadelphia, upon the approach of the royal
troops towards the Delaware adjourned to Baltimore. At their
first meeting in this city, a resolution was passed declaring “that
the apartments in the jail of the town of Baltimore be repaired
and put in such a condition as not to endanger the health of
those who may be confined in them ; and the prisoners from the
State of North Carolina be removed thence to different rooms in
the court house, or wherever else they can be procured and there
safely locked up and secured.”
As Baltimore developed into a flourishing community evil
doers were attracted to it, and if the statements of one of its
citizens over the signature ” Philodemus,” made in a communication
to the Maryland Journal and The Baltimore Advertiser,
(now the Baltimore American) on September 9, 1773, are to be
relied upon, the town was very much in need of police protection.
This is an extract from the letter: ” The late frequent robberies
must certainly alarm every trading inhabitant in this town and
set them on their guard against the nocturnal meetings of
hardened villains who thirst after the well earned property of
the honest and upright dealer.” He then goes on to tell of the
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12 OUR POLICE.
peculiar wickedness of one Monsieur Mercier, a Frenchman,
and afterwards continues : ” I must here beg leave to animadvert
on the apparent neglect of our petty officers of the peace, who, if
I mistake not, are obligated by their oath to be watchful and
diligent, to preserve good order in our streets and to disperse
all idle and tumultuous assemblies, at which blasphemy and vice
usually preside. .1 have often observed, with horror, the numerous
conventicles of iniquity held in and about our market house,
chiefly on the Sabbath day, even in the hours of divine service,
by a gang of idle vagrants, who, despising all the duties of
religion, employ the time set apart for prayer in acts of a most
heinous nature, viz. : cursing, swearing, drunkenness, and debauchery.
May we not reasonably conclude that the day spent
in so riotous and unhallowed a manner will be succeeded by
midnight robbery and plunder.”, The way to remedy these
evils in the writer’s opinion, was the establishment of a watch
and lighting the streets in the night time.
” I cannot conclude,” ho adds, “without expressing my most
sanguine wishes that the inhabitants of the town, heartily uniting
in a common cause, would generously set on foot and Strenuously
exert themselves to promote an ample subscription for erecting
lamps at proper- distances in our streets and constituting a
body of vigorous, trusty watchmen, for the public convenience
and security in the ensuing winter. A scheme of such utility
will, I hope, meet with immediate notice and when executed
must assuredly be attended with the most happy consequences.”
It wras the custom in the early days, to sell convicts as servants,
to the highest bidder, in order to reimburse the county for the
expense of convicting them. There seems to have been a glut
in the slave market in 1775, as the sheriff of Baltimore announced
a sale at public auction, “without reserve.” This advertisement,
in the Maryland Journal, reads as follows:
BALTIMORE, JUNE 14, 1775.
“ON SATURDAY, THE 24TH INSTANT, WILL BE SOLD BY PUBLIC” VENDUE,
AT THE PRISON OP THIS COUNTY, A NUMBER OF CRIMINALS, for payment
of their Fees. I will give indentures on them for a term not exceeding
five years, according to the sums they are indebted. I am determined to dispose
of their times for whatever sums they will fetch, be they more or less, which
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OUR POLICE. 13
I expect will induce persons to purchase, as they will probably go off slower
than other servants.
” ROBERT CHRISTIE, JUN., SHERIFF.
“N. B.—TJiose who are inclined to purchase before the day of sale may
apply at the sheriff’s office.”
; These convicts were not particularly trustworthy servants, as
they were more bent upon securing their liberty than serving
their masters. It was not until two years after the appeal was
made for some action on the part of the citizens towards establishing
a watch in Baltimore, that any steps were taken towards
a systematic policing of the town. In 1775, however, a townmeeting
was held with the object of taking measures to establish
a night-watch. Each male inhabitant capable of duty under this
organization, signed an agreement, by,which he bound himself
to conform to the police regulations adopted by the general meeting
of the citizens and sanctioned by the commissioners, and to
attend personally when summoned to serve as a watchman, or
provide a substitute acceptable to’ the committee. This committee
had some of the functions of the present Board of Police Commissioners.
The town was divided into districts and in each of
these was stationed a company commanded by a captain of the
watch. The first captains of the watch, or police, of Baltimore,
under this primitive arrangement, were James Calhoun, captain
of the First District; George Woolsey, Second District; Benjamin
Griffith, Third District; Barnct Eichelberger, Fourth District;
George Lindenberger, Fifth District; and William Goodwin,
of the Sixth District. At Fell’s Point, Isaac Yanbidder was
captain, with two assistants or lieutenants. Each captain had
under his command a squad of sixteen men, every inhabitant
being enrolled and taking his turn. The streets were patrolled
by these watchmen from 10 P. M. until daybreak, the patrols
calling aloud the time each quarter of an hour. This was a force
amply sufficient to look after the safety of the town had all its
members done their duty. But as there was no legal obligation the
force soon became inefficient. It was not long before the necessities
of the town demanded a regularly salaried guard and in
1784 the legislature authorized the town commissioners to organize
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11 OUR POLICE.
and control a police or regular night-watch. One of the most
congenial duties of these men at about this time was the announcement,
in addition to the naming of the hour, of the surrender
of Lord Cornwallis. One can imagine with what a
sonorous and exultant cry they sang out: “Three—o’clock,—
and Cornwallis is ta—ka—en”; for by those watchmen the good
news was first announced to Baltimore.
OLD WATCHMAN.
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OUR POLICE. 1″)
CHAPTER II.
(1784-1853.)
THE GUARDIANS OF THE TOWN ORGANIZED BY LEGISLATIVE
ENACTMENT. ALL MANNER OP TAXES TO SUPPORT THE PEACE
OFFICERS. AT THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION. BALTIMORE
BECOMES A CITY. INCREASING THE NUMBER OF WATCHMEN.
ESTABLISHMENT OF WATCH-HOUSES AND ERECTION OF CELLS.
THE POLICE FORCE IN 1848.
The history of the Baltimore Police as a thoroughly organized
force of men to guard the city dates from the Act of 1784, and
because this organization forms such an important epoch in the
history of ” Our Police,” a rather full quotation of the Act which
empowered it will be of interest; it is entitled “An Act for the
Establishment and Regulation of a Night AVatch and the erection
of lamps in Baltimore town, in Baltimore County.”
The preamble refers to the necessity of providing the night
watch and then tbe Act goes on to empower the commissioners
of the town, or a major part of them, to meet at such times and
places as they should think proper and to provide for everything
necessary for the proper lighting of the town. Subsequently the
Act empowers the commissioners from time to time ” to order,
appoint, hire and employ as many watchmen as they shall judge
necessary, and shall then and there direct and order what wages
shall be given them, and if any of the said watchmen die within
the time for which they were appointed, be negligent in
their duty or be guilty of any misbehavior, it shall and may be
lawful for the commissioners aforesaid, or a major part of them,
at any intermediate time of the year, to remove any of the said
watchmen so appointed, and to employ, hire and appoint one or
more persons, fitly qualified, in the room and stead of him or
them so dying, neglecting duty, or misbehaving as aforesaid.”
The Act also conferred upon the commissioners all the powers
and jurisdictions of justices of the peace ; and they could appoint
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16 OUR POLICE.
any number of persons to be constables provided they were of
good character. The said officials were instructed ” as soon
as they conveniently can direct and set down in writing, at what
stands it is fit for the said watchman to be placed; how often they
shall go the rounds, and also appoint the rounds each watchman
is to go, and shall from time to time, make such further and
other orders and regulations for the better government of the said
watchmen as the nature of the case may require.” The commissioners
were not to be let off with this but were directed to
furnish a copy of all their transactions affecting their subordinates
to the watchmen. One or more of the constables was required
to attend to the court house, or some other convenient place to
be designated by the commissioners, and keep watch from September
10 to March 10, in every year, from eight o’clock in the
evening to six o’clock in the morning; and during the remaining
six months from nine o’clock in the evening to four o’clock in the
morning; “and the constables shall,” the text continues, “in their
several turns and courses of watching, use their best endeavors to
prevent fires, murders, burglaries, robberies, and other outrages
and disorders within said time, and to that end shall, and they are
hereby empowered, directed and required to arrest and apprehend
all night-walkers, malefactors and other suspected persons, who
shall be found wandering and misbehaving themselves, and shall
carry the persons so apprehended as soon as they conveniently can
before one or more justices of the peace or a commissioner in said
town to be examined and dealt with according to law; and shall
once or oftener at convenient times of the night, go about the
several stands in said town, and shall take notice whether the
watchmen perform their duties in their several stations, according
to the regulations made for that purpose.” In case any watchman
neglected his duty, the constable was required to immediately
notify the commissioners, that the watchman might be “admonished
or discharged.” The constables were to observe all regulations
formulated by the town officers, and in case of their misbehavior
or neglect they could be admonished or discharged as
peremptorily as the watchmen. The constables’ compensation
for night duty was fixed by the commissioners. If any constable
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OUR POLICE. 17
neglected his turn to keep watch at the hours appointed by the
act, or did not watch full time, or did not visit the various stands
at least once every night, he was fined twenty shillings.
The watchmen were given the same powers of arrest as the
constables. In case any fire broke out, or in any other great
emergency, they were required to alarm each other and then
arouse the inhabitants in their respective rounds, ” which when
done,” the act adds, “they shall repair to their respective stands,
the better to discover any other fire that may happen, as well as
to prevent any burglaries, robberies, outrages, or disorders; and
to apprehend any suspected persons, who, in such times of confusion,
may be feloniously carrying off the goods and effects of
others.” The watchmen were then formally given all the powers
exercised by the constables.
– Among the early freaks of Baltimore’s young men was that of
smashing lamps, and the Legislature when it provided for the
erection of lamps sought to control this destruction by declaring,
that “if any person shall wilfully or maliciously break, throw
down, destroy, or extinguish any lamps that shall be hung up to
light the streets, lanes, or alleys in said town, or shall wilfully
damage the posts, irons, sentry boxes, or other furniture thereof,
every person so offending, and being convicted by the oath or
affirmation (a recognition of the Quakers) of one or more credible
witnesses before any commissioner or justice of the peace of said
town, shall forfeit and pay three pounds for each and every such
offence.” If a lamp was broken unintentionally the unfortunate
one could, by giving notice of the damage within twelve hours
to the commmissioners, escape further penalty than paying the
cost of repairs. When any slave was found guilty of smashing
or injuring lamps he was given thirty-nine lashes on his bare
back, unless his owner paid the fine or repaired the damage.
The arrest of these opponents of former street lighting gave the
constables and watch much to do, and then, as now, the post of
policeman was no sinecure. The pay of the men was secured by
the town commissioners levying a tax, “not exceeding one shilling
and six pence, current money, on every hundred pounds worth of
property assessed within the said town.” But this tax also
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18 OUR POLICE.
included the necessary expenditures for the erection of street
lamps. This memorable law was, according to the terms, to
continue in force for three years. It was given new life in 1787
and in 1795, by legislative action; and in 1796 declared to be a
perpetual law, subject to such alterations as might be made by
the corporation or the legislature. The powers of the act and
such others as related to the town’s guardians were formally
bestowed upon the ” Corporation of the City of Baltimore.”
This act of 1784 seems to have met every requirement for the
protection of good citizens for a number of years, and so peaceable
and orderly were the inhabitants that but three constables
were needed during business hours and only fourteen watchmen
at night. In 1792 the amount of tax levied proved to be inadequate
to support a necessarily increased force of constables and
watchmen and so the town officials thought a house tax would
supply the deficiency. This was levied, but the citizens were not
slow in showing their distaste for this measure and the tax was
repealed, a general assessment being collected for the payment of
the peace officers. In 1793 an important change was made in the
act of 1784, when the legislature deprived the town commisioners
of their authority in police matters. The justices of the Court
of Oyer and Terminer, which then administered the criminal law
for Baltimore County, were authorized to appoint the constables
and watchmen and assess the county with the expense of their
employment. They were also authorized to levy a dog tax, “not
exceeding seven shillings and sixpence on every dog belonging
to any inhabitant of said town,” to part defray the expenses of
the watch. During this administration by the magistrates, assistant
justices were employed to attend the station-houses and
dispose of the peace cases. An extract from the county comptroller’s
report, dated December 15,1796, shows the amount paid
to these assistant justices and constables for their attendance in
weekly rotation at the stations and for superintending the nightlywatch.
Some of its items are: “Paid to assistant justices, £182
10s.; allowance to twenty-two constables for their attendance on the
court, taking up vagrants and disorderly persons, and serving
criminal processes, £198 10s. 3d.; wages paid five captains and
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OUR POLICE. 19
forty-four privates for the Baltimore night-watch from October 1,
1796, including fire-wood, candles and house rent for the Fell’s
Point watch, .£1,905 Os. 4d.” The same report shows that
,£1,597 10s. had been paid “for erecting and lighting three
hundred fire lamps.” By this time lamps had been erected in
various parts of the town and thenceforth their number was
steadily increased.
The Revolutionary war ended, leaving Baltimore a prosperous
and rapidly-growing town. Its population had greatly increased,
its officers had established a regular watch, its streets were lighted
and its inhabitants were no longer content to continue as an unincorporated
community; so a town meeting was called in 1784
to consider whether it would not be expedient to apply to the
Legislature to incorporate the town. This meeting did not have
result, but two years later an attempt was made to remove the
State capitol from Annapolis to this city. The attempt was
defeated, however, in the Legislature by a vote of twenty ayes to
thirty-two noes. In December, 1793, the Assembly was induced
to pass a conditional bill of incorporation ” to erect Baltimore
Town, in Baltimore County, into a city, and to incorporate the
inhabitants thereof.”
But this enactment provided that it should go into effect on
January 1, 1795, ” if the same should be confirmed by the General
Assembly at their session in November, 1794.” This the
Legislature failed to do, and the desired incorporation again
failed. Persistency, however, won the day, and on December
31, 1796, after a succession of failures, the cherished object was
attained. The new city was divided into eight wards, each containing
nearly an equal number of inhabitants. This division
was to continue, the boundaries being readjusted from time to
time to secure fair representation according to the population,
until the number of inhabitants reached 40,000, when the city
should be divided into fifteen wards. The Council was to consist
of two branches,—the First and Second. The First was to consist
of two members from each ward, and in the Second, each ward
was represented by one. The corporation was given power to
establish night-watches and patrols and to erect lamps in the
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20 OUR POLICE.
lanes, streets and alleys. The act of November, 1784, regulating
the night-watch, was declared to be a perpetual law, subject
only to such alterations, amendments and revisions as might
be enacted by the corporation or the State Legislature.
On January 16, 1797, councilmen to the Second Branch were
chosen by ballot and electors selected to elect a mayor. These
electors met on February 20, following, and chose James Calhoun
first Mayor of Baltimore, and the members of the First
Branch of the Council. The Mayor called the City Councils
together at the court house on February 27, to enact such laws
under the act of incorporation as they thought proper for the
city government.
The first ordinance passed by the councils affecting the police
was approved on April 3, 1797. It provided that three persons
should be appointed commissioners of the watch, and to supervise
the lighting of the city. They were authorized to employ
for one year “as many captains and watchmen as have been
employed in the night watch the year past” for the.same remuneration.
The commissioners were also required to take security
from the captains and watchmen for their good behavior, to prescribe
regulations for their government, and to define their hours
of duty. The assistant justice of the County Court was empowered
to receive the report and superintend the conduct of the
watch. An officer known as the city or high constable, was
created by the ordinance of March 19,1798. It was his duty ” to
walk through the streets, lanes and alleys of the city daily, with
mace in hand, taking such rounds, that within a reasonable
time he shall visit all parts of the city and give information to
the mayor or other magistrate, of all nuisances within the city,
and all obstructions and impediments in the streets, lanes, and
alleys, and of all offences committed against the laws and ordinances.”
He was also required to report the name3 of the
offenders against any ordinance and the names of the witnesses
who could sustain the prosecutions against them, and regard the
mayor as his chief. The yearly salary of the city constable was
fixed at $350, and he was required to give a bond for the performance
of his duty. The value of such an officer was soon
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OUR POLICE. 21
proved, but the territory which he had to cover was too extensive
for him to properly discharge his duty and the councils, by an
ordinance of February 26, 1799, authorized the appointment
of a city constable in each ward. This ward constable was thus
a policeman, and the term of city constable was not properly
his although his duties were defined by the ordinance to be the
same as those of the city or high constable.
Notwithstanding Baltimore had secured an organized police
force, and the corporation had the fullest powers to enforce an
observance of the laws, when the nineteenth century began, the
citizens were inclined to be somewhat unruly. Affairs became
so unmanageable, that in 1801 a town meeting was held for the
purpose of devising some plan for preventing the frequent thefts,
robberies, disturbances and fires that had become so common.
The town was the rendezvous of a number of evil characters;
but this was not surprising as the new city had made remarkable
increase in population. A census taken in the year 1800, showed
that Baltimore then had 31,514 inhabitants, an increase of 18,011
in ten years. At this meeting a committee of three persons from
each ward was appointed to plan a reorganization of the nightwatch.
At a subsequent assembly on April 30, this committee
advised that the patrol be increased. The recommendation was
approved, and by the vigilance of the watchmen disorder was
suppressed for a time. On March 9, 1807, a general ordinance
was passed defining the duties of the city commissioners. They
were given large powers. Among other things, with the Mayor
they were authorized to employ as many captains, officers and
watchmen as they might, from time to time, find necessary, but
the expense should not exceed the annual appropriation for the
service. The board was also required to make regulations and
define the hours of duty of the watch ; see that they attended to
their duties with punctuality, receive their reports and cause them
to be returned to the Mayor’s office.
It may have been that the commissioners, to whom, with the
Mayor, the control of police matters was entrusted, were hampered
by the proviso that the expense should not exceed the annual
appropriation; but whatever the cause, within only a few
years Baltimore again had cause to complain of its police protection.
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22 OUR POLICE.
In 1810 ward meetings were held and representatives were appointed
to a general meeting. At this a plan was proposed and
adopted for the reorganization of the watch, which was also
adopted by the authorities. A sub-committee was appointed to
which was given general control of the organization. Under this
scheme there were thirty captains, each being responsible for a
territory distinctly defined, and each captain had under him a
squad of eight men, thus making in all a force of two hundred
and seventy police. This system remained in operation for more
than twenty-five years. By an act of the Legislature in 1812,
the Mayor was empowered to appoint, as he found it necessary,
not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred bailiffs to
aid in preserving the peace. The Mayor was also directed to
prescribe the duties, designate the badges and weapons and provide
for the compensation of these bailiffs so as to best secure
the objects of their appointment.
On March 9, 1826, the Mayor was given control of the police
of the city by an ordinance which provided that there should be
appointed, annually, two captains and two lieutenants of the
watch for the Eastern District; two captains and four lieutenants
of the watch for the Middle District and two captains and
two lieutenants of the watch for the Western District. They
were expected to perform such duties as the Mayor might, from
time to time, direct. The latter was also given power to appoint
as he chose any number of watchmen and to dismiss them at his
pleasure. He was also to prescribe their duties. A ” Supplement
” to this ordinance, which was passed on March 9, 1835,
provided for the appointment of twelve lieutenants of the watch,
constituted policemen ” to preserve the peace, maintain the
laws and advance the good government of the city.” These
lieutenants were required to reside in certain districts by the
Mayor and have conspicuous signs on their houses bearing their
names and office. In addition to their police duties, they were
required to act as city bailiffs about the markets, Their compensation
was fixed at $20 a month for their night work as
lieutenants of the watch and they received an additional sum of
$220 a year for the services mentioned by the ordinance.
At about this time watch houses were built in various parts of
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OUR POLICE. 23
the city. The Middle District was located at Saratoga and
Holliday streets; the Western District in Green street near
Baltimore and in Belvidere street. The last named watch house
had a belfry, and in April, 1835, an appropriation was made for
a similar addition to the Green street watch house; and in this
year Mayor Jesse Hunt took occasion to call the attention of the
councils to the ” lamentably defective” police arrangements of
the city. In March, 1836 the compensation of the watchmen
was increased to $1 for each night they served. On May 22,
1838, the councils substantially re-enacted the ordinance of 1835,
providing, however, that if any watchman while in the performance
of his duty should be wounded or maimed he should receive
half-pay during the continuance of his disability, or for a period
not exceeding two months. They were also paid for attendance
at court. This ordinance provided as well for the annual appointment
of three justices of the peace to receive the reports of the
night-watch. One of these justices was required to reside in
each district. The yearly salary of each was $100. In 1843 two
cells were put in the Western watch house while in the Eastern
house there was but one. In the same year the Baltimore Sun
declared that the custom of the watch calling the time notified
thieves of the locality of the patrol and gave the former an
opportunity of safely conducting their operations. This custom
was consequently abandoned. The Southern District was established
under an ordinance dated on February 18,1845. Two captains
and four lieutenants were appointed for it, and the boundaries
of the other districts were rearranged. The Baltimore police,
as constituted in 1848, consisted in the daytime of one high constable,
one regular policeman for each ward, who was also lieutenant
of the night-watch in his district, and the night watchmen.
Besides these there were two extra policemen for each
ward, who were called into service as occasion required. This
system of day police was changed from time to time to keep pace
with the increase in the number of wards in the city, until the
wards numbered twenty. There was, however, no material alteration
in the system until 1857, when a complete reorganization
took place under the authority of an act of the Legislature passed
in 1853.
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24 OUR POLICE.
CHAPTER III.
(1853-1860.)
THE REORGANIZATION OP THE FORCE.—THE DUTIES OF ITS
OFFICERS. FOUR POLICE DISTRICTS AXD THREE HUNDRED
AND FIFTY PATROLMEN.—NO LONGER HIGH CONSTABLE, BUT
MARSHAL.—FIRST POLICE HEADQUARTERS.—THE PAY AND
UNIFORM.—THE POLICE AND THE MAGISTRATES.—NO PUNISHMENT
OF CRIME.—THE REORGANIZATION OF 1860.—MARSHAL
KANE AND HIS ADMINISTRATION.
The next important change was made under the provisions of
this act; the ordinance of January 1, 1857, introduced an entirely
new order of things, and placed Baltimore’s Department
of Police on practically the same footing as those of the other
large cities of the country. It declared that after March 1,
1857, the existing watch and police systems should be abolished,
and all ordinances for the establishment and regulation of the
same be repealed. The new force consisted of one marshal, one
deputy marshal, eight captains, eight lieutenants, twenty-four
sergeants, three hundred and fifty police officers, five detective
police officers and eight turnkeys. The men were required to
do duty day and night, and were given all the powers then
vested by law in the city bailiffs, police officers, constables and
watchmen. The city was divided into four police districts, whose
stations were at the watch-houses. The Marshal, with the concurrence
of the Mayor, was given authority to establish the
limits of the stations, divide them into beats, making allowance
for a proper force to retain at the station houses. lie had power
also to alter at will the limits of the districts and beats.
The Legislature of the State took memorable action on March
16, 1853, in passing a bill to ” provide for the better security
for life and property in the City of Baltimore.” This enactment
empowered the Mayor and the City Councils to increase,
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OUR POLICE. 25
and in every way strengthen the police, whether officers, bailiffs,
night-watchmen, or in any way connected with the organization
of the force. When any of these guardians of the peace were
injured either in person or apparel, while in the discharge of
his duties, the act required that he be fairly indemnified. This
statute also provided that the police force should be armed, that a
commission and badge be furnished each member, and that it
should be no defence for any one who resisted or assaulted an
officer to claim that his commission or badge was not exhibited.
This statute repealed the act of 1812. It was provided, too, that
the Marshal should bo annually appointed and be regarded as the
head of the police. He was given entire control of its officers
and members, subject to the authority of the Mayor. He might
at any time make rules and regulations for the government of
the force not inconsistent with the city’s ordinances, and was
required to report to the Mayor every day all that he was required
to notice in discharge of his duty, the members of the
force he had suspended, the men unfit for duty, and to deliver
the reports and muster-rolls of the captains. In any emergency
he had authority to direct the whole police force, or any part of
it, to serve at any place in the city. An office was provided for
this new official in the central part of the city, and he was allowed
a secretary, to be appointed by the Mayor and City Councils; a
bond for §5,000 being required from him for the faithful performance
of his duties.
The secretary to the Marshal was required to record daily all
suspensions of policemen by his chief, and to keep an account of
all moneys received by the Marshal or deputy-marshal from the
captains, or other sources; draw up the Marshal’s monthly reports,
and act generally as clerk; and, finally, to enter all complaints
lodged at the office against the police or against any other
parties for breaches of duty or violations of ordinances or State
laws. His duties were substantially those of the secretary to the
present Board of Police Commissioners. The deputy-marshal
was also appointed annually, and to him fell the duty of assisting
the Marshal in the execution of his duties under the latter’s
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26 OUR POLICE.
directions. In case of the sickness or absence of the chief his
deputy took his place.
The captains, two for each district, were appointed annually.
The Marshal assigned one captain to duty between six A. M.
and six P. M., and the others to serve the latter half of the day,
or for such other hours of alternate duty as the Marshal might
designate. The captains, during their respective periods of duty,
had general charge of the station-house and other arrangements
of the police district. The assigned captain, or his lieutenant,
was required to be always accessible at the station, and was expected
to keep a muster-roll of the police of the district, and call
it at the hours of relief. This muster-roll for the preceding day
was sent to the Marshal’s office, with the captain’s report in
writing, of any delinquency on the part of a member of the police,
any excuses made by either men or officers for absence from duty,
the unfitness of any member for his office, or any charge that
might be made. It was part of the captain’s duty to suggest in
writing, to the Marshal any alterations in the limits of the district
that might seem necessary, or in the number or limits of the
beats. Books were required to be kept in each station for the
entry of all arrests, disposal of prisoners, nuisances reported,
ordinances enforced, complaints and applications of citizens and
all other police matters. A copy of all this was to be transmitted
with the muster to the Marshal’s office.
The lieutenants, also two to each district, assisted their respective
captains in the performance of their duties, and acted in
their place in case of the latter’s absence or sickness. Six sergeants
were assigned to each police district, two for each platoon
of police officers, and after roll call or the hours of relief, led
forth their platoons and stationed the patrolmen on their proper
beats. The sergeants also patrolled their district during their
hours of duty. In case of the absence or sickness of a lieutenant,
the Marshal or captain in charge could assign one of the sergeants
to take his place.
The annual appointment of 350 patrolmen, who were distributed
among the four police districts under the direction of
the Marshal, was also provided for. The force of each district
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OUR POLICE. 27
was divided into three platoons, designated as platoons “A,”
” B ” and ” C . ” The district was divided into beats corresponding
in number with the force of one platoon, after the deduction
had been made from it of a proper number of men to remain at
the station-house for sudden emergencies, and a policeman assigned
to each beat. Under this system the force was so distributed
that one-third of the police was on duty at day, and
two-thirds during the night. At the same period the Detective
Department was organized. The Mayor was directed to appoint
five detective police officers who should not wear uniform, to be employed
in the detection of crimes. They were required to serve
under the Marshal’s directions. Two turnkeys were appointed
for each district, and the Marshal was authorized, after submitting
their names to the Mayor for approbation, to assign ten
persons as substitutes for police officers in each district, captains
being allowed to put a substitute in the place of a police officer
who might be sick or absent. The substitutes, while on duty,
were furnished with a badge and number, but were not required
to wear a uniform and were paid for the time of actual service.
A room was provided in each station for the use of four superintendents
of lamps, who were appointed by the Mayor, and from
whom the supplies to the lamp-lighters were distributed.
The adoption of a uniform by the officers and patrolmen was
made compulsory, the uniform being bought by the men. The.
summer costume of the sergeants and policemen consisted of a
black cap with number, a dark blue single-breasted coat with
standing collar, and a star three inches in size, worked in white
worsted on the outside of the left breast of the coat, in such a
manner that it could not be obscured by any part of the clothing.
Dark blue trousers were worn. The winter uniform consisted of
a black hat or cap with the number, a dark blue pilot overcoat,
and dark blue trousers, and a glazed black leather belt, with the
word ” Police ” lettered on it in bold Roman capital letters one
inch in height. The belt, number, and ” battoon,” were the only
articles provided at the expense of the corporation. The men
were required to always wear their uniforms in public, whether
on duty or not. The “battoon,” carried in the belt, was twenty-
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28 OUR POLICE.
two inches long and one and three-quarter inches thick. Revolvers
and other arms were procured to be used for emergencies.
The hours of service were not limited, the men being liable to be
called out for duty at any time. The marshal had power to
suspend any member of the police, and the Mayor could dismiss
absolutely from the force. The salary of the Marshal was fixed
a,t $1,500 a year; deputy marshal, $1,000 ; Marshal’s secretary,
$600; captain, $13 a week, lieutenant, $11.50 a week; sergeant,
$10.50 a week; police officers and detective police officers, $10 a
week; and turnkeys, $7 a week. Four justices of the peace were
appointed, one for each police district, whose duty it was to visit
the station three times a day, for the examination and disposal of
cases against prisoners. Under the new system the watch boxes
were abandoned and sold. At the introduction of this new system
Benjamin W. Herring was High Constable, and became Baltimore’s
first Marshal. Stephen II. Manly was his deputy. The
captains of the several districts were: Eastern District, T. W.
Sparklin and Edward Morris; Middle District, John T. Brashears
and John Mitchell; Western District, John N. Linaweaver and
“William G. Brown; Southern District, John S. Manly and John
F. Wood. The men were distributed as follows: Eastern District,
seventy-five patrolmen, forty-four of whom were on night duty,
twenty-two day duty and nine held in reserve, Middle District,
125 patrolmen, seventy-six on night duty, thirty-eight day duty
and eleven in reserve; Western District, seventy-five patrolmen,
forty-six on night duty, twenty-three day duty and six in
reserve; and in the Southern District, seventy-five patrolmen,
forty-four doing night duty, twenty-two day duty and nine in
reserve; thus making 210 men patroling night beats, and onehalf
that number on day ones. In order to give more efficiency
to the night service, the beats in the suburbs of the city were
enlarged with the purpose of concentrating more readily an
effective force whenever a sudden call might be made for it.
The same plan was adopted with the men detailed for service
during the day. Police headquarters were located in the building
then occupied by the Water Commission, in North street,
near Fayette, where Marshal Herring had two rooms.
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OUR POLICE. 29
On March 1, 1857, Marshal Herring issued the following order
to the captains of police :
” The system will commence this morning with the designated force of ) our
district in the following order: One-third for day and two-thirds for night
service. The day men to go on duty at 6 A. M. and remain on until 8 P. 11.,
at which time the night men will relieve the day men, and remain on until
relieved by the day men, at 6 o’clock A. M. It is understood that the men are
in no case to leave their beats unless compelled to do so in the discharge of
their duty. In going to their meals only a portion will leave at a time, the
balance remaining until their return, which must not exceed one hour. Two
Sergeants for day and four for night duty in each district will patrol their
districts and see that their men are at their posts. The captains, lieutenants
and turnkeys will relieve at six o’clock, morning and evening. The reserve
force will be taken from the divisions as provided for in the card previously
circulated. In case of absence from roll-call, a substitute will immediately
take the place of the absentee, morning or night. The above regulations must
be strictly complied with until further orders.”
Marshal Herring, in his statement to the Mayor for the year
1857, reported 8,949 arrests during the year, twenty-five of the
prisoners being charged with the offence of shooting at police
officers, principally committed at the November elections. In
1858 there were 10,877 arrests.
While the new organization was unqualifiedly more efficient
than former ones, in the course of a few years it lost the power
to preserve the public peace. Among its members were many
adherents of the American or “Know-nothing party.” When
this political ilk first attracted attention and the rowdy clubs
made themselves conspicuous by their violence, the police made
every effort to maintain order; but the force was gradually filled
with ” Know-nothing” recruits, who, instead of maintaining the
peace, became willing tools of violence and riot. Thus, in many
instances, the men sworn to enforce an observation of the law
became the chief instruments in subverting it. For several years
the city was given up to a mob. At every election, riot swept
many quarters of the city. Because of these facts a committee
of the Reform party in 1859 drafted a number of bills, known as
the “reform bills,” and among these was the police bill. In
order to remove the force from the control of the municipal
officials the bill provided for the organization of a Board of Police
………………………………………………………………………………………
30 OUR POLICE.
Commissioners. The Legislature made this measure an act on
February 2, 1860. Its first section provided, in nearly its own
terms, that while the City Council of Baltimore might pass ordinances
for preserving order, securing property and persons from
violence, danger, or destruction, and for promoting the great
interests and insuring the good government of the city, it could
pass no ordinance which in any manner should conflict with the
powers of the Board of Police; nor should the city or any officer
or agent of the corporation, or of the Mayor, in any manner obstruct,
hinder, or interfere with the Board of Police, or any
officer under them. The Mayor’s powers regarding the police,
which had been conferred by former statutes, were repealed.
Provisions were made for the establishment of a board of police,
consisting of four commissioners and the Mayor. The commission’s
members were to be citizens of the United States, as well
as residents of the city for twelve months next preceding their
appointment. Their terms of office were four years. The commissioners
promised, under oath, “that in any and every appointment
or removal to be by them made to or from the police
created and to be organized by them under this article they will,
in no case and under no pretext, appoint or remove any policeman
or officer of police or other person under them, for or on
account of the political opinion of such policemen, officer, or
other person, or for any other cause or reason than the fitness or
unfitness of such person.”
One of the commissioners was designated from time to time to
act as treasurer. A majority constituted a quorum for the transaction
of business, and the failure or refusal of the Mayor to act
did not impair the right of the commissioners to organize and
proceed with their duties. In case of a vacancy in the board
during the Legislature’s recess, it could be filled by the remaining
commissioners until the meeting of the General Assembly. The
commissioners could hold no other public office. The first commissioners
designated in the act were Charles Howard, William
H. Gatchell, Charles D. Hinks, and John W. Davis, two of
whom were to serve for two years, and two for four years, their
terms of duration to be decided by drawing lots. The duties of
………………………………………………………………………………………
CHARLES HOWARD.
………………………………………………………………………………………
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OUR POLICE. 88
the Board were declared to be ” at all times, day and night, within
the boundaries of the city of Baltimore, as well on water as on
land, to preserve the public peace, prevent crime and arrest
offenders, protect the rights of jiersons and property, guard the
public health, preserve order at every public election, and at all
public meetings and places and on all public occasions, prevent
and remove nuisances in all streets, highways, waters, and other
places; provide a proper police force at every fire for the protection
of firemen and property; protect strangers, emigrants, and
travelers at steamboat and ship landings and railway stations;
see that all laws relating to elections and to the observance of
Sunday, and regarding pawnbrokers, gambling, intemperance,
lotteries and lottery policies, vagrants, disorderly persons, slaves
and free negroes, and the public health, are enforced, and also
enforce all laws and all ordinances of the Mayor and City Council
of Baltimore not inconsistent with the provisions of this article or
any other law of the State, which may be enforceable by a police
force.”
In case the board should have reason to believe that any person
within the city intended to break the peace beyond the city
limits, upon the Chesapeake Bay, or any river, creek, or other
place on land or water within the State, it was made their duty
to have such persons followed, and to take the most effective
measures for the suppression and prevention of the outrage, and
to arrest the offenders. The board was required to appoint,
equip, and arm a permanent police force, the number at the first
organization, exclusive of officers, being fixed at three hundred
and fifty, with power to reduce the number or increase it to not
more than four hundred and fifty, as experience might warrant.
For extraordinary emergencies the board might raise such additional
force as its judgment demanded. No person could be
appointed or employed as a policeman or officer of police who had
been convicted of, or against whom any indictment was pending
for an offence the punishment of which was confinement in the
penitentiary. Among the necessary qualifications for appointment
was citizenship of the United States, ability to read and
write, good character, and physical strength and courage. The
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84 OUR POLICE.
law made this provision also: ” That no Black Republican or
endorser or approver of the Helper Book shall be appointed to
any office under said Board.”
The policemen were appointed for five years, and could be removed
only for just cause after a hearing before the board.
Policemen whose term of service should expire, and also had
faithfully performed their duty, were to be preferred by the board
in making their new appointments. The number of men and the
disposition of the new force were not greatly changed. The
Marshal and deputy-marshal were continued, and the appointment
of eight captains, eight lieutenants, twenty-four sergeants, and
eight turnkeys was provided for, the officers being subject to
removal by the board. The pay of the ordinary policemen was
fixed at $10 a week, payable semi-monthly. The board was empowered
to appoint five detective policemen, paid the same as
patrolmen. The Marshal’s salary was $1,500 per annum; the
deputy-marshals, $1,000; captains, $13 a week; lieutenants,
$11.50; and sergeants, $10.50, payable semi-weekly. Whenever
a vacancy occurred in any grade of officers, except that of
marshal and deputy-marshal, the law required that it should be
filled from the next lower grade. The board was authorized to
make rules and regulations for the appointment, uniforming
and disciplining and government of the police, for the relief
and compensation of members injured in the discharge of their
duties, and the support of families of men and officers killed in its
performance. Such an allowance, however, could not exceed
twelve months’ pay. No member of the force was allowed to
receive any gratuity without the consent of the board, and any
money he was permitted to receive was to be paid to the commissioners,
which, ” together with the proceeds of fines, forfeitures,
penalties and unclaimed property which came into the
possession of the board or be recovered by them under the provisions
of this article, or any other law,” formed a fund which
the board could apply towards allowances to policemen and
their families, and for extra pay to any member of the force who
might be awarded it for gallantry and good conduct on extraordinary
occasions. This provision was the foundation of the
………………………………………………………………………………………
WILLIAM H. GATCIIELL.
………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………
OUR POLICE. 87
present Police Pension Fund, which has become so flourishing. The
board was authorized to use a common seal, and the fire-alarm
and police telegraph, and all station-houses, watch-boxes, arms,
accoutrements, and other accommodations, which had been provided
by the Mayor and Council for the use and service of the
police. In case of the refusal of the Mayor or Council or any
officers or agents to allow such use, the board could apply to the
Superior Court of Baltimore, in the name of the State, for a
mandamus to compel a compliance. The law also made it the
duty of the sheriff, whenever called upon by the board, to act
under its control for the preservation of the peace. It could
order him to summon the posse comitatus, and hold and employ
the posse under its direction. It could also summon the military
force of the city to aid in preventing threatened disorder, or in
suppressing insurrection or disorder on election days and other
times, the military then being subject to the directions given
them by the board. Whenever the exigency warranted it the
board could assume command of all the conservators of the peace
in the city, sheriff, constables, police, and others, and the latter
were required to act under the orders of the board. In case of
the refusal of any of these to obey any lawful command of the
board they were liable to the following penalties : the sheriff to a
penalty of $5,000, and other peace officers to a penalty of $500,
and any private citizen to a penalty of $150. Any officer of tbe
military force of the city failing to obey the board was liable to a
penalty of $500, and any non-commissioned officer or private to
a penalty of $150.
Upon the organization of the Board of Police it was required
to inform the Marshal or deputy-marshal of police that it required
his attendance and obedience to its orders, under penalty, and
the whole existing force should then pass under the exclusive
management and control of the board, the latter having power of
removal or suspension, and to fill vacancies, until it should
declare the organization complete. Upon this public declaration
all ordinances of the City Council were annulled and declared void
so far as they conflicted with the new law, or assumed or conferred
upon the Mayor or any other person any power to employ
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38 OUR POLICE.
or control any police force organized under such ordinances.
The board was required to annually estimate the sum of money
necessary for each current fiscal year enabling it to discharge its
duties, and certify the same to the Mayor and City Council, who
were expected to assess and levy the amount upon all assessable
property of Baltimore, and collect the same as other city taxes.
A penalty of $1,000 was imposed upon “any officer or servant
of the Mayor and City Council,” who should forcibly resist or
obstruct the enforcement of the provisions of the act providing a
permanent police for the city. Justices of the peace were to be
designated to sit at the respective stations for hearing cases.
The board was required to keep a full journal of its proceedings,
which should be open to the inspection of the General Assembly,
or any committee appointed by it for that purpose. The board
was also ordered to report to the Assembly at each session of
the latter.
The last section of this important law declares that nothing in
it should ” b6 taken to destroy or diminish the liability or responsibility
of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore for any
failure to discharge the duties or obligations of the corporation,”
the board of police being constituted the authorities for all such
purposes to the same effect as if created and appointed by the
Mayor and Council; “Provided, however,” it is again cautiously
stated, “that nothing m this section shall be construed to give to
the said Mayor and City Council, or any officer of said corporation,
any control over said board or any officer or policeman appointed
thereby.” This act took effect on the day of its passage.
The act of February 14,1860, conferred upon the Board of
Police the additional powers of general supervision of elections.
It was required to divide the wards of the city into election precincts,
and exercised a large control over the voting. The personnel
of the first board was excellent. Mr Howard, the
president, was a genial gentleman of independent means, possessing
the confidence of the entire community. He was a
Democrat in politics. Mr. Gatchell was also a Democrat, but
neither he nor Mr. Howard figured prominently in party affairs
Mr. Hinks was an active Republican, and was afterwards Mayor
………………………………………………………………………………………
CHARLES D. IIINKS.
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OUR POLICE. 41
of the city. All of these gentlemen are now dead. Of the original
board there are living Mr. John W. Davis and Judge
George W. Brown, then Mayor and ex-officio member of the
Board of Police.
This police bill excited the most violent opposition from the
city authorities, who, with others, contended that the act was
unconstitutional. On the passage of the bill the Mayor dispatched
a message to the Council asking leave to test its legality,
saying, in his opinion, that the ” Reform bills were without the
authority of law, and cannot be recognized by the courts.” On
February 6, the Commissioners of the Police Board appeared in
the clerk’s office at the Superior Court and subscribed to the required
oath of office. Three days later a formal demand was
made through their counsel, Reverdy Johnson, S. Teackle
Wallis, J. Mason Campbell and William H. Norris, upon the
Mayor and City Council for the delivery, under the law, of
the station-houses, police equipments, etc. Mayor Swann, on
the 10th, formally notified the board of his refusal to comply
with the demand. The commissioners then made application to
Judge Martin, of the Superior Court, for a mandamus. The
decision of the court was not made until March 13, when it decided
that the act constituting the board was constitutional. The
Mayor and City Council appealed from this decision, and the
decision was affirmed by the Court of Appeals on April 17. The
great body of the people of Baltimore were favorable to the new
police law, and this final decision declaring its legality gave the
greatest satisfaction. The commissioners immediately organized
a new police force, and entered upon their duties on May 1,
1860. A new uniform was adopted for the policemen, and the
force was known as the Metropolitan Police. Colonel George
P. Kane was appointed Marshal, and Thomas Gifford, deputymarshal.
Marshal Kane, who accepted the position at a great
personal sacrifice, and who was perhaps the best man in the city
for the task confided to him, raised the force to the highest point
of efficiency.
The new force, organized by him, uniformed and thoroughly
drilled, was the most efficient the city had ever known. Old
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42 OUR, POLICE.
abuses were done away with, and the citizens began to look upon
the recent epoch of riot and violence as a terrible nightmare, and
this feeling of security might have losg continued but for the
troubles incident to the beginning of the civil war.
Mr. Herring, who preceded Colonel Kane as Marshal, was the
connecting link between the old police organization, when there
Was constabulary and a high constable, and the efficient force
which Colonel Kane developed. Mr. Herring had served four
years as high constable under Mayors Jerome and Hinks. Basil
James was deputy high constable. During Mayor Smith Holland’s
administration Mr. Herring did not hold office, but upon
Mayor Swann’s election and the re-organization of the police, he
was made Marshal. His deputy was Stephen Manly. Mr.
Herring served until 1861, when the control of the police was
removed from the municipal authorities, and the new order of
things went into effect. Marshal Herring was born in New
Castle, Delaware, on April 1, 1810. He came to Baltimore
while a young man and engaged in the grocery business, which
he followed until elected to the position of High Constable.
In 1861, when the city police force was disbanded, he went to
Pennsylvania, and subsequently settled in Philadelphia. In that
city he was engaged in business for more than twenty years, and
in 1882, having acquired a competency, he returned to Baltimore,
to pass his declining years in the city where his youth was spent.
Notwithstanding his more than seventy-seven years, Mr. Herring
is an active and robust man, and defends the old police force, of
which he was chief. He recently said to the writer:
” The criticisms on the police of those days are unjust. There
was not a better body of men in the country. We had the old
volunteer fire department to deal with, and the firemen gave us a
great deal of trouble. The real fault of the lawlessness at that
time rested not with the police, but with the courts and magistrates.
The magistrates were elected by the wards at that time.
Many of the roughest element in society belonged to the fire
companies, and the men seeking magisterial office depended upon
that class for election. When the police arrested one of these
men for any crime he would be released on straw-bail, and within
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OUR POLICE. 43
twenty-four hours we would perhaps have the same man to again
lock up. The officers were not upheld in the discharge of their
duties. We often arrested forty or fifty persons in one night,
every one of whom were released the next morning by the
magistrates. They would take the sureties from anybody that
offered them. The citizens did not understand the true facts of
the matter and blamed the police. They saw the lawlessness
and riot, and thought the police ought to correct them. The
officers got discouraged. The roughs defied the police, knowing
how secure they were. To show their recklessness look
at the case of the shooting of policemen Rigdon and Benton.
Cropps, Currie and Gamble would never have murdered the
officers or been hanged if they had been properly dealt with in the
first instance. They had been arrested for crimes time and time
again, but nothing was done with them. They were allowed to
do as they pleased, until they thought any crime, even the murder
of policemen, could be committed with immunity to themselves.
Then officer Jordan was shot in Old Town. There was
a riot in Jackson Hall, and hearing of it, I took some officers
and went over there. As we approached the hall the crowd
within began firing from the windows, and officer Jordan fell,
shot dead. Rioting was very common. I was many times out
on Baltimore street with forty or fifty men all night, just to keep
the firemen from fighting.
” I , myself,” continued Mr. Herring, “arrested one of the
worst characters in Baltimore, ‘Bud’ Coulston, for firing two
shots in the day time into the public school at Fayette and Holliday
streets. I took the prisoner before a magistrate who
immediately released him on ‘ straw’ bail. There were hundreds
of such cases. Captain Brown’s men, of the Western District,
arrested one man, in a little more than a year, one hundred and
forty-seven times. He was a notorious rough, one of the worst
men in the city, but he was never brought before the courts for
trial. The Deputy State Attorney frequently came to my office
and committed five or six prisoners to jail, and find the next
morning that all had been released by their friends, the magistrates,
on the fiction that they had given security or ‘bail.’
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44 OUR POLICE.
Much has heen said about the police and election days. Why,
the officers made arrests at the polls, took their prisoners to jail,
and within two hours would find them hack about the polling
places. There were numbers of these cases. The people did
not understand it all, and some clamored for a change. If the
courts and magistrates had done their duty, the control of the
police should never have been taken out of the hands of the
Mayor. We had a rough time, but it was not the fault of the
police, and had the force been assisted by the execution of the
laws, we would not have had so much trouble. There were no
gymnasiums in those days; the men had enough gymnastic exercise
without. They were compelled to fight almost every prisoner
and drag him to the station. Frequently the officers literally
had their coats torn off their backs. If an arrest were made in
a crowd the prisoner’s friends would interfere, and prevent the
officer from properly discharging his duty. During the latter
part of my administration the volunteer firemen were disbanded
and the paid fire department established. An improvement in
the order of the city was at once manifest; but about the time we
were beginning to straighten things out the force was disbanded
and the new Police Board went into operation. The force was
disbanded, but many of the men, bad as some would have you
believe they were, were re-appointed, and remain to this day
good and efficient officers of police. The men did not at the time
like the change.”
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OUR POLICE. 45
CHAPTER IV.
CIVIL WAR AND THE NEW FORCE.
THE ENTRANCE OP THE NORTHERN TROOPS.—MARSHAL KANE’S
PRECAUTIONS.—PROTECTING THE MILITARY.—THE MARCH
THROUGH THE STREETS.—”KEEP BACK, MEN, OR I’LL SHOOT.”
—THE COMMISSIONERS AND MARSHAL ARRESTED.—UNDER
MILITARY RULE.—THE RIVAL POLICE BOARDS.—GOOD ORDER
AGAIN.—THE REORGANIZATION OF 1867.—THE FIRST BOARD.
Marshal Kane was fitly chosen for his position. It was the
recollection of his administration which made the reorganization
of the force after the stirring times of the civil war, one which
demanded the best executive ability in the city, and made the
present admirable system possible. But Mr. Kane, while he was
anxious to serve his fellow citizens with the very best of his
powers, did not propose to sacrifice himself absolutely, and so in
November, 1860, after his charge had been fostered into a sturdy
life, tendered his resignation as Marshal, but the citizens made so
general a protest against its acceptance that he was induced to
withdraw it. In the latter part of November, Mayor George
William Brown became, ex officio, a member of the Board of
Police; William F. McKewen was clerk of the Board. The
force as thus constituted continued to protect the city until the
military authorities took possession of it in 1861. In the memorable
troubles of the 19th of April in that year the police earned for
themselves, by their coolness and courage, a national reputation,
Marshal Kane particularly distinguishing himself by his brave
efforts to protect the passing soldiers from harm. The first
Northern troops on their way to Washington, a force of about
six hundred Pennsylvanians, passed through the city on the 18th
of April. The route of march from the depot, at the intersection
of Cathedral and Howard street, to Mount Clare depot, was lined
with an excited crowd which hooted the soldiery, but was kept
from violence by the thoroughness of the police arrangements.
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46 OUR POLITE.
Simultaneously with the passage of the first Northern troops
came the news that Virginia had seceded, and the danger of passing
soldiers through the city was so apparent that a dispatch was sent
by the Northern Central Railroad Company to Governor Curtin,
of Pennsylvania warning him of the peril of repeating the
attempt. Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown issued a proclamation
warning the people to refrain from violence. On April 19,
information was received that a large body of Federal troops, on
their way to Washington, would soon arrive at the depot of the
Philadelphia railroad. No intimation of this had been previously
received by the police, although the Marshal repeatedly
telegraphed to Philadelphia for information. Marshal Kane
hastily called out a force to protect the soldiery. At eleven
o’clock a train of thirty-five cars, containing about two thousand
troops of the Sixth regiment of Massachusetts, the First
and Fourth of Pennsylvania, and the Washington Brigade of
Philadelphia, arrived at the depot. Six rounds of ball cartridge
per man had been furnished the Massachusetts men in apprehension
of trouble. Marshal Kane, accompanied by Mayor
Brown, had gone to the Camden station of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, where a train was preparing to take the men to
Washington. As the change of cars occurred at this point, it
was here that an attack was feared, and a strong police force
was massed about the station. The line of march, about a mile
from the Philadelphia depot to the Camden station, was bordered
with citizens more or less excited. The first car, containing
Massachusetts men, and drawn by horses, then the
means of transit of all trains through Baltimore, started from the
depot at half past eleven o’clock, and was shortly followed by
eight other cars. The constantly increasing crowd groaned,
yelled and hooted, but still offered no violence. The appearance
of the crowd was, however, so alarming that the soldiers threw
themselves on the floors of the cars, so that none of them were
visible from the outside. The nine cars reached the Camden
station in safety, and, although there was a larger and more
angry crowd assembed there, no violence was offered, and the
troops were safely transferred to the Washington train. The
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•
HON. GEORGE WILLIAM BROWN.
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^ ………………………………………………………………………………………
OUR POLICE. 49
tenth car had gone but a little distance from the depot, when it
was delayed in its passage—according to one account, was thrown
off’ the track by obstructions, and had to be replaced with the
help of a passing team. A stone was thrown at it by some one
in the crowd, and in an instant a shower of paving-stones and
other missiles descended on the car, the windows were broken, and
some of the soldiers were struck. Near Gay street a number of
laborers were at work repairing Pratt street, and had taken up
the cobble-stones. A cart full of sand was dumped upon the
track, and the loose paving-stones piled on top, and, as a more
effectual means of obstruction, a number of large anchors, lying
near the head of Gay street dock, were placed across the track.
In several places the rails were torn up. The next lot of cars,
being stopped by the obstructions, were hauled back to the station.
Their passage had now become impossible. Thus, about
four companies of troops, or about 220 men, were blocked. A
report spread through the crowd that they had abandoned the
attempt to pass through the city and taken an eastward bound
train. Presently a report was circulated that, instead of returning,
the troops were preparing to march through the city, and in
an instant a rush was made for the depots. There, the soldiers
were found preparing to march. The crowd assembled rapidly,
its anger increasing with the delay. Several attempts were
made by the mob to break into the cars, but these were
checked by the strong body of police. Presently six car-loads
of soldiers left the train, and despite the threats of the crowd,
succeeded, with the help of the police, in forming a double file.
The troops massed on President street, while the crowd pressed
upon them, cheering for Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy, and
groaning for Lincoln and the North. The order was given to .
march, but the crowd blocked the way. The troops then wheeled
and tried to move in the opposite direction, but the crowd again
held them in check. Finally, they were formed into columns
of fours, with an escort of police in the front and the rear, and
the crowd reluctantly gave way to the police. Then the march
was begun towards the Camden street station. Throughout that
terrible day, nothing was more remarkable than the admirable
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50 OUR POLICE.
behavior, discipline and courage of the police, and the respect
with which the mob regarded them. Amid all the excitement
they were never directly attacked, not even when they drove the
furious mob back inch by inch, or tore men by force out of its
hands. As the soldiers advanced along President street the turbulence
of the crowd increased. One of the hands of rioters bore
a Confederate flag, which was saluted with deafening cheers, and
carried a considerable distance. A man rushed towards the
flag, and pulling down the staff nearly tore away the banner,
when he was seized by the throat and would have been killed,
had not the police rescued him. Stones were thrown in great
numbers, and at Fawn street two of the soldiers were knocked
down and seriously injured. One of them was seized and
roughly handled until the police forced their way to him and
carried him off. The troops then quickened their pace to a run,
bending their heads to avoid the ftying stones. The police did
their utmost, but it was useless to arrest men when not an officer
could be spared to put them in jail. The presence of the police,
however, was of great service, and they rescued two more soldiers
from the crowd. The rioters were armed only with such stones
and missiles as could be picked up, and a few pistols. They made
no attempt to use the muskets taken from the fallen soldiers, but
handed them over to the police.
During this time, Marshal Kane, the Police Commissioners
and Mayor Brown, with a large body of police, were at the
Camden street station. A large crowd had assembled there,
but was restrained by the police from committing any serious
breach of the peace. Shortly after the arrival of the nine
car-loads of troops who had passed safely to the Camden station,
the alarm was given that the mob was about to tear up
the rails in advance of the train on the Washington road.
Marshal Kane ordered some of his men to go out as far as
necessary, and protect the track. About this time, also, the
first intelligence reached the Mayor and police officials at the
Camden station, that troops had been left behind, and that
the mob was tearing up the tracks on Pratt street, so as to
obstruct the progress of the cars. Police Commissioner Davis
………………………………………………………………………………………
HON. JOHN W. DAVIS.
………………………………………………………………………………………
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OUR POLICE. 58
immediately summoned Marshal Kane to the point of danger-,
and Mayor Brown proceeded alone. Sergeant McComas and
four policemen had been stationed at the foot of Gay street,
where the anchors had been placed, but they were prevented from
removing the obstructions by the rioters. Mayor Brown, upon
appearing, ordered their removal, and his authority was not resisted.
Near the Pratt street bridge Mayor Brown encountered
the four companies of Massachusetts troops marching in doublequick
time. The soldiers were firing wildly, sometimes backward,
over their shoulders. The mob was pursuing, throwing stones
and firing an occasional pistol shot. The uproar was furious,
but as Mayor Brown approached the head of the column, some
persons in the crowd called out:
” Here comes the Mayor !”
Joining the officer in command, he announced who he was, and
marched with him. Mayor Brown objected to the double-quick,
and it was immediately stopped. The Mayor’s presence had
some effect for a short time, but very soon the attack was renewed
with greater vigor. As the mob grew bolder, the rioters
rushed at the soldiers and attempted to snatch their muskets.
With one of these weapons a soldier was killed. Men fell on
both sides, the soldiers firing at will. The troops could not discriminate
between the rioters and the bystanders, and the latter
seemed to suffer most from the firing, for the mob was pursuing
the troops. The latter could not face about with ease, and so
shot towards their flank. At South street several citizens who
had been standing in a group, fell, wounded or killed. Near
Light street a soldier was fatally wounded, and a boy on a
vessel lying in the dock was killed. About the same place,
some soldiers, at the head of the column, fired into a group on
the sidewalk, the shots taking effect. At this point, between
Light and Charles streets, Marshal Kane, with about fifty policemen,
was seen running from Camden street station. These
police formed at the rear of the troops and in front of the
mob, and kept it back with drawn revolvers. Marshal Kane
called out:
“Keep back, men, or I’ll shoot!”
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54 OUR POLICE.
This gallant movement was successful, and the mob recoiled.
One of the ringleaders tried to pass the line, but the Marshal
seized him, and declared he would shoot him if he persisted.
Marshal Kane and his men nearly ended the fight, and the
column passed on under the protection of the police, without
serious molestation, to Camden station, where the detachment
that had first passed through in the Washington cars was waiting
the arrival of the other troops to start. At the station there
was more rioting and confusion, but nothing serious occurred.
Police Commissioner Davis assisted in protecting the soldiery
while they were entering the cars. Some muskets were pointed
out of the windows by the troops, but Commissioner Davis
earnestly objected to this as likely to bring on a renewal of the
fight, and consequently the blinds were closed.
At about a quarter of one o’clock the train of thirteen cars,
filled with troops, moved out of the station to Washington, followed
by the hisses and groans of the multitude. At the outskirts
of the city, shots were fired from the windows of the cars,
and Robert W. Davis was killed. During the day four of the
Massachusetts regiment were killed and thirty-six wounded.
Twelve citizens were killed.
When the Massachusetts troops had departed, the band of the
regiment and some unarmed Pennsylvania troops, who had not
yet left the President street station, were in danger. A mob
assembled and there was insufficient police protection. Stones
were thrown, and some of the Pennsylvanians were hurt; a numbor
were panic-stricken and scattered through the city. Marshal
Kane again appeared with an adequate force, and quiet was
restored. Arrangements were subsequently made with the railroad
by which the remaining troops were returned towards Philadelphia.
During the afternoon and night a number of straggling
soldiers sought the aid of the police, and were cared for at the
stations.
Notwithstanding the brilliant achievements of the new police
organization, the last vestige of the civil authority directing it
was doomed soon to be swept away. The military took possession
of the city, and on the morning of June 27, Marshal Kane
………………………………………………………………………………………
SAMUEL IIINDES.
………………………………………………………………………………………
5C*
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OUR POLICE. 57
was arrested at his home and taken to Fort McHenry. Mr.
Kane had given pronounced expression to his views in regard to
the expediency of massing troops at Washington, and had thus
made himself liable to the summary action by the military in
the city. On the same day General Banks suspended the
Board of Police, and ordered John R. Kenly to assume command
of the police in the city. On July 10, General Banks
appointed George 11. Dodge to be Marshal of Police in place of
Colonel Kenly. He entered upon his duties the same day,
with James McPhail as deputy-marshal. They occupied the
property of the city provided for the regular police, and the
troops which had been quartered in the heart of the town were
withdrawn and sent back to the camps. The Board of Police
(Commissioners was arrested on the morning of July 1st, by men
of Col. Morehead’s Philadelphia regiment. The troops proceeded
first to the house of John W. Davis, who had so distinguished
himself in protecting the Northern soldiers on April 19,
arrested him, and sent him to the fort, under guard. They next
arrested Charles D. Hinks, Charles Howard, the President of
the Board, and William H. Gatchell. All these gentlemen were
conveyed to the fort, and then sent to Fort Warren, Boston Harbor,
where they remained for more than a year. The Clerk of the Board,
William McKewen, who has since figured prominently in local politics,
and is now clerk of the city court, was also arrested, but afterwards
discharged by Marshal Kenly, no charge having been
made against him. General Banks then appointed a police
board, composed of Columbus O’Donnell, Archibald Sterling,
Jr., Thomas Kelso, John R. Kelso, John W. Randolph, Peter
Sauerwein, John B. Seidenstricker, Joseph Roberts and Michael
Warner. Between Thursday night and Friday morning, a number
of military arrests were made, and among the prisoners was
Mayor George William Brown. It was intended to send him, with
others, to the Dry Tortugas, but, as it fortunately happened, there
were no vessels in the port suitable for the service. Clerk William
McKewen, was re-arrested on October 15, and thus the last
vestige of the authority of the Baltimore Police Board was
temporarily disposed of.
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58 OUR POLICE.
The bill appropriating one hundred thousand dollars for the
payment of the police organization of Baltimore, ” employed
by the United States,” was introduced into Congress on July
21, and “railroaded” through. Representative Henry May
characterized the measure as ” a bill to provide for the wages
of oppression.” All discussion was cut off by moving the
“previous question.” In the Senate the act was adopted with
equal precipitancy, notwithstanding the protests of both the
Maryland Senators. This Congressional appropriation not
being sufficient for the purpose, the City Council, at its
session of 1862-63, made an appropriation of twenty-two
thousand dollars to supply the deficiency. In 1862 the military
signified its willingness to turn over the police department
to the civil authorities of the State, as the Legislature,
which had the power to appoint a Board of Police Commissioners,
was at the time in full sympathy with the Federal Government.
The Legislature, therefore, on February 18, 1862,
passed a bill repealing the former Police Bill of 1860, but substantially
re-enacting its provisions, with the exception of the
number of Commissioners, which was fixed at two, who, together
with the Mayor of the city, John Lee Chapman, formed
the Police Board. The oath of fealty to the Government of
the United States was required from the Commissioners and
all the officers of police appointed by them. Messrs. Samuel
Hindes and Nicholas L. Wood were appointed to the office. This
Board qualified on March 6, 1862, and organized and entered
on its duties on March 10. On the 29th, the Government force
of police was turned over to the Police Board, and on April 1,
it was paid and disbanded. A large majority of the force selected
by the new Board was the same as appointed by the Provost-
Marshal. The new organization began its service on April
3, 1862.
W. A. Van Nostrand was the Board’s appointment to the
Marshalship. He filled the office during that most troublous
period in the city’s history—from 1862 to March, 1864. His
deputy was William H. Lyons. Besides being Marshal of Baltimore,
Mr. Van Nostrand filled the position of United States
………………………………………………………………………………………
NICHOLAS L. WOOD.
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OUR POLICE. 61
Provost-Marshal oftlie Middle District, consisting of West Virginia,
Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Now Jersey. He served
under Generals Dix, Wool, Schenck, Tyler and Wallace. Marshal
Van Nostrand was born on Long Island, N. V., on April
4, 1819. He came to Baltimore in 1853. By occupation, he
is a shipsmith. The only other public office which he has held,
besides those named, was that of Representative of the First and
Second Wards, in the years 1858-59, in the second branch of
Councils. Before the disbanding of the Volunteer Fire Companies,
in 1861, he was an active fireman, and was for five years
President of the Franklin Fire Company.
” I t has been said by several historians,” declared Mr. Van
Nostrand, recently, “that Baltimore was for a time, after the arrest
of Marshal Kane, the Police Commissioners and Mayor Brown,
under martial law ; but such was not the case. At no time was
the civil authority suspended. When Mayor Brown was arrested,
Mr. Chapman immediately qualified and assumed the office. The
Courts, City Councils and the city government were administered
without interruption. After Marshal Kane’s arrest, Mr. Dodge
was appointed by the military authorities to take charge of the
police, but the functions of the police were continued. Barricades
were afterwards established, through which no one was
allowed to pass after nightfall without a pass; but this was a
military necessity, not at all incident to martial law; a precaution
taken against carrying information to the enemy of the number
of United States troops in and about the city. It was a trying
time, but the military authorities and the police acted in
concert, and while martial law was threatened on several occasions,
it was never declared.”
In 1863, John A. Thompson, City Registrar, was made Treasurer,
under the provisions of the new law. On March 17,1864,
Thomas H. Carmichael succeeded Mr. Van-Nostrand as Marshal
of Police. The Deputy-Marshal was John S. Manly. Mr. Carmichael
had been in the police service since March 1, 1857, when
he was appointed Lieutenant of the Middle District by Mayor
Swann. This position he filled until the creation of the Police
Board, in 1861. When Mr. Kenly took charge of the police as
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62 OUR POLICE.
Provost-Marshal, he tendered to Mr. Carmichael the Captaincy
of the Middle District; but this the latter declined, preferring to
resume his old duties of Lieutenant. At the same time he was
made Chief of the United States Detectives stationed in Baltimore,
and had the direction of fourteen men. When Mr. Van
Nostrand was made Marshal, Lieutenant Carmichael was promoted
to be Captain of his District, and continued in that capacity
until he was again promoted to the Marshalate by Messrs.
Hindes, Wood and Mayor Chapman. He served until March 15,
18G7, when the new Board was organized. Marshal Carmichael
was born in Baltimore, on December 16,1829. After the severance
of his connection with the police department, he was appointed
Harbor-Master of this port. He has also filled the posi
tion of deputy-warden of the city jail. From 1869 to 1875, he was
Captain of the Watch at the Custom-House, and subsequently
was the officer at the Government Buildings for a period of nine
years.
Messrs. Hindes and Wood continued Commissioners until
1866, when charges of official misconduct were preferred against
them, and after an examination by the Governor, they were removed,
William T. Valiant and James Young being appointed
to their places. The reasons for their removal were rather political
than anything else, nothing dishonorable in the discharge
of their duties being proved against them. They were both Republicans,
although neither was prominent in political affairs.
Messrs. Hindes and Wood refused to deliver to the new Commissioners
the police establishment, and continued to exercise control
over the police force. The new Commissioners, however,
established their head-quarters at another point, and began
measures for the exercise of their functions. The power of the
Criminal Court was invoked against them, and they were arrested
on the charge of unlawfully conspiring to obtain possession of the
offices and property of the police department. Messrs. Valiant
and Young refused to give bail, and they were imprisoned in the
city jail.
Messrs. Valiant and Young were brought before the Court
on November 8th, and on the 13th, Judge Bartol released the
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JAMES YOUNG. WM. T. VALIANT.
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OUR POLICE. 65
Commissioners, the latter taking possession of their office and
entering upon the performance of their duties. The Marshal
presented himself to the Board during the day, and made a formal
surrender of his command; and on the 15th, Messrs. Hindes and
Wood delivered their documents to the new Commissioners, and
turned over the station-houses and the other property of the State
appertaining to the Commission. In this way was settled one of
the most exciting episodes of the” history of the police under the
perfected system. The new Board began its work by appointing
Colonel John T. Farlow Marshal of Police, and Captain John
T. Gray, of the Central District, Deputy-Marshal.
Marshal Farlow received his appointment on April 22, 1867,
and served until April 17, 1870, when he resigned. lie was
born at Fell’s Point, East Baltimore, and lived there all his
life. He was a ship-carpenter by trade, but early in life engaged
in mercantile pursuits. For a time he discharged the duties of
United States Steamboat Inspector at this port, but that was the
only public office ho filled up to the time of his appointment as
Marshal. After his resignation from the police, he was elected
Magistrate, and assigned to the Eastern Police District, in which
position he died. On the occasion of his funeral the police paraded,
details from each district taking part in the funeral procession.
It was on March 15, 1867, that the new Board of the Police
Department was organized under the State law. The Legislature
had elected as Commissioners Lefevre Jarrett, James E.
Carr and William II. B. Fusselbaugh. Upon the meeting of the
Board, Mr. Jarrett was elected to be President, and Mr. Carr,
Treasurer; George W. Taylor was appointed to be Secretary, he
remaining in the service of the Commissioners until August, 1867,
when he was succeeded by Thomas E. Martin. The executive
heads of the force were as during the Valiant-Young regime.
Bet’. een the organization of the latter Board and the reorganization
of 1867, there had been two changes. Colonel Farlow
had been removed for political reasons, Thomas H. Carmichael succeeding
him. But in 1867 the latter was in turn removed, and
William A. Van Nostrand appointed. Then Marshal Van
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66 OUR POLICE.
Nostrand was followed by Colonel Farlow. The police force of
1860 not having been paid, a resolution was introduced into
the City Couucil to appropriate $112,000 in payment of this
debt, and $1000 as a gift to Mayor Chapman for his services
on the Board. This resolution was a bomb-shell in
the Council, and occasioned the bitterest denunciations of all
kinds; but the honesty of the intentions of the Police Board was
not for a moment questioned by its bitterest opponent. The
resolution was defeated, and thereupon R. C. Barry and
S. Teackle Wallace, as the Police force counsel, made a
formal demand upon the City Registrar for the money.
This was refused, and the suits, numbering 389, were docketed
before Judge Smith, of the City Court for the recovery
of the claims. The costs, with attorneys’ fees, amounted to
$5,000. The suits were finally compromised and the claim
settled. The Legislature of 1867 did much to increase the
power of the Police Commissioners. Since the trouble of 1861,
there had been, as has been related, all sorts of changes in the
composition of the Commission, and the public had been inclined
to regard the members of it with askance, but when the
Board was reorganized, the old laws of 1860 were again acted
upon by the Legislature, and the Board was again clothed with
almost unlimited powers. In fact, the acts which now define
the duties of the Commission, bear the date of 1867. The substance
of these laws have been already commented upon. Of the
Board of Police Commissioners under the reorganization of 1867,
Messrs James E. Carr and William H. B. Fusselbaugh are still
(1887) living.
Mr. Carr took his seat as Commissioner on March 4, 1867,
and he was at once selected as Treasurer. He served for two
terms of four years each in this capacity, being re-elected a Commissioner
by the Legislature of 1871. The duties devolving
upon this Board were exceedingly difficult, the city being at the
time almost a social and political chaos. The Board had to cope
with the lawlessness, which was the legitimate outcome of the
war. Persons of all classes at the time carried arms, and the
enforcement of the act of the Legislature disarming all persons,
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LEFEVRE .TAEEETT.
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OUR POLICE. 89
was one of the difficult tasks the Board was compelled to labor
with. Proceeding upon its task with fearless vigor and determination,
it was not a great while before the Board succeeded in
quieting all discordant elements and obtaining security for the
people of Baltimore. During the term of this Board the Freedmen
held a grand jubilee and procession in Baltimore on the anniversary
of their emancipation, in which procession more than
30,000 negroes were in line. The feeling against the negro,
among a certain class, ran very high at that time, and a bloody
collision between the races was feared. The manner in which
the city was kept in almost perfect tranquility reflected the
greatest credit upon the efficiency of the department.
Mr. Carr was born at Carroll’s Manor, Howard county, in this
State, in 1829. His mother, who was left a widow removed to
this city while he was still an infant. After receiving a common
school education in Baltimore, he became engaged in various pursuits
until, shortly before the war, he entered the hat and cap
manufacturing business, on Howard street. Since he attained
his majority, Mr. Carr has taken a most lively interest in politics.
He has always been a staunch Democrat, and has enjoyed
a large influence among the leaders of his party, both in the
State and in this city. At the beginning of the late war, the condition
of Mr. Carr’s health precluded the possibility of his entering
upon active military service, and he remained in Baltimore
during all those troublous times. It was shortly after his election
to the Police Board that that most dreadful calamity, the
flood of July 24, 1868, overtook this city. In that crisis the
bravery of Commissioner Carr in rescuing the victims of the catastrophe,
became a matter of national fame. Harper’s Weekly,
at the time, in a long article on the floods, quoted the following
editorial notice from the Baltimore Sunday Telegram, of July
26, 1868:
” It is a true saying, that in times of great public calamities, some man rises
to the position of a great public benefactor, and such was the case yesterday
with Police Commissioner James E. Carr. He at iirst sight apprehended the
character of the calamity, and he immediately sent for boats and organized a
sufficient force of policemen to manage them. He soon had work enough to
do. He led the van in his boat in places of great peril, and rescued women
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70 OUR POLICE.
and children from death. Two parties he rescued from Davis street were in
the upper story of the house, holding each a child above their heads, with the
water to their necks and fast increasing. In his task he was frequently thrown
into the water,but he continued, setting an example to his men, which they
all most willingly followed. At one time he was swept off by the current,
and the news swept throughout the city, causing profound regret wherever
heard, that he was lost, but he was fortunately rescued, to continue again until
necessity ceased for his good Work. Too much praise can scarcely be awarded
to the Police Commissioners and the police for the manner in which they
labored.”
One of the afternoon newspapers in Baltimore, the Evening
Commercial, at the time published the fact of Mr. Carr’s death,
and the first knowledge his family obtained of his perilous undertakings,
was the crying upon the streets by newsboys, of ” the
drowning
of Commissioner Carr.” Shortly after the flood, the
ladies of Baltimore, in recognition of Mr. Carr’s bravery, presented
him with a beautiful dressing-gown, smoking-cap and slippers,
worked in gold thread. It was not long after the flood before
Mr. Carr began to realize the effects of his experience, for
he was attacked by inflammatory rheumatism, and was kept
housed for more than seven monthsi Ex-marshal George P. Kane
upon coming into offiee as mayor in 1878, appointed Mr. Carr
to be Judge of the Appeal Tax Court, in which position Judge
Carr served with marked ability, until March, 1882, when the
Hon. William Pinkney Whyte, then Mayor of Baltimore, recognizing
Judge Carr’s worth as an executive officer, appointed him
Commissioner of Street Cleaning, a department of the municipal
government that hud just been created. Judge Carr organized
this department, and having gotten it into thorough working
order, retired at the end of the year and entered again into active
business life, where he remained until March, 1884, when
the Hon. Ferdinand C. Latrobe, who was again elected Mayor of
the city, tendered Judge Carr a seat upon the Bench of the Appeal
Tax Court, in which capacity he is still serving, having
been re-commissioned by the Hon. James Hodges, who succeeded
Mr. Latrobe as Mayor. Recently, at the death of Judge H. Clay
Dallam, Judge Carr was elected Chief Judge by his colleagues.
Judge Carr’s wife, who is still living, was Miss Amanda
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HON. WILLIAM H. B. FUSSELBAUGH,
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OUR POLICE. 73
Wright, a daughter of John Wright, one of the ” Old Defenders”
of Baltimore in the war of 1812. His whole family
of seven children, three sons and four daughters, is still living.
One of the former, the Hon. Alfred J. Carr, now holds the same
office which his father held just twenty years ago, and another,
Mr. James E. Carr, Jr., is a well-known lawyer.
Judge William H. B. Fusselbaugh, now of the Appeal Tax
Court bench, was a member of the Board of Police Commissioners
from the reorganization of the force, in 1867, until 1881. He
was elected by the Legislature to membership in the Board at
the same time with Judge Carr and the late Lefevre Jarrett, and
shared with them the great labors and responsibilities connected
with the reorganization of the police force after its long and turbulent
career under the war regime. At the close of his first
term, in 1871, Commissioner Fusselbaugh was re-elected by the
Legislature for a term of six years, and in the same year he was
made President of the Board, a distinction which he retained
until the close of his connection with the police department. In
1877 he was again re-elected, this time for four years, the law
having been changed since his previous appointment. At the
close of this term he retired to private life again for some years.
Judge Fusselbaugh was born here on September 18, 1825. He
was educated at private schools in this city and then went into
the oil and paint business with his father, whom he succeeded,
at the latter’s death, in 1847. He continues this business, and
his store at Gay and Exeter streets is one of the oldest mercantile
establishments in Baltimore. Judge Fusselbaugh has always
taken a lively interest in political affairs, and has always been a
Democrat. The first political office he held was that of member
of the Board of Tax Control and Review, to which he was appointed
by the Legislature, in 1852. In March, 1886, after
Judge Fusselbaugh had been in private life for five years, he
was offered the position on the bench of the Appeal Tax Court,
which he now occupies.
Commissioner Jarrett was a prominent business man of Baltimore
at the time he was appointed by the Legislature a member
of the Board. He conducted for many years one of the largest
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74 OUR POLICE.
tailoring businesses in the South in Baltimore street, next door
to the office of the Daily American. He was born in this city,
on November 28,1824, and died suddenly, while still in office, on
February 25, 1870. His funeral was the occasion of one of the
greatest popular demonstrations ever witnessed in Baltimore at
the burial of one of her citizens.
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OUR POLICE. 75
CHAPTER V.
FLOOD OF 1868, AND RIOT OF 1877.
BALTIMORE INUNDATED.—BRAVE WORK BY POLICEMEN.—COMMISSIONER
CARR’S GALLANTRY. HIS TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE
IN THE FLOOD AND HIS RESCUE.—POLICEMEN WHO AIDED
THE DESTITUTE.—THE POLICE SPECIAL FUND AND ITS DISPOSITION
BY THE COMMISSIONERS. THE CHANGES IN THE
BOARD.—THE RIOTS OF 1877, AND THE MORAL THEY TAUGHT.
—THE POLICE FORCE IN 1885.
The city was afflicted on Friday, July 24, 1868, with a
calamity, -which formed a fitting close to what was perhaps the
most eventful decade in Baltimore’s history. It was the memorable
and disastrous flood which proved so conclusively of what brave
men the police force was composed, and how efficient was their
organization. For several days previous to the flood the rain
had fallen in torrents, saturating the earth and swelling the
streams among the hills of Baltimore and Howard counties.
The land, therefore, was almost incapable of absorbing any more
of the moisture, when on Friday morning the rain came as if in
realization of some awful plan of nature, and in pursuance of
the preparation which preceded it.
The cause of the flood has been variously attributed to the
overflowing of Lake Roland; to the breaking of a water-spout in
the neighborhood of the Queen Spring Valley, and to a number
of other things equally unsatisfactory. But as similar floods
occurred at various places along the Atlantic slope of the Alleghenies,
the inundation is doubtless to be attributed wholly to the
heavy fall of rain which began on the morning of July 24, and
lasted until 1 o’clock of the same day. The part most difficult
to explain, is the rapidity with which the streams rose. The
Patapsco river at Ellicott City and Jones Falls, rose at the rate
of five feet in ten minutes ; the water came down those streams
like a great wave on the sea-shore. The river at Ellicott City
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76 OUR POLTCE.
rose ten feet before a drop of rain had fallen there, and was at
one time forty feet high. In this city the rise was so rapid that
a gentleman entering a cigar store from a dry street returned
with a lighted cigar to find himself knee deep in a rapidly rushing
stream. A passenger car, while crossing a street, was caught
by the flood, and with its passengers was swept several blocks
toward the river. The market men were caught at their work,
and only had time to get on their benches and stalls for safety,
and these were washed away with their occupants. Terrible as
was the catastrophe in Baltimore, it was much worse in Ellicott
City. Had it occurred at night the loss of life that it must have
caused is fearful to contemplate.
It was about ten o’clock in the morning when the water first rose
above the banks of Jones Falls, and began to flood the low streets
of this city. Slowly, at their beginning, the floods covered Harrison
street, but in a moment they rushed down Harrison street,
increasing in volume at each minute, until the bed of the street
was filled with a swollen and powerful stream, whirling on in its
surface the shattered remains of ruined homesteads, wrecks of
furniture, and, in fact, almost everything in ordinary and common
use. When it reached Baltimore street the stream divided
into three currents. One rushed like a torrent to the right, the
other to the left, and the third ran with more slowness down the
center of the market. Above the roar of the vortex could be
heard the shrieks of women and children, and the cries of men
for help, as they were whirled along with the furious current.
Even carriages, with their occupants, were caught up and carried
along. For some hours after the awful scenes of destruction had
begun in the center of the city, the greater part of the population
of the upper portions, kept indoors by the pouring rain, had no
idea of the dreadful occurrences below. An extra edition of the
Evening Commercial, published at about two o’clock, gave them
their first intimation of the disaster. When the flood first appeared
on Harrison street the police busied themselves aiding
the residents of the street to carry their household goods to places
of safety. In a few moments, however, they were obliged to turn
their attention towards rescuing the people themselves. Alarms
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HON. JAMES E. CARR.
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OUR POLICE. 79
were rung, and men called in from all the stations, to the scene.
Numerous boats were promptly ordered from the wharves by
the Police Commissioners, and were hurried to the inundated
district. They were manned by experienced boatmen and policemen.
Most of the boats were launched from the Holliday Street
Theatre, and were sent thence, under the direction of Commissioner
James E. Carr, through Calvert, North Holliday, and
other streets, for the purpose of removing families and furniture
to places of safety. On the streets, running at right angles with
Harrison street, the streams were by no means so turbulent as in
the thoroughfares running parallel with Jones Falls, and they
experienced but little of the fierce current that dashed through
the latter. Many persons refused the proffered aid, preferring
to guard their property. In the neighborhood of North, Davis
and Bath streets thieves were busy plying their trade. They
were principally young negroes. The police captured a number
of them, who were afterwards convicted and sentenced to long
terms of imprisonment. One citizen appealed most piteously to
Commissioner Jarrett to send policemen to his house, into which
he had seen some men swim. The Commissioner and a party got
into a boat and pulled in the direction of the house, mooring their
boat at a second-story window, through which an entrance was
made. A search of the premises discovered that his money,
amounting to $570, was gone. Shortly afterwards it was ascertained
that his wife, fearing the flood, had secured the money on
her person without informing her husband. At about four
o’clock in the afternoon an exciting scene took place on Saratoga
street, between Gay and Holliday streets. A boat, in which
were Commissioner James E. Carr, Sergeant Charles McComas,
Wm. Henry Collier, and a colored man, had gone to the second
story of a tenement on the east side .of Saratoga street, nearly
opposite the Central District station-house, to remove several
children. Immediately in front of the house was lodged a large
quantity of driftwood, consisting of beams and logs, alongside of
which the current was running with fearful rapidity. In attempting
to stem the tide and effect a landing on the driftwood,
which the rescuing party thought to be securely lodged against
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80 OUR POLICE.
the houses, an oar was dropped overboard, and Mr. Carr, in attempting
to recover it, was flung forcibly into the seething yellow
water. Sergeant McComas, in trying to catch him, was also
precipitated into the stream, together with the colored man.
Confusion ensued, and the three men floated helplessly along
with the tide, Commissioner Carr very rapidly, for he had been
thrown out into the current. The others succeeded in reaching
the pile of driftwood, but the Commissioner was whirled away
out of sight, notwithstanding his powerful efforts to swim into
stiller waters. A shout at once went up that Commissoner Carr
was drowned. He had been seen to disappear under the water,
and everybody supposed his corpse would be found after the
flood subsided. The Evening Commercial quickly published the
rumor in an extra edition. An hour later it was happily proved
to be incorrect, for the Commissioner was rescued at the corner
of Fayette and Harrison streets. He had been washed from
Saratoga street into Harrison street, catching at various fixed
articles, and endeavoring to pull himself out of the water, but
being unable to do so. At one time he caught hold of a balcony,
but was forced from it by the inhuman owner of the house,
lest be should break off the balcony ! From Fayette street he
was seen by a number of citizens, however. One of them, an
expert swimmer, tied a rope around his waist, and while the other
end of the rope was held by some persons standing in the shallow
water, he swam out to the middle of the street. Recognizing
the Commissioner, who was at that time almost exhausted,
after an hour’s battle with the waves the citizen made to him
the Odd Fellows’ signal of distress. The Commissioner let go
his hold on the house to which be was clinging, and allowed
himself to float down the stream toward his rescuer. He was
quickly pulled out of the water. The news then spread, amid
much rejoicing, that Commissioner Carr had been rescued, which
the latter hastened to give visible proof of to his friends by
hurrying as soon as he recovered, back to the place where they
had seen him disappear.
His two companions in distress, Sergeant McComas and the
colored man, who had succeeded in reaching the pile of debris,
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OUR POLICE. 81
had floated a short distance further down the stream. Their
position was an extremely dangerous one, but they were rescued
by Detective Richards, who got into a boat and steered it towards
the men, persons holding it from the second story windows of a
house by a long rope. When the imperiled men succeeded in
escaping into the boat, the craft was hauled back against the tide.
A somewhat amusing incident occurred at the Gay street
bridge. Mayor Banks was inspecting the scene of the flood late
at night, after the waters had fallen to such an extent as to be
confined within the limits of the banks of Jones Falls. A great
crowd of people was still on the streets. Noticing a large
number on the Gay street bridge, which seemed liable to fall at
any moment, he ordered a policeman to clear the structure.
The officer, not recognizing the Mayor, turned on him fiercely:
” Do you want that bridge cleared?” he cried.
” Yes, and at once,” replied the Mayor.
“Well, clear it yourself, then!” said the policeman, as he
seized Mayor Banks by the collar, and swung him forcibly into
the crowd.
Nothing could be more abject than the man’s apologies, when
he discovered whom he had assaulted.
Captain Frey, now Marshal of the police force, then in charge
of the Southern District, who had been ordered at the beginning
of the flood to report at the Holliday Street Theatre, with as
many men as he could get together, was soon returned to his
own district, when it was learned that the floods had invaded
his precinct also, and that the bridges were in danger. His men
remained at work all day and all night, recovering property and
bodies as they floated down the stream. They took several
thousand dollars’ worth of goods from the water and eighteen
corpses, most of which had been washed down from Ellicott city.
His men worked for several days afterward, looking for property
and bodies among the debris. In the middle precinct also, a
number of bodies were recovered and a large amount of property
returned to its owners. Several thieves, who took advantage
of the disaster to rob unprotected houses, were also caught and
punished.
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82 OUR POLICE.
It was not until the night after the inundation that the dilapidated
old Middle station was sufficiently cleared of the fiveinch
deep deposit of mud that covered it, to permit of its occupation,
and then Captain Mitchell and his officers only used the
upper floor. On the following day the citizens of Baltimore,
with their proverbial liberality, set about to relieve the distress
of the victims of the flood. The police carried private alms where
they knew immediate relief was needed, until the Citizens Relief
Committee opened its headquarters for the distribution of
aid.
Among the methods of raising money for the relief of the
suffering, was a benefit given at the Holliday Theatre on Saturday
evening, August 1, on which occasion John E. Owens played
“Major Wellington de Boots,” in ” Everybody’s Friend.” The
tickets for the benefit were sold by the police. When the returns
were handed in, they showed a total of $3,601.50. There were
but four districts in the city at this time, it will be remembered.
The money was immediately handed over by Marshal Farlow to
manager John T. Ford, to whose generosity the benefit was due.
That gentleman, in company with Mayor Banks, proceeded at
once to the office of the Relief Committee, and gave over
the entire amount, not deducting any part on account of his
expenses, etc.
A few weeks later, when the excitement had subsided, and the
devastated district was beginning to be restored, the City Councils
passed resolutions of thanks to the police, for their service
during the terrible Friday of the flood. %
The first report of the new Board of Commissioners, made tithe
State Legislature, was dated January 18, 1870. It included
the transactions of the department during the years 1868 and
1869. There had been comment of slightly unfavorable character,
upon the number of policemen employed. The critics declared
that the number was excessive, and that taxation was unnecessarily
increased. The Commissioners called the attention
of the Legislature to the fact that Baltimore then had a population
of very nearly 400,000 persons, and that the entire police
force consisted of only 503 members. These policemen, the
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OUR POLICE. 88
Board asserted, were apportioned among twenty wards, giving an
average of not more than twenty-eight of the regular force to
each of them to serve both night and day, with no suitable
reserve for emergencies. This explanation by the Commissioners
was so sweeping that there was no further comment made upon
the excessive number of policemen. Any criticism thereafter
was rather in the contrary direction. The Board, during the
first two years of its service, had many things brought to its attention
which demanded reform. Among these was the prevalence
of prize-fights in the vicinity. Northern ruffians were in
the habit of coming to Baltimore county, and here settling their
claims of prowess in the most brutal fashion. They evaded the
law giving the Police Commission power to arrest or ‘? shadow”
men from the city, by making their rendezvous outside of the
city limits. The Commissioners appealed to the State, and had
the law so modified that prize-fighting soon became a reminiscence.
Another evil was the increase in the number of private
detective agencies in town. Under the most favorable circumstances,
these organizations are provocative of blackmailing.
Every good police official looks at them with doubt, and they are
in many cases used by the criminal as feelers, to ascertain what
the authorities are about. The detective service of the police
department had just about got itself into an excellent state of
efficiency in 1850, and the Commissioners were anxious to relieve
it from every embarrassment, so again the Legislature was ap-
ealed to. The State authorities responded, and gave the
department the same power of control over these agencies as it
had over all other bodies engaged in the discovery or prosecution
of crime. It was in October, 1867, that the Board forbid all
processions through the streets of any organizations not part of
the army or navy of the United States, without first procuring
permits. This action was occasioned by a sad experience the city
had early in the month. During a parade of a negro company,
some persons in a crowd of onlookers began to jeer and torment
the paraders. One of the colored men lost his control, and
drawing a revolver, fired into the crowd, killing a young white man
named Charles A. Ellermeyer. The paraders were attacked by
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84 OUR POLICE.
the indignant citizens, and a riot was prevented only by the
prompt appearance of a large force of police.
It was on February 25, 1870, that death deprived the Commission
of the services of Mr. Lefevre Jarrett, who had done
very much to promote the efficiency of the police force. Old
members of the service remember him, even now, with an affection
which attests, in a remarkable degree, too, his honesty,
ability and activity. At the time of Mr. Jarrett’s death one
year of his first term remained and he had been elected for a
second term of four years. The legislature being then in session
elected the Hon. John W. Davis to fill the unexpired first
term. Thomas W. Morse was chosen by the Legislature to fill
Mr. Jarrett’s unexpired second term, and he took his seat on
March 15, 1871 succeeding Mr. Davis.
At the time of his election, Mr. Morse was the representative
of the First Legislative District of Baltimore in the General
Assembly, having taken his seat on January 1, 1868,
and Chairman of the Committee on Corporation of the House of
Delegates. He was re-elected in 1870. As Police Commissioner,
he served four years, from March 15, 1871, to March 15, 1875.
At the expiration of his term, the Police Board appointed Mr.
Morse Police Justice of the Northeastern District, which had
then been but just formed. At that time the appointment of
the Police Justices rested with the Board. After one year of
service, the appointing power having been transferred to the Governor,
Mr. Morse was twice reappointed by Governor Carroll for
terms of two years each. Governor Hamilton renewed Mr. Morse’s
commission, he being the only Justice reappointed out of the
six incumbents. In the autumn of 1884, Mr. Morse was elected
Chief Clerk of the second branch of the City Councils, which
office he filled for one year. He was born in the city of Baltimore,
on October 30, 1829. He served an apprenticeship as a
wood-carver, and became a member of the firm of Hays & Morse.
From 1860 until 1873, he was in business by himself, when he
lost his property by fire. Mr. Morse is now a member of the
firm of Thomas W. Morse & Co., furniture dealers, on Baltimore
street.
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HON. THOMAS W. MORSE.
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OUR POLICE 87
The detective force under tins new Board, reached the plane of
efficiency from which it has not since descended. During the
latter part of 1870 and 1871, it succeeded in making about 200
arrests, and securing the return of property valued at nearly
$46,000. The Board also completed the police station of the
Middle (now Central) District, in North street, and plans were
adopted for the building of additions to the remaining three stations.
It was in April, 1870, that Marshal Farlow retired, and
the Deputy-Marshal, John T. Gray, succeeded him. On the 19th,
Captain Jacob Frey, of the Southern District, was advanced to
the position of Deputy-Marshal, and thus the executive branch
of the service changed its personnel at about the same time as the
Commission did. The spring of 1872 was a memorable one in
the history of the financial branch of the Police Board. The
District Stations had not been pleasant places for the lodgement
of the reserve squad of policemen, nor healthful for those officers
who were obliged to spend most of their time within their doors.
The Commissioners had been brought to notice this by the increase
in mortality in the force, and they determined to take some
prompt action to remedy it. There was a large amount of money
in the special fund, which they regarded as available for this purpose.
They purchased in 1872, the plot of land in Pennsylvania
avenue upon which the Northwestern Station now stands for
$10,000. Work was at once begun upon the station-house.
Plans were made and passed upon, and work was about to begin
on the other new buildings, when the Board was advised that it
had no authority for its action. The Legislature was appealed
to, the Commissioners showing in their report of 1874 that on
December, 1873, the fund amounted to $43,684.84. Out of this
it was proposed to erect an additional station in the Northeastern
District. The Legislature immediately gave the Commissioners
the desired power, and also ended the system of the payment of
Police Justices by fees instead of salaries, diverting the large income
from fines, etc., for violations of the law, into the treasury
of the police department. This act of the State authorities added
so greatly to the resources of the Board, that from then until
now, a great proportion of the improvements in the department
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88 OUR POLICE.
have been made with this money, without resorting to special
appropriation. The Legislature of this year made, also, an important
change in the terms of service of the Commissioners. It
enacted that while numerically the Commission should remain
the same, the terms of office of the members of the Board should
be varied. “One of them,” the act reads, “shall be elected
and appointed for two years; one for four years, and one for
six years, who shall hold office until their respective successors
are elected, or appointed and qualified. * * * * As the
terms of office expire as designated above, they shall be filled or
appointed for six years each.” It was under this new law that
Mr. John Milroy and Colonel Harry Gilmor were appointed.
Commissioner Milroy was born in this city on April 21, 1823,
and died while a member of the Police Board, on May 22, 1886.
His private business, up to the time of his election as Police
Commissioner, was that of a brickmaker. He and John W.
Davis owned an extensive brick-yard, in South Baltimore, which
was sold out ther time he first assumed office on the Police
Board. His first appointment was in 1874, for two years,
which he served and then retired. But about fourteen months
later, on the resignation of Commissioner Colonel Harry Gilmor,
Governor Carroll appointed him to fill that gentleman’s unexpired
term. In 1878, the Legislature elected him for a term
of six years, and he continued, therefore, to serve without intermission
until his death.
Colonel Harry Gilmor was born at Glen Ellen, the homestead of
his father, the late Robert Gilmor, in Baltimore county, on January
24, 1838. His mother was Miss Ellen Ward, daughter of Judge
William Ward, of Wilmington, Del. He was educated by a
private tutor, and lived at his father’s farm until the breaking
out of the war, when, with a number of other adventuresome
young Marylanders, who were advocates of rebellion, he went
South and joined the Confederate army. His gallant career during
the war is a matter of national history, and finds no part in
this work. At the close of the war, Colonel Gilmor returned to
Baltimore and engaged in business until 1872, when he was elected
a Police Commissioner, his term beginning in 1873. During
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JOHX MILROY.
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OUR POLICE 91
his service he was mainly instrumental in introducing tactics and’
discipline into the city police force. The good effects of his innovations
were evidenced during the riots of 1877, at which time-
Colonel Gilmor’s hravery and coolness did much towards protecting
property and life from the mob. lie served until 1878, when
ho resigned and was succeded by Mr. Milroy. Colonel Gilmor,
in 1875, lost one of his eyes, the ball being excised without chloroform.
During the long and painful operation he showed great
nerve, never wincing under the lancet. In the autumn of 1882
a cancerous affection appeared on the side of Colonel Gilmor’s
face, the result of a wound in the jaw which he received during
the war. After several months of intense suffering he died on
March 4, 1883. His funeral was one of the greatest ever seen
in Baltimore. Shortly after the close of the war Colonel Gilmor
wrote his book, ” Four Years in the Saddle,” which Prince
Hohenlohe, of Prussia, pronounced one of the greatest cavalry
stories ever written, and ordered it translated into German.
A monument to the memory of Colonel Gilmor was recently
erected by the police force and the Confederate soldiers of Baltimore.
At noon on March 15, 1875, Messrs. James E. Carr and
Thomas W. Morse, the retiring Commissioners, gave place to
their successors, a thorough examination of accounts was proceeded
with, and the new Commission began the duties of its
office under the most favorable auspices. It was given powers
no former Board had exercised, having control of the disposition
of the special fund and the privilege of rewarding
deserving policemen with liberality, and the power to pension
members of the force who had served the department for sixteen
consecutive years with one-third of their current salary. All
of these powers had been conferred by the Legislature of 1874.
The new Board immediately began a crusade against gambling
houses and other places of notorious resort, and succeeded in
securing the commendations of every respectable citizen for the
results of its endeavors. In this work the Commissioners were
ably assisted by Judge Robert Gilmor, of the Criminal Court. An
act of General Assembly approved in April, 1876, required that
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92 OUR POLICE.
the census of the voting population of this city should be taken by
the police department preparatory to a redivision of the wards
into precincts, ‘which should contain as nearly as possible 500
voters each. This was excessively important work for the department
to undertake in connection with the performance of its
regular duties, but the task was accomplished nevertheless in two
months, the number of recorded voters being 69,642. The redivision
which ensued required an increase of thirty-five in the
number of the precincts in the twenty wards of the city, making
the whole number 115. A second census was taken by the police
department in August, 1877, and it was then found that the actual
number of voters was considerably less than the old number, being
but 66,525. The creation of the new precincts was followed by
excellent results ; citizens were enabled to deposit their ballots
without delay or other inconvenience, order was more easily
maintained and a distribution of classes was attained whereby the
opportunity for and the provocation to discussion at the polls were
reduced to the minimum. At the elections since then, even the
memorable one of 1876, the greatest public interest was aroused
but the peace was not infringed upon in the slightest degree and
the best of order prevailed at all the voting places.
In 1876 the Board continued to devote its energies to making
the surroundings of the hard life of a policeman as pleasant
as possible. It bought a plot on the northwest corner of
Pine street and Pin alley for $7,300, as the site for the “Western
Police Station : and paid for the Northeastern Station improvement
32,845.37. At noon on March 15, 1877, Mr. John
Milroy formally retired as a member of the Commission, and
General James R. Herbert, who had been elected to succeed him
began the performance of his duties.
General James R. Herbert was a member of the Board of
Police Commissioners from 1877 until his death on August 5,
1884. He was treasurer of the board. He was one of the most
popular gentlemen in the State of Maryland from the time he
entered upon his public career. He was born on August 18,
1833, at Woodstock, Howard County, Md., descending from one
of the oldest families in this part of the country. After being
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COLONEL HARRY GILMOR.
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OUR POLICE 95
graduated from Hallowell College, Alexandria, he traveled abroad,
and returning to Baltimore embarked in the produce commission
business. Among the first to take his place at the front as a
Confederate when the late war broke out, his gallant conduct on
the field and his great military ability resulted in his rapid promotion
from the ranks through a succession of steps until he
reached the grade of Brigadier-general. He commanded the
Militia during the riots of 1877. His term in the police board
began on March 15, 1877. In 1883 he was re-elected, but death
overtook him after he had served less than a year and a half of
his six years term.
Within three months after Mr. Milroy retired the city was given
over to bloodshed. The riots of 1877 were in some senses even
more serious than those of ] 861, for Baltimore at the later period
was the most prosperous city south of Philadelphia, and any
trouble among any classes of its citizens was bound to have an
evil influence. The details of the terrible struggle which the
police had with the rioters will be found in the chapter which is
devoted to the deeds of Marshal Frey. In this place it will be
fitting simply to use the lessons learned from the experience, as
set forth in the report of the Police Commissioners to the State
Legislature. This is as follows :
The ability of the force to deal with our turbulent and dangerous classes as
well as the numbers, nature and disposition of those classes was very palpably
demonstrated upon the occasion of the unfortunate riots of last July. Long
periods of immunity from popular outbreaks and scenes of turbulence and
violence are apt to make people forgetful of the slumbering elements that
lurk in large communities, and confidence so engendered too often begets a
fatal carelessness. It is easy when danger is not apparent to disdain the
means of protection, but the occurrences of last July showed how great was the
peril and how urgent the sudden necessity of that hour; and it was a
matter for common thankfulness that the strength, courage and discipline
of the police force rendered it equal to the emergency and saved the city from
the horrors that were experienced in less well-protected places. There was at
that time a spirit of lawlessness abroad that portended the gravest danger, and
which could be only dealt with by decisive, prompt and vigorous action. • The
whole police force was brought to bear upon it. Some hundreds were arrested
and incarcerated in the face of the boldest defiance and most desperate resistance
; organized raids were made upon bodies of outlaws threatening to burn
and pillage suburban points of the city, and finally the spirit of the mob was
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96 OUR POLICE.
quelled and the danger averted. It was a mob composed not of mechanics or
laborers, nor in any sense was it representative of the labor interest or of the
dissatisfied unemployed ; it consisted of the class already alluded to, supplemented
in a measure by tramps, and was precisely that element with which it
is the province of the police to deal.
While the whole uniformed police force as well as the detective force—
which latter rendered the most important and valuable service—was on duty
at the points where the greatest danger appeared, the Board of Police Commissioners
called into requisition the services of 118 citizens, and commissioned
them as special policemen under the provisions of section 810 of the police
law. This employment involved a cost to the city of $2,302.50. Among those
who responded promptly to the summons and who performed active duty
without pay may be mentioned Messrs. James II. Barney, E. Wyatt Blanchard,
C. Morton Stewart, John Donnell Smith, Gilmor Hoffman, Frank Frick, William
M. Pegram and William A. Fisher.
The police organization continued to grow in efficiency, adding
strength, courage, trustworthiness and solidity as the time
progressed. The discipline was exceedingly rigid, but it was
fraught with great things for Baltimore, for it made the police
machine, although complicated, as all exquisite results of the
human mind must be, still so capable of being wielded by its
officers that no occasion could arise and find it in any sense
unprepared. The members of the force besides actually working
an average of twelve hours a day—the day force thirteen hours,
the night men eleven hours—are always liable to extra calls for
special duty. They were never permitted to go without their
uniforms unless ordered upon special duty. The policemen’s
holiday comprised only those three days in the year when he had
leave of absence. During all the rest of the time he remained
under command, and was required to be always at the call of his
superiors. His actual average daily service, including the time
for him to go to the station and return to his lodgings, averaged
thirteen hours a day—fourteen hours for the men on day duty,
twelve hours for the night men—and this it is to be remembered
was for 362 days in every year. The artisan, tradesman, merchant
or clerk who is employed eight hours a clay during six
days in the week, works 2,504 hours in the year, but the average
of the policeman’s service is 4,344 hours. The service then as
now and as it will always remain, is trying and dangerous. At
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GEN. JAMKS R. HERBERT.
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OUR POLICE. 99
the beginning of April, 1878, the Western police station was
completed and occupied at a cost of $41,909.70. The structure
was deeded to the city. On April 12 of the same year, Mr.
John Milroy again became commissioner, filling the chair resigned
by Colonel Harry Gilmor.
The work of the police department was conducted without any
conspicuous or in any sense noteworthy change until 1880, when
there was a change in the composition of the board, Mr. William
II. B. Fusselbaugh, the president, retiring. Mr. Fusselbaugh
was on March 15, 1881, succeeded by Mr. George Colton, one of
the most influential men in the State politics. Commissioner
Colton was born in Portsmouth, England, on October 31, 1817.
His father, John Colton, was a soldier in the English army and
was one of those who stood the draft for the battle of Waterloo.
In 1819 John Colton emigrated to the United States, bringing
young George with him. He settled at Leonardstown, in St.
St. Mary’s county. At the age of twelve years George Colton
was left an orphan. In his early life Mr. Colton had but few
opportunities of education. He was apprenticed to the tailor’s
trade, serving six years, and devoting his leisure hours to reading
and study. He started in business for himself at Leonardstown,
and was quite successful until 1847, when he lost all his accumulations
by fire. He then came to Baltimore after compromising
with his creditors for sixty cents on the dollar. Fourteen years
later he paid them the remaining forty cents.
During the administration of President Polk, Mr. Colton was
Postmaster at West River, and in 1852 he was appointed inspector
in one of the State tobacco warehouses in this city, where
he remained for seven years. During that time he became well
and favorably known to most of the leading men of the State.
In 1860 he was appointed Purveyor of the Baltimore City and
County Almshouse. In 1865 Mr. Colton purchased the Maryland
Republican, published at Annapolis, one of the oldest newspapers
in the State, having been first issued in 1809. Under
his management it became exceedingly influential. For many
years Mr. Colton has been prominent in politics, and at the
close of the war he was recognized as one of the leaders of the
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100 OUR POLICE.
Democratic party in Maryland. From 1868 to 1874 he was
representative in the General Assembly from the Nineteenth
Ward of Baltimore. He was State Printer from 1868 to 1882.
For ten years he served as a Director of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, besides holding several minor offices in the company.
He has also been Visitor to the Industrial School of Orphan
Girls and Trustee of Bay View Asylum.
On August 16, 1881, the board dismissed its clerk, Mr. Marriott
Boswell, for cause, and unanimously elected Mr. George Savage,
secretary of the board. At about this time the Police Commissioners
had a census taken of the voting population of the city
of Baltimore with the following results: whites, 66,824; colored,
11,924; making a total of 78,748, and showing an increase in
the voting population since 1879 of 7,239. On March 15, 1882,
the Legislature empowered the Police Board to grant each policeman
seven days on leave of absence each year, instead of three
as before, and gave them the privilege of drawing full pay for
any time off duty, when their absence was caused by sickness or
death in their families. The Legislature also empowered the
Commission, on April 3, to appoint one captain and twenty-five
men in addition to the force then existing. This appointment
was secured by Captain Lewis W. Cadwallader, who was assigned
to the command of the detectives. He is now in charge of the
Western district. Just previous to the elections in November,
1882 and 1883, there had been much newspaper speculation on
the possible action of the police in the contest. President Colton
issued a series of general orders which called the attention of thepolice
to this, and warned every member that if they should lend
themselves in any way to further in the slightest degree the political
ambitions of any person or persons who were running for
office, the offender would be summarily dismissed. The admitted
fairness of all elections in this city during these contests and since
has been unqualifiedly due to the admirable conduct of the police
force at the polls, and the avoidance of any trouble at the balloting
places is unquestionably due to the same cause. In the early
part of 1883, this city was subjected to a small-pox epidemic, sowide-
reaching that for a time the utmost consternation existed
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HON. GEORGE COLTON.
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OUR POLICE. 103
even among the wealthier classes. During this time many members
of the service, especially in the Eastern and Southern districts,
acted heroically in giving aid and lending assistance to the
sufferers. No officer in the department failed to do his duty in
these trying times. Numbers of them went voluntarily into the
houses of suffering, carrying food and medicine to the plaguestricken.
On March 15, 1883, General Herbert presented his
credentials recommissioning him as a member of the board for six
years, and upon taking his seat was re-elected treasurer of the
board. In September, 1883, the board was called upon to record
upon its minutes the death of Captain Franklin Kenney of the
Eastern district, and ordered the department into mourning for
ten days.
There were few eventful occurrences in the transactions of the
Police Board from the re-election of General Herbert to his
death on August 5, 1884. The General had secured the affections
of his colleagues as well as those of every man on the force,
and his loss was deeply lamented. John W. Davis was appointed
by the Governor to fill General Herbert’s place and he qualified
on August 9, Mr. Milroy being elected Treasurer of the Board.
In September, 1885, Mr. Davis resigned and Mr. J. D. Ferguson
being selected by the Governor, took his seat after qualifying
on September 26, 1885.
At the time J. D. Ferguson took his seat in the Board he was
a member of the Board of Supervisors of Elections of Baltimore,
to which office he had been commissioned April 28, 1884, and
which he resigned to become a member of the Police Commission.
He served until the following March, when Commissioner Bobson
was elected his successor. During his incumbency Mr. Ferguson
took a deep intc.ost in his duties, and prepared the report of the
Board to the Legislature for 1885—86, which contained many
valuable suggestions as to the conduct of police affairs, many of
which have since been carried out. Owing to the illness of Mr.
Milroy, the Treasurer of the Board, Mr. Ferguson also discharged
his duties. Mr. Ferguson was born in South Carolina, on May
30, 7 837, and was admitted to the bar in his native State in
1851. He served throughout the war in the Confederate army.
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104 OUR POLICE.
On September 2,1863, he was commissioned Major and assigned
to the Second Division of the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded
by General Fitz Hugh Lee, now Governor of Virginia.
General Lee made him his Chief-of-staff, in which capacity Mr.
Ferguson served until the end of the war. He was imprisoned
in Fort Delaware and after his discharge returned to South Carolina,
where he engaged in rice-planting until 1867. In that year
Mr. Ferguson came to Baltimore, where he resumed the practice
of his profession. For fifteen years he was Secretary of the
Maryland Jockey Club. When the Academy of Music was built
Mr. Ferguson was offered the position of Manager, and for five
years he conducted its affairs in a skillful manner. He is now
United States Bank Examiner for Maryland and Delaware.
It might be interesting to record here the condition of the
police force of this city at the period about which we are writing.
The entire number of men enrolled as capable for patrol service
was only 499, not making allowances for such members as were
for the time incapacitated by sickness or on leave of absence.
This inadequate force was expected, and actually fulfilled the expectations,
to guard a city of 400,000 inhabitants, 7,665 acres
of houses, and nearly 350 miles of streets and alleys. It was
according to the State law ” to preserve the public peace, prevent
crime, arrest offenders, protect the rights of persons and property,
guard the public health, preserve order at all primary and other
public meetings, prevent and remove nuisances in all streets,
highways, water courses, etc.; provide a proper police force at every
fire, protect strangers and emigrants and travellers at all landings
and railway stations, see to the enforcement of all laws relating
to elections, the observance of Sunday, pawn-brokers, gambling,
intemperance, and lotteries, vagrants, disorderly persons,
and the public health, and to enforce all ordinances of the Mayor
and City Council, properly enforceable by a police force.” For
some time before this Commission assumed office, the police officials,
and particularly President Colton, were frequently made
aware of the inadequacy of the methods used for transferring
prisoners, or transporting police to scenes of disturbance with
any rapidity. The growth of the city made the necessity of
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MAJOR J. D. FERGUSON,
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OUR POLICE. 107
providing some means to add to the prompt work of the patrolman
more apparent, and so, on October 26, 1885, the police alarm
telephone and patrol wagon service was established, the Board
choosing the Central District as the one best adapted in which to
prove the efficiency of the new service. A full description of
this service will be found in another chapter. From the outset
this branch of the department worked excellently and added
enormously to the power of the police force to do prompt work.
From the Central District the system was gradually extended to
two others, and soon large forces of police were available from
jiearly every part of the city. On December 6, 1885, the Board
resolved, at the suggestion of President Colton, to change the
system of patrolling posts then in vogue. Most of the offences
of policemen tried before the Commissioners consisted of improperly
patrolling beats, or the graver one of sleeping on post.
Being satisfied that this arose largely from the plan according to
which the force wTas worked, and which divided it into a day and
night force, exacting thirteen hours of continuous duty from the
former and eleven from the latter, the Board arranged for and
put into practice the system prevailing in New York and other
cities. The system was supposed to do away with the unjust
distinction between day and night men, removing at the same
time the unseemly pressure often brought by citizens to have a
favorite officer transferred from the harder night to the easier
day service.
Perhaps the most important duty of the special ones the police
•was and now is required to observe is that which has to do with
the elections, and especially to preserve the security of the elective
franchise. Elections in this city in 1885 were conducted at 180
polling places, usually small rooms in central locations in each
election precinct. In these rooms were the three judges and two
clerks required by law. On election days the force was divided
into details at the various voting places, and the Board felt that
to allow, at the closing of the polls, to all who might choose to
attend, unrestricted access to the small room, as required by law,
would not only impede the judges and clerks in the discharge
of their duty, but would also put it beyond the power of the
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108 OUR POLICE,
i
policemen in charge to suppress any serious disturbance in the
room. Under these circumstances the Board issued the following
order:
INSTRUCTIONS TO POLICE OFFICERS IN CHARGE OF VOTING PRECINCTS.
1. If any breach of peace occurs while the voting is going on, arrest the
parties engaged. If you cannot arrest all at the time, arrest as many as you
can and procure warrants for the remainder.
2. Ascertain, if possible, during the morning of the day of election, the
names of the two persons from each party who will apply for admission to
the- room where the votes are counted when the polls are closed.
3. When you have learned who these persons are, if you think any of them
are persons liable to create a disturbance while the votes are being counted,
take the first opportunity of communicating with the marshal or deputymarshal,
and tell them what you think, and they will take steps to remedy
the difficulty.
4. When the three judges, two clerks and two designated men from each
party are in the room where the votes are to be counted, lock the door and see
that no other persons come in during the count, and take care:
First. That the judges and clerks are not interfered with in their mode of
counting the ballots, and that no breach of the peace takes place.
Second. That the two representatives.from each party have no words either
with the judges or clerks or with each other, but confine themselves simply toobserving
what is being done by the judges, without indulging in any threats
and comments. If any of the representatives of the different parties act ii>
violation of these instructions, place him or them under arrest.
Remember. That your duty is to see that peace is preserved and that no
violence is done to the ballot box, but not to interfere with the judges of
election, or to undertake to do their duty for them.
JACOB FREY, Marshal.
These regulations were observed strictly by the police forceand
there were no disturbances recorded at the polls that year,
nor has there been since then. It was on October 13, 1885 that
Marshal John T. Gray resigned his position as the executive head
of the police force and was elected to be Clerk of the Court of
Common Pleas. He resigned at Mr. Colton’s suggestion, as the
latter did not believe that a man commanding 600 armed men
should retain that power and strive for an elective office. The
marshal had served since April 21, 1870. Upon Mr. Gray’s
retirement the following promotions were ordered by the board:
Jacob Frey, deputy-marshal, to be marshal; John Lannan,
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OUR POLICE. 109
captain, to be deputy-marshal; Thomas F. Farnan, lieutenant,
to be captain.
Marshal Gray was born on a farm near Belair, in Harford
county, Maryland. His father was a trader and farmer. The
boyhood of the future marshal was spent between the duties of
agriculture, country shop-keeping, and the acquisition of such an
education as was to be obtained at the private school near his
home. He had scarcely completed his school days when his
father died, leaving him an orphan, Mrs. Gray having been dead
a number of years. The young man moved to Baltimore and
spent nearly two years in the city, when he enlisted as a volunteer
for the Mexican war, which had just broken out. The battalion
which he joined was commanded by Lieutenant-colonel W. H.
Watson, and consisted of 400 young men from Maryland and
the District of Columbia. They embarked at once on the Steamship
Massachusetts from Alexandria, and in seventeen days were
landed at the military station on the Island of Brasos, in the mouth
of the Rio Grande river, where Mr. Gray’s battalion became a
part of General Zachary Taylor’s army, which undertook that
awful mid-summer march of 350 miles from Brasos to Monterey,
through the stifling alkaline plains of Mexico, when for weeks
there was not a day on which the thermometer hanging outside of
the headquarters tent failed to register over 100° in the shade.
Hundreds of soldiers in that army, notwithstanding the fact thatit
was composed mostly of ^outhern men, fell by the wa}v
Finally, after a journey lasting nearly two months and a half,
the army reached its destination and gave battle to the Mexicans.
The fight ended finally in a glorious triumph for the United
States troops, but the joy of victory was marred for the Maryland
battalion by the death of its gallant commander. Mr. Gray was
close by Colonel Watson when the latter fell.
Monterey was the only important conflict in which Mr. Gray
took part. He had enlisted for twelve months, and after remaining
in the army a little longer than his time returned to this
city. The first position he found was a clerkship in a shoe-store
at East Baltimore and Front streets. He was then less than
twenty-one years old. He remained in this position until 1850
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110 OUR POLICE.
•when the proprietor of the shop was seized with the gold fever,
and selling out everything rushed off to California. Mr. Gray
then secured another position in the same business in which he
remained until May, 1860, when he was appointed lieutenant of
police. This was under the first Metropolitan Police Board, socalled.
For a number of years Mr. Gray had been prominent
in municipal politics, and he was at this time a well known
personage in Baltimore. His magnificent physique fitted him
admirably for a police position, and his appointment by the newly
created board gave very general satisfaction throughout the city.
He was assigned at once to duty in the Eastern district, but
before five weeks had passed he was promoted to the captaincy
of the Central district then, even to a greater extent than at
present, the most important district in the city. The old
central district station was at Holliday and Saratoga streets.
Speaking about it recently, Mr. Gray said: “It was one of
the worst buildings I have ever seen put to police use by
any city. The building was not only so old that it was almost
ready to tumble down, having been one of the ancient watchhouses
built when Baltimore was a village, but it was in such
need of ordinary interior repairs that it was a constant eyesore
to us who had to frequent it. But the greatest sufferers
were the poor prisoners. The lock-up of the station consisted
of two long narrow rooms each about forty feet long by fifteen
feet wide, and located in the rear of the building. The drainage
was so defective that sensitive nostrils could smell the place from
a square away. One of these prisoners’ rooms was for women
and one for men, and into them every kind of prisoner was put.
White and black were mixed together, and a man arrested on the
•charge of violating a corporation ordinance was thrown in with
a murderer fresh from a bloody brawl. After a while I got the
police board to give me permission to erect a partition dividing
the men’s quarters into two parts, one much more endurable than
. the other being apart from the source of the foul odors. In
this newly made apartment I placed all the less guilty class
of prisoners who were brought in. I was rewarded afterwards
in an unexpected way for this. It came about thus: At the
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JOHN T. GRAY.
• *
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[lh
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OUR POLICE. 113
opening of the war, upon the arrest of Marshal Kane, the police
board and pretty much the whole of the city government, the
Provost-marshal who assumed command of the police ordered
the force to report to him for duty. A large proportion of the
men refused to acknowledge his authority. I was among the
number. Consequently my name was dropped from the rolls of
the department. Whether it was this step or some other action
of mine I do not knoAV, but the war authorities here thought my
tendencies were rebellious, and without an explanation for the
action I was taken into custody one day and locked up in the
Central Station prison. I happened to be put in the apartment
I had caused to be partitioned off for the better class of prisoners
at the time I was captain. There were many other prisoners in
the station at the same time, arrested as I was, not knowing upon
what charge they were incarcerated, nor how long they were to
be imprisoned. After about a week I was released as suddenly
and as unaccountably as I had been arrested. But I think if I
had been put in the other cell I would probably have died before
the week ended.”
Before the trouble between the National Government and the
Baltimore municipal authorities Captain Gray witnessed some
exciting events. He was in command of the principal part of
the police force which protected the Union troops from the
assaults of the mob in the terrible riot of April 19, 1861.
During these riots Captain Gray did not go home for four
days and four nights, scarcely sleeping at all during that
time. After being dropped from the roll at the beginning of
the war, Mr. Gray went into the shoe business again until
April 27, 1867, when the new Board of Police Commissioners
appointed him Deputy Marshal of the Police under Marshal
Parlow. Upon the resignation of the latter, two years afterward,
he succeeded him. As Marshal of Baltimore Mr. Gray
achieved a national reputation by the reforms he instituted and
by the skill with which lie handled his force on many critical
occasions. The great Emancipation Jubilee of the negroes in
1870 was the first serious occasion upon which Marshal Gray’s
skill as a policeman showed itself prominently. This was the
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114 OUR POLICE.
celebration by the negroes of their emancipation. In Baltimore,
as well as in all the other Southern cities, certain classes of the
white population still harbored a bitter feeling against the negroes,
intensified by the offensive manner in which many of the latter
had conducted themselves since their emancipation. The lawabiding
citizens, therefore, looked with trepidation upon the preparations
of the colored folk for this jubilee, and Marshal Gray
took every precaution for the prevention of an outbreak. The
day came and one of the most enormous civic parades ever witnessed
in the United States took place. Fully ninety per cent,
•of all the negroes in Baltimore and the surrounding country took
part, either in the parade itself or as applauding spectators.
It is estimated that not less than 30,000 negroes were in line.
The parade marched past a certain point from before noon till
well into the night before the last platoon had gone by. The
populace of both races were apparently willing to fight and a
general collision seemed imminent all day, but the police were
everywhere, with their eyes on every man who seemed belligerently
inclined. The moral influence of the force seemed to subdue
the would-be rioters, and though a few unimportant brawls
took place, the jubilee passed oif without serious trouble anywhere
in the city. Marshal Gray received flattering commendations
from the newspapers and from citizens for the admirable
manner in which the peace of the city was preserved during the
critical period.
After the Emancipation Jubilee a military spirit seemed suddenly
to seize the negro population of Baltimore. Dozens of
military companies were formed, which drilled every evening in
the streets, much to the annoyance of quiet people. After the
war an immense number of old-fashioned muskets were stored in
the city by the United States Government. Of the old army
muskets alone there were more than 12,000 stand. By some
means these arms all fell into the hands of the negroes and they
used them for their military companies. These organizations
banded into regiments and numbered themselves the First,
Second, Third, etc., Maryland Colored Regiments, although
they were never admitted to the National Guard, nor recognized
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OUR POLICE. 115
by the State military authorities. The South being at that time
in a state of reconstruction the negroes were suffered to commit
many offenses against the public peace which would never have
been attempted or permitted on the part of the whites. Before
long the negro regiments began the practice of taking full possession
of every street they entered. They would march with
fixed bayonets through the principal streets and clear everything
before them from curb to curb. Wagons, carriages, and horsecars
had to be turned back before them or else they were driven
back under bayonet charge. One evening in May, 1871, the
colored troops came down Baltimore street with fixed bayonets
as usual, turning people and vehicles into side streets, when three
young men who were talking together on the curb refused to
move on and clear the way for the procession. A charge was
made upon them and they were forced to flee around the nearest
corner. As they went several of the negroes fired a volley at
them, and one of the young men, a son of a well-known German
citizen, fell dead. He was shot through the heart. It turned
out that he was a Republican in politics and had been a great
friend of the negroes. They alleged that he threw a stone into
the ranks of the procession, but this was positively denied by
every bystander. The funeral of the young German was the
occasion of a large popular demonstration. Public indignation,
long since aroused by the offensiveness of the colored military
organizations, found voice in a general demand for their immediate
suppression. As the negroes were in a certain sense under
Federal protection, this was a difficult matter to accomplish.
The Police Board, however, made an order forbidding public
parades through the streets by any military organization not connected
with the National Guard or National Government. When
this order was read in the meeting places of the colored companies
it was received with hoots and jeers of derision. The night
that the order was issued, learning that the negroes were about to
parade as usual, Marshal Gray sent to the headquarters of the
“Lincoln Guard,” the “crack” company of the city, and warned
them not to parade. Captain Delanty was laughed at when he
delivered the order, and his voice drowned by the howls of the
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116 OUR POLICE.
negroes. He then stood outside of the building with his policemen.
The negroes formed in the street, but at the first step
they took after the captain gave the order to march, the police
rushed up and arrested a large number of them. The others
ran back into the building. The police sent those they had captured
to the station house. They then entered the building and
after a short struggle captured the arms of the remainder. Their
muskets gone and their leaders in jail, the militiamen becamedisheartened
and broke up their company. On learning the fate
of their principal company, a number of other organizations surrendered
their arms, and in the course of a few months practically
all the muskets formerly used by the negro troops had been
captured by the police. The arms were afterward sent to Fort
McIIenry, as they were the property of the United States.
In the great labor riots of 1877, when from Friday morning
until Sunday afternoon the mob of 12,000 or 15,000 men surrounded
the Camden Station, Marshal Gray and 300 police protected
over a mile of railroad property from the fury of the
rioters, and finally by a clever and gallant coup arrested eightyone
of the ringleaders and scattered the mob just as it was on
the eve of a furious attack upon the Camden Station and its
guardians.
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OUR POLICE. I l l
CHAPTER VI.
THE PRESENT POLICE COMMISSIONERS.
HOW THE BOARD IS NOW CONSTITUTED.—ITS DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES.—
HOW THE COMMISSIONERS CARE FOR THE
MEMBERS OF THE FORCE.—SKETCH OF PRESIDENT EDSON M.
SCHRTVER.—TREASURER ALFRED J. CARR’S DUTIES AND
ACHIEVEMENTS AS COMMISSIONER.—INCIDENTS IN HIS CAREER.
—COMMISSIONER JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ROBSON’S LIFE AND
HIS SERVICES TO THE STATE OF MARYLAND.—A SKETCH OF
SECRETARY GEORGE SAVAGE.
The present Police Board consists of Mr. Edson Marion
Schryver, Alfred J. Carr, Esq., and Mr. John Quincy Adams
Robson. Their powers are perhaps greater than are possessed
by any other public officers in the city of Baltimore, exercising,
as they do, an almost undisputed sway over nearly 800 men,
whose sworn duty it is to protect the property and rights of the
citizens. Not alone is the power vested in their office to arrest
evil doers, to preserve the morality of the city by a proper
enforcement of State and municipal laws, and to keep the force
in a high state of efficiency, but the supervision of all elections
is conducted by the board. The balloting for city, county,
State, and national officers is done under their watch, lest an
unfair election occur. They exercise the functions of committing
magistrates, having the power to hold for an offence or to
discharge from custody any person whom they consider themselves
justified in thus imprisoning or releasing. Their decisions
in all police matters, particularly governing the force of which
they are the head, are final, no city officer being permitted to
intervene with his authority between them and their subordinates.
Their qualifications for office are somewhat peculiar, as stated
by statute. To quote from the definition of their powers and
duties as announced in the State laws, they must be ” three
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118 OUR POLICE.
sober and discreet persons, who shall have been residents of the
city of Baltimore for five consecutive years next preceding the
day of their election.” A bond is given by each of them, for
$10,000 for the faithful discharge of their duties, and the State
Legislature which elected them, has the privilege of removing
them for cause. In case the Legislature is not in session the
Governor may exercise his prerogative.
It is this almost unqualified power which when exercised by
men of trained intelligence, as is the case at present, makes the
department which they govern so potent for good. They are
responsible for all their actions. The composition of the Board,
an uneven number with voting power makes the tie ballot,
which has worked such harm in one city at least (New York)
impossible. The Board exercises a sort of paternal influence
over the force of men under them. It is this interest which
has made the police of Baltimore the finest body of men for
such service in the country. Visitors to this city have frequently
and justly remarked that courtesy, sobriety and courage are
the three attributes of the Baltimore policeman. In each of
these appears the hand of the Police Board. Men are required
to answer all questions put to them by civilians with civility,
and should there be a lapse in this regulation-politeness the
offender is severely punished. Intoxication is a comparatively
unknown vice among the members of the force. No man
from the Marshal to the latest appointed patrolman is permitted
to drink malt or distilled liquors while on duty. If
this rule is disregarded the punishment is not a reprimand,
but prompt dismissal with an unfailing closing of all hope of
re-instatement. The men are trained in bravery because of
their daring gymnastic exercises, the introduction of which
into the discipline of the force is due to the far-seeing intelligence
of the present Commissioners’ immediate predecessors.
These exercises give a premium to agility, to comparative fearlessness,
to a perfect development of all the muscles, so that
in case an offender against the laws resists arrest, clubbing is
rarely resorted to, but the refractory prisoner is overcome by
forces that are decided saviors to broken heads and bruised
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OUR POLICE. 119
bodies—strong arms and a determined will. When a prisoner
is clubbed in this city, it is only in case of an attack upon
the life of the officer; unless the policeman can show this
in extenuation for a battered prisoner it is likely to go hard
with him before the Police Commissioners. The Board has so
forced upon its department an observance of this restriction
to clubbing that the districts pride themselves upon their
record of not having an officer tried for beating, for various
long and honorable periods.
The developments which have finally brought the force to its
present excellent condition of efficiency, have taken place under
all of the various Police Boards since 1867, but it is proper to
state that the greatest advancement has been made within the
last ten years, and particularly within the last five. Indeed,
more improvements have been instituted within the last half
decade than during the whole of the previous fifteen years since
the present system of police control was inaugurated. Reform
always gathers momentum as it proceeds. The fortuitous circumstances
which has made this progress possible, however, has been
the almost unbroken harmony which has ever characterized the
deliberations of the Commissioners of Police. Petty squabbles
have been unknown within the organization of the Board and
jealousies and political rivalries, if they have existed, have been
put away in face of the one great object of ever increasing the
efficiency of the department. Although conservatism is still
recognized as a virtue by the present Police Commissioners, they
have not hesitated to entertain the most radical projects in the
direction of improvement or to contemplate reasonably the most
serious changes of method proposed for a more perfect accomplishment
of ends desired. They have always courted suggestions
from citizens and never fail to adopt those that seem to be of
utility.
The Board’s offices are in the lower part of the Municipal
Building, an edifice of which this city is justly proud. There
are two large apartments, one the trial-room, where the Commissioners
transact most of their official business, the other a consultation-
room, where executive sessions and important conferences
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120 OUR POLICE.
with members of the force are held. The Secretary’s offices
adjoin the trial-room, and there is where the routine business
of the Commission is transacted. All the offices of the heads
of the police department adjoin each other, and thus a systematic
arrangement is maintained by means of which there can
occur no straying of messages or orders nor loss of time. While
in most cities on this continent the governing power, the Commission,
seems intangible and somewhat cloudy to the patrolman,
here it is clear and as well defined as it is possible under human
provisions to have it. The Board meets every morning in
the year, except Sundays. The members of the Commission are
always on hand between certain hours in the forenoon, to listen
to complaints, petitions and all matters affecting the welfare of
the force. The captains of the various districts appear to present
their reports every morning, and so if the Commissioners
desire to communicate any matter to them it is done without the
usual delay of telephoning special orders and similar formal and
useless procedure. While the Board is not permitted without
Legislative authorization to increase the number of men on the
force, it is empowered to create additional sergeants, and so to
reward good work with advancement. It has the power also
to fill all vacancies in the active force, though by a wise provision
of the State law all appointments to the higher positions
must be made from within the department. Marshal Frey’s
appointment to the force was as Captain, and Deputy-Marshal
Lannan attained his office by a gradual and just advancement
from the position of patrolman. In instances where certain
officers have distinguished themselves in some important crime
for the punishment of which a reward has been offered, the
Commissioners may at their discretion award the prize to the
deserving person or may present him with extra pay, taken
from the funds of the department, but all rewards must be first
paid to the Board. In case at any time the Board may deem
it expedient to add to the number of police districts in the
teity, it is authorized to do so and to distribute the force in such a
way as will best protect the citizens. Not alone does this power
of controlling the peace officers embrace the police force, but the
………………………………………………………………………………………
EDSON MARION SCHRYYER,
President of the Board of Police Commissioners.
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OUR POLICE. 123
commission may in case of need call upon the sheriff for a posse
comitatus and control its movements, and in event of its not
proving of sufficient strength, summon the militia to arms and
command its manoeuvres. A failure on the part of the Sheriff,
a member of his posse, a commandant of the troops or any person
called upon by the Commissioners to help preserve the peace, the
statutes declare to be a misdemeanor. The Board may also
enroll extra policemen under pay in case of great emergency, as
in the riots of 1877.
The present Board of Police Commissioners is organized as follows:
Mr. Edson M. Schryver, President; Alfred J. Carr, Esq.,
Treasurer, and Mr. John Q. A. Robson; the Secretary to the
Board is Mr. George Savage. President Schryver is a tall, finelooking
man, whose early training as a soldier shows in his erect
carriage and his promptness to confront any difficult question of
organization and discipline with determination leading to its quick
solution. To this clear power of analysis, President Schryver
adds the judgment of a business man who has been absolutely the
builder of his own fortunes. His coolness in any animated discussion
never fails to preserve the proper equipoise and bring
about an agreement that is made additionally forceful by his suggestions.
It was on January 26, 1843, that President Schryver
was born, in Circleville, Pickaway county, Ohio. His rudimentary
education was obtained in the public schools of his native town,
and he made while a boy friendships which have continued unbroken
to the present. In September, 1861, he was entered as a
student in Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, but the war feeling
was growing at that time with such intensity as to embrace even
the youngest in the divided sections of the country. Young Schryver
could not resist the attractions of the field and bivouac. His
parents pleaded with him not to abandon his fair prospects at
the University, but uselessly. He took the decisive step which
made a soldier of him and introduced him as an actor in the
stirring scenes of which the civil war was composed. He enlisted
in the 114th Ohio regiment (volunteers) and was ordered directly
to the front. The route of the troops was down the Ohio river
to the Mississippi river and thence to Memphis. Sherman was
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124 OUR POLICE.
organizing his army for an attack upon Vicksburg, and it was
in this historical campaign that the young recruit saw his first
fighting. On December 1, 1862, the Northern troops embarked
on their journey to Vicksburg. .Mr. Schryver’s regiment did
not proceed directly upon the fated city. It went with Sherman’s
command up the Yazoo river and began its operations
in the Walnut hills where for a time the fighting was hot,
every advantage gained by either side being bitterly contested.
This series of skirmishes lasted until December 26, when the
Union forces retreated, and re-embarking on the Yazoo river
sailed to its junction with the Mississippi. Thence they went
to the White river, into Arkansas, and up the Arkansas river
to Arkansas Post, a military station not far from Little Rock.
There the Northern soldiers met 8,000 Confederates under
General Churchill, and after a spirited attack of forty-eight
hours captured the post. Almost immdiately after this victory
the Northern soldiers were attacked by the fevers which made
the region about Arkansas Post practically uninhabitable. Mr.
Schryver was stricken with the disease, but with indomitable
determination fought it and so avoided being sent to the army
hospital, which at that time owing to insufficient attendance, was
even more fatal than the field. The cry was still ” On to Vicksburg,”
and thence the survivors of the White river campaign
were hurried. It was about this time that Grant took command.
Mr. Schryver was present during the memorable siege and conducted
himself with distinction. Several times he had won promotion
by his gallantry, but probably owing to his political faith,
he being a Union Democrat, the Government neglected him. But
finally, in June 1865, his merits were so conspicuous that the
Secretary of War commissioned him first lieutenant and assigned
him to the post of assistant commissary of musters
(muster officer). While serving in this capacity Mr. Schryver
mustered out 6,000 men. He continued to act until June 16,
1866, when he received his discharge from the service.
The young lieutenant went to his native town bearing with him
the honors that come to a soldier who has done his duty on all occasions.
A short time after his return, on April 13, 1868, Mr.
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OCR POLICE. 125
Schryver married Miss Louisa Burns. The result of this union
was eight children, six of whom are still living—one son and five
daughters. While at Circleville, Mr. Schryver became the confidential
clerk of Morris Steeley & Co., then an important milling
and distilling firm of that city. He soon was advanced to a partnership
and volunteered to take charge of the interests of his
house in this city. Large amounts of money had been paid in
commissions here, and Mr. Schryver rightly thought that not alone
could these be saved but the volume of the business could be
largely increased by a resident partner. So the branch was
established and soon became nearly as important as the home
house. But the affairs of the firm did not continue as smoothly
in Circleville as they did in Baltimore, and in April, 1873,
Morris Steeley & Co. failed. This did not affect the branch
in this city. Mr. Schryver succeeded in winding up the affairs
here without any loss. A month after the failure the young
soldier-merchant formed a copartnership with Henry Wagner, of
this city, and the firm was known as Wagner & Schryver, doing
business in the grain and general produce trade. This firm
continued until February, 1876, when Mr. Wagner died. On
April 1, 1876, Mr. Schryver joined his business interests with
those of J. G. Harryman, and did business under the firm name
of Harryman & Schryver. This copartnership continued its
operations until 1882, when Mr. Schryver selected his bookkeeper,
Mr. M. B. Scholl, as a business associate, and did business
as the firm continues to do at present, in their offices in the
Chamber of Commerce Building. The dealings of Schryver &
Scholl are almost entirely in grain. Mr. Schryver has been a
member of the Corn and Flour Exchange since 1872. He became
a Director in 1879, and served on the Board for eight years.
He was then elected a member of the Executive Committee and
served for two years, adding continually to the power of the
Exchange. He was then elected second Vice-President and
served two years in that office, being subsequently advanced to
first Vice-President. Two more years were spent in this office,
and in May, 1885, the President resigned and Mr. Schryver
succeeded him. In January, 1886, he was elected President at
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126 OUR POLICE.
the head of the regular ticket. He served ODe year and then
retired in order to assume the duties of the position of Police
Commissioner which nowbrings him so much credit. In his annual
report as President of the Corn and Flour Exchange, Mr. Schryyer
made a telling address which was widely commented upon.
The following will give an idea of its character :
” There are questions also connected with the situation affecting the values
and the marketing of our surplus products, as we find it at present, which
demand and should receive the careful and most profound consideration of the
political economist and statesman. However much we, as individuals of
divergent views on important questions,, may differ regarding the policy of the
general Government, there is no doubt that such wise enactments by our
National Legislature should be passed and international treaties agreed upon
and perfected as will tend to encourage reciprocal trade between our own
-country and the countries of the world with which we have heretofore had,
and should now have, very intimate business interchanges. We cannot hope
to encourage buyers from other lands for our products in these times of keen
competition unless our policy toward those buyers is such as to render our
business relations with them reciprocal; and the fact that the countries of the
world which are the importers of food products are seeking and finding their
supplies from other sources than America, is the best evidence that something
is needed to remedy the trouble and restore to us the prestige in the exportation
of food supplies which we once enjoyed. Let the remedy be sought and
applied immediately.”
It was on February 19, 1886, that Mr. Schryver was elected
to be Police Commissioner by the Legislature to succeed Mr.
George Colton. The contest for the position was a warm one,
but Mr. Schryver had too many friends to allow his defeat, and
he won by a flattering majority. On March 15 he began his
duties as Commissioner and was at once elected President by his
colleagues.
Alfred J. Carr, Esq., is the Treasurer of the Board and is
most active in the discharge of the duties of the Commission.
l ie is young yet, but in his life he has crowded the experience
of a man of the world, the erudition of a lawyer, the
thoroughness of a scholar and the determination to gain the
objects of his efforts of a man of action. This last Mr. Carr
especially is. Notwithstanding that he is a lawyer of wide
reputation, he yet devotes sufficient of his time to the interests
of the Police Board to make him regarded among the force as
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ALFBED J. CABB, Esq.,
Treasurer of the Board of Police Commissioners.
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• I
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OUR POLICE. 129
a power in the deliberations of the Board. Some of this devotion
to his duties he inherits from his father, ex-Commissioner
of Police, now Judge James E. Carr. But the most of
his energy, his far-sightedness and his uprightness, are his own,
and he makes them observable in whatever action he takes.
His service as Police Commissioner means a vast deal of sacrifice
on his part. But he regards serving the public as a man’s
highest duty, and though the honor of filling his present position
was, after a fashion, thrust upon him, so devoted is he that he
has willingly neglected his profession to a considerable extent.
Mr. Carr’s reforms in the Police Board have startled the shrewdest
politicians in Baltimore. He has urged and obtained the
adoption of at least two radical changes which have done so
much to make the Baltimore police the finest in the country.
He has made the men on the force regard him with an affection
that is not all due to the love with which they remember his
father. But most of all, Mr. Carr entered upon the duties of his
•office with the high aim of never allowing any part of the police
organization to prostitute its powers without a formal as well as
•energetic protest from him, and to assure to the public the privilege
of hearing of every transaction of the Board through the
medium of the press, first hand; for Mr. Carr believes that a
public officer is a public servant and his every action should be
made known.
As Treasurer of the Board he has great power, but owing
to his conservativeness and legal training there is every assurance
that he will exercise it with rare judgment in the future
as in the past. Mr. Carr’s duties in this office as defined by
State laws are as follows :
” The Treasurer of the Board of Police Commissioners before
entering upon the duties of his office shall, in addition to the
bond given as Commissioner, enter into bond in the State of
• Maryland, as hereinbefore directed, with one or more sureties in
the penalty of $10,000, conditioned for the faithful discharge of
the duties imposed upon him as Treasurer, and for the faithful
application and payment over, pursuant to the order and direction
or the Board, of all moneys which may come into his hands
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130 OUR POLICE.
as such Treasurer, and shall, every six months, on the first of
January and July in each and every year, during his continuance
in office, render to his associates in said Board a true and
faithful account of the receipts and disbursements of all moneys
received and disbursed by him, by order of the said Board, with
the vouchers thereof during said period, which account shall be
verified by the affidavit of the said Treasurer; and the said Board
shall thereupon examine said account, and if they find the same
to be correct, they shall certify said account, and forward the
same to the Governor of the State, to be filed in the office of the
Secretary of State. The said Board shall retain a copy thereof,
with the certificate attached, to he filed among the papers of their
office.”
Mr. Carr is in every sense of the word a Baltimorean; born,
brought up and educated amid the associations of this city,
he is equipped with a knowledge of what his townsmen desire
and how to satisfy that desire. The Commissioner made his entrance
into the cares of his life on October 7, 1851. He passed
a rather delicate childhood, but his fondness for active life grew
upon him as he increased in years so that when he was old enough
to enter school he was agile as any of his mates. His first student’s
experiences away from home were in private and public
schools in this city, after which he was sent by his parents to
St. Timothy’s Hall, near Catonville. Subsequently he entered
the Virginia Military Institute, the historic academy at Lexington,
Virginia, and then settled upon the profession of law as
the calling of his life. When he left the military school, he became
a student in the office of Bernard Carter, Esq., of this city,
where he began earnest study. He also attended the law department
of the University of Maryland, where, however, he remained
but one year, the routine of instruction proving too slow for him.
After three years’ hard work in Mr. Carter’s office, the young
student’s preceptor made motion to have him admitted to the bar, •
and after an examination at which Mr. Carr distinguished himself
he was admitted to practice on February 7, 1872.
It was in November of this year (1872) that Mr. Carr made
up his mind to see a good part of his native country, so he went
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OUR POLICE. 131
to New Orleans and made a short visit in that picturesque city.
Thence he traveled to Galveston and passed three weeks, going
subsquently to Bryan and Heme. He crossed the country from
the latter town to Belton, arriving on January 1, 1873. He
remained at Belton for some time, doing considerable law business.
His success in his profession while in this town, was such
that at the solicitation of the Hon. X. B. Saunders, he entered
partnership with him. Mr. Saunders was one of the most prominent
lawyers of the State, and it was upon his motion that Mr.
Carr was admitted by Judge J. P. Austerhaut to practice in
Texas. While a member of Mr. Saunders’ firm, Mr. Carr practiced
in Bell, Hamilton and Comanche counties and frequently
went out on a circuit, at one time going as far south as Live Oak
county. In October, 1873, Mr. Carr retired from partnership
with Mr. Saunders, having acquired a considerable amount of
money and being anxious to continue his trip towards the North
and home. So he journeyed for pleasure, taking things as they
came after the most comfortable fashion, through the north of Texas,
the Indian Territory and to St. Louis which he reached in December,
1873. From St. Louis he came straight back to Baltimore
and began the practice of his profession in his native city.
The year 1875 found Mr. Carr a warm supporter of the
candidacy of William T. Hamilton for governor. The political
contest for this nomination was a bitter one, and Mr. Carr’s friend
failed to secure the naming by the convention, but Mr. Carr
became particularly prominent as the counsel for the contesting
delegates from several wards in this city, achieving a reputation as
a shrewd pleader, that went through the State. Four years later
he again became the enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Hamilton.
So earnest were his efforts, as were those of his friends, that
Mr. Hamilton’s nomination was secured and he gained the
governorship by a magnificent majority. During this administration
Mr. Carr remained the staunchest supporter and one
of the most trusted advisers Governor Hamilton had about
him. Notwithstanding his political activity, Mr. Carr did not
neglect his law practice and he continued his professional career
with remarkable success. Beginning in 1880 and continuing
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132 OUR POLICE.
since then, Mr. Carr made a study of theatrical copyright law,
winning what appeared to be the most hopeless suits in this
branch of practice. It was as a theatrical copyright lawyer that
Mr. Carr has gained his enviable reputation which extends
throughout the Atlantic States and Missouri and Washington.
Among the best known of the suits he has been engaged in were
the contests over the copyright of ” lolanthe,” “Merry War,”
“Mikado,” “Colleen Bawn,” “Fun on the Bristol,” and the
“Black Crook.” In 1883 Mr. Carr was entered as a candidate
for a nomination to a seat in the First Branch of the City Council
from the Nineteenth Ward, but owing to the treachery of some
avowed friends he was not nominated. This experience was
partly due, no doubt, to the fact that Mr. Carr always remained
a free-lance in politics, scoring abuses wherever he saw them and
so, while earning the esteem of all good citizens, he aroused the
opposition of the controlling powers. From this brief entry into
the arena politics until he was appointed Police Commissioner,
Mr. Carr has continued his practice as a lawyer.
In 1884, during the Cleveland-Blaine campaign, Mr. Carr
was, as he now is, a member of the Crescent Club of this city.
The club rooms at that time were at West Baltimore near Green
street, and the organization numbered about 200 members.
When the time neared for the Chicago convention a meeting was
called and plans were discussed for sending its representatives.
Mr. Carr arose during the discussion and supported the plan
of having a special palace car for the delegation. The club
men went to the convention in a coach covered with decorations
bearing the words “Crescent Club of Baltimore,” and created
considerable sensation in the towns and cities through which it
passed. This political pilgrimage gave the Crescent Club a
national reputation. The work of the organization during the
presidential campaign was carried on at its own expense, the
management being in the hands of a committee of which Mr.
Carr was chairman. It held great mass meetings at the halls
and theatres in this city. One at Concordia hall was attended
by 15,000 persons; overflow meetings being held on the outside
•of the building. Among the speakers at this meeting -was
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ODR POLICE. 13S
Thomas F. Bayard, Congressman Perry Belmont of New York
and Mr. Walker of West Virginia. During this time Mr.
Carr was “stumping ” the city and the adjacent counties in behalf
of Cleveland. At the inauguration of the President the
Crescent Club sent a delegation of 700 men to Washington, and
made the finest show of any civic organization in the great parade.
By this time the old quarters of the association had become too
small for it, so great was its prosperity, and at one of its meetings
Mr. Carr offered a resolution which empowered a committee to
purchase suitable property for a club-house. Mr. Carr was
appointed chairman of this committee and took a leading part in
the purchase of the Clabaugh property at the southwest corner of
Paca and Payette streets. A stock company was formed and
paper was issued to the amount of about $45,000; the house was
practically rebuilt, and the building as it now stands represents
an outlay of nearly $96,000.
On June 5, 1886, Governor Henry Lloyd appointed Mr. Carr
to be a Police Commissioner of this city. The office was obtained
without any effort on Mr. Carr’s part, and was given him because
of the efforts of his friends who had recommended him to the
Governor. Nearly four hundred letters had also been sent to
Mr. Lloyd from all classes of Democrats and Republicans in this
city, urging him to choose Mr. Carr for the position. No sooner
had Mr. Carr taken his seat in the board than he began to suggest
and carry through exceedingly important reforms. The first of
these and the most important, because it affected every member
of the police force, was the change Mr. Carr secured in the patrol
service. He found a system based upon that which is now used
in New York. An officer was expected to serve, six hours, have
six hours rest, then the same length of duty and rest again. He
thoroughly investigated the matter and concluded that the system
meant almost certain rapid death for the men and a disorganization
of the force. The matter had been brought to the attention of
the Legislature, and there much indignation was exhibited because
of the evils of the service. An investigation was proposed;
but no sooner had Mr. Carr assumed his duties than he began
making a thorough study of all the police systems in this country,
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134 OUR POLICE.
through correspondence and departmental reports. The result of
his investigation was a new plan of patrolling service, which was
adopted on September 2,1886. by a vote of two to one, Mr. Robson
voting with Mr. Carr. The following is the official record:
“Ordered, That the following shall be the working of the force
on and after September 15, 1886: The force shall be divided
into divisions, A, B, and C. Division A shall go on duty at 8
A. M. and remain until 7 P. M., with one and a half hours
allowed for dinner, between 12 M. and 3 P. M.; Division B
shall go on duty at 7 P. M. and remain until 4 A. M.; Division
C shall go on duty at 4 A. M. and remain till 8 A. M., and at
12 M. and remain till 3 P. M. This division shall be divided
into four sections, and each section shall do one week’s reserve
duty at the station, from 7 P. M. until 4 A. M. Round sergeants
(day) shall be on duty from 8 A. M. to 7 P. M.; night, 7 P. M.
to 4 A. M. Lieutenants, turnkeys, and regular reserve men
shall relieve each other at 7 A. M. and 7 P. M. The Baltimore
street and railroad depot reserve shall go on duty at 8 A. M.
and off at 7 P. M., with one and a half hours for dinner.”
This system is used at present and is giving entire satisfaction
both to the community and the members oi the force.
It was Mr. Carr who was chiefly instrumental in securing the
introduction of the police helmet now worn in this city; he had
always regarded it as the only proper hat to be worn by uniformed
policemen, and he determined to have it introduced here. Before
this the uniform hat in winter resembled a Derby; in summer it
was of brown straw, with high crown and broad brim. On
August 6, 1886, at a meeting of the board, Mr. Carr offered the
following, which was adopted by a vote of two to one, Mr. Robson
balloting in the negative :
Ordered: That the police helmet (black in winter and pearl
for summer wear) be, and is hereby adopted for the use of the
police force, and that each officer have a rubber cover with their
respective number or letters painted on the same, and that the
marshals, captains, and lieutenants shall wear caps. Station
house clerks while on duty are to wear such caps with the word
“clerk ” thereon.
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OUR POLICE. 135
Thus another reform was introduced, not a great one it is true,
but one which added to the appearance of the men. The hygienic
effect was excellent also, giving the policemen’s heads a chance
to secure proper ventilation. While these two reforms are due
to Mr. Carr’s determination to add to the efficiency of the force
in every way, they by no means represent the vast amount of
other work he has undertaken to ameliorate the condition of the
policeman. He interests himself in their surroundings, particularly
in the stations, and endeavors to make the hours when they
are on reserve as pleasurable as possible.
Another innovation in which Mr. Carr was chief mover was
the admittance of representatives of the press to the meetings of
the board upon all occasions. Previous to his appointment these
meetings had been for the most part closed, and if the public
desired to obtain some idea of what the board was doing it was
obliged to get the information second hand. Mr. Carr properly
thought that the newspapers as the mouth piece of public opinion
should be able to base that opinion upon trustworthy information
and so moved that they be admitted. Mr. Carr, as treasurer of
the Commission, has charge of the general and special funds.
These funds include the moneys which are paid into the department
as appropriations by the city and as fines for evil doings of
all sorts.
Commissioner Carr is married, having wedded Miss Young,
daughter of Alexander Young, on October 17, 1876. He has
one child, Alexander, who was born on October 27, 1879. He
is a prominent Free Mason, and is a leader in social circles.
The history of the special fund over which Mr. Carr has
control is briefly as follows : Previously to the organization of the
Metropolitan Police force the constables were paid so much for
each arrest made and each prisoner “jailed ” after commitment.
The magistrate was paid by warrants and docket fees. When
the new organization was perfected the fees going to the constables
were assigned to the board, and gradually accumulated. The
treasurers of the various commissions made no effort to dispose of
this money save by putting it in the banks and allowing it to add
interest to itself. The police board determined to make this
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136 OUR POLICE.
accumulation of money of some use to the’ members of the force.
So it was authorized by the Legislature to use it for aiding
policemen temporarily when they became physically incapable of
attending to their duties or for pensioning them when their ailments
were such as to make continuous service impossible.
Notwithstanding this outlay the fund continued to increase, and
as the city was in need of more and improved police stations the
board applied to the Legislature for authority to use this money
in building them. This authorization was obtained in 1874.
The Legislature then authorized the appointment of as many
justices of the peace at large as there were stations in the
city, and directed the Governor to assign them to preside at their
respective posts with salaries of $2,100 a year each. Thus the
payment of police justices by the fee system was abolished and
the justices’ former remuneration was diverted into the police
special fund. In 1885 the commissioners adopted the patrol
wagon system and made contracts for its establishment, proposing
to pay for it out of this money. But the board discovered that
it had no authority to thus dispose of the fund, and it was obliged
to apply to the Legislature of 1886 for power to establish the
system. In passing an Act for this purpose, the Legislature also
revised the pension system, requiring its disbursements to be
also paid from the fund. By this measure any member of the
force after having been a policeman for sixteen successive years
and declared by the board to be physically disqualified, could be
retired on a pension equal to one-third of his annual pay then
being received. From the fund was purchased the land and the
building erected for the Western Police Station in Pine street;
the house of the Northwestern squad in Pennsylvania avenue;
the Northeastern station in Chew street; the Southwestern
station at Pratt and Calhoun streets ; the Central in North street.
Extensive alterations were made in the Southern station in Sharp
street and the Eastern station was completely remodeled, stables
and patrol wagon house being added. The money for all these
purchases and the maintenance of the patrol system Avas defrayed
from this fund, together with the rental of a patrol
house for the Central squad and the payment of pensions
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OUR POLICE. 137
granted to officers. In the use of this money, which is directly
derived from the punishment of the violators of the law, the
commissioners have avoided calling upon the taxpayers for means
to accomplish the improvements made. Of course the department
has found itself obliged to get into debt, but at the present time
(September, 1887) it does not owe a dollar. The patrol system
it is proposed to extend as rapidly as the fund permits to the
remaining three districts, the Northeastern, the Northwestern,
and the Southwestern. This will involve an expenditure of
$43,000. The Western district has just been fitted with the
patrol apparatus at a cost of $11,000, and the system is being
operated there.
Mr. John Quincy Adams Robson is the eldest member of the
board, but he bears the years he has spent in the service of the
city and State with a promise that he has still a long time left to
devote to the interests of his fellow citizens. His pleasant smile
is familiar to almost every policeman on the force, and he takes a
personal interest in the men, for Mr. Robson was a policeman
himself once, and he fully sympathizes with a patrolman’s life, so
full of vicissitudes and work. He believes that when a man
becomes a public officer he should devote all his time, intelligence,
and energy to his task, and Mr. Robson conscientiously does this.
He is always on hand when the meeting of the commissioners is
called, invariably makes new suggestions, results of his day’s
observation among the rank and file of his department, and when
offenders are brought before him lightens the lash of justice with
advice for the future. Mr. Robson is a fine looking gentleman,
and converses with much grace on the most varied subjects. He
is an astute politician, having deeply studied the great national
questions of the day, and being absolutely familiar with the
intricacies of local political controversy. He has much weight
in State affairs, as is evidenced by his appointment to one of the
most important positions in the city—that of Police Commissioner.
It was on the charming Eastern shore, in the town of Easton,
Talbot county, that Mr. Robson was born, on October 1, 1828.
His native town has always been his favorite home besides Baltimore,
and might have been still his abiding place had it not been
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138 OUR POLICE.
for that determined endeavor to ” get ahead ” which has marked
Mr. Robson’s career. His elementary education was secured in
the public schools of his native town, and he obtained in them
the reputation of being one of the hardest workers in the school.
But after young Robson had secured sufficient education to fit
him for the struggle to come, he chose a trade instead of a profession.
He thought he would like to learn shoemaking, and his
parents apprenticed him to his calling. The lad worked as hard
at this as he did at school, passing the hours when he was not in
the shop in company with such books as his limited means could
purchase. Thomas Chilcutt, in whose shop the lad was employed,
soon picked him out as an exceptionally bright boy, and gave
him all the instruction he could, to perfect him in his trade. In
1844, at the age of sixteen years, young- Robson came to Baltimore,
and continued his apprenticeship in the store of W. C.
McMullan, where he remained until he reached his majority.
Then he went back home and worked at his trade until 1852,
when he returned to this city. It was then that the real work
began. Previous to this time his life had been spent in preparation,
but now he was ready with full equipment. He had no
resources but his trade, but at that time good shoemakers were
scarce and young Robson was a master of his trade. Thus he
soon secured by working hard sufficient capital to start a shop of
his own, and he began in his determined way to do all he could
to make it a success. This beginning of his business life was
in 1856. The store was in Baltimore street near Central avenue,
and there Mr. Robson remained, struggling hard to do without
the capital necessary to carry such a venture to success, until
1860. Then he lost courage; he abandoned trade, and having
made the acquaintance of several men of influence, applied with
their endorsement, to be appointed patrolman on the newly
organized police force. He served through those stirring times
at the beginning of the war and was one of that brave body of
men who protected the lives of the Northern troops, in 1861,
from the infuriated mob, and so earned the reputation of being
the most courageous police in the country. But when General
Dix took command of the soldiers in Baltimore, and the Police
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HON. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS BOBSON,
Commissioner of Police.
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OUR POLICE. 141
Commissioners and Marshal Kane were sent to Fort McHenry,
thus disorganizing the force, Mr. Robson went back to his trade
and served as a journeyman.
It was during the years between 1860 and 1866 that he secured
his wide acquaintance with local politics. He lived in the first
legislative district, and soon knew almost every man in it. He
was the kind of man who showed the stability of his character
to men he met, and so won their respect and esteem. He
improved himself in business, increased his knowledge continually,
and so won his friends to his support, that in 1866 he was elected
by a considerable majority from the first district to the Maryland
legislature, taking his seat in 1867. The representatives, of
whom he was one, gave the State a new Constitution which
enfranchised all the people and occasioned much public approval.
While in this session Mr. Robson advocated the organization of
the Baltimore City Court, and it was owing to his determination
to secure such a tribunal that the Legislature established it.
Judge T. Parkins Scott was elected its magistrate, and when Mr.
Robson left the Legislature he was appointed (May, 1867) by
Judge Scott one of its officers. In this position Mr. Robson
remained fifteen years, and he was regarded as one of the most
popular court officers in the city. After the death of Judge Scott,
in 1872, Mr. George William Brown was elected in his place, and
Mr. Robson remained in office till May, 1882. Mr. John F.
Hunter, then sheriff, promptly appointed Mr. Robson to be deputy
sheriff, and in that capacity he served one year. In 1883 he was
again nominated and elected to the Legislature, where he rendered
valuable service to the State in 1884. It was while he
was at Annapolis during this session that he was appointed by
Governor McLane to be police justice for the North-eastern District,
and in that capacity he served until 1886. General Herbert,
then one of the Police Commissioners, died that year, and it was
necessary to fill the vacancy immediately. But the Legislature
seldom acts hurriedly in such matters. There were many candidates
for the office, but they were all weighed carefully and many
were found wanting. The Assembly finally elected Mr. Robson to
fill the unexpired term of General Herbert on February 19, 1886.
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142 OUR POLICE.
He will serve until 1889. On March 15, 1886, Mr. Robson
formally took his chair as a police commissioner and since then has
performed his duties with untiring energy and unswerving effort
to preserve the dignity of the office.
Mr. Robson’s social relations are very pleasant. He was
married on December 14, 1854, to Miss Ann B. Clark of St.
Mary’s County, and he has now three daughters to add to the
pleasures of his home life. Mr. Robson is one of the governors of
the Calumet Club ; member of the Democratic Association of the
Sixth Ward; a member of the Royal Arcanum of the old Volunteer
Fb e Department, and member of the State Democratic Central
Committee.
Although Mr. Robson has not been long a commissioner, he has
participated in and advocated one great reform in the service,
lie voted in favor of the change from the six hour system of
police patrol. Mr. Robson believes as firmly in the police force
of this city as he does in himself. Under the management of the
board of which he is a member, the city is protected in a way
few other municipalities in the world are guarded. There are
fewer burglaries here than in many other cities of half its size in
the United States. Strangers may ask a policeman for directions
to some point of interest without running the risk of being clubbed
to death; and the use of liquor is unknown to the members of the
force during their hours of duty.
A measure that the present Board has recently decided upon
is one which permits the members of the force to use service
stripes on their uniforms. On April 14, 1887, Marshal Frey
called the Board’s attention to the regulation of the New York
Board of Police ordering the use of these stripes on the policemen’s
sleeves. He consulted with the Commissioners and the latter
ordered that a stripe of blue cloth with black edges be placed
upon each policeman’s sleeves for every five years he had served
the city. The commissioned officers of the force were empowered
to wear gold lace stripes. This regulation has, like the introduction
of the uniform helmet, added to the appearance of the men,
and goes a great way towards making them anxious to obtain
the honorable distinction of long service.
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GEORGE SAVAGE, ESQ.,
Secretary to the Board of Police Commissioners,
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OUR POLICE. 145
The present Secretary of the Police Board is Mr. George Savage,
a gentleman of much ability, cultivation and courtesy. He
cares for the work of the Board, keeps its records, compiles its
reports, guards and is responsible for all the valuables •which find
their way into the hands of the police, and acts as assistant to
the Treasurer. Mr. Savage was born on May 10, 1845, at
Laurel Grove, Henrico county, Virginia, one of the most picturesque
spots of that beautiful country. His birthplace gave
its name to the battle in the civil war known as the Battle of
Savage’s Station. His father was George Morton Savage, a
country gentleman, and for seventeen years the Presiding Justice
of Henrico County Court. Mr. Savage’s mother was Miss Mary
E. Reynolds, of Charleston, S. C. Until he was twelve years
old he received instruction from governesses at his home, and he
then went to academies in Virginia. In 1860 he entered as a
student at Richmond College and soon became a leader among
his college-mates. He remained in that institution until the
breaking out of hostilities, and then entered the service of the
Confederate States as a courier in the Quartermaster’s Department.
He subsequently served as a clerk in the office of the
Treasurer of the Confederacy. Upon reaching his eighteenth
year, although he was exempt from military service, he resigned
his clerkship and joined the Otey Battery, a Richmond artillery
company, and while carrying an important order on the field of
the Battle of the Crater, at Petersburg, in 1864, he was severely
wounded. When he recovered sufficiently from his injuries he
returned to his company and fought with it until it surrendered
at Appomatox Court House.
Mr. Savage’s application for membership in ” The Society of
the Army and Navy of the Confederate States in the State of
Maryland” bears this endorsement: ” I bear willing testimony
to the faithful discharge of duty by George Savage. His
soldierly bearing attracted the attention of his commanding
officers and caused his appointment to a position at headquarters,
and an honorable scar will bear witness to his bravery as long as
he lives.—D. N. Walker, formerly captain of the Otey Battery,
later commanding battalion.” The sergeant (Alex. Grant, Jr.)
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146 OUR POLICE.
of the detachment with which Mr. Savage served concurred in
the above.
Mr. Savage then entered journalism as a profession, doing
much creditable newspaper work in Richmond. In 1868 he
removed to this city, where he became exceedingly well known
as a reporter of criminal trials. He was connected with the
Gazette and the Grerman Correspondent. In 1875 Mayor F. C.
Latrobe, entirely unexpectedly to Mr. Savage, appointed him
his secretary, and he continued as such for six or more years.
The following letter will show in what high esteem he washeld
by Mayor Latrobe:
MAYOR’S OFFICE, CITY HALL.
Baltimore, September 14, 1881.
GEORGE SAVAGE, ESQ.
MY DEAK SIB:—I have yours of August 23d, tendering your resignation
as Secretary to the Mayor. In accepting this resignation I beg you will receive
my acknowledgments for the faithful and efficient manner in which you
have performed all the duties of your office. You were ever at your post and
neglected no interest connected with your department. I must also thank you
for your warm friendship manifested in so many ways for me personally.
While regretting much to lose your services before the end of my administration,
I am glad that you have obtained the honorable position you now hold
in the office of the Police Commissioners.
Wishing you every success, and assuring you of my warm personal regard
and friendship, I am,
Very sincerely yours,
FEE DIN AND C. LATBOBE.
In 1877 Mr. Savage was graduated from the Law School of the
University of Maryland, after having been elected President of
his class. Upon his leaving the University he practiced law
for a time with John E. Semmes, a nephew of the famous commander
of the Alabama, and in 1879 he entered into partnership
with Archibald H. Taylor, his well-known firm now being Savage
& Taylor. In August, 1881, a vacancy unexpectedly occurred
in the secretaryship of the Police Board. Mr. Savage was then
in Canada. Without his knowledge he was unanimously elected
to fill the vacancy, and has served the city of Baltimore since
then with a fidelity to his duties that has won him general
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OUR POLICE. 147
respect and esteem even from his political opponents. Mr. Savage
during the last Presidential election spoke repeatedly for Cleveland,
and his speeches were warmly applauded. He has never
married. He is a Mason, being a member of Concordia Lodge,
No. 13.
Though he has led an exceptionally active life, Mr. Savage
has found time to acquire a knowledge of the German language
and has several times delivered public addresses in that difficult
tongue. He is especially popular with the Germans of Baltimore,
and is a member of the Baltimore Schuetzen and the Germania
Msennerchor societies. The firm of Savage & Taylor has
for years been the regularly retained counsel for the Baltimore
Schuetzen Society, the wealthiest German organization in the
Monumental City. Mr. Savage continues to be a diligent student
of the German language and literature. He has also become
well-known for his oratorical abilities. In 1882 he delivered an
eloquent address at a banquet given in Trenton, New Jersey, by
Aaron Wilkes Post, G. A. B., to visiting ex-Confederates, and
his addresses on Baron DeKalb delivered in 1886 before the
United German Singing Societies of Baltimore, and on Robert
Burns before the Caledonian Club of Baltimore in 1886, and
latterly his oration at the unveiling of a monument in Hollywood
Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia, erected to the memory of the
Otey Battery dead, have added to his reputation.
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148 OUR POLICE.
CHAPTER VII.
THE MARSHAL.
THE INTERESTING CAREER OF MARSHAL FREY.—ONE OF THE
BRAVEST AND BEST KNOWN OFFICERS IN THE COUNTRY.—
THE CONSPICUOUS CRIMES HE HAS UNEARTHED.—HOLLOHAN’S
MURDEROUS ATTACK UPON HIM.—HIS MAGNANIMITY AND HIS
COOLNESS IN DANGER.—INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE
SOUTHERN DISTRICT POLICE.—THE ATTACK ON MRS. SARRACCO.—
THE WHARTON-KETCHUM POISONING CASE.—THE
MURDER OF MRS. LAMPLEY.—THE CUMBERLAND RIOTS AND
MR. FREY’S BRAVERY.—HOW HE CONTROLLED THE MOB.
A RAID ON THE BALTIMORE BANKS BY FORGERS.—THE
UNGER-BOHLE TRUNK CASE.
No one who does not know of Marshal Jacob Frey would
think from a casual look at him that he was one of the best and
bravest police officers in the country. His appearance is that of
an unusually intelligent and agreeable gentleman whom a stranger
would not hesitate to choose as an associate ; but he is a great
deal more than that. There is not a cooler or a gamer man
living than he. Although below the average height, he is so
strong, so quietly determined, and so thoroughly in earnest that
he is universally esteemed by good citizens and as thoroughly
feared by the bad ones. He is the one man in a hundred thousand
who knows in emergencies what to do and how to do it.
When Hollohan attempted to kill him at Annapolis, and inflicted
wounds which would have knocked all moderation out of the ordinary
man, Marshal Frey merely stayed the arm of his assailant
and magnanimously entreated the intensely excited spectators in
the court room not to harm the prisoner.
And yet Mr. Frey did not start out in life with any ambition
to be a police officer. He went through the public schools,
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JACOB FREY,
Marshal of Police.
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OUR POLICE. 151
•was graduated at the High School, and entered the stove business.
He afterward became a manufacturer of stoves.
Jacob Frey was appointed captain April 23,1867, and assumed
•command of the Southern district. Its force was not distinguished
by superior efficiency. It was looked upon as one of the least
worthy of the four districts, and when anything of unusual importance
occurred men were sent from the Central office to work
it up. Big cases were never entrusted to the Southern district
police. Captain Frey appreciated this, and in his quiet way
determined to remedy it. He was resolved to show that he
and his force were able to attend fully to their duties. He
made no boasts but let his record speak. In a short time the
force of the Southern district showed new energy and proficiency.
It was equal to every emergency, and the poor estimate
of its importance which had been held at headquarters passed
•entirely away. The Southern district men became as thoroughly
trusted as any of their rivals. Several bits of good work fell
under Captain Frey’s supervision and he managed them admirably.
One of these cases was the cold-blooded murder of
Captain Johnson and his mate in Tangier Sound, by four colored
men who had shipped on board of an oyster-boat at Baltimore.
It occurred in the spring of 1867. Mr. Martin, secretary to the
Police Commission, was from Somerset county, and of course the
people down there at once turned to him to detect and arrest the
murderers. He very naturally wanted every effort concentrated
upon the case. Two of the negroes escaped to the eastern shore
of Virginia and were captured, but the other two—Frank Rounds
and George Bailey—covered their tracks more successfully.
Weeks passed and no clew to their whereabouts was obtained.
Captain Frey continued his diligence, however, and months afterwards
succeeded in locating Rounds in Guilford’s alley, where he
was promptly arrested. Months after this Captain Frey found
Bailey in the Baltimore City Jail, to which he had been committed
as a common thief. The Captain took both prisoners to
Princess Anne, where they were convicted. They were hanged
on March 5, 1868.
Another case which Captain Frey handled with unusual sue-
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152 OUR POLICE.
cess was the attack made by ” J o e ” Woods, a negro, upon Captain
Clayton, whose vessel lay at Smith’s dock. The present
commander of the Central district, Captain Farnan, made the
arrest, and the story of the crime is told in the sketch of his
life.
Captain Frey, although successful to an unusual degree in his
work, was not entirely satisfied with its financial aspect. The pay
was only $22 a week, and was a great deal less than his income
in business had been. He had left his establishment in the hands
of an employe, and he found that his business interests were neglected.
He consequently decided to give up police work and
return to the more lucrative if more prosaic business of manufacturing
stoves, but the Police Commissioners would not hear
of such a thing. President Jarrett was particularly emphatic
in his protestations, and Captain Frey was finally induced to
remain. On April 19, 1870, the Commissioners selected a
Deputy-Marshal. They cast their unanimous vote for Captain
Jacob Frey. He accepted the place, gave up his private business,,
and from the start devoted his energies and great abilities
to the work of his responsible position. There has not been an
important event in the police history of Baltimore since that
.time in which he has not prominently participated.
The murderous assault, on Monday night, April 24, 1871, upon
Mrs. Carlotta Sarracco, the wife of an Italian music teacher, who
lived in a charming little cottage just beyond the city limits, east of
Charles street and near the Blind Asylum, greatly aroused the
indignation of the citizens of Baltimore. The Sarracco cottage
was a bower of flowers. Mr. Sarracco was a Tuscan, and brought
with him from that beautiful part of Italy many of the tastes which
make the people of Tuscany so artistic and lovable. He and his
wife were devoted to each other. His profession enabled him
to spend much of his time at home, and all of his leisure he
devoted to his wife and his flowers. He had several pupils in different
parts of Baltimore county, and he was sometimes compelled
to spend the night away from home. One of these occasions
was on the night of the assault. Mr. Sarracco went to
Hagerstown where he was to fill an engagement, and he left
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OUR POLICE. 153
his wife, the only other person in the house being a colored
boy-of-all-work named Jeremiah Mahomet, a bright lad about
seventeen years old. The day had been passed by Mrs. Sarracco
in house-cleaning, and as the rooms in the upper part of the
house were still damp, she resolved to pass the night on the lowerfloor.
She made up a couch with some mattresses in the diningroom
and retired. She was a sound sleeper and she took theprecaution
before going to bed to tell Mahomet that he should
respond instantly at any noise he might hear in the house. This
the boy promised to do.
It was nearly midnight when a big hand was pushed stealthily
through the* vines which half closed the windows of the diningroom,
The latch of the sash was carefully forced back with a
thin-bladed knife, and noiselessly the form of a negro entered the
room. It was moonlight without and against that brilliant background
the man stood, a blot of intense black against the splendor
of the night. The negro, his eyes opened to their widest, his;
hands outstretched in the obscurity of the room, moved forward.
He struck his bare feet against the rocker of a chair. A low
curse relieved him and again he moved forward, his eyes fixed
upon the rear of the room where Mrs. Sarracco was lying. It
took the negro several minutes to pass across that ten feet of.
floor. Every creak of the boards beneath his feet would startle
him; as the mice would run about within the wall the negro
would stop and glance fearfully over his shoulder, dreading
lest he were discovered. At last he stood over the bed. Therewas
little pause then. He pushed his hand beneath Mrs. Sarracco’s
pillow, but discovered no valuables there. Then believing
that she might wear some jewelry about her neck, he laid his
hand upon a necklace which Mr. Sarracco had presented to his
wife a short time before. The burning touch awakened the
sleeping lady. She saw the low forehead and gleaming eyes of
the negro close to her face. With a cry of horror she sprang
up and cried out:
“What do you want?”
“Hush, or I’ll kill you,” hissed her assailant.
The threat was sufficient to indicate the ruffian’s purpose..
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154 OUR POLICE.
Mrs. Sarracco leaped from her bed and grappled with the negro.
She -was a woman of large frame and was stronger than most
•of her sex. The conflict was a terrible one. The negro and
his expected victim rolled about the floor of the room fighting
like demons. Mrs. Sarracco bit and scratched the man until
the blood streamed from his face and neck. Finally, finding
himself matched in strength, the negro drew a keen razor, a
weapon which at that time was just becoming popular with
colored desperadoes, and made several severe gashes upon the
face of his victim, she bravely holding on to him and screaming
for help all the time. The man succeeded in disengaging his
hand once more and made another slash at the lady’s throat,
cutting downward toward the breast bone, and just grazing
the windpipe. He then wrenched himself away and jumped
out of the rear window through which he had entered. Before
he went, however, he knocked his victim down by a blow of
his fist. By this time the colored boy in the basement, having
been awakened by the screams of his mistress and the noise of
the struggle, came running up-stairs. As he entered the diningroom,
the burglar was making his exit through the window.
He dropped his hat as he went. The boy at once raised an
alarm and assistance soon arrived. Doctors Page and Grindrat
were roused and came at once to dress Mrs. Sarracco’s wounds.
Their promptness probably prevented her bleeding to death.
After a long illness, the gashes she received in the encounter
healed.
Deputy-Marshal Frey hearing of the occurrence at an early
hour, went out to the scene, reaching the house at five o’clock
in the morning. He found the room in which the conflict took
place in a state of great confusion, showing the terrible ordeal
through which Mrs. Sarracco had passed. The furniture was overturned
and the pools of blood on the wooden floor indicated the
course of the struggle. On the window sill through which the
burglar escaped, quantities of blood were left, and the walls were
bespattered with gore. Deputy-Marshal Frey immediately put
his men at work on the matter. The hat which the negro had
•dropped in his flight was an unerring clue to his identity, for
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OUR POLICE. 155′
both Mrs. Sarracco and her servant-boy recognized it as belonging
to a colored man, named John Thomas, -who had worked for
the lady a few days previously. The boy Mahomet and the man
had worked together in Mrs. Sarracco’s garden, and the boy
declared that Thomas had said to him, that from the way Mrs.
Sarracco talked he thought she must have considerable money.
Mr. Frey’s first inquiries were for the residence of Thomas.
Nobody knew where he lived, except that he had gone towards
the city each night when through with his work. In the Baltimore
directory there were no less than twenty ” John Thomas’s,”
so that the search for the burglar bore a rather discouraging aspect
at the beginning. The description of the man was as follows
: He was a young fellow, about twenty-two years of age,
about five feet six inches tall, dusky brown and of rather pleasing
features, with woolly hair and small side whiskers. Deputy-
Marshal Frey set detectives near every house in which the directory
said a John Thomas lived. They watched all day long and
all night. On Wednesday three John Thomas’s were arrested,
none of whom proved to be the right one. On Wednesday evening
the Deputy-Marshal himself set watch on the building No-
28 Ross street, in which one John Thomas lived. At about
eleven o’clock he was rewarded by seeing a man who answered
the description of the would-be murderer enter the house. This
man proved to be the right one. He was locked up in the Central
District station-house until five o’clock the following afternoon,
when his examination took place before Police Justice Haggerty.
In the meantime Deputy-Marshal Frey had succeeded
in getting a confession from the man, by confronting him with
the evidence against him—his hat and the razor with which the
cutting had been done. The razor had been found near Mrs.
Sarracco’s house after a long search by policeman Widdefield on
Tuesday evening. It was clotted with blood, and was discovered
in the dust just outside of the gate, where it had evidently
been thrown by the man in his flight. The prisoner when put
upon the witness-stand showed that he had not escaped from the
conflict with his victim unscathed. His face and eyes were
badly scratched and bruised. The clothes he wore on the night
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156 OUR POLICE.
of the assault were shown in court. They were covered with
large spots of blood. He was shown the razor and asked if it
belonged to him.
” Yes, it’s mine,” he replied; ” it belonged to my father.”
The hat found in the dining-room was put on the prisoner’s
head and the boy Mahomet identified him as the man who had
worked with him in the garden the week before. Thomas demanded
a trial by jury, notwithstanding his confession. He was
convicted and sentenced tp twenty-one years’ imprisonment in
the Maryland State Penitentiary, where he died after serving
about one-third of his sentence. During the trial a sad accident
happened to Mrs. Sarracco. One day as she was leaving the
Court House she fell down the stone steps of the building and
fractured her skull. She died from the effects of her wounds a
short time afterward.
A celebrated case which Deputy-Marshal Frey worked up and
which was a sensation of national proportions, was that of Mrs.
Ellen G. Wharton, charged with killing by tartar-emetic General
W. Scott Ketchum. Mrs. Wharton was the wife of an officer in
the United States Army. She came to this city about 1863.
Independently of her husband’s position, by reason of her own
character, her perfect cultivation of manner and her devotion as
a wife and mother, she won her way into the best social circles
of the city, and such a thing as scandal of any kind had never
been connected with her name. In the latter part of June, 1871,
the particulars of a horrible crime from Connecticut had shocked
the whole country. An educated woman named Sherman, who
moved in the best circles, had poisoned three husbands and several
families, The case excited great interest in Baltimore, and
when this interest was at its height it began to be rumored that
a tragedy of a somewhat similar character had been enacted in
North Eutaw street. For days the newspaper reporters were all
at sea. “The police had the case in hand, but they would say
nothing until they had probed the mystery thoroughly. Then
the following details came out: A retired officer of the United
States Army, General Ketchum, left Washington on June 24
with the avowed purpose of going to Baltimore to collect $2,600
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OUR POLICE. 157
•which he had lent to Mrs. Wharton, the widow of a brother
officer for whom he had the most friendly regard. He did come
to Baltimore and was taken ill at Mrs. Wharton’s house a very
few hours after he reached there. Doctor P. C. Williams, a
•well-known physician, attended him and discovered the symptoms
of metallic poisoning. General Ketchum lingered until
June 30, when he died. On the recommendation of Doctor Williams,
who was convinced that there was foul play in the matter,
the corpse was removed to a place where the cause of the
death could be ascertained. Portions of the body were analyzed
and twenty grains of tartar-emetic, a violent metallic poison, were
found in the stomach. Mrs. Wharton a few days afterward repaired
to Washington, and applied to the administrators of General
Ketchum for $4,000 which she alleged she had deposited
with the General. She was courteously but very decidedly repulsed,
and the question was asked why she had not paid the
$2,600 which General Ketchum had lent her ? She replied that
she had paid it on June 17, and had torn the note up. The General’s
books, however, showed that she had paid interest on the
25th of that month.
Other circumstances seemed to condemn Mrs. Wharton. On
the same day when General Ketchum was poisoned, Mr. Eugene
Van Ness, Mrs. Wharton’s confidential adviser, called to see
her and was taken ill with the same symptoms that affected
General Ketchum. For six days he languished between life
and death, but happily he was saved by the acuteness of his
wife, who discovered sediment in the glass which held his
nourishment. The police under Deputy-Marshal Frey worked
up this case so thoroughly that not a link was missing in the
•chain of evidence. They showed where and when Mrs. Wharton
had purchased quantities of tartar-emetic, and on the stand
Mr. Frey gave a long account of his interviews with Mrs.
Wharton. The case was tried at Annapolis and consumed forty
days. At every session the court-room was crowded, and the
greatest interest was taken in the proceedings throughout the
country. Nearly all the expert medical ability of Baltimore
was brought into requisition, and the eminent counsel on both
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158 OUR POLICE.
sides left no stone unturned. Dr. Edward Warren, the founder
of Washington Medical College and dean of the institution
advanced the opinion at the trial that General Ketchum had died
of cerebro spinal meningitis. This was the first time that that
disease had ever been brought to the attention of the public in
Baltimore. Its becoming known under such circumstances caused
much comment among the people. The result, a verdict for
acquittal, was doubtless a great disappointment to the public, for
Mrs. Wharton was then generally believed to be guilty.
A crime which stirred Baltimore to its depths as it was never
stirred before was the Lampley murder. It took place on the
night of January 2, 1873. John Lampley and his wife, both
aged, resided in the eastern section of the city. The old gentleman
had amassed a considerable fortune. He generally kept
from $1,000 to $1,500 in his house and this fact was known to
his relatives. His wife’s grand-daughter was the wife of Joshua
Nicholson, and being on intimate terms with the Lampley family,
Nicholson knew where the money was kept. Nicholson and
Thomas R. Hollohan worked together in a tin can factory, and
here began the acquaintance which made them partners in a
most heinous crime and an ignominious death. On the night of
the murder Mr. Lampley had gone to the theatre, for the first
time in thirty years, leaving his wife, who was seventy years
of age, alone in the house. AVhen some of the relatives returned
later in the evening she was found murdered and the
house robbed of $1,155 in notes and silver coin. The only
clue was a chisel found in the alley-way with which a trunk
containing the money had been broken open. A bundle of
cakes, two pieces of pie and two apples that were found on a
table wrapped up pointed to Nicholson, on the supposition that
the pastry had been prepared for his two children by Mrs.
Lampley, their great grandmother. The working up of this case
was’ in the hands of Deputy-Marshal Frey, and the thoroughness
with which he did the work was a most excellent tribute to
his ability. On the day following the dreadful crime, the unmarred
corpse of the aged victim was lying in the parlor of its
former neat though modest home in Mulligan street near Bond
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UUK POLICE. 159
street. The room was filled -with weeping women and silent
men, for the sudden taking away of the oldest neighbor’s life in
such a manner had cast more than a shadow of sorrow upon the
community. Towards evening Detective Pontier, who had been
assigned to the case by the Deputy-Marshal, stepped in upon the
gathering and glanced carefully at the different faces that composed
the group nearest the coffin. As he was turning away his
attention was attracted by a young woman beckoning to him.
“You are the detective, are you not?” she asked, in a low
tone.
The policeman replied in the affirmative.
” Well, I want to speak to you a moment alone. Follow me
into the yard.”
The detective followed the young woman as she requested.
When they they were out of hearing distance from the other
people she said:
” Go into the parlor again ; at the head of the corpse you will
see a good-looking young man ; if you are after the murderer of
Mrs. Lampley, keep your eye on him.” Thus saying the woman
withdrew.
Detective Pontier returned to the parlor. Seated at the head
of the coffin was a young man who might answer the description
of good-looking. He was gazing with a pensive countenance
upon the floor, from which he did not raise his eyes while the
detective was watching him. A moment afterward the door
opened and a man entered whom Detective Pontier knew well.
He was John English, one of the leaders of the ” Plug Ugly”
gang, and bore the reputation of being a bad character. He was
the son-in-law of the murdered woman. The detective called
English to him and taking him one side, asked him :
” Who is the young man at the head of the coffin ?
English started and gazed into space for a moment. Then
turning to the detective he replied impressively :
” You’re on the right track, I’m afraid. That man is Josh
Nicholson, the old lady’s grand-daughter’s husband.”
The detective had heard of Nicholson before as being a person
in ill-repute with the police, though he had never before been
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160 O.UR POLICE.
brought into contact with him. Turning again to English he
said:
” I “will go into the backroom and engage in conversation -with
a lady. Come in and see who she is, and when I come out, tell
me.
And Detective Pontier went into the rear room and conversed
with the young woman who had spoken to him before.
When he returned to the parlor English told him that he had been
talking with Nicholson’s wife.
“Are you sure ?” demanded the officer, not believing it possible
that a woman would have spoken concerning her husband as
she had.
” Perfectly sure. I know her well,” replied English.
The detective kept his own counsel, but called the following
day for a further talk with Mrs. Nicholson. When he arrived
at the house the woman herself opened the door to admit him,
and called him to a room on the second floor so as to be out of
hearing.
” I think my husband and a man whom he brought home to
dinner with him yesterday are the murderers of my grandmother,”
were the woman’s first words. She spoke impressively
but without a tremor in her voice. ” Go down stairs now and
you will find him alone in the parlor. Ask him who the man is
who was with him yesterday, and make him speak loud, so that
I can hear what he says. I will listen outside the door.”
The detective went to the parlor and found Nicholson there as
his wife had said.
” This is pretty bad business, ain’t it, Josh?” began the policeman.
“Awful,” replied Nicholson, with a deep sigh. “She was a
kind old grandmother to me.”
“Who was the man you brought home to dinner with you yesterday?”
asked the detective suddenly, changing the subject.
Nicholson colored.
” I brought home with me ?” he stammered, ” why I—oh, that
was, er—er, that was—Tom Callahan.”
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OUR POLICE, 161
Mr. Pontier seemed to take no notice of the man’s embarrassment
at the question, but continued:
“Where does he live ?”
” I really don’t know,” replied Nicholson.
“Well, -where does he work?”
” I don’t know that, either,” returned the young man.
At this the detective turned away, and Nicholson, evidently
glad to escape further questioning, went out of the room into the
kitchen in the rear. As soon as he was gone his wife, who had
been listening to the conversation, stepped from behind the door
and said, excitedly:
” Everything he has told yon is a lie ! That man’s name is
Hollohan, and he works at the same bench with Josh in the
canning factory.”
The following day Pontier arrested Hollohan on suspicion, but
Marshal Gray, considering the evidence against him insufficient,
refused to hold the man. The detective continued his search for
clues, but the only one that was found for a long time was the
chisel with a peculiar handle cut from a raw twig, which was found
in the snow by a policeman, and with which, it was believed, the
closets and the bureau drawers had been opened by the murderers
in their search for the plunder. Deputy-Marshal Frey had
this chisel taken to every hardware shop, to every blacksmith,
to every carpenter and to every ship-builder in town, in the hope
that he might find somebody who would recognize it. But in
vain. At last, after about a month’s search, its owner was
found. He was a deaf and dumb boy, the son of the lady who
kept the boarding-house in which Hollohan lived. The boy had
been presented with a tool-box and had replaced the first handle
of the chisel with the one made of the piece of raw twig. He
had lived in the room which Hollohan occupied, previously to the
man’s coming to board with his mother, and when he moved out
of the room he left his tool-box behind with a few other articles
in the closet. Having thus brought the chisel so near to Hollohan
the Deputy-Marshal directed Pontier to arrest him again,
and the man was locked up. Nicholson was also arrested.
Efforts were begun to get a confession from one or both of the
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J62 OUR POLICE.
men. With Nicholson Mr. Pontier was successful. The man
told the whole horrible story of the heartless crime. When he
learned that his companion had confessed, Hollohan admitted
that he was one of the murderers, only giving a different version
of the story. This is Hollohan’s story :
” While working at my trade last autumn, at No. 99 South
Bond street, I made the acquaintance of Nicholson. About a
month after, he invited mo up to his house and introduced me to
his wife. At the time I was very much pleased with my new
acquaintance. A week or so after he asked me to take a ride
with him down to Lower Canton ; he had English’s horse and
buggy. He then told me about this old gentleman, Mr. Lampley,
having a large amount of money in his house—$3,000 or
$4,000. He then said:
” ‘ Tom, we can make a good raise without any trouble.’
” He told me how it could be done. He said that Mr. Lampley
went into the country on Sunday a-fishing, and did not get
home until late at night. He said he once lived in the house,
and knew where the money was kept. He knew that I had been
in trouble once before, and he was no ways bashful in asking me
to assist him. I consented to go with him. The day was appointed—
it was one Sunday night—to carry out his plans.
When he said that we would have to ‘ croak the old woman’
(those are the very words he used), I suggested a better plan.
I told him that if we hurt the old lady we would be running
greater risk. I said that we could get the money without using
any violence, if he would dress in disguise; that we could talk
the money out of the old lady. To that Nicholson would not
consent, giving as his reasons that if the old lady was robbed,
every one of the relatives would suspicion him, and that if he
‘ croaked her,’ no one would think that he would do it. I would
not agree with him, so we gave it up that day. But he mentioned
it to me about a week before Christmas. He still wanted to
‘ croak’ the old lady. I did not agree with him, and we gave
the thing up for that time. I told him it was useless to run
such a great risk when we could get the money without. He
said the old lady would recognize him ; that I could not do it by
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OUR POLICE. 163
myself with safety. Nicholson did not say anything to me on
that subject until the afternoon of January 2,1873. I accidentally
met him at No. 99 South Bond street. He invited me up
to his house. I went there. While there I was introduced to
Mr. John Lampley by Mrs. Nicholson. I afterwards accompanied
Nicholson to his father’s house, on Forrest street, near Central
avenue. On our way there he told me what a splendid chance
we could have to-night to get that money. He thought the old
man would go to the theatre with John English, the latter’s wife
and little boy. He was not certain that Mr. Lampley would go,
but if I agreed to go with him that night hesaid he would meet me
at half-past 6 o’clock at Bond and Baltimore streets. We met
there at the appointed time. He then told me that the old man
had gone; so I agreed to go with him to help carry his plans
out. We arrived at Mr. Lampley’s house at about 7 o’clock.
No one was there but this old lady. She was sitting in her
working chair, a-sewing. Nicholson entered without knocking.
She spoke to him very kindly. I followed him. Josh gave me
an introduction. He said I was a friend of his ; that I wanted
her son John to do some papering for me. Nicholson asked this
question to ascertain where John was. We talked then a little
while, when Mrs. Lampley got up and went to the cupboard and
took from there a brown paper bag of cakes, telling Nicholson
that she had put them up for his little children, that she intended
to send them over to Nicholson’s house that morning. Then she
treated Nicholson and myself to some wine, saying that it was
home-made. Nicholson stood behind her. I was standing by
her side. Josh gave the signal. I grabbed her by the throat.
At the same time Nicholson struck her with his fist in the stomach.
We then carried her into the other room and laid her on
the carpet—she was dead. Nicholson ran out and fastened the
gate and closed the window shutters. Everything was arranged
between Nicholson and myself before we entered the house.
Josh took the light and went up-stairs to get the money. I remained
with Mrs. Lampley in the dark, and if John Lampley
came in, I was to get away with him. I had my pistol with
me.
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164 OUR POLICE,
“Nicholson made a considerable noise in prying the trunk
open. I ran up-stairs where he was, to caution him about making
so much noise. He said :
” ‘Tom, I have got it opened.’
” He then handed me the silver; he took the paper money.
I did not remain up-stairs but a minute; we both went down together.
He placed the lamp upon the table and turned down the
light. lie then handed me all the money. He took his umbrella
with him. It was very dark and raining, and we went through
the stable. Josh opened the gate that led out into a ten-foot
alley. After we got out in Dalls street, he remarked that he
was very sorry that those cakes were left upon the table. I asked
him where the chisel was. He said he had thrown it into the
alley. We separated at Eden and Fayette streets. He said he
was going home. I then went down to mj boarding-house. The
money was not divided until a week after; in fact the silver was
never divided. We considered that it was dangerous property to
handle at that time. I gave him $515 of the greenbacks the
evening of the eighth of January. Since we have been arrested
I told him to have one of his friends get $300 that I had hidden
in this city. They went for it, but said they could not find it.
I am satisfied they got it. I wanted to get it to fee a lawyer. If
I had had my own way, the old woman, Mrs. Lampley, would be
alive to-day. There is one party that has been accused wrongfully
and that is Albert 0. Tucker. He did not know anything
about it, nor never had any of the money. He is a man I would
trust. I do believe if he had known of it he would have
talked me out of the notion. I make this statement in justice to
him. I have not screened myself. Everything that I have done
I have stated. I know that I have broken the laws of God and
man, and I am willing to give up my life; but I want Brother
Nicholson on the same platform.”
The reference here to Nicholson was prompted by the latter’s
unsuccessful effort to turn all the guilt on Hollohan.
The trial of this case at Annapolis was one of the most celebrated
and dramatic hearings ever occurring before the Maryland
courts. The testimony was of the most startling character, filled
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OTJlt POLICE. 165
with pathetic incidents, and having in it sufficient to cause the
most intense feeling in the court-room. When the evidence had
all been placed before the court, and Mr. Revell, who appeared
for the State, was delivering his closing argument, Hollohan kept
his gaze fixed upon Deputy-Marshal Frey, who was sitting near
the attorneys’ table chatting with some newspaper men. Mr.
Revell made such a stirring speech that the attention even of the
court officers was attracted to him, and they neglected watching
the prisoners as carefully as they were expected to. Without
a sound of warning Hollohan sprang from the prisoners’ box,
and leaping over tables and chairs rushed up to the Deputy-Marshal
and dealt him a murderous blow on the top of the head with
a stocking which he had filled with pieces of iron and stone. Mr.
Frey reeled backwards for a moment—but only for one instant.
The crowd in the court-room rushed forward and the wildest
excitement ensued, during which Hollohan dashed for the window
and Nicholson for the door. Citizens pursued both ruffians,
those after Hollohan crying:
“Kill him! kill him!”
With the blood streaming over his face and clothing from the
wound the murderer had inflicted, Mr. Frey leaped towards Hollohan,
and placing his hand upon his shoulder exclaimed:
” Stand back, gentlemen; this man belongs to the State; he
has not been sentenced yet. Do not hit him.”
This magnanimity on the part of the deputy-marshal was regarded
as extraordinary by the people of Maryland. He was
widely praised, even Hollohan saying just before he was
hanged:
” I was aggravated against him, but when they were crying
out: ‘Kill him! kill him!’ around me, and when I was overpowered,
I heard him say : ‘ Do not hit him.’ I was sorry I had
struck him, for it proved him to be a brave and magnanimous
man.” Hollohan also said that his attack was directed mainly
against chief-detective Crone.
The trial was ended by the conviction of the murderers, and
they were hanged on Friday, August 1, 1873.
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166 OUR POLICE.
The experience which brought out more fully than anything
else the competence of the Baltimore police force, was that received
in the railroad riots of July, 1877. At a time when the
people lost their heads, the policemen in general and deputymarshal
Frey in particular, were cool, brave and determined.
The strike was caused by a reduction of ten per cent, in the pay
of the firemen on the freight engines of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad. The men claimed that they were already working at
starvation wages, and could not afford to labor for less. The company
declared that the depression in the general business interests
of the country compelled the reduction, and made it unable to pay
high wages. The firemen left their work on the morning of
Monday, July 16, 1877. There were about a hundred of them
at first. In many instances they went out on their trains a few
miles from the city, and when the engines stopped to take coal
they left their places, refusing to go any farther. At first the
strike seemed easy to manage, but as the first day wore on and
news came that the trouble had reached Martinsburg, and that
the militia had been called out there, things became more serious.
The police were promptly on hand. They were stationed in
twos and threes, at various points between Baltimore and the
Relay House, and a squad of twelve was at Camden Junction.
The first day passed quietly, although few of the freight trains
left the city, but on the second day—Tuesday—the excitement
began in the afternoon. A freight train of eighteen loaded cars
from the West, bound for Locust Point, was partly wrecked by
means of a misplaced switch at a trestle near the foot of Leadenhall
street, Spring Garden, and the engine and several cars were thrown
into a gulley. News, too, arrived of the fight at Martinsburg, in
which two firemen were shot. At night the employes of the
Baltimore and Ohio Company held a meeting and decided to support
the strikers, but first to try conciliation with the company.
Conciliation failed and the strike went on. On Wednesday, the
third day of the troubles, the West Virginia authorities called on
President Hayes for troops, and a proclamation was at once issued
by the President. Troops were promptly sent. Of course all this
had its effect in Baltimore, but on that day there were no hostile
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OUR POLICE. 167
demonstrations here. The freight business amounted practically
to nothing, but the passenger trains arrived as usual. The Company
decided “not to recede from its position, and a reward of
$500 was offered by it for the arrest of the person or persons who
caused the Spring Garden wreck. On the fourth day the troubles
continued in Martinsburg, but, there was no outbreak in
Baltimore until the next day. Baltimore was more excited than
it had been since the war.
About 3 o’clock in the afternoon of Friday, when the news
had been received that the strike at Cumberland threatened to
assume general proportions, Governor Carroll held a consultation
with the officers of the Baltimore and Ohio Company, and became
convinced that the presence of the military at Cumberland was
necessary for the preservation of peace and order. A half hour
later he issued an order to Brigader-General Herbert, commanding
the First Brigade, M. N. G., ordering him to proceed to Cumberland.
Simultaneously he issued a proclamation calling upon the
rioters to desist. Soon afterwards General Herbert held another
consultation with Governor Carroll to consider whether the military
should be summoned to their respective armories by a ” military
call” from the bells. Governor Carroll objected to this, and
General Herbert-tried to get the men at the armories by the ordinary
means, but not succeding very well, again asked the Governor
that the bells be rung. This was done, and a great misfortune
it proved. At twenty minutes of 6 o’clock the call—
1—5—1—was sounded from the City Hall and fire bells. The
people knew what it meant, and in a very short time the streets
around the armories were filled with men and boys of all ages
who sympathized with the strikers. It was about the time that
the work in the factories was over, and all the workmen helped to
swell the crowds. In front of the armory of the Sixth Regiment,
at Fayette and Front streets, the mob numbered at least 2,000.
Strangely enough, the officers of the regiment sent word to the
police headquarters, asking that policemen be sent to clear the
way, so that the regiment could march on to Camden station.
The old system then in vogue scattered the policemen, so that not
enough of them could be collected in time for the work, and in
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168 OUR POLICE.
two hours the crowd was so large that no force was able to
handle it.
The troubles at the Sixth regiment armory began at about
seven o’clock. A brick-bat was thrown into one of the windows.
Four policemen—Officers Albert Whitely, James Jamison, Oliver
Kenly, and Roberts—were stationed at the door, and in spite of
the volleys of stones and missiles and jeers that followed they
manfully stood their dangerous guard, although the four militia
men who had been with the policemen had been called in.- The
hour set for marching was 8.15 o’clock, and the crowd had
become maddened and aggressive. The companies, however,
determined to pass the rioters. When they appeared on the
street there was a riot so general that it drove the men back
again into the building. The next time they came out they had
orders to fire. The first company fired high, but the attack became
so heavy on the following companies that they discharged
their weapons into the crowd. From that instant all along the
march to Camden station the firing was continuous and general,
resulting in the killing of about a dozen people and the serious
wounding of as many more.
The Fifth regiment did not use its guns, although it was
severely attacked and had every provocation to fire. The men
marched admirably through showers of stones and other missiles.
There were 250 of them. At the junction of Camden and Eutaw
streets a solid mass of rough-looking men blocked their passage.
They came to a halt for a moment, and although the bricks were
falling fast, Captain Zollinger counselled his men not to fire.
Then he ordered them to prepare to double-quick with their fixed
bayonets into the depot. Drawing his sword, Captain Zollinger
shouted to the mob to give way, that the command might pass.
A brawny man opposed the captain, who promptly knocked him
down, and amid the hoots and yells and several shots from the
crowd the regiment charged into the depot. Soon after the regiment
had reached the station the building was set on fire and
the rioters attempted to interfere with the firemen, but fortunately
in this they did not succeed, and the flames were extinguished.
The valiant service that the police did in these exciting hours
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OUB POLICE. 169
has never been publicly acknowledged except by brief paragraphs
in the newspapers. In every instance they awed the
mob, while the soldiers incensed it. One policeman was equal
to a dozen soldiers. Until long after midnight the police protected
the military and guarded all the depot buildings. It
was the police who protected the firemen and the engines and
hose, and thus saved the buildings. They were fired upon by
the mob, and some -were wounded, but they wounded a number
of the mob, and in addition made numerous arrests. The
result of the great excitement was that the order sending the
soldiers to Cumberland was rescinded, and a proclamation to that
effect was issued by Mayor Latrobe.
During these days the efficiency of the police was tried and
proved. Deputy-Marshal Frey had command in and around
Camden station. For nearly seventy hours he went without
sleep. Single-handed, long before any officers could be assembled,
on the Friday previous to the arrival of the military, he
cleared the platform and front pavement of several hundred
excited men, and when reinforced arrested two of the ringleaders
and took them to the Southern police station himself.
On Saturday night crowds again collected around Camden station.
About 9 P. M. a fire-alarm excited the rioters so that they rushed
towards the lines that the police had formed. Shots were fired
by the rioters, and several officers fell wounded. Then it was
that Deputy-Marshal Frey told the men to keep steady, and a
moment afterwards, their pistols being drawn, the command of
” Take aim—Fire ” was given. They fired low, and as they fired
they rushed forward, and each officer grabbed a prisoner. Fifty
arrests were made; several men were killed and a number
wounded. There was another outbreak at 11 o’clock and fiftythree
more arrests were made. On Sunday morning large crowds
again collected around the Camden Station, and they were closely
pressing upon the picket lines of the Fifth regiment. Deputy-
Marshal Frey, not liking the looks of things, sent for a squad of
twenty policemen. When they arrived the Deputy-Marshal took
charge of them in person. He told the crowd that he was going
to ” clear that street,” and he advised all peaceably disposed
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170 OUR POLICE.
persons to go home. Many of them did so, but many more
remained. Turning to his men, the Marshal gave orders to
“Forward,” and in a very short time the rioters were driven
away. They knew the Deputy-Marshal, and they were afraid
of him.
When the riot had assumed such threatening proportions every
effort was made to protect the city. United States soldiers from
New York and other cities were promptly ordered to Baltimore.
General W. S. Hancock arrived with eight companies of troops
from New York harbor, and two war vessels with 560 men, fully
equipped, anchored in the Patapsco. Several hundred special
policemen were sworn in by the Police Board. Among them
were such well-known citizens as William M. Pegram, Alexander
M. Green, C. Morton Stewart, Frank Frick, E. Wyatt Blanchard,
James H. Barney, J. L. Hoffman, Robert G. Hoffman,
W. Gilmore Hoffman, John Donnell Smith, William A. Fisher,
Frederick von Kapff, and Washington B. Hanson. They were
supplied with the regular badges, and they did good work. The
regular policemen were unfaltering in their duty, and most of
them did not sleep during more than fifty hours. The great show of
strength by the police and troops overawed the rioters, and the
troubles were gradually quieted. The following Saturday freight
trains, each guarded by ten soldiers, moved out on the road.
The strikes in other cities continued, more or less, but within two
weeks they were over. Trouble on the Northern Central road
was happily averted. The jury of inquest which sat upon the
man killed by the Sixth Regiment was very thorough in its
investigations, and after several days consumed in taking testimony
it rendered a verdict which found the rioters guilty of the
troubles, but charged the regiment with shooting too hastily and
too indiscriminately. It found fault because there were not more
policemen on hand around the armory. This, however, was
purely the fault of the military authorities in not giving sufficient
notice to the Marshal. The part that the police force took in the
memorable conflict will ever stand a monument to its courage
and efficiency.
One of the most curious bank cases in the criminal history of
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OUR POLICE. 171
the city was that of July, 1880. Cleary, Bell, and Wilson, expert
burglars, came to Baltimore in June for the purpose of ” cleaning
out” the town as far as they could. By selling Government bonds
they secured the checks of well-known brokers and made from
them counterfeit lithograph blanks. Only one thing remained
for them to do, and that was to ascertain from each firm the
correct number of its checks for the day, so as to have everything
regular on the face of the forged drafts. They did this by
selling another government bond to each firm. The first bank
victimized was the Merchants’ National, at Gay and Second
streets. On Friday, July 17, just before the close of business
hours, an elderly man, of about fifty years, dignified and businesslike,
went into the Merchants’ National Bank and presented to
Mr. Morris, the paying teller, a check for $2,630, drawn in
Mr. J. Harmanus Fisher’s name, on his own peculiar blank,
with government stamp in the center, and all correct. The
money was promptly paid over. On Saturday morning the man
returned with another check for $3,920. This too was paid
after close scrutiny, and after being passed upon casually by a
clerk from Mr. J. IT. Fisher’s office who happened to be in the
bank at the time. Later on in the day a third check was brought
in and cashed for the same party. The suspicions of Mr. Morris,
the teller, were aroused, and he took the checks to Mr. Fisher’s
office, where they were pronounced forgeries.
This was not an end of the schemes, however. On the same
Friday morning a young man went into the banking house of
Messrs. Middendorf & Oliver, and tendered for sale a $100 4
per cent. bond. It was readily bought, and at his request he
was given a check for $50 and the remainder in cash. About
an hour later another stranger sold another bond to the same firm
and got a check in payment. A half hour afterwards a third
person made a similar sale with the same result. About two
o’clock a handsomely dressed young fellow walked into the Third
National Bank, went up to the outer desk, indorsed his name on
the back of a check and handed it to Mr. W. B. Medairy, the
paying teller, to be cashed. Mr. Medairy looked at it. It was
issued by Middendorf & Oliver, and was for the sum of $1,294.50,
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172 OUR POLICE.
and indorsed on the back by W. Henry Murdock. All appeared
to be correct, but Mr. Medairy said that the handsomely dressed
young man would have to be identified.
“Oh,” said the young man, “then I’ll step around to get the
indorsement of the firm to my signature.”
He did step around and was gone just about long enough to
go to the office and back. He returned with the alleged indorsement
upon which the ink was not half dry. The money was
paid. The same afternoon about five minutes past three o’clock
another man ran hurriedly into the same bank and asked to deposit
some money. He offered a check on Middendorf & Oliver
for §1,396, drawn up in due form with his alleged name (D. M.
Kimball) on the back, authenticated apparently by Messrs. Middendorf
& Oliver. The teller refused at first to cash the check
as business hours had closed, but the man was so importunate
that ho finally cashed it. The fellow took the whole amount
and left nothing on deposit. When Mr. Medairy balanced his
books he found a discrepancy, and he went around to Messrs.
Middendorf & Oliver to see about it. Then, of course, the forgeries
were discovered. The swindlers tried their same game on
the Western National Bank, but they were foiled by the unusual
caution of Mr. Charles Nolting, the paying teller.
Deputy-Marshal Frey worked up this case. The result was
that George Bell, Henry Clcary, and Charles Farren were arrested
in New York on July 27, and were arraigned on the day
following. Bell and Cleary were recognized by the Baltimore
bankers, but Farren was discharged. Both Bell and Cleary had
interesting criminal records. Bell is still in the penitentiary
in Baltimore. Cleary was released on March 17, 1887, and
went South. Wilson, who was afterwards found to be connected
with the gang, is serving a nine years term at Kingston, Ontario.
Deputy-Marshal Frey brought Bell from New York on August
18, 1880, and the latter was promptly tried and convicted in the
criminal court of this city. There were previous charges in other
cities against the two other men.
A complete history of this crime is contained in a subsequent
chapter.
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OUR POLICE. 173
Marshal Frey profited largely by the experience he received
in the riots of 1877, and ever since that time he has kept the
force always prepared for emergencies. In the spring of 1886
nearly every largt, city in the country had its labor troubles,
and the most difficult affairs to handle were the strikes of the
street-car men. In April it became evident that there was going
to be a strike in Baltimore. Mr. Frey expected it, and was
fully prepared for it three days before it began. So complete
were his arrangements and so thoroughly did he have everything
in hand, that on the day of the strike, Wednesday, April 14,
noon, by the time the cars got into their depots, he had policemen
at the stables and all along the line of the roads. In
fact, the people did not know that a strike had occurred until they
saw the officers. Marshal Frey says that a Baltimore crowd is
very easily managed so long as it is kept in good humor, and so
long as hot-headed persons are prevented from getting together
with the idea of arousing excitement and disturbance. He acted
on this theory during that strike. The people were kept moving.
Whenever any excitement began the crowd producing it was
promptly broken up. In this way the trouble passed over without
serious outbreaks of any kind, and although it lasted two weeks,
good order was maintained as though nothing unusual was
going on.
The linger trunk mystery is too fresh in the public mind to
need long description. On Sunday morning, January 23, 1887,
a trunk was received at the Adams Express warehouse on North
street, addressed to ” John A. Wilson, Baltimore. To be called
for.” No one called for it, and on Wednesday it began to smell
so bad, that manager James Shuter determined to open it. He
did so, but such a horrible stench issued from it that everybody
was driven away. Mr. Shuter at once telephoned to headquarters,
and Captain Farnan sent to the office the patrol-wagon, in
in which were officers Slaysman, Jefferson Lutts and John Doyle.
They took the trunk to the Central Station. Captain Farnan
and some of the officers in the station re-opened it to ascertain its
contents. They took out a calico shirt, a torn woolen shirt and
a coat which had been cut in half. The heavy brown paper was
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174 OUR POLICE.
then opened, and there was a sight that even the policemen could
hardly stand. Packed in the box was the trunk of a human body.
The body looked as if it had been doubled up, with the legs under
the back, so as to make it fit into the receptacle. On one side of
the trunk were the left arm and the feet, which had been cut off.
The other arm was tucked under the body. Cards on the man
and inscriptions on the trunk were the only clues to the mystery.
Marshal Frey sent the following telegram :
INSPECTOR BYRNES,
•Police Headquarters, New York:
The headless body of a man was found in a trunk at Adams Express office
this P. M. It came from your city; was delivered to Adams by Westcott Express
on Saturday last. Adams will be notified to communicate with you.
We will hold body as long as possible. In the trunk were found some cards
of Henry Siegel, 205 Throop avenue, Brooklyn. On the shirt is found the
name of C. Kaufhold.
JACOB FREY, Marshal.
Inspector Byrnes and his men worked up the case at once, and
the mystery was soon solved in the arrest on January 27 of
Edward Unger for the murder of August Bohle. Inspector
Byrnes drew out of him a confession by suddenly confronting
him with the bloody evidences of his crime. The sensational
feature of the trial which followed was the description of the
killing by Unger. He acted the whole tragedy before the jury,
and it had a powerful effect. Unger got off with a twentyyears’
sentence, but as he is an old man this practically amounts
to a life term. At the close of the case Inspector Byrnes paid
this tribute to Marshal Frey: ” He is one of the very foremost
police officers in the country. It was half-past nine Wednesday
night when the details he sent were given me, and so complete
were they, fully covering every necessary point and line
of information, that by their aid I was able to spot my man
and arrest him eighteen hours after. Baltimore is lucky in
having Marshal Frey at the head of its police department.”
Marshal Frey has been unusually succesful in getting confessions
out of criminals. His work in the ” burking” case last
year, the particulars of which will be found in the next chapter,
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OCR POLICE. 175.
when he led the accused man, Ross, to narrate the particulars
of his crime, are well remembered. A somewhat similar case was
that of the negro, George H. Williams, alias William Henry, who
assaulted Mrs. Mary J. Ridley in Druid Hill Park, on May 2-i
1887. Henry confessed to the Marshal and said that he had attacked
the lady for purposes of robbery. There are dozens more
of interesting cases which Marshal Frey has handled with his
usual success. Those, however, that have been cited show the
extent, and excellence of his work and prove his right to be
considered one of the best and bravest policemen in the country.
The celebrated Udderzook-Goss insurance case was prosecuted
under Marshal Frey’s direction. Udderzook was an insurance
agent in this city. He entered into a conspiracy with Goss to
defraud several companies for which he was agent. Udderzook
insured Goss for a large amount, and the two then caused a body
to be burned at a fire on York road, which Udderzook pretended
to recognize as that of Goss. The conspiracy was discovered
and facts were ferretted out by Marshal Frey which led to the
arrest of the two men, and the confession of Goss.
Mr. Frey’s commission as Marshal dates from October 15,1885.
He was married in 1858. He has four children and he occupies
a comfortable home in one of the prettiest sections of Northwest
Baltimore. He is in the prime of life, and with the past for a
prophet, there can be no doubt as to the brilliancy and usefulness
of his future.
The Marshal’s clerk since 1870 has been Dr. George W.
Wentz, He was appointed under Marshal Gray and was continued
in office under Marshal Frey. Dr. Wentz was born in
this city on March 6, 1836. He was graduated as a physician
but did not practice, preferring the profession of journalism,
which he followed until his appointment as Marshal’s clerk, to
accept which office he resigned his position on the staff of the
old Baltimore Grazette.
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176 OUR POLICE.
CHAPTER VIII.
DEPUTY MARSHAL JOHN LANNAN.
HIS RISE FROM PATROLMAN TO DEPUTY MARSHAL.—A TRIP TO
CHINA.—THE MINNESOTA AND A TYPHOON.—CLEARING OUT
DISHONEST SERVANTS.—RUNNING DOWN NEW JERSEY BURGLARS.
A MURDERER IDENTIFIED INTUITIVELY. THE RATS
HAD GNAWED HIS HANDCUFFS.—THE RIOTS OF 1877.—THE
CENTRAL STATION A HOSPITAL.—THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS
CONTINUOUS SERVICE.—A VERY SHARP NEGRO.—A DEPUTY
MARSHAL’S DIAMOND BADGE.—THE ONLY BURKING CASE IN
AMERICA.
The vice-commander of any body of men must needs divide
with his immediate official superior the responsibilities and honors
of his position. This is particularly the case in police and
military organizations, and especially so among the police of this
city. To the deputy marshal then, be that credit which comes
of honest endeavor to protect the lives and property under
his guardianship; that honor which is brought by years of
faithful service in a position where faithfulness means safety
to thousands of human beings. John Lannan is Deputy Marshal,
and ranks second in the active force. He was born in
the City of Limerick, Ireland, on June 19, 1834. When he
was but four years old his parents came to this country, and
made Baltimore their home. Since then, while Mr. Lannan has
not forgotten his Celtic nativity, he has regarded the United
States as his country, and this city as his chosen home. He received
his early education in the public schools, and remained a
pupil until he was 16 years old, when he entered the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad shops at Mount Claire. Four years were
sufficient to make him skilled in his trade, and he then went
to Philadelphia, Pa., where he worked for some time as a journeyman.
But the attractions of the navy were strong for the
American youth at that time, and young Lannan succumbed to
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JOHN LANNAN,
Deputy Marshal of Police.
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OUR POLICE. 179
them. While in Philadelphia he enlisted in the service and was
assigned to the engineers’ department on board the frigate
Minnesota, commanded by Captain Dupont.
The young mechanic’s first voyage was an eventful and historical
one. The Minnesota carried William B. Reed as American
plenipotentiary to China. Mr. Reed was to negotiate with
the Imperial Government the provisions of the treaty of 1858.
Young Lannan had ample opportunity on this trip to see the
world. The Minnesota left Hampton Roads in the early part of
1857, and touched at the Cape of Good Hope, Island of Java,
the Island of Ceylon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Manilla, the
Philippine Islands, Nagasaki, Japan; and then went to the
mouth of the Pei-ho river, the entrance to Pekin, capital of the
Empire. The story of the Minnesota’s stay there is a matter of
history, but the narrative, as coming from Mr. Lannan, an eyewitness,
is of considerable interest. It is as follows :
The English and French had declared war upon the unfortunate Celestials,
and their war vessels blockaded the commerce of the river. It was only a few
days after our arrival that the gun bouts bombarded the five forts defending
the entrance to the capital. We were non-combatants, as the Chinese, notwithstanding
that they had refused to treat with the English and French, were
content to sign our treaty and pay the indemnity demanded for the destruction
of property belonging to American citizens in China. Our ship was astern of
the blockading squadrons, and although the battle haze somewhat obscured
the view, we were still able to watch the Europeans shell and storm the forts.
One incident is particularly impressed upon my memory. While the storming
party was attacking one fort, the magazine exploded and killed a great number
of the fighting men. The scene was an extraordinary one. After this battle
was terminated in an overwhelming victory for the Europeans, the treaty with
our country was signed and we steamed away for Shanghai and went thence to
Bombay, Muscat, Singapore, and home to Boston.
The Minnesota did not sail altogether in summer seas. She
encountered many severe storms, but one of them was particularly
disastrous to the frigate. Here is Mr. Lannan’s description
of it:
While we were in the Chinese Sea we encountered one of those terrible
typhoons which, when survived, form an epoch in a man’s life. The terror of
the warring elements upon even the most courageous is overwhelming; the
uselessness of anything mortal seeking to struggle against the sweep of
that terrible hurricane, which even blows the sea into the flatness of a lake,
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180 OUR POLICE.
is so manifest, that it makes the instinct of self-preservation sink for a time
into forgetfulness. The storm came gradually. We could see the waves
which the wind had beaten into a foam approaching us with the speed
of race horses. On came the hurricane roaring upon the surface of the
ocean, screaming and howling through the counter-currents overhead. Absolute
darkness was about us, save for that dreadful line of foam.- With
the howl of a demon it was upon us. We heard an ominous creaking
and groaning below deck. The main-mast had been started in its steps.
There was danger of it going adrift in the hold and smashing the engines, or
going overboard and fouling the screw with its rigging. The danger was too
immediate to be trifled with, and all hands were ordered to ” Save Ship.”
There amid the howling tempest the brave men worked to defeat the storm.
After a struggle, the like of which I have never seen equalled, a hitch was
taken, more as a last chance than with great hope of it being useful, from the
swaying main-mast to the capstan fore and aft, and thus steadied the enormousspar.
This precaution was effective. It saved the ship and our lives.
Upon reaching Boston, young Lannan was honorably discharged
from the service. But the restlessness which is brought
by an experience at sea had gained possession of the young man,
and he made up his mind to go to the far West. He started in
1859 and went overland to California. Some time afterward
he went to Nevada and remained there until 1865. Returning
East, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, he resumed his
trade in Philadelphia and finally got back to Baltimore. In
1869 Mr. Lannan made an application to be appointed as
patrolman on the police force, and President Jarrett, with his
colleagues in the police board, Commissioners Carr and Fusselbaugh,
assigned him to the Western District. His first patrol
duty was on October 21, of that year.
Mr. Lannan’s advancement has been as rapid as his services
to the city have been honorable. He was promoted to be
sergeant on June 1, 1870, and secured his lieutenant’s shoulderstraps
on June 6, 1872. He was on April 8, 1874 promoted
to the command of the Northwestern District and was transferred
to the Central District on October 18, 1874. He was reappointed
captain on April 8, 1878 and April 8, 1882, and was advanced
to the position which he now fills on October 15, 1885.
Since the day, when as patrolman, Mr. Lannan first assumed
the duties of a member of the force he has been exceptionally
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OUR POLICE. 181
active. During the first two years, the evil characters learned
to avoid his post, especially after two important arrests which
he made in 1871. One was of a highway robber who forfeited
his bail before trial and ran away, and the other of a burglar
who afterward spent some time in prison before he was released
on a technicality. In the early part of 1872, the police were
informed of a large number of robberies being perpetrated in
the residence districts of the city. Articles of value were
missed from houses in the most mysterious fashion, and although
the shrewdest detectives on the force were put upon the case,
they failed to get the most insignificant clew. Sergeant Lannan,
at about this time arrested Jennie Tyler, a colored woman, who
had engaged as a domestic servant at No. 231 North Carey
street. The articles stolen from that house were traced to her,
and for a time there was a general belief that she had committed
the other robberies. She was sentenced to prison for fifteen
months, but the robberies still went on. Shortly after this
arrest, Sergeant Lannan was standing on a corner talking to
patrolman Flannery and in the course of the chat he asked
Flannery whether he had succeeded in getting any clews to the
robberies, then the talk of the town. Flannery replied that he
had not. Just then, Sergeant Lannan noticed a particularly fine
looking colored girl, tastefully dressed, coming down the street.
As she turned the corner her skirt attracted the sergeant’s
attention; it was decidedly fuller than customarily worn by women
•of her figure.
His suspicion seemed worthy of investigation and the two policemen
arrested her. They subsequently traced her to a house in
Stockton alley, which was discovered to be the thief’s storehouse.
It was packed with stolen property, much of which the woman had
never, apparently, taken any measures to dispose of. Some of
this property was never identified. The woman’s name proved to
be Louisa Moore, and her thievings extended over a period of
nearly eight months. Property was proved to have been stolen
from Nos. 234Lanvale street, 184 North Carey street, 209 North
Carey street, 182 Lafayette avenue and 687 West Fayette street.
Louisa was convicted of her crimes and sentenced to five years in
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182 OUR POLICE.
the penitentiary. Subsequently the Sergeant arrested Josephine
Hughes, another colored woman, for stealing valuable property
from No. 41 North Gilmore street, while she was employed as a
domestic and had her sent to the penitentiary for two years.
Since then robberies by servants have been rare in this city.
In all these cases the Sergeant was assisted by patrolman
Flannery of the Western District.
The next two cases in which Mr. Lannan was interested were
made noteworthy by the fact that a gray coat played a particularly
prominent part in the detection of the criminals. Joseph
Harvey, a colored man of notoriously bad connections, broke into
a residence at No. 551 Eutaw street on May 10, 1873, and stole
much valuable property. Mr. Lannan, who had been promoted
to be lieutenant by that time, undertook to discover who the culprit
was. The burglar had been seen leaving the house by a
citizen who remembered that he wore a gray coat of a peculiar
pattern. Lieutenant Lannan and Sergeant Berger traced the
fellow by means of this coat. When tried he was also charged
with having stolen the preceding year a large quantity of furs
and other property during a fire in Clay street. He was sent
to the penitentiary for four years. About a year after, this
the police were informed that a gray coated negro burglar was
playing havoc in the Western District. Harvey had neither
been pardoned nor freed in any other manner, and yet the new
burglar’s way of working was almost precisely the same as his.
Again Lieutenant Lannan took charge of the case, and with
patrolman Flannery’s assistance ” ran down” John Mitchell, a
burglar and thief, whose record was even more villianous than
Harvey’s. The gray coat was the same one which had sent Harvey
to the penitentiary. It had been given in charity to the negro
after Harvey’s sentence. Mitchell is now serving his fourth term.
In November, 1874, the police were informed by the chief of
police of Washington, D. C, that a bold attempt had been made
to swindle the National Metropolitan Bank of that city by means
of forged checks. The scheme was a clever one, and at that time
comparatively new. The forger filled out the check and then left
it at the office of the leading express company “for collection.”
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OUR POLICE. 183
This plan worked excellently for the forger, in one instance the
order being cashed by the bank without hesitation. But the
bank authorities were not long in discovering the swindle, and
when other checks came they refused payment. The forger was
warned, in some way, in ample time to get away from the capital
and flee to Baltimore. Captain Lannan was given the case
to work up. He and Sergeant Ryan, of the Central District,
obtained an accurate description of the man in Washington,
followed his “trail” to this city, and arrested him on the street.
The forger was discovered to be James Maynard alias Frank
McGuire, and was sent to the penitentiary for four years.
In May, 1885, two notorious ruffians made their way to this
city, after having committed crimes almost without number in the
north. They had escaped from the New Jersey State Prison,
and the authorities of that State offered a reward of $400 for
their capture. They were both Germans and spoke but little
English. The elder, Henry Schoppe alias Dorflinger, was a
man of great physique; the other, Frederick Buerder alias
Phillip Barnhart, was smaller in stature, but equally desperate.
Schoppe had twenty-nine years to serve in New Jersey, and
Buerder two-and-a-half years, when they escaped. They found
the northern States too hot to hold them, and so they journeyed
south.
A very short time after this the police of this city were
informed that Mr. Maccubbin’s house in Howard County had
been robbed of $600 worth of silverware, a wedding present.
Mr. Maccubbin immediately offered a reward of $100 for its recovery.
Captain Lannan was inclined to think that the wo”rk
had been done by “professionals,” but as yet he had no idea of
the escape or whereabouts of Schoppe and Buerder. The usual
efforts had been made to secure clues, but without much success,
when Sergeant Droste informed the Captain that a jeweler had
shown him some silver knives which had been left at his place of
business by a man who wanted to sell them, and who said that he
would return for the jeweler’s answer in a short time. The
Captain at once suspected that he was getting something definite,
and told Droste that he would hold the silverware, and that the
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184 OUR POLICE.
best thing he (Droste) could do would be to go back to the
jeweler and ” n a b ” the man as soon as he returned. Droste
did as he was directed, and this move led to the arrest of Schoppe
and Buerder. But the men would not acknowledge that they
had stolen the silverware. Captain Lannan, although he was
•certain that he had the Maccubbin burglars, could not see any
way ahead of him to secure the stolen property. As he was
walking along the street somewhat dejectedly he heard his name
called from a street car. He saw a friend who showed him a
circular which had been issued by the New Jersey authorities,
giving an accurate description of his two prisoners as the men
who had escaped. The thing was sufficiently sudden to be startling,
and Captain Lannan went right back to the station. Calling
Droste, he said:
” I think we’ve got them. Bring in the men and I’ll fix
them.”
Droste brought the prisoners as his eojnmander directed and
Captain Lannan walked behind them and read the circular aloud.
Its description was so accurate of Schoppe that he almost choked
in his struggle to hide his emotion. Finally he turned to the
captain, the latter said:
” You two belong up in Jersey.”
The men made no attempt to deny this, and then Captain
Lannan told them that it would be better for them to tell where
they had secreted the silver and so escape punishment in Howard
county than to stand trial, get sentenced there and after their
term had ended go back to New Jersey and begin their confinement
all over again. This they acknowledged to be wise and
Buerder agreed to accompany the officers to Loudon Park Cemetery
where he said the plunder was buried. The police department
was disposed to be economical at that time, and Captain
Lannan, Sergeant Droste and their prisoner took the street cars
towards the cemetery. When they reached the end of the
railway they had to walk about six miles under a broiling sun.
The burglar seemed to be eager to tell where his plunder was,
but for a time it seemed as though he had forgotten. Things
were becoming rather discouraging when Captain Lannan saw
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OUR POLICE. 185
a stripped sapling standing above a mound. It did not seem to
be growing, so he went up to it and pulled it out. He saw in
the hole, which proved to be the rotted stump of a big tree,
something which resembled a valise. Kicking away the earth
and rotted wood his suspicions were confirmed and he found a big
bag containing the stolen silver. Thus were two notorious
criminals who had escaped from a prison two hundred miles
away captured by a policeman’s sagacity, and a burglary made
comparatively harmless because of the discovery of the stolen
property and the punishment of the criminals, for Schoppe and
Euerder were returned to their New Jersey prison.
Very shortly after this crime Captain Lannan had occasion io
exercise that detective instinct which he has so often used to such
good purpose. Late one night the police received a telegraphic
message from the Chief of Police of Scranton, Pa., asking for
the arrest of one John Dougherty, for the murder of Michael
McCoy, a mine boss’s son, and for seriously injuring another
man in the affray, which ended in the murder. The description
of Dougherty was of the briefest, and the only reason the
Scranton police had for believing Dougherty had come to this
city was that he had purchased a ticket entitling him to come.
The case was given to Detective Albert Gault, and he read the
•description to his former commander, Captain Lannan, at the
Central Station. The two policemen strolled over towards the
Marshal’s office from the Central Station, and as they passed the
corner they noticed a number of boys standing in a crowd.
There were several men looking at the lads. One of the crowd
instantly attracted the captain’s attention. He turned to Gault
and said:
“Well, Al, I guess there’s your man.”
So far as the description went it tallied with the appearance of
the loiterer. Soon the boys parted and the man walked slowly
toward the two officers. Captain Lannan told Gault that he had
better speak to him, and as the man got clear from the crowd
Gault went up to him and held out his hand, saying:
” Why Dougherty, how are you ? ”
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186 OUR POLICE.
The man looked somewhat surprised for the moment and then
answered with affected unconcern :
” Oh, pretty well; but who the deuce are you ? ”
” I keep a little shop in Scranton, you know,” was Gault’s
reply, ” and I have frequently seen you.”
Then followed a general conversation which concluded by
Gault suggesting :
” That was a- pretty bad row you got into in Scranton before
you left. McCoy, the man you stabbed, is dead.”
Dougherty turned as pale as a sheet and exclaimed : ” Good
God ! you don’t say so.”
Captain Lannan’s instinct had not failed him. Gault’s companion
was the murderer. The man was taken to the Marshal’s
office and there awaited the arrival of the Scranton Chief of
Police. He was subsequently convicted and sent to the Pennsylvania
state prison for a long term.
In January, 1877, Thomas C. Walker, known as the ” pennyweight
thief,” was arrested by Captain Lannan. The criminal
had made attempts to rob almost every jewelry store in this city,
and his endeavors were attended with considerable success. He
was an expert in distinguishing gold of small alloy from baser
combinations, and chose only the most desirable articles in the
jeweler’s stock. On January 31, he was sentenced to the penitentiary
for five years. A trifle more than two years after this
arrest Captain Lannan succeeded in arresting, single handed,
Michael Troutwein, a notorious burglar and thief, who wascharged
with an attempt to rob a house at No. 110 Calvert street.
Before Troutwein had succeeded in stealing anything he wasdiscovered
by the persons in the house, and locked in the room
where he w,as found. Knowing that he was “cornered,” he
made desperate attempts to escape, breaking his way through the
door by means of the heavy “jimmy” which he carried. When
he was captured by Captain Lannan, the ruffian made a determined
fight, and it was only after extreme measures had been
used that he was subdued. Troutwein is now in the penitentiary
serving a term for burglary. In 1877 Captain Lannan made a
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OUR POLICE. 187
still hunt for a silk burglar. The “crook.” disappeared, but
with Sergeant Roinhardt he unearthed a kit of burglars’ tools,
and its owners, George King alias Dunn and Joseph Myers, who
had been brought here to do a special big “job.” Maryland law
requires that the intent be proven. The men were discharged,
and they fled the city.
Shortly after this the dry goods store of Whitelock Bros., in
Aberdeen, Harford county, was entered one stormy night, and a
large quantity of valuable property stolen. Private detectives
were put upon the case, but while they confirmed the statement
that something had been stolen, they were unable to discover
any material clews. The burglars had become astonishingly
reckless after they had committed the crime, and instead of
endeavoring to confine their thievery to one place, they went to
a farm-house in the same county, and there stole a horse and
wagon, which they loaded with their booty. The impudence of
the thieves aroused the interest of the entire State, and the police
chief of this city was determined to ferret the rascals out, should
they be bold enough to come to this county. Captain Lannan
was sent for, and given the details of the burglary. In company
with Sergeants Kirsch and Schimp, and Detective Gault, he
traced the horse and wagon so successfully, and got such an
accurate description of the men, that he soon “located” the
rogues. After that it was comparatively easy work. Captain
Lannan discovered that there were four negroes concerned in the
crime, George Banks, William Sorrell, George Emerson, and
Lewis Wells. When their houses were “spotted,” some of the
goods stolen from Whitelock Bros.’ store was found, but the
owners’ marks had been obliterated, and the merchants said they
could not positively identify them. Banks, however, the leader
of the “gang,” was tried and convicted, and when he saw that
he was to be punished for his crime, despite his perjury, he admitted
his guilt, and in his confession he implicated the others.
But Banks did not escape punishment because of his story. With
the exception of Sorrell, these men were desperate criminals,
who would stickle at nothing. They were imprisoned in the
Harford County Jail, and attempted to escape by filing their
irons. When the suspicions of the jailers were aroused, and
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188 OUR POLICE.
Banks was asked to explain the condition of the handcuffs, lie
made the somewhat amusing excuse :
” De rats has been gnawing dem ! ”
Banks was subsequently sent to the Penitentiary for twelve
years. In 1854 he was sentenced to prison for seven years, and
in 1857 ho set fire to the weaving department of the institution.
For this he was removed from immediate confinement, tried,
convicted, and sentenced to be hanged. But the Governor
commuted this sentence to life imprisonment. In 1868 he
was pardoned, and one year afterwards was caught in crime
and sent to the Maryland Penitentiary for fifteen months. He
was afterwards arrested in Cambridge, Dorchester County,
but he escaped from prison by cutting the bars Avith tools his
friends smuggled in to him. In 1871 he was again arrested and
sent to the Penitentiary for two years. When he was once asked
by Captain Lannan whether he had been actually guilty of every
crime for which he had been punished, he replied with perfect
frankness:
” Yes, sir; ebery one.”
Bank’s companions in the dry goods burglary are all dead.
Emerson was killed in a Texas street-fight.
In September, 1874, the dwelling districts of this city were
kept in constant terror by the daring of an unknown negro thief
who left no trace behind him in the houses he visited, and who
never failed to select jewelry as his booty. This fellow’s crimes
became so widely spread that Captain Lannan determined to
•capture him, if possible, in the act. So, assisted by patrolmen
Costello and George Hays, of the Northwestern District, Captain
Lannan ” laid for him.” The thief was in the habit of entering
houses by the open windows, ransacking them and entering
ladies’ bed-rooms to steal whatever jewelry he found upon their
dressing tables. He had already robbed No. 429 Madison avenue,
No. 392 Eutaw place, No. 335 Linden avenue, No. 203
Bolton street, and No. 404 Eutaw place. He had just got
through his work in one of these places when the officers were
upon him. He tried to defend himself, but the policemen drew
their revolvers and threatened to kill him unless he surrendered.
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OUR POLICE. 18&
He gave his name as Isaac Durham; he was sentenced to the
Penitentiary for twenty years.
This case had scarcely been disposed of when the captain’s
attention was demanded by an assault with intent to kill committed
by Joseph Katzenberger upon Daniel Connolly. The
former stabbed the latter repeatedly and for a time it looked as
if the wounded man would die. Katzenberger was arrested
by the captain almost immediately after the assault and was sent
to prison. He is now serving an eight year sentence for murdering
a young girl named Barbara Miller. This murder was
entirely unprovoked, Katzenberger stepping up to her and sticking
a knife into her stomach. He said lie was jealous of the
girl. In September, 1875, Lewis Seymore, a negro, assaulted
and killed Thomas Maxwell, also colored, because of jealousy.
Captain Lannan took the case, which for a time was a somewhat
mysterious one, and ” ran down ” the murderer with a promptness
which greatly added to his reputation as a detector of
criminals. Seymore has served two terms in the Penitentiary.
It was while Captain Lannan was in command of the Central
District, in 1877, that the miners’ trouble occurred. Certain
classes in the city did not approve of the action of the Governor
in ordering Maryland troops to the scene of the disturbance,
and many threats were made that no Baltimore militia would be
allowed to leave any of the depots. The Sixth Regiment assembled
in its armory at about 8 o’clock on July 20. The Central
Police under Captain Lannan were out on post, and although he
was continually receiving reports of the massing of the people
along Baltimore street, and had taken precautions to avoid any
disturbances in the crowd, he had no reason to expect the outcome
of that terrible night. Suddenly a patrolman dashed into
the police station and half-articulately reported :
” They are stoning the Sixth’s armory.”
Instantly in the Central Station all was in energetic preparations
for the worst; the reserves were summoned and Captain
Lannan with a few men went to the armory. When he saw
the state of things there he made report to Marshal Gray and
then returned, after seeking to stop reserves being sent to the
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190 OUR POLICE.
Camden Station. Although Captain Lannan had asked the
troops to wait until he could get sufficient men to open the crowd
for them, the soldiers sallied forth, because of peremptory orders
from the Brigadier-General. As Captain Lannan approached
Baltimore street he heard the rattle of musketry and a soulquavering
cry of horror from the crowds gathered about the
armory at Front and Fayette streets, taken up, carried along and
intensified into a roar of indignation by the crowd along the
line of march, which was rapidly assuming the desperation of a
mob. The report that the mob had attacked the armory was
true, and the soldiery had fired upon their assailants, bringing
death or severe injuries also to many peaceable citizens who had
been attracted by simple curiosity. It was in this volley that
Thomas V. Byrne, of No. 274 North Gay street was shot through
the head and instantly killed. The fusilade had one effect, it
prevented many persons going to Camden Station to add to the
mob there. But men in the crowds lost all idea of how madly
they were acting, and loudly threatened to burn the armory over
the regiment’s head. It was a grave moment for the men of the
Central district. Within their precinct were the most valuable
buildings, and a mob’s wrath is blind, seeking appeasement in the
torch and rope.
But a diversion was soon caused by the sound of drums and
fifes. Two companies of the Sixth regiment had left their armory
and started down Front street. The mob was still an angry one,
and it attacked the militiamen with brickbats and cobble stones.
The soldiers showed patience with this madness of their fellow
citizens. But at last, compelled in self-protection, they returned
bullets for stones, firing indiscriminately upon the crowd. Then
the Central Station gradually began to assume the appearance of
a hospital. One by one, in couples, the wounded, dying and
dead were brought in and laid upon the floor of the main room.
A man who was shot at Grant and Baltimore streets was brought
to the station with a big paving stone in his pocket, and had been
seen to attack the militia. Patrick Gill, living at Front and
Plowman streets, had been shot through the hips at Baltimore
and Front streets, and died a few minutes after being taken to the
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OUR POLICE. 191
Central Station. Louis Linewitch, Cornelius Murphy, William
Howard, John H. Frank, Otto Menaca, George M. McDonald
and John Bernhardt had been killed by the militiamen’s musketry
along Baltimore street and between Front and St. Paul streets.
They were all brought to Captain Lannan’s station, and after
being claimed by their friends, moved to their homes. The only
body not claimed was that of Gill. He had no friends in this
country. The wounded, Mark J. Doud, William S. Young,
Jacob Wagner, W. E. Callender and John Neville, were subsequently
removed from the station to the Washington University.
A wounded boy, named John North, was sent to his home at No.
18 South Front street; Carey Williams, who was fatally injured,
was taken to his home, No. 175 East Pratt street. James
O’Rourke, of No. 19 Albemarle street, and George Klump, of
No. 31 Forrest street, were also badly hurt and removed to their
homes. William Brighton, of No. 38J North Baltimore street,
was slightly wounded in his left cheek by a spent ball. Michael
Ehrman, of No. 224 North Bond street, the last wounded man
brought to Captain Lannan’s station, was seriously hurt, but he
afterwards recovered. For three days and nights Captain Lannan
and his men were on duty, and they guarded the business part of
the city. There again was the splendid organization of the police
force shown. They withstood the severe strain of those three
dreadful days without a murmur, and served as efficiently immediately
after their vigil over the lives and property of the citizens,
as they did before.
There had been few robberies in the Central District for some
time, and affairs were going along very smoothly, Captain
Lannan congratulating himself that his efforts to clear out the
“crooks” had met with success. November, 1884, however,
brought about a new condition of things. Citizens of much prominence
began calling at the Central station, and informing Captain
Lannan that their houses had been entered during the night,
and robbed of valuables. Efforts were immediately made to get
full descriptions of the robbers from their victims, but with only
negative results. Finally a card was found in the street, containing
several memoranda, which were suggestive of its owner-
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192 OUR POLICE.
ship by one of the robbers. The card was immediately given to
Captain Lannan, and thus was furnished his first trustworthy
clue. With the assistance of Sergeant Ryan, the captain made
close investigation of the locality where the card was found; and
finally, after unremitting work, located two persons, who seemed
to be worthy of suspicion. But one of the suspected persons
had apparently got warning that the police was on his track, for
when, on the evening of November 29, Captain Lannan and Sergeant
Ryan arrested John Peters, alias George Lake, alias
George Durbee, they did not succeed in finding Peter’s “pal,”
the notorious burglar, Warren Clay. After Peters arrest, a gold
watch and chain, which had been stolen from D. D. Mallory,
who had been robbed of $200 worth of jewelry, was recovered.
When Peters was photographed, and when he was told that
his picture would be probably sent north, he first admitted the
robbery, and then confessed that he and Clay had escaped
from the Crow Hill penitentiary, in King’s County, New York,
where he (Peters) was serving a term of five years. His description
of his escape was vivid. A conspiracy had been entered
into by several of the prisoners to “run the guards,” and after
reaching the East river, to take to boats during the night, and
so escape to New York. The attempt was made. The prisoners,
at their exercise hour, tried to overpower the keepers; but the
latter proved too strong for them. All the conspirators were
captured save Peters and Clay, who broke through the guard, and
got away, notwithstanding that the prison authorities opened
a heavy fusilade upon them with their Winchester repeaters.
The two men hid themselves in a barn some distance outside of
Brooklyn, and remained secluded, dreading to make the slightest
noise, for two days and nights. They extracted what sustenance
they could out of the hay and oats in the barn ; and, then made
desperate by the pangs of hunger, ventured forth into the night,
to seek some means of crossing to New York. They found a
skiff, but only one oar; and with this they sought to paddle
almost three-quarters of a mile against a swiftly flowing current.
They discovered that they had undertaken to do more than they
could oarry out, and they succeeded, after almost perishing from
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OUR POLICE. 193
their exertions in their half-starved condition, to paddle back to
shore. Finally, with the assistance of friends, they made the
attempt again, and reached New York, whence, provided with
money and clothing-, they came to this city prepared for new
crimes. Peters was sentenced to seven years in the penitentiary,
from which he has made two desperate but unsuccessful attempts
to escape.
Hardly five months had elapsed since Peters was captured
when dwellings were entered in various parts of this city and
valuable property stolen. Reports of burglaries came streaming
in to the police, until it was concluded that a band of criminals
from some northern town was “working” Baltimore. Finally
the Marshal issued instructions that every man on the force
should regard himself as personally responsible for the capture
of the offender, whether his depredations were confined in one
district or seven. The number of robbed dwellings had reached
thirty-eight, when Sergeant Clautice and Patrolman R. Brown
reported to Captain Lannan that they had a clue and, they
thought, a good one. They described their man as a negro of
medium height, dressed so shabbily as to be conspicuous. They
declared that he avoided all companions, had made but one friend
and certainly had no “pal.” Captain Lannan instructed Clautice
and Brown to ” shadow ” the fellow. Then they reported
that he was either the shrewdest or most honest negro they ever
met, for he drank nothing, showed no jewelry and had offered
nothing for sale. Meanwhile the robberies continued.
On April 19, Captain Lannan sent for a man who was to
become acquainted with the only person with whom the suspected
negro was known to associate, and gave him his instructions.
The very next day the captain got positive information from his
decoy that the “suspect” was doing the stealing and that he sold
his plunder to one Harris Weinbaum. Captain Lannan and Sergeant
Toner went down to Weinbaum’s place and made an inspection
of it. The former detailed Sergeant Ryan to watch the receiver’s
house while Toner kept surveillance over the suspected
man, who by that time was known to be Robert Butler. On April
23, Toner captured Butler after a desperate resistance and found
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194 OUR POLICE.
the proceeds of a robbery still in his possession. When the
prisoner was brought to the Central Station, Captain Lannan
•went immediately to Butler’s room and there found sufficient
evidence to convict him of four robberies. When Weinbaum’s
house was searched a great quantity of stolen goods was recovered.
Both Butler and Weinbaum were convicted and sentenced to long
terms of imprisonment in the Penitentiary. In July, 1887, Weinbaum
having grown to be nearly eighty years of age and very
feeble, the Governor responded to the importunities of his friends
and pardoned him, upon their promise that they would remove
him from the State at once and not suffer him to return until the
time of his sentence of twenty-one years had expired. For this
excellent piece of detective work the Board of Police Commissioners
awarded two weeks’ extra pay to Captain Lannan, Sergeants
Toner and Clautice and Patrolman Richard Brown.
The relations which existed between Captain Lannan and the
officers and men of the Central District were so pleasant that
when their commander was promoted to be Deputy-Marshal, the
force determined to make him a present which would additionally
impress upon him the love and esteem with which they regarded
him. So on the eve of his accession of his new office the men of
the Central District presented Deputy-Marshal Lannan with a
badge of office. It is of gold and represents a buckled ribbon
about a star. Upon the ribbon are the words ” DEPUTY MARSHAL
OP POLICE.” The ribbon contains twelve large diamonds
and the central star fifteen more. The centre of the star is a
diamond weighing nearly three karats. Deputy-Marshal Lannan
always wears this badge, by permission of the Police Board,
because of his appreciation of the esteem with which his assistants
regard him.
Not long after Mr. Lannan was appointed Deputy Marshal,
he became interested and took a personal part in one of the most
fiendish crimes ever committed in this city. It had been one of
the most unpleasant days of the winter. The storm of rain,
sleet, and snow began Thursday night and continued throughout
Friday, December 10, 1886. The policemen on their beats
anxiously awaited the relief; persons who were compelled to
………………………………………………………………………………………
CHESAPEAKE BANK
OH B A L T I M O RE
DEPOSITED BY
Baltimore, – 19
PLEASE STATE NAME OF BANK ON WHICH CHECKS ARE DRAWN.
ENDORSE ALL CHECKS.
NOTES
COIN __
CHECKS
BANK.
DOLLS.
………………………………………………………………………………………
OUR POLICE. 195
travel from one place to another dodged the fierce blast of the
“wind and turned their heads from the skurrying sleet and snow.
Pig alley was almost blocked by the storm. The tumble-down
shanties were whitened by the snow, and the smoke which arose
from the chimney of Mary Bloxom’s house had no sooner
escaped from the flue, than it was beaten down again into the
miserable rooms beneath. The dusk is not long coming in December.
On that Friday it fell like a pall upon Baltimore,
blotting out, with the aid of the driving snow, most of the big
monuments which tower from the hills in the heart of the city,
and making the slums places of dread even to their most confirmed
denizens. In the big room on the lowest floor of Mary Bloxom’s
house sat a white woman nearly sixty years old, mumbling to
herself about her hard life and that ” bad un, the big un.” The
woman was clad in a dark dress on whose skirt was sewed a piece
of red flannel, making a combination which was somewhat curious.
As she kept on mumbling about the ” big un ” a tap came on the
door and a rather pretty little colored girl entered and running
towards the old woman said :
“Aunt Emmy, me an mammy is going out for while. Do you
want your baccy ? ”
The old woman nodded, and taking the plug in her right hand
she proceeded leisurely and musingly to cut it up. The little
girl had departed. Old Emmy was alone again, and once more
she began to mutter to herself and then to shiver in an uncanny
sort of way as though ” some one was walking over her grave.”
Finally her head bent lower and she half whispered: ” I feel
nasty—I wish some of the boys would come home.” Still she
continued crumbling her tobacco and so she did not notice that
the door was open and a powerfully built negro had entered.
The stranger carried a long handled hammer in his hand and
moved stealthily. The rickety old floor creaked and the woman
nodded her head lower, murmuring : ” This place is overrun.”
The negro had dealt his blow. The heavy weapon had
descended on the old woman’s head, and she staggered under the
shock, her gray head hanging towards her left shoulder. She
shrieked:
v
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196 , -OUR POLICE.
” For God’s sake, John, don’t do that! ”
But down rained the blows until the gray hairs were driven
into the brain and one side of the head was as a jelly. Then the
lifeless body fell to the floor, and the ruffian kneeling beside it
drew a knife which he plunged twice into the left breast in the
region of the heart. The fearfully mutilated head gave one or
two turns upon the bare floor and silence came.
But the murderer did not pause. He bundled the body into
the closet, drew a mattrass over it and set about cleaning up the
stains. A knock came upon the door and it was opened. A
middle-aged negro woman entered and asked :
” Wy, sonny, what’s matter?”
” Nose bloodin. Get out o’ here—you,” was the reply.
The woman went away and the murderer continued his work.
Soon he left the room, but in about three hours returned carrying
a bag beneath his arm. Dragging the body from its place of
concealment he stuffed the still quivering trunk and limbs within
the bag and dragging it towards the door opened it.
” Hawkins, Hawkins,” he whispered.
” Yaas, John,” came the reply. ” Did yer get her?”
” Yaas, she’s in de bag.”
The two negroes then tossed the ghastly load upon a wheelbarrow
and began to wheel it down the alley. Scarcely had they
gone more than a hundred paces when the man called Hawkins
dropped his handle, exclaiming :
” No more o’ dat fur me. Wheel it yousel’.”
The younger man uttered an expression of disgust at his companion’s
cowardice and went on with his load, Hawkins leading by
some paces as a look-out, watching for the appearance of policemen
on their beats. The storm grew more severe and beat in
the negroes’ faces, covering their clothing and the bag which
hid such a terrible crime with the purest white. Then the men
left the sidewalk and chose the railway track. Even the wheeler
of the barrow began to get nervous, and when Hawkins waved
his hands in warning, the former allowed the barrow to give a
lurch, and over went the burden of crime into the street. There
was nothing to be done but to load up again, and there in the
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OUR POLICE. 197
midst of the city the two fiends lifted the still bleeding form,
and tossed it like a load of potatoes upon the barrow. Again
the terrible journey was resumed. The murderer was the porter
of his victim’s body and Hawkins still led the way, waving a
white handkerchief when he saw the way was clear.
Through the blinding rush of snow and sleet a big building
loomed up; it was that of the Maryland University College, at
Green and Lombard streets. A stop was made here and again
the murderer sought to induce his companion to lend a hand.
” No;” replied Hawkins, ” I won’t have nudding to do wif it;
do it yousel’.”
The narrow alley which led to the rear door of the College
was choked with snow which had drifted high against the buildings
on either side. The murderer slung the form of his victim
over one shoulder, and with the perspiration from his long porterage
streaming from his brow and steaming from his clothing he
went to the college door and knocked.
A villainous looking negro appeared and saluted the murderer
with :
” Hello, John Thomas ; have you got it ?”
The dreadful burden was shifted from the murderer’s shoulders
to the floor of the dissecting-room; the murderer asked when he
should receive the reward for bringing a body for dissection
($15), and was told ” to-morrow noon,” and the door closed on
the man who had had an experience the like of which should
have been sufficient to have made the hardest heart quiver with
horror and the dullest imagination people itself with demons.
There lay the body of the murdered woman, and Perry, the
dissecting-room attendant, who had received it at the door stood
over it. The form was stripped and the head shaved to prevent
identification, then the body was placed on the floor to remain
throughout the night. As the hours passed away huge rats
came from their hiding-places and gnawed the left side of the
face of the dead, so that even though the head had not been
shaved, it would in all likelihood been unrecognizable. When
the morning came, Perry returned and prepared the remains for
the hands of the demonstrator. He cut open the chest for the
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198 OUR POLICE.
purpose of injecting the embalming fluid. With the crushed
head, the gnawing of the rats, the shaving of the body and the
work of the embalmer’s knife had fled almost every possibility of
ever identifying the remains.
At about 11 o’clock on Saturday morning Marshal Frey and
Deputy-Marshal Lannan were seated in their office at police headquarters.
The doorman disturbed their conversation by announcing
Dr. Harlan, the demonstrator of the college. The physician
addressed the Marshal, informing him that a body had been
brought the night before to his institution which bore marks sufficient
to cause very grave suspicions. Dr. Harlan then proceeded
to describe the corpse. It had been received by Anderson
Perry. All this information was sent by the Marshal to the
Western District, through Detective Seibold, to Captain Cadwallader,
and the latter was instructed to have the body of the murdered
woman taken to the station and there facilities prepared for
its identification. Police were scouring the city for clues but
without result, and so the case practically rested until Sunday,
when the officers of the Western District found a little girl
named Sarah Bloxom, daughter of the woman who kept the house
on Pig alley. The little girl was taken to the station and there
positively identified the body of the murdered woman as that of
Emily Brown. The clothing, particularly the dark skirt with a
red flannel patch the little girl was sure of. She said that Anderson
Perry had lived in the same house with the woman, and
that on Friday morning the latter had cooked his breakfast for
him. Perry was promptly arrested by Sergeants Tierney and
Henneman of the Western District and taken to the Marshal’s
office. When he arrived he was asked if he knew the man or
men who brought the body to him. He declared that it was
brought by an unknown negro who wore a low brown hat;
farther than that he would say nothing. After he had been
again urged to tell what he knew of the crime, he peremptorily
refused, and was taken by the Marshal to the Central station.
Afterward, however, the Marshal directed Deputy-Marshal Lannan
to see what he could get out of the negro. The latter
approached him and said:
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OUR POLICE 199
” Perry, neither the Marshal nor myself believe a word you have
said. You know there isn’t a colored man in town who would
carry a dead body through the streets at night for the purpose
of selling it unless he had made arrangements beforehand.”
But the negro would say nothing. “Lock him up,” said the
Deputy-Marshal to the turnkey of the Central Station, ” and if
he wants to see me, send for me.” Hours elapsed, and Perry sat
in his cell meditating over the incidents of the awful crime in
which he was involved. He called the turnkey and sought to
get some encouragement from him. It was no use, for the Marshal
had given strict injunctions to refrain from conversing with
the negro. Finally he asked the turnkey :
” Think I want to see Mr. Lannan.”
” What do you want?” said the turnkey.
” I want to see ‘im,” was the reply.
“All right.”
Deputy-Marshal Lannan had just seated himself at dinner when
a patrolman from the Central Station called on him and told him
Perry wanted to see him. The Deputy rushed post-haste to the
cell of the refractory negro, and inquired:
” Perry, did you wish to see me 1 ”
“Yaas, sir.”
” Well, who brought the body to you ? ”
” Have you got John Thomas Ross ? ”
” I don’t know,” was Mr. Lannan’s evasive reply. ” I think
they have got some one up at the Western, but whom, I don’t
know. Who is John Thomas Ross ? ”
” Why, he’s Mary Bloxom’s son by another husband. He
did the old woman.”
This was startling information, and Perry was hustled into a
private room in the Central Station, and there told the same
story to Marshal Frey. Then Deputy-Marshal Lannan was
directed to take charge of any further work on the outside. It
was then that his long experience as a detective came into play.
The thing was to find the man accused by Perry. There are
sources of information always kept open by the police, and some
of these were used by Mr. Lannan. He heard that Ross was
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200 OUR POLICE.
friendly with a woman living in the upper part of the city, and
hoped to find him there, but he was not inclined to go to this
place first until he had exhausted all other means, for should
the man not be found there then, he might alarm the criminal
and cause him to flee the city. He had asked Perry where
Ross was in the habit of drinking, and learned that he sometimes
went to a certain negro boarding-house up town. Deputy-
Marshal Launan, accompanied by Captain Cadwallader and
Detectives Seibold, O’Neil and Droste, went to the place, and
there, after sharp questioning, learned that Ross and a man
named Hawkins had been coming in and going out of the place
all day. They had taken very many drinks. Rut Ross was not
there then. He had left before sundown.
‘• Rut,” said the lodging-house keeper, “Hawkins is up-stairs
now, I guess.”
Another trail was struck. At first it seemed good policy not
to alarm Hawkins, so that when Ross returned he would suspect
nothing and both men could be captured together. Rut the risk
of delay was too great. Immediate action was necessary. Mr.
Lannan and Captain Cadwallader concluded to arrest him. The
former said, ” Go up-stairs and tell Hawkins a man wants to
see him.”
Soon Hawkins appeared. He was in his shirt sleeves and Mr.
Lannan was standing under a gas lamp. Hawkins went up to
Captain Cadwallader and inquired : ” That’s Captain Lannan,
ain’t i t ? ” When informed his visitor was that officer, Hawkins
made no effort to escape, but went up to him and said:
” “Well, Cap, what can I do fur you ?”
” Where is John Thomas Ross ?”
“Dunno,” was the surly reply.
” Take him to the Western,” promptly ordered the Deputy-
Marshal, and Seibold took the hand-cuffed negro to the lock-up.
Meanwhile the city was being thoroughly searched under the
Marshal’s directions for the fugitive. As Mr. Lannan had made
up his mind to go to Ross’s friend’s house, a patrolman came
running towards him exclaiming :
“We’ve got John Thomas Ross for you !”
………………………………………………………………………………………
OUR POLICE. 201
Meanwhile the officers who had been scouring the city in belief
that they were on the murdererVtrail had returned towards the
lodging-house where he was expected to meet Hawkins. Beneath
the light of a street lamp, a square away from the place,
the officers saw the assassin standing waiting for his friend’s
return. He was captured according to Mr. Lannan’s orders,
after a slight resistance, by O’Neill, Droste and Seibold, and
taken to the police headquarters. Nothing was said to him until
he arrived at the Marshal’s office, where he finally confessed to
the Marshal and O’Neill after he had been confronted by Perry.
It was hard work to get his story. First he declared that “we”
—meaning his accomplices-—had agreed to stick by each other
through thick and thin. Then he thought he would confess to
the Marshal, but he changed his mind several times before he
told this story:
” For three weeks before the murder Uncle Perry (Anderson
Perry) was continually after me to do up Miss Emma. I told
him I wanted no part in the affair. Shortly after Uncle Perry
first spoke to me upon the subject I was standing on the corner
near my house when Uncle Perry came up to me and invited me
to drink. I accepted, and while we were at the bar Uncle
Perry said : ‘ Why don’t you do that job ?’ I said : ‘ Go ‘way,
Uncle Perry, ‘taint for me.’ Then he said : ‘Man alive! You
can do it mighty easy.’ I said: ‘Don’t say any more, Uncle
Perry.’ After this he left me and I went off to do odd jobs for
white folks. The next morning Uncle Perry met me at about
the same place and repeated his request of the day before. He
said I could make the money ($15 for the old woman’s body)
easily, and I should not hesitate about the matter. I again told
him it was no use ; I had never done anything of that kind before
and he was only wasting his time with me. ‘ Have you had your
morning nip V he then asked me. I answered no ; but I added
that I expected to get a drink as soon as I had performed some
work assigned me. ‘Oh come on and take a drink with me,’ he
continued, ‘and you will feel better.’ I consented, and we adjourned
to a saloon where I suppose I must have drunk as many
as twelve whiskeys; at any rate I know I was drunk when I got
………………………………………………………………………………………
202 OUR POLICE.
on the street. With each drink Uncle Perry asked me to do
this job and with each drink I refused. This was on the day
that the old woman was done away with. Uncle Perry made
me take a walk with him, and when we returned to the saloon
he gave me another drink, after which we adjourned to the street
again and moved in the direction of Mrs. Bloxom’s house. Just
as we got in front of the house Uncle Perry said: ‘ Go on, boyr
and do the business.’ I asked him why he did not do the business
himself, and his answer was: ‘ I ‘m too old, but,’ he added,
‘ when I was your age I always had a hundred dollars in my
pocket, and you can have the same amount now if you will keep
a club.’ ‘What will I do with a club, Uncle Perry,’ I asked.
‘Why, just loaf around the University late at night, and tap
some old drunken man on the head, and then sell his body to the
doctors.'”
“Did he say he had ever done such a thing?” inquired the
Marshal and Deputy-Marshal, almost in one breath.
“He ‘lowed me to believe that he had,” Ross replied. Then
he continued : ” This talk was near the Bloxom house, and when
we had finished, Uncle Perry again urged me to do up the old
woman. He explained that it would be all over in a minute and
then I could get the money. I stooped down, picked up a brick
lying in front of me and went into Miss Emma’s room. She was
sitting down. I ran up behind her and, without saying a word,
struck her in the temple with the brick I held in my hand. [It
was brought out at the trial that Ross had used a hammer.] Then
I left the house and Hawkins went in. If it had not been for
Uncle Perry I would not have been here now. He is to blame
for it all.”
Such was the result of Marshal Frey’s and Deputy-Marshal
Lannan’s night’s work. They had captured all three of the
murderers within what was comparatively a marvelous short time.
Ross was brought to trial in the Criminal Court before
Judge Duffy and was promptly convicted of murder in the
first degree. He was sentenced to be hanged, but his counsel,
who had displayed great activity and astuteness during the trial,
succeeded in getting a stay and carried the case to the Court of
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OUR POLICE. 203
Appeals on their exceptions. Perry elected to be tried without a
jury. Judge Duffy found the evidence against him insufficient to
convict, and he was released. Then an order of nolle prosequi
was entered in the case of Hawkins, because the evidence
upon which he was held was the same as that which had failed
to convict Perry.
The Court of Appeals refused to reverse the action of the lower
Court, and the duty of signing Ross’ death warrant was performed
by Governor Lloyd on July 7, 1887.
Some persons in Baltimore who had interested themselves in
the murderer’s behalf, prepared an application to the Governor
for a commutation of the death sentence, and on the day upon
which the death warrant was signed, city missionary James
Freeman called at the executive mansion and presented the petition
to Governor Lloyd. It bore the signatures of about 250
business men and others in Baltimore. Among the signers were
Sanders & George, Gilpin, Langdon & Co., W. K. Carson, Swindell
Bros, and J. Q. A. Herring. The petition stated that ” We,
the undersigned, petition your Excellency to commute the death
sentence of Ross, the colored man sentenced by his Honor Judge
Duffy to be hung, to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life?
as we believe it would be unfair to hang him and let his companions
in crime go free.” When Governor Lloyd told the missionary
that the fatal document had already been signed, the
latter remarked that in presenting the petition he had done his
duty, and withdrew.
The following day Sheriff Fledderman received a portentous
looking package closed with the great seal of the State. It contained
the Governor’s command that the sentence of the court
of justice be executed in the case of John Thomas Ross. The
sheriff repaired at once to the city jail. He was accompanied
by his deputies Davis and Eggleston. Warden John Waters
received the solemn party. Dr. W. W. White, physician to the
jail was present. Ross was conducted from his cell to the Board
room by chief deputy Charles F. Edwards and deputies Warner,
Dwyer, Stanton, Carter, Hasson and Darling.
“Are you John Thomas Ross?” asked the sheriff.
………………………………………………………………………………………
204 OUR POLICE.
“Yes, sir,” was the reply.
”You have been tried by a jury of your countrymen, found
guilty and sentenced to be hanged, and now it devolves upon me
to read the death sentence and hereafter to execute it as sheriff
•of Baltimore city. I ask you to listen carefully and weigh every
word that I shall read. The warrant is as follows:
“Whereas, John Thomas Ross, colored, was convicted in the
“Criminal Court of Baltimore at the September term, in the year
one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six of murder in the first
degree of Emma Brown; and whereas, the said court sentenced
him to be hung by the neck until he be dead; now, therefore,
these are to will and require, as also to charge and command you,
that, at or before the hour of two o’clock P. M. on Friday, the
twenty-sixth day of August next you take the said John Thomas
Ross from your prison and him safely convey to the gallows in
ihe city aforesaid, the place of the execution of malefactors,
iind then and there the said John Thomas Ross hang by the neck
until he be dead. For all which this shall be your sufficient
power and authority. Given under my hand and the great seal
of the State of Maryland, at the City of Annapolis, on this
seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord 1887, and of the
independence of the United States the one hundredth and twelfth.
“HENRY LLOYD.
” By the Governor.
“E. W. LECOMPTE, Secretary of State.”
Sheriff Fledderman folded the paper with a nervous sigh.
During the reading of the document Ross fixed his eyes intently
upon the great red seal of the State of Maryland. He seemed
•deeply impressed. Although he exhibited no emotion there was
:an entire absence of that levity which had hitherto characterized
the prisoner’s conduct.
A solemn pause followed the reading of the death warrant.
Finally the sheriff turned again to Ross and advised him to give
up all hopes in this life and throw himself upon the counsels of
his spiritual advisers. The negro nodded his head thoughtfully.
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OUE POLICE. 205-
He had seen several ministers, including the Rev. James T.
Jardnier, a Catholic priest.
Warden Waters and the sheriff then assured Ross that they
would do anything in their power to add to his comfort. He
asked that his friends be allowed to see him, and the request wasgranted.
As the fatal day approached, the interest taken by many sympathetic
people in the condemned negro greatly increased.
Continued efforts to save him from the gallows were made.
Finally Dr. John Morris, a well-known physician, having emphatically
expressed his belief in Ross’s mental weakness, the
Governor was persuaded to grant a reprieve of two weeks to permit
of an examination of the prisoner by competent experts in insanity.
Several of Baltimore’s foremost physicians were called upon to
make the examination. The result was far from favorable to Dr.
Morris’ theory, the general opinion being that Ross was a negro
of more than average intelligence. At learning the result of the
investigation, the Governor made it known that he could hold out
no further hope of reprieve, and at seventeen minutes of one
o’clock on Friday afternoon, September 9, 1887, the burker was
swung from the gallows in the yard of the Baltimore city jail.
The execution was a seven days’ wonder throughout Maryland,
and was then forgotten.
A few years since, a contemplated raid upon the Baltimore
banks by some professionals of the first class was frustrated
through the keenness and decision of Mr. Lannan. It was a
bright autumn morning in 1879. The air was crisp and invigorating,
and just keen enough to keep pedestrians moving
rapidly. A busy throng hurried back and forth through the
labyrinth of streets in what is known as the “banking quarter” of
Baltimore. At the corner of South and Baltimore streets a few
lingered for a moment to glance at the bulletin board in front of
the Sun office, and then hastened on again about their business.
John Lannan, who was at that time captain of the Central police
district, was making his accustomed tour through the banking
quarter. Many gave a smile or nod of recognition as they passed
his well-known athletic form and thoughtful face. In front of the
………………………………………………………………………………………
206 OUR POLICE.
South street side of the Sun office the captain saluted veteran
policeman “Joe” Burnett. The latter was standing on the outer
edge of the sidewalk with folded arms and lowered head, contemplatively
glancing from under his gray eyebrows at all that
passed.
” Good morning, captain,” spoke the policeman, as he returned
his superior’s salute.
“Anything to report?” asked the captain.
“Well—no, except that I don’t like the looks of those two fellows
down in front of the Franklin bank,” replied the officer,
turning his head in the opposite direction as he spoke. Burnett
had been on that post for nearly twenty-five years, and he was
acquainted with every face that did business in South street. A
stranger was always more or less an object of suspicion to him.
Captain Lannan glanced down the street. Two men were
standing in front of the Franklin bank, apparently reading a
newspaper. To get a closer look at the men the captain sauntered
down past them. As he did so he noticed that the
paper in their hands was a New York daily. He also noticed
that instead of reading the paper, which they held before their
eyes, they were talking rapidly and gazing acutely at some of
the buildings in the neighborhood. But more than this, there
was something familiar about the countenance of the older of the
men which caused the captain’s mind to run back over the array
of photographs in the rogue’s gallery at headquarters. After
passing a short distance beyond the strangers Captain Lannan
turned and walked by them again. They saw him coming and
turned their faces away. At the sight of the side face of the man
who had attracted his attention before, an expression of recognition
passed over the captain’s countenance. He walked up to
policeman Burnett, who still stood at the corner, apparently looking
in every direction except at the two strangers.
“They’re up to something, Joe,” said the captain, “and I
think they know we’ve been watching them. Walk slowly
around the corner so as not to excite their suspicion, and then
hurry to headquarters and send around a man in citizen’s clothes.”
The policeman had scarcely moved off to obey the order when
………………………………………………………………………………………
OUR POLICE. 207
the two strangers suddenly folded up their paper and came toward
the corner. They brushed by the Captain, who pretended to
pay no attention to them, and turned up Baltimore street. Letting
them get about half a square ahead, Captain Lannan placed
himself in tbe midst of a little crowd of people moving in the
same direction and followed them. At Calvert street they stopped
a moment. It was evident that they knew they were being
watched. Suddenly the younger of the pair started to rapidly
cross Baltimore street, going diagonally back in the direction of
North street. The Captain’s first impulse was to step out and
stop him, but on second thought it occurred to him that this was
probably what the fellow wanted, and that he was trying to let
his companion, who was the one the Captain noticed at first, slip
away. In this case it was likely that any incriminating evidence
in the possession of the two was on the person of the older
man. The latter by this time had also started to cross Baltimore
street, going up Calvert street. Captain Lannan hastened to
follow and arrived at the corner just in time to see him disappear
into a hotel. The Captain passed on to the corner of Fayette
and Calvert streets. Here he stopped and watched the doorway
into which his man had gone. As he did so the younger one
suddenly passed him, coming up from behind and brushing
against his arm.
Seeing detective Pontier approaching at this moment, Captain
Lannan still made no effort to detain the fellow, for being in
uniform he would have created excitement had he made an arrest:
then, too, he desired to locate the men’s lodgings’ and
examine their effects, if possible. The younger man walked on
and entered the same doorway through which his companion had
gone.
” Do you see that man ?” asked the Captain of Pontier as he
pointed quickly to the young fellow who was at that moment
turning into the building into which he went. Detective Pontier
saw him.
“Well, go in there and arrest him and whomever he is talking
with. I’ll wait here until you come out and see that you get
the right parties.”‘
A few minutes later the detective emerged from the building
with the two men in custody. They were brought to head-
………………………………………………………………………………………
208 OUR POLICE.
quarters. On the person of the older man were found various
memoranda concerning the location of several of the principal
Baltimore banks. The younger man gave his name as Randolph
Smythe and the other as Charles Adams. They were stopping
at a first-class hotel. Their room being searched, documents were
found which indicated that a plan was on foot to rob one or more
banks in this city, and it was discovered that ‘Adams” was noneother
than the notorious Langdon W. Moore, the bank burglar.
Moore and some of his confederates had formed the plan for
robbing the banks, and had applied to Smythe, who was a wellknown
“speculator,” for the necessary capital to carry their
schemes into effect. The latter had come to Baltimore, and was
looking over the ground before embarking his money in the enterprise.
As no burglars tools were found in the thieves’ possession,
and no crime could be proven against them, the police could
do nothing further than to send them out of the city.
Moore is at the present time serving a sentence of sixteen yearsin
the Concord, Mass., State prison, the result of a trial which
took place a few months after his arrest in Baltimore. His conviction
was for robbing the post-office at Charlestown, Mass.
The story of Moore’s career is most varied and interesting.
He was born in 1830 in a New Hampshire village. His father
was a farmer in moderate circumstances. His family moved to-
East Boston when the boy was fifteen years old. After receiving
a good education he went to work at the age of twenty years in
a currying establishment, and afterwards in a boot and shoe store
on Pearl street. In about four years he succeeded in getting
enough capital to start a grocery store in South Boston. After
three years more he sold out this place and opened another on
Eutaw street. Finding this second venture an unprofitable one
he paid all his creditors in full and went into the express business.
He afterwards went to New York and kept a liquor shop on
Broome street for three years, then moving to Mercer street near
Canal. Two years after this, in 1857, he purchased a farm of
ninety-four acres, at Natick, Mass., which he increased later to
170 acres. He ran the farm for nine years, at the same time
keeping several liquor shops and restaurants in New York city.
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OUR POLICE. 209
Finally, in 1866, ho sold all his property and retired to Paulsboro’,
N. J., where he lived as a gentleman of leisure. Fifteen
days before he sold his farm at Natick, he and Harry Howard,
better known as “English Harry,” robbed the Concord National
Bank. Moore was arrested in Paulsboro’ charged with this
crime, but he compromised with the authorities by giving up his
share of the plunder, amounting in all to over $200,000, and
agreeing to place “English Harry” in their hands. He was
unable to accomplish the latter part of the bargain, however,
although he tried to.
He next appeared in Jersey City as a ” speculator,” in both
the legitimate and the illegitimate sense of the word. He
bought and sold horses, boats, houses, or anything that gave him
a chance to turn a dollar, and furnished the capital with which
many dishonest enterprises were carried out by others. He did
not get into the hands of the law, however, until he was arrested
after the robbery of the Lime Rock National bank of Rockland,
Me. This robbery took place on the night of May 3, 1870.
Eight persons in all were engaged in the crime, including Moore
and ex-policeman Keiser of Rockland. Keiser’s part was to get
the policeman on the beat out of the way, and to get the other
burglars out of town after the robbery. The ex-policeman succeeded
with the first part of his programme, and the safe was blown
and about $23,000 in money found. Keiser then drove the men
out of town with his team and concealed them in the woods,
where he was to call for them the following night. But being
arrested on suspicion almost as soon as the burglary was discovered,
he confessed, and took the authorities to the hiding place of
his confederates, all of whom except one were arrested. Moore
pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to four years imprisonment.
On account of his good behavior, and, it is intimated, through
political influence, he was pardoned before his term had expired.
After this Moore returned to New York, where he re-engaged
in the liquor business. He took part in many heavy bank burglaries
and other crimes, and was arrested a number of times,
always managing to keep out of prison, however, until his conviction
for the Charlestown robbery. On a number of occasions he
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210 OUR, POLICE.
saved himself by turning State’s evidence. It is said that Moore
was at one time worth over §500,000. His wife 13 known to the
police a3 “Becky” Moore. She is herself no stranger to crime.
Moore married her at Bayonne, N. J., in 1866. She was the
widow of “Dad” Cunningham and the daughter of old Bill
Sturges, an English sneak and pick-pocket. At one time while
Moore was in jail in Boston awaiting trial for robbery, she went
to live with a man named Thompson, a professional “alibi
prover.” Moore being acquitted in Boston returned to New York,
but was unable to find his wife and children. He then learned
that they wore with Thompson. Going to a saloon at the corner
of Clinton place and Sixth avenue, which he knew they frequented,
he met Thompson and attacked him with a knife. He
nearly cut his victim’s eye out, and slashed his cheek so that the
man bears an ugly scar to this day. Moore was arrested, but the
Grand Jury refused to indict him. His wife rejoined him after
this, and they went to Chicago together, returning in a few
months to New York, where they took a house in East Twenty-sixth
street. This was in January, 1879. Here a large number
of heavy bank burglaries were planned. The designs against the
Baltimore banks, which Captain Lannan by his keenness and
decision frustrated, were among them.
No two faces about the police headquarters are better known
than those of the affable and discreet messengers of the Marshal’s
office, policemen Tritel and Milroy.
Jeremiah W. Tritel has been on the police force since October
12, 1868. He was appointed to the Central district squad, and
for five years covered a patrol along the water front. During
this time he is known to have taken from the water, often at great
personal risk, between forty and fifty persons. In 1873 he was
detailed to the Marshal’s office in the capacity of messenger,
which position he still fills.
The other messenger at the Marshal’s office is policeman W.
Alexander Milroy. He was born in Baltimore on March 7,
1835. In 1875 he was appointed a patrolman in the Southern
•district, where he remained four years, until transferred to his
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OUR POLICE. 211
present detail. Mr. Milroy is a brother of the late Commissioner
of Police, John Milroy.
Mr. W. Clarence Allen, the messenger to the Board of Commissioners,
was born in this city on February 9, 1858. He was a
messenger in the employ of the Adams Express Company previously
to his appointment, on July 20, 1886, to his present
position. Mr. Allen, according to the records of the department,
is a patrolman, detailed at the office of the commissioners. His
duties include the registering and filing of all applications to the
Board of Commissioners, the care of recovered stolen property,
etc., and such other clerical work as may occur.
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212 OUR POLICE.
CHAPTER IX.
THE DETECTIVE FORCE.
ORGANIZATION OF THE SECRET SERVICE.—CHIEF DETECTIVE
CRONE.—CAPTAIN CADWALLADER.—CAPTAIN SOLOMON H. FREBURGER.—
WHAT SOME OF THE MEN HAVE DONE.—JOHN S.
PONTIER.—DETECTIVE CUNNING AND PLUCK.—ROBBING HARNDEN’S
EXPRESS.—JOSEPH C. MITCHELL.—AN EXPERT LOCKSMITH.—
THE ARREST OF HERR GOLDBACH.—A ROMANCE AT
BARNUM’S HOTEL.—THEODERICK B. HALL.—REAL AND BOGUS
DETECTIVES.
If Baltimoreans have reason to congratulate themselves upon
the possession of one of the most efficient police organizations in
the world, this fact is due in great part to the remarkably good
work of the detective department. In this branch of the service
it is intelligence, not numerical strength, which has brought
such results to the management of the department. Every man
on the secret service staif has been proved by long experience,
and by delicate operations. It has been his opportunity repeatedly
to distinguish himself; and it is safe to say of every
one of Baltimore’s detectives that he has done it. The present
force of these special officers is, so far as thorough training in
the special department of police work to which it is assigned,
one of the best equipped of similar organizations throughout the
country. This efficiency is due to at least two causes: One is
that the marshal of police has the general management of the
detectives under his immediate supervision. The direct management
of the force is in the care of a captain, who is personally
responsible to the chief for the work of the subordinates. Baltimore
has been fortunate recently in having two such men as
Captains Cadwallader and Freburger at the head of the detective
squad. The former’s services brought the detective branch of
the police force to such a degree of efficiency, that when he left
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OUR POLICE. 215
the command to assume control of the district he now has, the
detectives were all thoroughly conversant with their duties—
knew what to do on almost any occasion which might arise, and
how to do it. This was the condition of the squad when its
present commander was advanced to his present rank.
While, generally speaking, the detective force of Baltimore is
nearly as old as the first police organization, there having always
been special policemen detailed to “work up” mysterious cases,
still the first recognized organization of secret officers was completed
in April, 18G7, when Mr. William C. Crone was appointed
chief. Mr. Crone was a man widely known in this city, having
been a deputy sheriff and a private detective of some celebrity.
The squad then consisted of ten men, and Mr. Crone’s official
rank was Chief Detective,—as the office now is known, Captain.
He, after the marshal and deputy-marshal, controlled the disposition
of the force. Mr. Crone continued in office until September,
1881, when he was succeeded by Captain Cadwallader, for
whom the office of Captain of Detectives was created by an act
of the Legislature. On October 14, 1886, Captain Cadwallader
was assigned to the Western police district, and Captain Solomon
II. Freburger succeeded him. Since Captain Freburger’s
accession to the office there have been several great crimes in
which his detectives have taken prominent parts, ferreting out
the criminals, and discovering evidence for the courts. All this
work was done under his supervision, and the credit belongs to
him, as the chief of his department.
It was on November 5, 1847, that Captain Freburger was
born. His birth-place still stands in Exeter street, near Baltimore
street, East Baltimore. His father’s name was John Freburger.
The lad received his rudimentary education in the
public schools of the city, remaining in them until he was sixteen
years old, when he made up his mind to become a machinist,
and entered the Baltimore and Ohio Railway shops at Mount
Clare as an apprentice. After he had learned his trade he
remained for some time as a journeyman, and then went West.
He worked for various periods in Chicago, Bloomington, St.
Louis, and Lancaster, Pa.; and after an absence of about two
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216 OUR POLICE.
years returned home again. For the second time he began work
at the Mount Clare shops, and was employed there for about
eighteen months, until, in 1874, he was appointed assistant
engineer at the pump-house of the High Service Water Works
at Druid Hill Park. The work in this capacity was much
too confining for Mr. Freburger, so, on May 1,1875, he resigned
his position and accepted that of a detective on the Baltimore
police force. Since this date Mr. Freburger’s career has been
closely identified with the history of the department. He was.
the direct cause of the breaking up of a large and dangerous
band of burglars, which made the house-holders of this city retire
at night with the expectation of arising the following morning
without a bit of jewelry or silverware in the house. So valuable
were these services, that in 1884, in the Marshal’s report to the
Legislature appears the following:
In the early part of this year (1883) quite a number of cases
of housebreaking and robbery took place in the western and
northwestern sections of the city, and in some instances those
engaged in these offenses eluded immediate arrest, but very nearly
everyone of them was eventually arrested; the majority of these
have been convicted and are now serving terms in the State prison,
while others are awaiting trial. The detective officers and other
members of the force engaged in ferreting out these criminals and
bringing them to trial deserve much credit for consummate skill
and untiring industry.
In 1877 Captain Freburger was on duty as a detective at the
Camden Railway Station during the terrible strike riots. He
was complimented by the Board of Police Commissioners and by
Marshal Gray for his faithful and efficient services during those
trying times. The captain is a man of fine physique, and gives
evidence of great strength in every movement of his body. His
face is open and pleasing, and the heavy black moustache which
shades his mouth makes his countenance very attractive. His
appearance is such as would not reassure a criminal who was
the object of his pursuit.
Detective John S. Pontier is a native of this city. He was
born on June 4, 1836. After receiving a rudimentary educa-
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OUR POLICE. 217
tion in the public schools, and in St. Patrick’s and St. Vincent’s
parochial schools, he learned the carpenters’ trade. He
did not work long at this, however, for his brother, who was
the head of the firm of Pontier & Haslett, dealers in foreign
fruits, etc., in Howard street, offered him a clerkship in his store,
which he promptly accepted. A few years later Sheriff Creamer
appointed him to a position in the Sheriff’s Office, which he
continued to hold during Sheriff Dutton’s term, or until about
1862. In 1866 he was appointed to the detective squad. He
was well-acquainted, personally, with the officers of Adams’ and
other express companies, and to any case in which these corporations
were interested he was usually assigned. One of his
early pieces of work was the investigation of the robbery by
express messenger II. Clay Potts, who stole money and papers
amounting to $60,000 from the Southern Express Company, in
August, 1867. The safe of the company, containing $45,000
in money and $15,000 in signed requisitions upon the Government
for the charges by the company for the transportation of
troops, etc., after the war, was placed in the charge of Potts,
from Mobile, Ala., to Corinth, Miss. When nearing Corinth, as
the train slowed up to the station where the young man was to
deliver over his safe and the keys to the next messenger, Potts
opened the strong chest and taking out the valuable packages,
threw them from the car into a swampy place beside the track.
As soon as the train stopped and he delivered the keys to the
other messenger, he ran back to where he had thrown the
packages; picking them up he made his way to the other side of
a branch of the Tennessee river, which was close by. There he
found a hollow tree near the waters’ edge into which he threw
the requisitions and $40,000 of the money. He then hurried
back before his crime should be discovered, and took the next
north bound train. For some days he was lost sight of. Meanwhile
the express company had a recent portrait of the young
man engraved and thousands of circulars printed bearing the
picture and a description of Potts, and offering a large reward
for his capture. These were distributed among all the employe’s
of the company and sent to the police throughout the country.
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218 OUR POLICE.
About a fortnight after the robbery, one of the messengers of the
Adams Express Company, Mr. Charles Ehrman, saw Potts in a
railroad car1 near Cumberland, in this State, where it was known
that the young man had relatives living. It was afterwards
learned that he intended going there, but seeing what he thought
an unusual crowd about the depot, his guilty conscience made him
timid and he remained on board the train. Ehrman watched
the young man carefully for some time, and at last becoming
convinced of his identity tapped him on the shoulder with the
question:
” Is your name Potts, sir ? ”
Taken by surprise, Potts answered in the affirmative.
” Then you’re under arrest,” said Ehrman. This capture took
place near the Relay House station, and Potts was brought at
once to Baltimore and placed in the hands of the police. More
than $4,000 was found on his person. Upon proper requisitions
from the Governor of Alabama, Detective Pontier was detailed
to take the young man back to Mobile. On the journey southward
the detective succeeded in learning from Potts where he
had put the money he had stolen. He stopped off at Corinth
with his prisoner and the two went to one of the hotels in the
place. A local constable having heard of the important prisoner
who was in town, offered his services in guarding him. While
they were seated in their room, the proprietor of the hotel
knocked on the door and whispered that a crowd of men was in
the bar-room and that they were talking about rescuing Potts,
who was well-known in Corinth. Leaving his prisoner in charge
of the local constable, Detective Pontier went to the bar-room,
where he found a crowd of rough-looking men assembled. They
all knew who he was, for they had seen him conduct the prisoner
to the hotel. Realizing that bravado was his best course, the
detective, who is a large muscular man, threw back his coat with
a swagger, and bringing his fist down on the bar with a blow
that made all the windows rattle in their sashes and threatened
destruction to every near-by piece of crockery, summoned all
hands to drink. The summons was obeyed without a murmur.
Having thus established a speaking acquaintance, the detective
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OUR POLICE. 219
carelessly seated himself on the edge of an ice-box in such a
manner that his two 32 calibre Colt revolvers protruded into the
gaze of the now respectful gathering, and said: ” I hear that
somebody around here was talking about taking my man away
from me!”
“Oh, n o !”
” That’s only talk ! ”
“We didn’t mean no sich thing as that,” murmured one and
another of the crowd deprecatingly.
“Well, I just came down to say,” returned the detective,
” that he and I are going to sleep in the same room to-night,
and I invite any and all of you to try and get in. But don’t
forget to bring a surgeon along with you when you come.”
And, tapping his weapons significantly, the officer turned on his
heels and went back to his room. He was not disturbed that
night.
The next morning, shortly after day-break, Mr. Pontier and
Potts started out to recover the hidden money and papers. To
their dismay they discovered that since the day of the theft the
stream had risen and overflowed its banks and had again receded.
All the trees in the neighborhood were covered with yellow slimy
mud, deposited during the freshet, to a heighth of several
feet. The marks among the underbrush by which Potts
expected to locate his hollow tree had been obliterated. They
hunted for the tree all day long until in the evening, just as they
were about to return to the hotel, they came upon it. The
detective put his hand in the hollow trunk and brought forth a
number of packages of paper, which, on account of the yellow
mud and slime were unrecognizable as bank notes. Wrapping
the packages carefully in a newspaper which he had brought for
the purpose, the detective carried the precious bundle back to the
hotel. Mr. Pontier then ordered a grate fire to be made, and
when it was thoroughly blazing he opened the packages one at
a time and hung the bills over the backs of chairs before it until
they were all dried. When the moisture was evaporated the dust
was easily knocked off by a snap of the finger against the bill.
Then repacking the notes he placed them in a valise and started
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220 OUR POLICE.
off the same night with his prisoner for Mobile, where he arrived
late the following day. He turned his man over to the police, and
took a receipt for the valise and its contents from the express
company’s officers. Potts was afterwards convicted of his crime
and was sent to the Alabama State prison for fifteen years.
Another express company case in which Mr. Pontier’s detective
skill was called into requisition was the robbery of the contents,
of the money pouch of the messenger of Harnden’s express in
this city, in the summer of 1869. In that year three men, all
of them well known burglars, Thomas Hoffman, Edward Dennis,
and William Howard, the first a very clever criminal, rented an
office in North Charles street, between Lexington and Fayette
streets, and pretended to go into the commission business.
Howard went to Washington and directed a package, purporting
to contain money, to himself at their office, and then returned to
this city to await its delivery. The money messenger of Harnden’s
express company in Baltimore at that time was an old man named
Richard Patterson. He was feeble and utterly unfit for the
position he occupied. When Patterson delivered the package at the
thieves’ office they were there Waiting for him. As he took the envelope
from his pouch, however, they saw that there were very few
more packages in it. He had evidently been nearly over his route.
The following day Howard again went to Washington and sent
another package, purporting to contain money, to himself as
before. When Patterson came this time his pouch was full. As
soon as he opened it the three men seized him and “bucking”
and gagging him left him on the floor, decamping with the pouch,
which contained $14,500 in money. In the course of an hour-
Patterson succeeded in freeing himself and ran to the office of the
express company to inform them of the robbery. The police were
immediately notified, and Detective Pontier was detailed upon the
case. Circulars describing the thieves and offering §1,500
reward for their capture were scattered broadcast over the country
by the company. A few days later a telegram from a
constable at Swanton, a mining village up in the mountains of
Maryland, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was received,,
announcing that he had two men in custody, who, he thought,
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OUR TOLICE. 221
answered the description of the burglars. Detective Pontier
hastened to Swanton, and found the men to he Howard and
Dennis. He brought them to this city, where Howard wasprevailed
upon to confess the crime, and tell where the money
was hidden.
” Go to Swanton,” he said to Detective Pontier, ” and behind
the station you will see a zigzag path. Follow this through the
woods to the top of the mountains. Then take the middlestraight
path beyond, until you come to a large tree fallen across
it. On your left you will see a pile of dead leaves. The money
is underneath those leaves.”
Accompanied by an officer of the express company, Detective
Pontier went to Swanton at once, and followed the instructions.
A short distance beyond the top of the mountain they found the
dead tree, and brushed up against its trunk was a pile of leaves.
On pushing away the leaves they found the packages of bank
notes, together with a large quantity of gold and silver coin, not
confined in any receptacle, but lying loosely on the ground. They
amounted altogether to more than $11,000. The money was
brought back to the city and Detective Pontier continued his
search for Hoffman, who was the most clever and dangerous
criminal of the three. The man was caught some time later in
a small place in one of the Western States, and brought hither
upon a requisition. The three were indicted and were awaiting*
trial when Hoffman escaped from jail by opening his cell door
and making his way to the roof, and thence letting himself down
to the ground by the leader. He opened the cells of two or
three other prisoners also and lot them escape with him, but did
not release either Howard or Dennis, against whom he was
violently angered for having ” Mowed.” In jumping to the
ground he sprained his ankle. This made it easy to trace him
when Detective Pontiers again was put upon his track, this time
accompanied by Detective Mitchell. The detectives followed him
to the Western Maryland railway and thence to Union Bridge,
the last station on the road. On entering the railroad inn there,
he found Hoffman sitting in the barber’s shop, talking with a boy
about sixteen years old, and nursing his ankle.
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222 OUR POLICE.
“Who’s the boy, Tom?” was the detectives’ greeting query.
” He’s ‘ Kid ‘ Johnson, I let him out with me. He was in for
picking pockets,” replied the thief in an unmoved tone. Then
he added, ” help me up stairs, detective, and put me to bed, my
ankle’s badly hurt.” They took the injured man up stairs, and
while the boy slept in a corner, the detective bathed Hoffman’s
ankle, and nursed it nearly all night. The next morning the
detectives brought the two to the city, where Hoffman was afterward
tried and convicted with his accomplices. Each was sentenced
to ten years and six months in the Penitentiary. One
night in prison Hoffman attacked Howard, whom he had never
forgiven for confessing, and nearly killed him. For this he was
taken out of prison, tried for assault, and had eighteen months
added to his sentence.
A third important express robbery, in which the company
recovered its money through detective Pontier’s skill, was the
case of station agent J. B. Stedman, of Harper’s Ferry, Va.,
who in May, 1871, stole $1,200 belonging to the Adams Express
Company. One morning Mr. J. Q. A. Herring, the superintendent
of Adams Express Company in this city, came to headquarters
with a despatch from Stedman, who slept in the station,
saying that on the previous night while he was absent at a
Masonic meeting, the station was broken into and robbed of
$1,200. Detective Pontier and Mr. Herring went to Harper’s
Ferry together, and looked over the scene of the robbery. After
a few moments the detective called Mr. Herring aside and said:
” The station agent did this robbery ! ” Mr. Herring was surprised,
but when the detective showed him marks indicating
positively that the windows had been pried open from the inside,
he agreed with him. The detective then went into the other
room where Stedman was standing, and accused him of the crime.
The man looked frightened, but denied the charge with a show of
indignation. The detective then showed him the marks on the
window and intimated that he knew of other and more certain
evidence. The station agent paled and began to tremble. Then
turning to the detective he asked in a choking voice:
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OUR POLICE. 223
” Are you a Mason ?”
Detective Pontier was not a Mason, but Mr. Herring was.
The latter was called in, and Stedman asked him to take him
to the hotel, as he wished to talk to him. In the hotel the man
confessed that he had stolen the $1,200 and placed it in a brass
tube, secured at both ends, which he had sent to Chicago, to be
kept till called for. The superintendent telegraphed to the
train on which the package had been sent, and had the tube
returned to Baltimore the following day. The money was found
wrapped up inside of it, as Stedman had declared. The station
agent was tried at Moundville, Virginia, and sentenced to five
years imprisonment.
On August 11, 1867, one of the most horrible murders that
ever took place in Baltimore occurred at the rear entrance to
Judge Campbell’s mansion, on West Franklin street, between
Howard street and Park avenue. One of Judge Campbell’s
house servants, a good-looking and respectable colored girl, had
a beau named John Dixon, a bad character. Dixon called to
see the girl on this evening, and asked her to marry him. She
refused to do so then, saying that if he would stop drinking she
would marry him later. The old colored cook, who Avas sitting
in the kitchen, heard this conversation. The two went out after
a little, as Dixon rose to leave. At the back gate he put his
left arm around the girl’s neck, as if about to kiss her good-night,
and then suddenly throwing her head back, he slashed a razor
across her throat, cutting her neck through to the spine. The
girl put her hand to her throat and stumbled blindly across the
yard into the kitchen, where she fell dead, the blood pouring
from her arteries and saturating the surroundings. An alarm
was raised at once, and Detective Pontier was sent to capture
Dixon. He found him asleep in a house on Rock street, where
a notorious negro preacher, known as “Blind Johnny,” held
forth. On his way to the scene of the crime, the negro, professing
ignorance, asked:
“What yo’ arrestin’ me fur, Mr. Pontier?”
“How do you know me?” demanded the detective.
” I used to wait on you when I belonged to Cunnel Slater,”
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224 OUR POLICE.
replied the negro. The detective then recognized the fellow as
the former slave of a gentleman •who owned Carroll’s Island, in
the Chesapeake Bay, a great ducking ground, which he used to
visit. He then accused the negro of the murder of the girl.
The fellow denied it strenuously until brought to the house and
unexpectedly confronted with the bleeding corpse. Then he
fairly collapsed. Dixon was tried, but the State being unable
to prove premeditation, he was convicted in the second degree
only, and sentenced to eighteen years imprisonment.
Detective Pontier also arrested Hollohan and Nicholson, the
murderers of Mrs. Lampley, the story of which is told in the sketch
of Marshal Frey. lie was in the company of the marshal, too,
when, in 1873, they arrested John Thomas, the assailant of Mrs.
Carlotta Sarracco.
In the summer of 1876, Detective Pontier arrested a man for
whom all the police in the world had been on the look-out for
many months. This was Louis Diebel, who, while burgomeister
•of the little city of Kadowitz in Polish Prussia, Germany, embezzled
about $15,000 of the funds entrusted to his care, and
disappeared. The German police offered 4,000 marks, or $1,000,
reward for the dishonest official’s capture, and distributed portraits
and descriptions of him in all languages, all over the world.
One of these descriptions fell into the hands of Detective Pontier
and he made inquiries among Germans of the city, in hopes that
somebody might have run across the man. It happened that
one of the detective’s German friends did know of a man answering
to the description, who was living at the old Washington
House, a small hotel at Camden and Eutaw streets, opposite the
Camden station. Mr. Pontier went thither and found that the
man was registered under his own name. At the time, however,
the embezzler was in the country bargaining for the purchase of
a farm. On his return to the hotel the detective arrested him
and found him to be the person he was in search of. The man
was sent to Germany by the German Consul, and the reward of
$1,000 was received by Mr. Pontier. According to the rules of
the police board the money was handed over to the commissioners,
but after some weeks it was paid him. Nearly $13,000 of the
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OUR POLICE. 225
$15,000 stolen by the burgomeister was recovered, it being found
on his person at the time of his arrest.
Detective Joseph C. Mitchell was born in this city on July
22, 1827. He is a brother of the late Captain John Mitchell,
formerly in command of the Middle district. He attended the
public schools in Baltimore, and afterwards learned the trade of
coach smithing, at which he worked for about six years as a
journeyman. He then went into the eating-house business, and
for many years kept restaurants in various parts of the city.
He was appointed a member of the detective squad on April 21,
1867. He never served the police department in any other
•capacity. Detective Mitchell is one of the only two officers now
remaining on the squad who were appointed at the reorganization
of 1867. Detective Pontier is the other.
In the summer of 1875, a large number of houses in the
wealthier part of the city were robbed by sneak thieves, who carried
on their operations nearly every day for a month. One of
the thieves was evidently an expert locksmith, for the doors of the
houses which were robbed were opened with skeleton keys in a
very skillful manner. Detective Mitchell was assigned to find out
who the thieves were. After inspecting their work, Mr. Mitchell
came to the conclusion that they were not Baltimoreans, as there
were not to his knowledge any local thieves capable of doing
such neat work. He was about to make a tour of the cheap
hotels with a view of seeing what strangers were in town, when a
negro boy whom he knew told him he had seen “Nat” Jones,
alias “Davy” Peyton, and James Sanford, two New York
thieves, in town, and that they were committing the robberies
that had caused so many complaints. Upon further inquiry
Detective Mitchell learned that the two thieves were probably at
the Union Hotel, on Pratt street, near Market street. On
August 13, he went to the hotel, and giving the clerk a description
of the men, asked if they were in the house.
“Yes, I think they’re about here somewhere now,” replied
the clerk.
Just then the detective saw his men in the reading-room, engrossed
in the New York papers, sitting with their feet on the
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226 OUR POLICE.
reading-room table. He went up to them, and getting in a convenient
position to grasp both the men, if they should attempt to
escape, said :
” The Marshal wants to see you at the headquarters.”
The men looked blankly at each other a moment and then
replying “All right,” ‘accompanied the detective. They were
locked up and indicted upon evidence against them that was subsequently
found, and upon a confession which Sanford made.
Their method was to hire a wagon and drive up to the house they
intended robbing. Then after ransacking the place they would
put their plunder into the wagon and drive off. While awaiting
trial Jones broke jail and escaped. He went to New York where
he lived in a tenement house in Canal street, near the Hudson
river. Dectective Mitchell followed him thither and was aided
in his hunt for the man by one of Inspector Byrne’s detectives.
They watched the house in which Jones lived for some days, but
did not once see him. Then they learned that the man never
came out of his room except at sunrise, when he took a short
walk, bought a morning paper and returned to remain until the
next day. So the following morning at peep of day the detectives
placed themselves before the house. A moment after they
arrived their man came out and they took him into custody. Detective
Mitchell brought him back to Baltimore, where he was
convicted and sentenced for ten years and six months. Sanford
was sentenced for five years. Jones served his whole term, and
in 1886, as soon as he was released, was taken to Boston to serve
out an old sentence in a jail there from which he had escaped.
He is still serving his time in Boston, under special guard. Joneshas
the reputation of being one of the most successful jail breakers
in the country. He escaped from seven prisons in various
parts of the United States before he broke jail in this city. Now
that he is in custody, his only hope of not spending the rest of
his life in confinement lies in making another and final escape,
for the total of unexpired sentences that he will have to serve
out in one prison and another aggregates more than thirty years.
In the centennial year Detective Mitchell became officially
connected with a crime that acquired a world-wide notoriety, and
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OUR POLICE. 227
which is still frequently spoken of in some circles. The great
Kur-Saal at Baden-Baden, in Germany, at that time, still maintained
its name of being one of the largest and most magnificent
gambling houses in the world. It was rivalled only by the gaming
palaces of Monaco and Monte Carlo. The Kur-Saal or Casino,
was conducted under semi-official auspices, and it was generally
understood to be the property of the Crown of the Duchy of Baden-
Baden. About 1876 there was much talk about closing the great
gambling place on account of the growing prejudice against public
gaming, which at that time showed itself throughout the German
Empire. One of the assistants of the treasurer of the establishment
was a young man named Ernst Goldbach. As was afterwards
ascertained he had for some years been systematically
robbing the “bank.” He lived much beyond his income as a
clerk, but as he had been known at times to have made large winnings
by his occasional ventures at the tables, no suspicion of his
honesty entered the mind of his superiors. On May 30,1886,
having learned from what he supposed to be a trustworthy source
that the games were to be stopped on June 1, he stole 40,000
thalers (about $30,000) from the safe of the “bank” and decamped.
The theft was not discovered until late the following
day, by which time Goldbach had crossed the French frontier
with his mistress and their son, a child of six years. A few days
later the German police got information which led them to believe
that the young man had boarded one of the North German Lloyd
steamships at Southampton, England, and was on his way to New
York. They cabled to the German consul, and he caused the
first incoming steamer of that line, which arrived in the port of
New York, to be searched for the man. The search having proved
fruitless, he telegraphed to the German consul in this city to
request the Baltimore police to search another steamship of the
same company which had left Southampton at the same time for
Baltimore. In response to the request of the consul, Detective
Mitchell was detailed upon the case. He procured permission
from the United States officials to go down the bay on the revenue
cutter. He met the steamer at Quarantine and boarded her. As
the revenue cutter drew up alongside of the mammoth craft, all
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228 OUR POLICE.
the passengers on board, numbering nearly fifteen hundred,
crowded along the rail to look at her. Detective Mitchell had
an accurate description of Goldbach, and as he looked up from
the deck of the cutter he saw a man in the crowd who answered
the description exactly, so far as features and stature were concerned.
“That’s my prisoner,” thought the detective, and his speculation
proved correct, for upon inquiry of the purser for Herr
Goldbach, the officer pointed the same young man out to him.
Goldbach was greatly taken aback at his arrest. He spoke but
little English. The detective took him and his mistress and
child into custody, and when the passengers were landed, conducted
them to the police headquarters. There a gold draft on
Brown Brothers & Co., the bankers, for $4,400 was found on Goldbach,
besides a large amount in German paper money and English
gold and silver coins. A matron on searching the man’s
mistress found $10,000 worth of German government and other
negotiable securities sewed into her clothing, and also a large
quantity of cash. The money about the persons of the pair
aggregated between $17,000 and $18,000. The prisoners, at the
request of the German consul, were not locked up in jail, but
were given apartments in a first class hotel. The explanation of
this strange proceeding was afterward discovered to be the fact
that the young man’s connections in Germany were noble and
very wealthy. They subsequently so arranged matters that Goldbach
was not required to be sent back for trial, and after a short
confinement here in the hotel he was allowed to go free. He
managed to get as far as New York, when after nearly starving
to death he found a situation as waiter in a large German beer
saloon and restaurant. At last accounts he still held this situation,
his mistress, who was a remarkably beautiful girl, remaining
faithful to him.
Some years ago a handsome young widow lived at Barnum’s
Hotel. Besides her attractions of face and form, she was known
to possess considerable property. Her name was Mrs. William
H. Young. A young gentleman from Washington came to live
in Baltimore, and stopped also at Barnum’s Hotel. His name
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OUR POLICE. 229
was James Ivins. He was connected with some of the best
families of the National Capital. Mrs. Young and Mr. Ivins
made each other’s acquaintance, and they soon became great
friends. Though Mr. Ivins subsequently took lodgings in the
city, he visited Mrs. Young at the hotel almost daily, and
frequently took her to ride in Druid Hill Park or in the suburbs.
The other lady guests of the hotel were getting intensely interested
in the pair, and the servants retailed romances concerning
them that added fuel to the fire of curiosity that was consuming
the fair fellow-guests of the beautiful widow. One afternoon
Mr. Ivins called. Mrs. Young was out, and he said he would
wait for her in her room, which was where the lady was accustomed
to receive him. A few moments later he went out,
saying he would return shortly. He did not come back, however:
Mrs. Young returned, and as she took Mr. Ivin’s card
from the servant’s salver, a smile of satisfaction passed over her
countenance. About six o’clock in the evening, however, she
rushed down stairs in a great flurry, and announced to the clerk
that she had been robbed of all her diamond jewelry, which she
had left in her bureau drawer when she went out, amounting in
value to $2,500. She had just discovered her loss as she was
attiring herself for supper. The police were notified at once,
and Detective Mitchell was sent to look into the case. After
hearing of all the circumstances, he concluded, contrary to Mrs.
Young’s belief that one of the servants had stolen the jewelry,
that the thief was none other thati the handsome Mr. Ivins.
When Mrs. Young learned that that gentleman had hastily left
town, and also remembered that he was the only person who
knew exactly where the jewels were kept, she was forced to agree
with the detective. The valuables had evidently been taken by
some one who knew their exact whereabouts, for nothing else in
the room, and no other drawer except the one from wdiich they
were taken was upset. Detective Mitchell, with much difficulty,
traced Ivins about from place to place, until finally he located
him in Chicago, whither he went and arrested him. Ivins submitted
quietly to arrest. He told where he had disposed of the
diamonds, and the detective recovered all but three hundred
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230 OUR POLICE.
dollars’ worth of them. The young man said he had never before
stolen anything nor been arrested. This was probably true, for
his record showed him to have never been anything worse than a
wild youth. He called to see Mrs. Young with nothing further
from his mind than stealing her diamonds. Finding the jewels
unguarded, however, and being in financial straits at the time,
an evil impulse seized him, and ho took the jewelry and fled.
He was held in confinement for nearly seven months, at the
end of which time, Mrs. Young refusing to prosecute him, he
was released.
Detective Theoderick B. Hall was born in Baltimore on August
20, 1838, and was educated in the public schools of this city.
He was apprenticed to and learned the trade of a bricklayer.
At the breaking out of the civil war in 18G1 Mr. Hall enlisted
in the First Regiment Maryland Volunteers, U. S. Army, and
was commissioned Lieutenant Co. C. lie served one year, when
he was honorably discharged by reason of disability contracted in
service.
In January, 1863, Mr. Hall was appointed to the police force,
and after serving one year he resigned to accept the position of
conductor on the City Passenger Railway, tendered him by
President Tyson of that company. In this capacity he served
thirteen years, during which time he personally apprehended
nine pickpockets on his car. He also assisted the detective of
the railroad company in arresting others. Mr. Hall became an
officer in the City’s detective department, April 23, 1875. It
was he who, in 1877, “turned up” the thieving barge captains
who for years had been systematically robbing the grain merchants
of this city. For a long time complaints had been made
of the enormous “shrinkage” in the barge cargoes of grain
shipped to consignees, but nothing could be learned to account
for it. Finally, in March, 1877, Detective Hall was detailed to
investigate the matter. After much trouble he found that Captain
William Dcffendorf and four other grain barge captains were
engaged in a scheme whereby from two to three hundred bushels
of grain were stolen of a night. The men had a sloop, and
lying up to the barges, they would load the plunder, a quota
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OUR POLICE. 231
being taken from each of the barges of grain entrusted to their
care, run the stolen property to Chesapeake City, exchange it
for flour, and then sell the flour. The first man against whom
Detective Hall secured any evidence was Captain Deffendorf, who
made a confession to the officer inculpating his comrades in the
crime. In order to accomplish the arrest of all, Deffendorf was
allowed to remain at liberty for the time being, of which he took
advantage to advise his confederates of their danger and the whole
party “skipped.” Detective Hall arrested Deffendorf stowed
away in a canal barge between Weehawken and Hoboken, after
a most exciting chase of seventeen days, which carried him nearly
all over the States of New York and New Jersey. Another of
the fugitives he arrested in Philadelphia, one in New Brunswick,
N. J , and another in Baltimore. The prosecution saw that no
conviction could be had unless one of the guilty men was used as
States’ evidence, and Deffendorf had consented to tell all he
knew. After the accused had remained in jail for eight months,
on the very day set for the trial of the cases Deffendorf died.
There being no other evidence forthcoming, the State’s Attorney
entered a nolle pros, and the men were discharged. One of them,
years afterwards, came to Detective Hall and told him that his
arrest was the most fortunate thing that had ever happened him,
as a career in crime had been checked and he had since been an
honest man.
Detective Hall, in conjunction with Detective Gault, in July,
1877, arrested the notorious James Huff alias Porter. Huff, or
Porter, had at one time been in the U. S. Secret Service under
Chief Brooks and had been dismissed. For five years prior to
his arrest Huff had been going about the country representing
himself as a secret service officer, and by that means defrauding
people under various pretenses. He had baffled Chief Brooks’
men, who were constantly hearing of his fraudulent practices,
but were unable to lay their hands on him. One night in the
month mentioned Marshal Prey received a telegram from Union
Bridge, Md., asking him to look out for Huff, as it was thought
he would be in Baltimore and would call at the post-office for a
letter. Detectives Hall and Gault were detailed to the case, and
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232 OUlt POLICE.
after considerable difficulty and four days constant vigilance they
succeeded in locating their man at Lloyd’s Hotel, corner Calvert
and Pratt streets. It was late at night -when the officers reached
the hotel and Huff had retired. They were, however, shown to
the room, and Detective Hall rapped at the door.
“Who’s there?” was the response.
“A friend,” was the reply ; ‘”open the door.”
” You can’t get in here,” said Huff.
” Open the door, or we’ll break it in,” threatened the detectives,
and the bogus Secret Service man unlocked the door and
peeked out.
” How do, Huff!” was the salutation of Detective Hall.
” My name’s not Huff; it is Porter.”
” Well! Porter is just the man we want,” came the reply.
” Oh ! I know who you are,” said Huff, ” you are a couple of
these fly detectives who go nosing about other people’s business!”
” Where did you go to guessing school ?” responded Mr.
Gault. “Now you’ve told us who we are, tell us who you are.”
” I’ll mighty soon show you,” said Huff, with an important
and threatening air, and going to his coat, produced a large
bundle of papers bearing the name of “James Porter.” The
papers were IT. S. Government blanks connected with various
departments, and while they made a brave show superficially and
collectively, a closer examination revealed that they were of no
importance whatever, but simply useful to impose upon the
ignorant and credulous.
Huff was removed to the police headquarters, where, upon
being searched, it was learned by maps, charts, and other papers
found on his person that he was one of the conspirators to rob the
tomb of the remains of President Lincoln. He was sent to
Hagerstown, and at his trial Chief Brooks and five of his men
appeared to prosecute him. Huff was convicted and sentenced
to five years in the Maryland Penitentiary. Chief Brooks sent
a congratulatory letter to Detectives Hall and Gault for having
made this important capture.
On December 12, 1882, Detective Hall arrested “Tom”
Bigelow, alias Ward, and Louise Bigelow, alias Jordan, alias
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OUR POLICE. 233
“English Louise.” They were pickpockets. Their plan of
working was for the woman to watch about savings banks, and
“spotting” some woman who had drawn a sum of money, would
follow her, and being joined by Tom Bigelow, who would be
hirking in the neighborhood, subsequently relieve the victim of
the money in the street car. Detective Hall had four cases
against them, but through the failure of the persons robbed to
sufficiently identify the pair, they were discharged and sent
out of the city.
Noah M. Mitchell, the colored swindler, was arrested by Detective
Hall on December 7,1885. Mitchell’s plan of opeiations
was clever and ingenious, and he showed that he was a man
who had enjoyed more than an average education. He would
go to a city and have a pamphlet printed, setting forth that
a society had been organized whose object it was to secure
a higher education for the colored people of the South. He
would then go to the prominent men of that city and secure their
endorsement of the purposes mentioned in the little book, but
would ask no subscription from them. This he did in Washington,
and secured as endorsers of the proposed object the names
of the President, an ex-President, Senators, Congressmen, prominent
lawyers and others. With these endorsements of the plan
he came to Baltimore, and represented himself as a solicitor for
subscriptions for the society, of which he was the only living exponent
and sole beneficiary. Among his victims there were such
men as Messrs. Bonaparte, Frank Stevens, Thomas Ruddle, and
other prominent citizens. He secured between $500 and $600.
He was convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for two years
and six months.
William Thomas was arrested in August, 1878, by Detective
Hall, for attempting to blackmail a citizen through the use of
the mails. When the officer put his hand on Thomas’s shoulder
to arrest him Thomas sprang back and drew a pistol. Detective
Hall was too quick for him, however, disarmed him and carried
him to headquarters. Thomas was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.
Detective Hall is a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal
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234 OUR POLICE.
Church, and belongs to many of the societies connected with
that denomination. To many unfortunates who have been
arrested by him he has given good counsel and advice, and some
hardened criminals have through him been reclaimed to a better
life.
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k
OUR POLICE. 235
CHAPTER X.
THE DETECTIVE FORCE.—Continued.
ALBERT GAULT.—A REMARKABLE RECORD.—QUICK WORK WITH
SKILLFUL BURGLARS.—RESCUING FROM THE FLOOD.—CLEVER
CAPTURE OF JOHN KING. CHRISTINE ELBRIGHT. ARREST OF
TOLLIVER HARRIS, THE NEGRO TERROR OP VIRGINIA.—AMONG
THE MOONSHINERS. TERRIBLE CONFLICT WITH AN ESCAPED
PRISONER. DETECTIVE GEORGE W. SEIBOLD. RISEN FROM
THE RANKS. PURSUING THE CONFIDENCE MEN. A COLORED
FEMALE FAGIN. THEIR CHILD RESTORED AFTER EIGHT YEARS.
—A PRIESTLY SWINDLER.—DETECTIVE SEIBOLD AS A FAKIR.—
CLEVER WORK IN ELLICOTT CITY. BARN BURNING IN HOWARD
COUNTY.—HOW AN AGED TRAMP REPAID FARMER RHINE’S
KINDNESS.
There is perhaps no detective in the State of Maryland about
whom so much that is favorable is told and so many stories
related as Albert Gault. He is a born crime-detecter and
his experiences have certainly been varied and thrilling enough
to create a fund for sensational story-writers that would be imperishable
during the present generation. He has had all sorts
of escapes, has captured all manner of criminals, has followed all
sorts of clues with such attending circumstances that told in detail
would make him not a simple detective, but a creature of
romance. He had an opportunity to perve Baltimore when it
was perhaps one of the wickedest cities on the American continent.
The fact that he is still alive to tell of his deeds is sufficient
to prove the man’s indomitable perseverance in not allowing
wounds, or nearly death itself, to interfere in the prosecution
of his duty. He comes of an excellent family which through
business reverses was reduced in circumstances. He was born
in this city on October 13, 1837. His father was Robert Gault,
then a well-to-do type-founder. Young Gault attended the pub-
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236 OUR POLICE.
lie schools, but lie left them early. At the age of fourteen
years he was apprenticed to the firm of gas-fitters, Blair & Co., and
learned his trade, which he followed for fifteen years. During the
war Mr. Gault started business on his own account, but not
finding trade sufficiently remunerative he remained but two years
as a “boss.” Finally he decided that he would join the police
force, so he made his application to the police department and
received his appointment on December 8, 1866. He was assigned
to the Middle (now Central) district, under Captain John
Mitchell, who held his commission from the famous Young and
Valiant board of Commissioners. On April 22, 1875, while
serving under Captain (now Deputy-Marshal) Lannan, in the
Middle district, Mr. Gault was made a sergeant, and on June
29 of the same year he was assigned to work on the detective
squad.
Mr. Gault had been on the police force but a few days when he
fell in with a most important piece of work. At that time the
passenger trains from the north on their way to Washington and
the south were drawn through the city by horses, from the President
street station of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore
railroad to the Camden street station of the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad company. Gault’s beat included the neighborhood of the
Marsh Market, by which, on Pratt street, all the trains passed.
Many complaints had been received at headquarters within the
few weeks previous, of the depredations of sneak thieves who
jumped on the trains on their way through the city and stole
whatever they could find unguarded. The thieves operated
generally at night while the passengers were dozing.
One morning at about half past three o’clock Gault was standing
secreted in a doorway on the lookout for these car thieves.
The ground was covered with newly fallen snow; the night was
still and clear. The only sound that could be heard by the
policeman as he stood back in his hiding place was a distant
tinkling of bells which denoted the approach of another train on
its way to the Capital. Suddenly the snap of a whip and the
voice of a driver speaking to his horses attracted Gault’s attention,
and he casually poked his head around the corner to see what was
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OUR POLICE. 237
going on. Two hacks had just passed across the Lombard street
bridge. By the bright starlight the policeman could see that the
curtains in each of the carriages were drawn. The presence of
two carriages with drawn curtains in that locality at that hour of
the night was so unusual a thing that Gault determined to abandon
his watch for the car thieves for a while and follow the strange
vehicles at least until they had left his beat.
The carriages plowed slowly along, turning up Concord street
and finally wheeling suddenly into the narrow lane known as
Hawk street, where they stopped before a small two-story house
on the north side of the way. Five men instantly jumped out
upon the pavement, and shouldering what appeared to be heavy
sacks, carried a large number of them into the house. Then the
hacks drove off, leaving the five men in the house. All this
policeman Gault remarked from a position he had taken in the
shadow of one of the market stalls opposite the opening of Hawk
street. As soon as the carriages had passed out of sight the
policeman made his way to where they had been standing. The
footprints of the men were fresh in the snow and a dim light
could be seen in one of the rooms on the upper floor of the little
house.
Convinced that some villainy was on foot Gault, immediately
hunted up his sergeant and related to him what had occurred. The
latter scouted at the young policeman’s suspicions, intimating that
new officers frequently got themselves into embarrassing positions
by being over suspicious. Gault returned to his post. Though
rebuffed he was not convinced, by the sergeant’s assurances, and he
again examined the ground in the neighborhood of Hawk street.
As he passed the suspected house he heard sounds of footsteps
within, and the slam of a door.
More certain than ever that his suspicions of evil-doing were
well founded Gault again hunted up his sergeant. After considerable
argument the latter agreed to go to Captain Mitchell’s
house, wake him up, and submit the matter to him. The captain
lived close by and within half an hour he returned with the
sergeant. Gault then led the pair to Hawk street and showed
them the footprints and carriage tracks, relating all the move-
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238 OUR POLICE.
mcnts ho had observed on the part of the five men. Captain
Mitchell agreed with Mr. Gault that the affair bore a suspicious
appearance, but he hesitated to adopt tho plan which the policeman
urged, of making a raid upon the house at once. After some
minutes’ deliberation the captain determined to get a warrant
before entering the house. Leaving Gault on guard he hastened
to the residence of a magistrate and procured the desired paper,
with which he returned in a very short time.
Gault was boiling over with impatience when the captain
reached him.
” Have you got it ?” he whispered eagerly. Captain Mitchell
drew the document from his coat pocket by way of reply.
“Now break right in,” said the policeman in an excited voice,
” and I’ll stand out here on watch.”
The captain hesitated as if he did not relish the idea suggested.
He looked the building over and finally exclaimed : ” By Jove,
I’ve left my pistol home ! ”
” Here,” burst forth the young patrolman, as he thrust his
revolver into the captain’s hands, unable to control himself any
longer; “you take my pistol and stand outside here and I’ll go
in.”
Half demurring, the captain took the weapon, and Gault,
scarcely waiting to give the legal knock on the door, burst through
and rushed up-stairs. Two little girls were in bed in the room
at the head of the stair-case. They had been awakened by the
crash and were rubbing their eyes in astonishment when the
policemen addressed them. It was then almost daylight.
“Did you see some men come in here last night, carrying
bags ? ” they were asked.
“Yes sir,” replied the elder of the children innocently.
” They said they had corn for the chickens.”
” Where are the men now ? ”
“They went out the back way,” said the child. “They’re
coming back again. They put the bags in that room.” And
she pointed to the adjoining chamber.
Policeman Gault entered the room indicated. The shutters
were closed and the light was very dim within. Finally the
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OUR POLICE. 239
officer “was able to make out all the contents of the apartment.
A high old fashioned bed stood in one corner. Everything
appeared to be in an orderly condition with the exception of the
freshly scrubbed floor, which was stained with the prints of wet
shoes. No traces of bags or packages were to be seen. The
footprints led toward the bed. It struck the policeman that perhaps
the stuff” Was hidden under it. He lifted the overhanging
coverlet. As he did so he started back in amazement. The
entire space under the bed was filled with great packages. He
hauled them out one by one and found them to be large rolls of
heavy cloth. Locking the door on the inside he climbed out of
the window upon the roof of the portico in front of the house
and called to Captain Mitchell to come up. The captain was
dumb with astonishment when he reached the room and saw the
bundles lying on the floor before him. There could be no doubt
that it was stolen property. After waiting half an hour in the
hope that the thieves would return, Captain Mitchell ordered
Gault to fetch a large wagon to the house, and all the packages
were removed to the Central station, where they were spread upon
the floor to await an owner..
About half-past eight o’clock Mr. Thompson, the proprietor of
a fashionable tailoring establishment on Fayette street opposite
the Mansion House, rushed into headquarters and and informed
the marshal that his shop had been robbed the night before of
every yard of cloth in it. The thieves had fairly stripped the
place bare, even taking two pairs of shears with them. On being
led across to the station-house the tailor recognized his property at
once. Thanks to policeman Gault’s sagacity and his persistency in
going ahead when he felt sure he was right, over seven thousand
dollars worth of stolen property was recovered for its owner within
three hours after the robbery and before the crime was discovered
by the victim himself.
The same day policeman Gault and several other officers succeeded
in arresting all the thieves by hunting for them among
the well-known haunts of such characters, in the lower part of
the city. They were identified by the landlady of the house on
Hawk street as the men who had hired her second floor, and the
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240 OUR POLICE.
children picked them out as the same ones who had carried in the
bundles on the night of the burglary. They were afterward
convicted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
It was on that fearful day in July, 1868, when Baltimore was
swept by flood, and part of the town was fairly drowned beneath
the waters which raged from the country about, that patrolman
Gault discovered that he was not merely an enthusiastic policeman,
but a man full of that noble desire to do good which impels
one to risk his life for another’s benefit. There was a great
crowd of terror-stricken citizens standing in High street, near
Front street, at about o o’clock in the afternoon of July 24. The
yellow flood roared and writhed and twisted itself in apparent
deviltry as it rushed on its path of destruction. On its breast
was borne all manner of things : parts of houses, great tree
trunks from which huge branches had been torn by the angry
waters, chicken coops, furniture, produce—but look ! what is this
floating upon the tossing waves, half hidden at times by the
billows, but always rising with them, always cresting them—
making them sacred even in their maddened rush for prey ? It
comes nearer the great crowd; it is upon them, abreast of them,
and within the cradle which rides the flood a babe looks out and
smiles upon the thousand men who stand awe-stricken at the
strange sight. There is no motion in the crow7d ; not a hand is
waved, not a tongue is loosened as the cradle with its precious
burden sweeps by, the wreckage apparently making way for
it. Again look! a man darts from the midst of the crowd;
he wears the familiar uniform of a policeman; his head is bare,
his hair streaming in the wind and tossing spray. Over he goes
into the raging waters, and amid the cheers of the crowd swims
towards the castaway. Tree trunks intervene; great masses of
wreckage interpose themselves, but nothing daunts the brave man
who struggles toward the object of his endeavors. Struck now
and forced back by some heavy drift he begins all over again, and
with set teeth grasps the cradle. The baby smiles at him and
then gives a little crowr of delight as the rescuer’s weight tilts the
cradle to one side. Little it knows how near it has been to the
end. The policeman landed many squares below the place where
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OUR POLICE. 241
he leaped into the flood, but the crowd had followed him, and as
he stepped ashore and handed the little one to a lady who was
standing near, the immense crowd surged about him and made
the air ring with cheers.
Three hours after this Mr. Gault, still drenched from his
heroic battle with the flood, again leaped into the water at
Harrison and Gay streets, and in the presence of fully 500
persons rescued John Steigel, after the latter had almost choked
the brave officer to death.
In the summer of 1870 Detective Gault gained much praise
by his clever capture of a pickpocket in this city. One of the
officials at the Union depot had put his aunt, an elderly lady,
and her daughter on board a train. They were going to Hartford,
Connecticut. Before the train left the Union depot a welldressed
gentleman who was stitting in a seat behind them, with
much politeness assisted the ladies in disposing of their baggage,
etc. As soon as they were comfortably seated he left the car,
telling them that he was going into the ” smoker ” and would
return. At that time it was customary for the trains from the
Union depot to stop at Bay View junction to take on the cars
that had come up from the President street station. Before they
reached the junction the conductor went through the train
collecting the tickets. Then the old lady suddenly discovered
that her pocket-book, containing the tickets for herself and her
daughter and about $20 in bills was missing. She supposed she
must have lost it, and returned to the Union depot much
chagrined with the next train. When she told her nephew
about the polite gentleman who had assisted her with her packages
the young man at once suspected that the ” gentleman ” had
stolen the pocket-book. He reported the facts to the police
headquarters. Detective Gault was assigned to look into the
case. When he learned that the pocket-book contained two
Hartford tickets, heat once determined to watch the “scalpers”
offices, suspecting that the thief would try to sell the tickets. As
the detective was loitering along Baltimore street in the neighborhood
where the “scalpers’ ” shops are located, he noticed a man
answering the description given by the ladies of the polite
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242 OUR POLICE.
stranger walking along scanning the signs in front of the ticketmen’s
offices. Finally he walked into Mr. Spicer’s, at the corner
of Baltimore and St. Paul streets. After waiting; a few moments
for the fellow to open negotiations the detective entered and said :
” I want to buy a ticket for Hartford, Connecticut.”
The man turned towards him and remarked: ” I have what
you want. What’ll you give for it ?”
Then began considerable dickering over the price. Finally,
the man turning to Gault, said sharply: “Well, don’t you want
the ticket?”
“Yes,” retorted the officer, ” I want the ticket and I want
you, too.”
The man started back in amazement at first, and then laughed.
” Well, what a chump I am !” he exclaimed.
“That’s so,” said Gault; “you’ve been netted by the police
again.”
The two went to the Central station, where the ladies were
sitting. As the officer and his prisoner entered the old lady
turned to her daughter and said :
” Why, Annie, there is the gentleman who was so kind and
polite to us while on the train. I wonder what he can be doing
here.”
” This is the gentleman, ladies,” replied Gault, ” who relieved
you of your pocketbook this morning.”
John Elbright was about twelve years ago one of the most
prominent manufacturers of rubber goods in New York. His
family consisted of his wife and one daughter, whom he loved
with an affection so deep that it was frequently remarked by
his many friends. The daughter had some little money in
her own right. Mr. Elbright was worth nearly a million of
dollars. Christine, Miss Elbright’s given name, was of impetuous
nature, quick to take affront at the slightest occasion, and more
than ready to do things for which she was quickly sorry. One
morning at breakfast something did not please her and she spoke
sharply to her mother, who, quite as quick-tempered as her
daughter, turned in her chair and boxed the young girl’s ears.
Christine said nothing. An ominous frown gathered on her
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OUR POLICE. 243
forehead; she bit her lips until the blood trickled from them.
Then, with an impulsive movement, she arose from her seat, and
leaving her mother without a word of explanation rushed upstairs.
Hours passed. Christine did not appear. The night
approached and with supper time came Mr. Elbright home
again.
“Why, where’s Christine?” he inquired.
His wife told him of the morning quarrel, and suggested that
Christine was probably in her room pouting. Up rushed the
father, and after knocking at his daughter’s door and receiving
no answer, threw it open. Christine was gone! But she had
left woeful traces behind. Upon her dressing table rested her
magnificent black hair, which she had sheared off close to her
head. That was all. No letter, nothing to indicate in what direction
she had gone or when she would return. She was gone
without trace. A considerable sum of money which she had in
her room and all her jewelry she took with her. The father fell
in a swoon. Mrs. Elbright was attacked by brain fever and her
life despaired of. John Elbright’s life was a ruined one. Detectives
were employed and sent to all parts of the country to find
some trace of the missing one. Every hour of delay seemed
days to the bereaved family. But it was of no use. Money
could not find the object of two parents’ love. All hope of ever
finding her was lost. It was while in this despairing mood that
Mr. Elbright visited Baltimore on business, He had promised
his wife to devote all of his time to the search for Christine; that
he would not return home without some tidings of her. He visited
a merchant friend of his during his stay in Baltimore, and told
his pitiable story.
“Why, Elbright,” was his friend’s exclamation, “I’ve got the
very man you want. He’ll find her if she’s on top of the ground.”
The merchant was a believer in Mr. Gault, and the young
policeman was sent for. Again Mr. Elbright recited his tale,
his narration broken by sobs. Mr. Gault, too, appreciated the
parent’s agony, but that did not deter him from questioning the
sorrow-stricken father with great care. At last he discovered
that in Christine’s room was found, with her hair, a time-table,
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244 OUR POLICE.
and that part of it having the schedule of the Philadelphia,
Wilmington and Baltimore railway upon it was missing. This
was a very small clew, but it was none the less something to begin
on. Mr. Gault learned, by further questioning, that Christine
had greatly fancied Baltimore, and he immediately came to the
conclusion: “Here she is.” But it is as hard to find one person
in a city of 400,000 inhabitants as a needle in a haystack. He
visited all the fashionable boarding-houses in the city, believing
that Christine would seek such a home.
The search was fruitless. He then turned his attention to the
religious institutions. The first one at which he applied was a
home under the charge of the Sisters of Charity. The sister
superior at once remembered a young woman of Christine’s description
who had entered the institution and shortly afterward
left it to become a governess in the homo of a well-known banker
in a fashionable part of the city. The detective found the girl
there and brought her to the marshal’s office.
Meanwhile Mr. Elbright remained in Baltimore. He had
offered Mr. Gault $1,000 if he would find his daughter, or at
least bring some tidings of her that he might take home, and
so save his wife’s life. Time hung on his hands, for he counted
every hour that lessened the time he still had to prosecute his
search. Days went by and no tidings. There seemed to be no
hope that his Christine would ever be found. One afternoon he
sat in his friend’s office. Again and again his daughter’s face
came before him, smiled into his, cast laughing glances into his
eyes, wept with him, teased him, pleaded with him. But, alas!
all was but recollection ; the Christine that was. And now where
was she ? Perhaps degraded—no, not that; not his pretty
Christine—his darling girl. Dead, perhaps, but not that other!
But still, where was she ? Had he left any stone unturned to
find her; was there the vaguest chance which he had not tried ?
He could think of none. Tears filled his eyes, his head sank
upon his breast, his weary brain throbbed with the great anxiety
to find his child—to save both his wife’s life and his own. He
had forgotten his surroundings ; he was alone with his thoughts.
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OUB POLICE. 245
But hark ! there are footsteps without. His friend’s voice is
heard :
” Hello, Gault! You’ve got good news, haven’t you ?
” Hush,” Mr. Gault replied. “Where is Mr. Elbright ?”
“Within here; step in.”
There was no need to arouse the father. He had heard the
conversation. There he sat with his hands stretched out upon
the arms of his chair, his teeth clenched, his gaze concentrated
upon the doorway through which Mr. Gault entered.
” Dead 1″ he whispered.
“No,” replied the policeman; “she is well, and is at police
headquarters. She wants to see you.”
” Thank God ! Thank—thank !” and the old man fell to the
floor in his joy. The good news was too much for him. He
had fainted.
But joy seldom kills. The aged manufacturer soon recovered
his senses. He went to headquarters, and in the Commissioners’
private room mot his daughter. They stood gazing at each other
a moment, and then, urged by the resistless waves of paternal
and filial love, rushed into each other’s arms. Then ensued the
most pathetic scene ever remembered at police headquarters. So
great was the joy of the reunited family that the father and
daughter lost strength to stand. The two returned to their home,
and the mother’s life was saved. A short time after the finding
of Christine Mr. Gault received a letter from Mr. Elbright,
covering nearly twenty pages of foolscap, in which the latter
sought to assure the former of the strength of his gratitude.
Tolliver Harris was one of the most desperate negro criminals
who ever made Baltimore his abode. He was a man of herculean
strength, the most vicious instincts, and endowed with more
than ordinary shrewdness and intelligence. Some years ago,
while Harris was living in Saluda, Virginia, he assaulted a young
woman, and only escaped lynching by being sentenced to be
hanged. But bolts and bars of the ordinary kind could not
restrain Tolliver. His ingenuity came into play, and one night,
while the keepers were congratulating themselves that they would
not have long to wait before Tolliver would be out of their keep-
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246 OUR POLICE.
ing, the negro was quietly making his way out of the prison and
securing his freedom. There was great excitement in Saluda
the following morning, when the citizens found that the law had
been cheated of its victim. Circulars describing the ruffian were
sent into every part of the country, but without any result.
Tolliver’s shrewdness made him disguise himself so effectually
that none but persons who were familiar with his habits would
have recognized him. He finally came to Baltimore and lived
here for some time without being suspected of the crimes of
which he was guilty. It was not less than two years after his
arrest that the chief of police of Saluda wrote to the marshal of
police of this city, informing him that Tolliver Harris was living
here in comparative security. The negro’s crime was so diabolical,
and his record so notorious, that the police were aroused
into most determined energy. The marshal of police gave the
case to Mr. Gault, and told him to see what he could do with it.
Tolliver, it was known, would fight, and would sell his life
dearly if it was necessary. Mr. Gault had already established
his reputation as a man who, when he went after anything, seldom
returned without it, and so considerable interest was manifested
in the department regarding the outcome.
It was very hard work to obtain in any sense a satisfactory
clue regarding Tolliver’s whereabouts. It was simply known
that he was in Baltimore. Finally, Mr. Gault ” located” him
in the ” Brick Yard,” a section of the city inhabited at that time
by the most degraded negroes. One particularly unpleasant
night in January, while the rain was falling in torrents, Mr.
Gault and another officer set out on their quest. When they
arrived at a place near which Tolliver lived, Mr. Gault began
to make inquiries. But these questions were without much result
until he found a little pickaninny, whom he asked :
” Does a lady named Mrs. Harris live about here ?
” Oh, yaas, sah,” was the reply. ” She lib right ober
yender.”
” And is her husband’s name Tolliver?”
” Oh, yaas, sah, dat are hees name, sah,” was the cheering
reply.
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OUR POLICE. 247
” Is he in, do you know ?”
” No, sah; he down among de canaal hoats, sah. ‘ He working
de coal.”
Here was a pleasant predicament for Mr. Gault. He was
with his companion, the only white man within a radius of many
squares. It is true that they were both heavily armed, but what
effect would that fact have upon a thousand maddened negroes,
who would assemble about them when they discovered the policemen’s
intentions. The officers had nothing to do, however, save
to stand without in the blinding storm and wait for Tolliver’s
return. This they did for nearly two hours, and succeeded in
getting chilled through. Finally, Mr. Gault said :
” I’m going into Tolliver’s house and wait for him. A tussle
out here in the lot wouldn’t be pleasant.”
Mr. Gault knocked on the door, and asked if Mr. Tolliver
Harris was in. The woman who appeared said that her husband
had not arrived home, but that she expected him almost every
minute. What was the gentleman’s business, and would he
kindly come in ? Yes, Mr. Gault would come in. And then he
perverted the truth in this wise :
” I’m down in the Custom House, and came up this way to
make a speech at a colored men’s meeting near here. I’ve heard
of Tolliver, and I called in with my brother here (indicating his
companion) to get Tolliver to receive a half boat-load of coal for
me at my house, and to fix a bin that I’ve got in my cellar.”
” Reckon he’ll do it,” said the woman.
The officers remained in the ruffian’s house fully half an hour
before there was any evidence of Tolliver’s returning. All this
time Mr. Gault passed in telling of his friendship for the negro
race, and rehearsing part of the speech which he said he was
•about to deliver. Suddenly the woman exclaimed :
” There they come !”
“Who ?” inquired Mr. Gault, with considerable anxiety, as it
would be a serious predicament for him to be in if Tolliver
should appear with a gang and discover who his visitors were.
“Why, Tolliver and his brother,” was the reply.
And sure enough two big negroes entered the room. Either
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248 OUR POLICE.
one of them was physically a match for both of the detectives.
But nothing daunted, Mr. Gault arose and said, before Tolliver
had a chance to think anything about the call, what he had
already told Mrs. Harris, adding, however, that he wanted him
(Tolliver) to come right around to his house, as the meeting would
not wait for him.
” Take your brother with you, Tolliver,” Mr. Gault suggested.
It was necessary for the officers to get the negroes away from
the neighborhood of their house, because if there was any rough
work to be done the noise of the struggle or the reports of the
pistols would alarm the whole neighborhood, and the policemen
would never leave the place alive. Tolliver seemed contented
to leave the house with his brother, and so started out. The
four men chatted together on their way down town, but the officers
could not in any way persuade the negroes to walk in front
of them. Finally the party got down nearly to Baltimore street,
in the more frequented part of the city. The negroes were very
close behind the officers, and Mr. Gault turned suddenly, grabbed
at Tolliver, but the negro leaped aside towards the street, where
he ran into a horse and knocked the animal out into the car-track.
Then Tolliver ran like a deer up the street. Bang, bang, went
the officers’ revolvers, and Mr. Gault and his companion pursued.
But it was hard to ” wing” Tolliver. On, on he went, gradually
increasing his distance until, as luck had it, the fugitive tumbled
upon a gutter covering, and before he had regained his feet Mr.
Gault was upon him using the butt of his revolver as a club.
Mr. Gault hammered the negro’s head until it was a mass of
blood, and after a terrible struggle, in which both the prisoner
and his captor were nearly exhausted, got the handcuffs on
the captive. As Mr. Gault did this he turned and saw Tolliver’s
brother standing by looking on.
“What are you doing there ? ” the officer shouted, presenting
his revolver and firing three shots over the darkey’s head. Harris
never answered, but started on a lope down the street, every now
and then turning his affrighted face over his shoulder to see if
Mr. Gault was following. He did not stop until he got home,
and then he rushed in carrying the door with him. After several
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OUR POLICE. 249
struggles with his prisoner, Mr. Gault got him to the Central
station. Tolliver was sent back to Saluda, where he is now serving
a term of 25 years, to which his death sentence was afterward
commuted.
Mr. Gault had an exceedingly exciting experience in 1876.
In August of that year the citizens of Frederick City, Md., and
the farmers in the vicinity, complained to the Governor that
householders and respectable persons of all classes were held in
the most abject terror by a gang of ruffians which made Sugarloaf
Mountain its rendezvous. These complaints multiplied daily,
until one morning the entire county was aroused by a dastardly
crime committed by two members of the gang, Scot Andrews and
Charles Nichols. These men ravished a mountain girl of great
beauty, and left her on the side of the Sugarloaf for dead. This
crime was the climax. Governor Carroll called tha attention of
the Baltimore police to it, and Marshal Gray detailed Detective
Gault to find the men and arrest them. The search was a long
and dangerous one. The criminals were leaders of as desperate
a gang as ever dwelt in the Maryland mountains. Eut Mr.
Gault was sent to get them, and he no more turned back than a
sleuth-hound does when after his quarry. He followed these men,
accumulating evidence against them all the while, through Maryland
and Ohio, and finally into the mountain districts of the
latter State. He at last located them in a place named Black
Creek. It was a mere hamlet, consisting of a few houses, one
or two stores, a tavern, and a flag pole.
This place Mr. Gault entered as a ” drummer.” He announced
to the assembled villagers that he had a fine stock of Irish linens
and plaids, and that he was prepared to sell them cheap. The
appearance of a “drummer” had never occurred before in Black
Creek, and the hamlet immediately began to assume the importance
of a commercial centre. But while the villagers were discs
cussing the great mercantile significance of Mr. Gault’s visit, the
latter was closeted with the sheriff, showing him his credentials
as a detective, and asking for assistance in arresting the offenders.
The sheriff assigned one deputy to the duty of helping Mr. Gault.
It was then the detective’s duty to ascertain where the criminals
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250 OUR POLICE.
were, what their surroundings were, and the probable trouble he
would experience in arresting them. These bits of information
he was not long in securing, and not one of them was encouraging.
They all pointed to the certainty of having an extremely hard
time of it. But with the deputy sheriff, an officer who had
accompanied him from Baltimore, and a guide, he sallied forth.
The house in which the men lived was situated on the summit
of a mountain, in the centre of a small clearing. The men
who owned the house had the reputation of being moonshiners,
among other accomplishments, and had acquired by long and
uninterrupted industry the reputation of being particularly bad
men. It was nearly dinner hour. Soon a woman made her
appearance before the house, and presenting a great cow’s horn,
blew a blast that aroused all the echoes for miles around. It was
the summons to dinner. In groups of two and three the mountaineers
could be seen approaching the house.
” Which are the strangers, Sam ?” Mr. Gault inquired of the
guide.
” There they be,” was the reply as two stalwart young fellows
came out of the forest.
“Ah !” ejaculated Mr. Gault, meditatively as he felt for his
revolvers. It was no use for him to try to persuade the deputysheriff
or guide to accompany him into the house to arrest the
men. They said they had families and lived in that section of
the country, and if they were killed in any case like this their
families would starve. There was nothing left for Mr. Gault to
do but to go into the den of criminals alone, and take out of it
two men who were giants in stature and extremely desperate.
There was no one else to do it. So he stationed his aids at the
front and rear of the house, among the forest trees, and then
waited himself until the men had all seated themselves at dinner.
Then he walked quietly up to the house, threw the doors of the
dining room open, and said loudly :
” Hello, Scot, how are you! ”
The larger of the two men leaped to his feet and stammered:
” H-h-how are—,” and extended his hand toward Mr. Gault,
who rushed to him .and snapped the “bracelets” on his wrists.
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OUR POLICE. 251
To place another pair on the hands of his companion, Nicols,
was the work of a moment, so surprised were they. Then the
detective drew his formidable looking weapons, and said to the
crowd:
” Gentlemen, these are my prisoners, and the people of the
State of Maryland want them. I’m going to take them home
with me for ravishing a young girl. They are guilty, and they
know it.”
At this a savage looking fellow arose from the head of the
table, and said : ” Then you ain’t a revenue officer? ”
“No,” was Mr. Gault’s reply. “I’m a Baltimore policeman,
and I have followed these men all the way from Frederick City,
Maryland. I want them for the crime I told you.”
” Then, by , you shall have them !” came the answer.
The prisoners were escorted down to Black Creek, and after
some legal matters concerning the extradition papers were attended
to, Mr. Gault and his prisoners boarded a train for
Frederick City. There they found the militia drawn up in a
hollow square to receive them. Andrews and Nicols were subsequently
tried, but such was the public terror of the gang to
which they belonged, and because during the trial the gang
threatened the jurymen with destruction of their property if their
verdict was unfavorable to the prisoners, no agreement was reached.
In the latter part of June, 1876, a Pole named Joseph Lewandowski
robbed one of his countrywomen named Mrs. Lenka,
who lived in the lower part of the city, of her life’s savings,
amounting to between $2,000 and $3,000. Mrs. Lenka notified
the police and the marshal placed the matter in the hands of
Detective Gault. After a long and persistent search the latter
learned that Lewandowski had been living in Detroit, Michigan,
dissipating the stolen money. The detective hurried to Detroit,
but only to find that his man had changed his residence to the
Canadian side of the Detroit river. By means of a decoy letter
from a Polish girl whom the thief had betrayed during his stay
in Michigan, Lewandowski was enticed on to United States soil
and promptly arrested.
With his manacled prisoner in charge the Baltimore detective
………………………………………………………………………………………
252 OUR POLICE.
started for home. Lewandowski was quiet and obedient all the
first day of the journey and gave no trouble to his captor. On
the second day, however, he frequently complained of cramps in
the bowels. Detective Gault removed the man’s handcuffs whenever
he was attacked with pains and accompanied him to the
men’s toilet-room. He locked the irons in his hand-bag which
he kept in the rack over his seat. The detective found himself
obliged to do this as the passengers persisted in handling the
manacles when he left them on the seat. His pistol was also in
the hand-bag. A little before noon he and his prisoner returned
from the toilet-room. The detective reached up for the bag to
take the irons from it. When he turned again Lewandowski was
half-way up the car rushing towards the open door.
” Stop him! Stop him!” cried Gault, frantically, as he
dashed after the fleeing criminal; but no one moved.
The detective reached the platform just as the fellow stooped
down and jumped from the car. They were speeding along at
the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. Gault called to the conductor,
who was sitting at the other end of the car, to stop the
train. • The latter did so at once, but before they could come to
a stand-still, nearly a mile had been put between the detective
and his desperate prisoner. Gault started on a run down the
track. It was in the midst of the wild mountain country along
the border between West Virginia and Ohio. Not a human habitation
was in sight. The detective finally came to the spot where
the Pole had jumped from the train. The marks in the soft sand
showed plainly where the man had fallen; but he had disappeared
and there was no trace to indicate what direction he had
taken in his flight. On all sides were tall, craggy mountains.
Across a narrow marsh which bordered on the track was the
mouth of a deep ravine. Believing it most likely that the man
•would start for this point in trying to make his escape, the detective
hazarded the chance and followed in that direction. The
ravine finally led up a steep mountain-side. On and on went the
pursuer, fording swift-running brooks, dodging under the trunks
of fallen trees and climbing over moss-covered rocks, scarcely noticing
whither his way led, only scanning the woods eagerly for
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OUR POLICE. 253
gome trace of the object of his chase. For two long hours the
detective pushed onward, and still he found no mark of the fleeing
man. At last, having come nearly to the summit of the
mountain, he sank worn out and disheartened upon a bank of
moss. Deploring his bad luck he was about to turn back from
his fruitless chase, when suddenly he noticed on the ground a
little way ahead of him a fresh wad of brown tissue paper. The
sight made the detective leap from his resting-pace. On the
train he had handed Lewandowski a similar wad of paper and the
man had put it in his coat pocket. Running on a few rods further
Gault reached a small rocky plateau, the very summit of the
mountain. Below there stretched out a beautiful green valley.
The instant the detective glanced down over the scene his eye fell
on the form of a man walking across a small clearing by the side
of a brook, almost a mile away. Gault recognized Lewandowski
at once. The latter saw his pursuer at the same moment, and
tearing off his boots and coat ran like a deer. The detective tumbled
rather than ran down the steep mountain-side. Finally he
reached the spot where he had seen his prisoner. The man’s
coat and boots lay upon the ground where he had thrown them,
but there were no signs of footprints visible. Following up the
direction which he had seen the man take, the detective was just
about passing by the mouth of a second ravine, when in a muddy
place he spied the tracks of a man’s bare feet. With renewed
hope he ran on through the ravine, finally coming out upon a
railroad track at the other end of it, where a gang of men were at
work. They stood loaning against their picks and shovels and
looking down the track as if something unusual had just attracted
their attention. Gault called out to them asking if they had
seen anybody running in that direction'(
“Yes, a barefooted man just ran into the woods down there,”
replied the foreman of the gang. ” What’s the matter ?”
” He has murdered a man, and there is a $1,000 reward for
his arrest,” replied the detective, breathlessly, hoping to induce
some of the laborers to aid him in the chase by exciting their
cupidity. But the ruse was of no avail. Gault was obliged to
keep up the pursuit alone. After going about three-quarters of
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254 OUR TOLICK.
a mile further he came to a farm-house. The farmer stood in the
yard with a hoe over his shoulder. On the porch a young woman
lay screaming hysterically, while two othter women were endeavoring
to calm her. The farmer, in reply to inquiries, told Gault
that a man had rushed through his house a few moments before,
knocking down furniture and frightening his daughter into a
spasm. They thought the fellow was mad. He had run through
the farm-yard and up the mountain in the rear. The farmer
could not be induced to join in the chase, so the detective was
again obliged to continue alone. He forged his way up the side
of the mountain, which was wet from recent rains. The criminal’s
foot-prints were plainly visible. When he had gone about
a quarter of a mile the detective heard the cracking of a twig,
and looking ahead of him he saw Lewandowski standing behind
a large tree. The man was panting for breath. The perspiration
was rolling from his body. His eyes protruded from their sockets
and gave his livid countenance a frightful appearance. For
several seconds the two men stood facing each other, both trying
to recover breath for the terrible struggle that was about to ensue.
The Pole was stout and muscular, but the detective though a
much smaller man was in better condition. The silence was
broken by the latter.
“Come down here and surrender,” he shouted, “or I’ll blow
your brains out!” And Gault reached around as if to draw his
pistol, although he knew he had no weapon with him.
The maddened criminal made some reply in his own tongue
and rushed at the detective. The two men clinched. Down the
hill-side they rolled together, struggling desperately all the time,
into a puddle of soft mire. Finally Gault by his superior knowledge
of wrestling succeeded in getting on top and forced the prisoner’s
face deep into the mud. Being unable to breathe, the
man’s struggles soon ceased, and when the detective lifted him up
he was in a condition of semi-consciousness. When he could
speak again he agreed to surrender and was led to the farm-house,
where his captor tied his elbows together behind his back. A
small flag-station of the railroad was near by, and within an hour
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the detective and his prisoner were again on their way to Baltimore.
As they boarded the train the men were in a most painful condition.
They were covered with blood and mire and their clothing
was in shreds. Gault had left his ticket and his money in
his satchel on the other train, and not being able to pay the fares,
the conductor was on the point of putting the two off the train
when a gentleman who knew the detective happened along and
lifted him out of his dilemma. At Grafton Mr. Gault recovered
his satchel, which had been left there by the conductor of the
other train.
The two men arrived in Baltimore the following morning.
The news of Lewandowski’s escape had been telegraphed on the
night before and the Marshal expected to receive Gault without
his prisoner. He was no less surprised than gratified, therefore,
at seeing the detective enter the office in company with the
Pole.
Gault’s own right arm was in a sling, and two of his fingers
were broken. Lewandowski pleaded guilty of robbing Mrs.
Lenka and was sentenced to five years imprisonment in the
Maryland penitentiary.
Mr. Gault’s experiences have been so many that there is not
space enough in a brief biographical notice to give any but the
briefest of them. There have been very few important cases
in the detective department during the last ten years in which
he has not figured very prominently. As an evidence of what
his superiors think of his ability, it is only necessary to say that
he has at present the most important regular assignment of any
man in the squad. He is detailed to guard the banks and
moneyed institutions of the city.
Detective George W. Seibold was born in Saratoga street,
near Fremont street, on February 15, 1839. He leceived his
early education in the public schools of this city. As a young
man he was employed in various businesses until 1863, when on
July 28, he received an appointment as patrolman in the
Western district, the headquarters of which was then the old
Greene street station. On December 8, 1864, he was made a
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256 OUR POLICE.
sergeant, and the following winter, on December 13, was promoted
to be lieutenant. He served in that capacity until April
23, 1867, when the force was reorganized. The new commissioners
appointed him a reserve officer and acting clerk at the
Western district station, under his former captain, “William II.
Cassell, who was reappointed. On March 23, 1874, he received
a commission as a patrol sergeant, which position he held until
he joined the detective squad, on September 6, 1881, taking the
place of William C. Crone, who resigned.
On January 14, 1871, when a reserve officer under Captain
Cassell, Mr. Seibold arrested “Dr.” Ernest Schaar, a notorious
confidence man and swindler, whose victims were generally poor
persons. His method was to go to some German grocer, and
showing a lot of receipts and papers, say that he had a small
quantity of tea, coffee, or sugar in a warehouse in the business portion
of the city. It was, he would explain, the remnant of a large
stock which he had just closed out. He would bargain with the
grocer to sell the goods at a sacrifice, and would induce him to send
his wife or a boy with a basket to get the stuff, telling the man to
give them the money to pay him. He would then conduct the boy
or woman to the alleged warehouse, which was always situated on
the corner of two streets, so as to have a side entrance. Arriving
at the place, he would tell his victim to give him the money and
wait for him on the sidewalk till he brought down the goods.
Then he would go into the office of the warehouse, and after
asking a question or two of some clerk, slip out of the side
entrance to the building and disappear. The charge upon which
Schaar was arrested by Officer Seibold was preferred by John
Schutte, a shopkeeper in the eastern part of the city, from whom
Schaar got ten dollars in the manner described. The swindler
was convicted and sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment in
the Maryland penitentiary.
On August 24, 1872, Detective Seibold, who was then patrol
sergeant at the Western Station, arrested John Connell, alias
William Baldwin, a clever burglar, whose portrait adorns the
rogues’ galleries of many cities. He was charged with breaking
into and robbing the dwellings of Messrs. George Biscoe and
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OUR POLICE. 257
Lewis M. Cole, near Woodbury, Baltimore County. Connell
was convicted at Towsontown and sent to the penitentiary for
five years from March 10, 1873. He was again arrested on
February 12, 1883, by Detectives Seibold and Droste, charged
with robbing the dwelling of Mrs. Olivia Kimberly, on Calhoun
street, and four other houses on Hollins street. He pleaded
guilty, and was again sentenced to the Maryland penitentiary
for five years. Connell always worked alone. The silverware,
clothing, etc., that he stole from the houses on Hollins street he
hid in the cellar of a vacant building in the same row. The
detectives arrested him while he was at supper in an eating-house
near the Broadway Market.
In the early summer of 1874, the residences of Andrew Reid
at No. 75 Mount Vernon Place, and Mrs. C. 0. Bassford, at No.
313 Park avenue, were entered, the thief carrying away large
quantities of clothing, jewelry, etc. Sergeant Seibold arrested
William H. Dorsoy, colored, on suspicion of being the burglar.
When searched Dorsey was found to have some of the stolen
articles on his person, and other stolen articles were recovered
from where he had secreted them. He was convicted and sentenced
to the Maryland penitentiary for five years and four
months, from October, 1874. He was arrested on July 13.
The long time which elapsed between his arrest and his trial was
caused by the obstructions which the man’s counsel put in the
way of the prosecuting officers. A removal of the case to another
county was demanded, and the trial took place in Baltimore
county. This was not the first time Mr. Seibold arrested Dorsey.
In October, 1869, the policeman, with Sergeant Cadwallader,
now captain of the Western district, arrested him and another
negro burglar, named Wilson, for entering the dwellings of J. R.
Clark, Thomas II. Folsom, Leander Warren, Mrs. Theodore
Appold, and others, and stealing more than $3,000 worth of goods.
Dorsey turned State’s evidence at his trial and escaped punishment.
His father then sent him to Navassa Island. On his return
in 1874, he again began to commit the burglaries which ended
in his arrest.
Sergeant Seibold, in company with officer Connery. of the
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I
258 OUR POLICE.
Northwestern district, on November 17, 187G, arrested William
Jennis, colored, alias Brooks, alias Joe Russell, a notorious
burglar and sneak, who was charged with burglariously entering
the dwellings of Mr. P. E. Kent, No. 85 North Carey street;
Mr. Moses Kahn, No. 26G West Fayette street; H. R. Williar,
North Carey street, and others, and stealing money, silverware,
jewelery, clothing, etc. He was tried and convicted in the
Criminal Court of Baltimore, and sentenced to the penitentiary for
six years, from January 27, 1877. Jennis was arrested also on
February 20, 1874, for robbing the dwelling of Mr. George W.
Flack, No. 142 Mulberry street. He then gave the name of
Joseph Russel. He was sent to the penitentiary for one year.
This man worked alone, and invariably entered a dwelling house
from the rear by climbing sheds, porches or lattice work to the
second story window, while the family was below at supper. He
always used the old fashioned blue head sulphur matches, which
were found plentifully strewn about the floors, in the bureau
drawers, etc. His work was frequently identified by these
matches. About six months after his last release from prison, he
went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and robbed several houses
there. He was caught, tried, and sent to Cherry Hill prison for
twelve years.
Shortly after his appointment as a detective, Mr. Seibold
became officially connected with the sensational case of Harriet
Dennis, alias a score of other names, the colored female Fagin
whose villanies caused so much horror in this city when they were
discovered, in November, 1881. Harriet Dennis was a repulsive
looking negress, about forty years of age. She was in the habit
of answering advertisements inserted in the newspapers for cooks.
She had a little girl with her which lent her an appearance of
respectability, and usually aided her in securing situations. As
soon as she was installed in a place she would locate the money
and valuables in the house and remain long enough to get an
opportunity to steal them. She would then hastily decamp and
disappear from the city, turning up some weeks afterward with
a new name, and repeat her operation in some other house. The
little girl she used as a spy to find out the location of the valua-
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OUR POLICE. 259
bles, and afterward as a guard to warn her if anybody should
approach while she was engaged in the stealing. This woman
continued her depredations in the city and in Baltimore county
for two years before she was finally captured. At last, on
November 6, 1881, Mr. Samuel Rosenthal made a complaint that
his house had been robbed of a watch and chain and other articles,
and at the same time a new colored cook whom his wife had
engaged the previous day had disappeared. Detectives Seibold
and Gault were assigned to the case. They came to the conclusion
that the colored cook was Harriet Dennis, notwithstanding
the fact that this time she had no child with her. Being led to
suspect from several circumstances that the negress would attempt
to pawn the stolen articles at a certain pawnbroker’s office, Detective
Seibold went to the place and disguising himself as a clerk
there, waited for developments. They were not long in transpiring,
for on the following morning the looked-for negress appeared
with the watch and chain. The detective waited on the
thief, and she showed him a note purporting to come from a woman
on Raborg street, asking for a loan of §20 on the property.
Recognizing the watch as the one belonging to Mr. Rosenthal,
Detective Seibold arrested the negress. On finding herself captured
at last, she broke into loud and violent lamentations. She
was conducted to the marshal’s office and searched. Amona; other
things found on her person was a fetich bag, or ” lucky bag,” as
she called it, a small leathern pouch filled with herbs, small pieces
of bones, fragments of leaves, etc. When this was taken from
her the woman burst into violent weeping again and begged piteously
to have it returned to her. She admitted that she was the
person who had committed so many robberies within the previous
two years. When asked where the little girl was who had accompanied
her on previous occasions, the woman stubbornly refused to
answer. She admitted, however, that the child was not her daughter,
but asserted that the little one was an orphan who had been
given to her to care for. The detectives having captured the
woman, were determined to complete their undertaking, and finding
a clew to the place where she was in the habit of taking
refuge after having committed a theft, they went thither and
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260 OUR POLICE.
learned that the girl was living with a respectable family in Greene
street, near Lombard street, in this city. At this dwelling the
girl was discovered and taken to police headquarters, where she
described in detail the actions of the woman. Among other
things she said that Dennis had had her arrested on Christmas
eve of the previous year on the charge of stealing a dollar, and
sent to Towsontown jail, so as to prevent her from exposing the
thefts, as she had threatened to. The girl had by that time
become old enough to understand the criminality of the deeds,
and she had refused to participate in them any longer. As it was
proved that the woman had put the money on the girl for the
purpose of convicting her, the prisoner was released. The girl
then said that the woman was not her mother, and had stolen her
from her parents and taught her to steal. The police records
were searched and a clew obtained which finally led to the
reuniting of the girl and her parents. It was discovered that on
January 20, 1873, nearly eight years previously, Ida Reilly, aged
seven years, daughter of John and Victoria Reilly, colored, had
been kidnapped from her parents’ house on the Philadelphia road,
by, it was supposed, a colored woman who lived next door, and
who had disappeared at the same time, leaving her husband behind
her. The parents of the child had advertised for their missing
daughter, and searched everywhere without success, though in
one instance the woman came near being detected by a piece of
dress pattern which she had left at her home. The parents, who
had given up all hope of ever finding their child, were taken before
the girl. The moment the mother, father, and daughter were
brought into each other’s presence a striking resemblance was
noticeable. They gazed at one another, trembling in every limb,
and as each point of recognition, such as a mark on the girl’s
throat, and her recollection of past scenes and incidents were
brought out, the father and mother gave utterances to their feelings
in illiterate, but pathetic exclamations, while the little one
cried and shook with joy. To establish the child’s identity beyond
dispute, all three persons were taken before the woman Dennis,
who confessed having stolen the girl, and corroborated all that
she had asserted concerning her parents, and Mr. and Mrs. Reilly
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OUR POLICE. 261
returned home overcome with joy, taking their daughter with
them. The woman Dennis was tried and convicted of stealing
Mr. Rosenthal’s watch, and Judge Pinckney sentenced her to
four years imprisonment in the penitentiary.
On January 19, 1882, Detective Seibold captured August
Schumann alias Walters, alias Miller, alias Brennan. The
story of his career is exceedingly interesting. He was born in
Germany in 1821, of a wealthy and respected Bavarian family
living in Berlin. He studied for the priesthood. Like many
other young German students, whether ecclesiastical or otherwise,
his habits became dissolute. One time as a favor to one of the
professors of his university, who was ill, he went with a large
draft to a bank and cashed it, returning the money to its owner.
Noticing how readily the bank paid the money to him, he forged
another draft a few days later for a still larger amount. The
bank cashed it without question, and the young man sailed for
America. Here he became acquainted with a large number of
priests, and lived for many months upon the hospitality of the
pastors of various Catholic churches, usually departing only after
cleverly swindling his benefactors out of a sum of money, larger
or smaller, as the opportunity offered. He traveled in this way
nearly all over the United States, and accumulated a, small fortune
before he was caught, and sentenced to a short term in prison for
a small offence in Wisconsin. Upon his release he made a long
tour through South and Central America, and finally went to
Australia. In Sydney, N. S. W., he was convicted of swindling
and sentenced to five years imprisonment. After serving this
term he returned to the United States. His second career here
was not so successful as his first, for he was caught several times
and suffered a number of sentences of from one to three years
before he came to Baltimore, where Detective Seibold captured
him.
In December, 1882, he gained the confidence of Father Zeigler
of Saint Alphonsus’ church, and left a number of papers and
bogus checks in the priest’s hands. On December 23, he appeared
at the priest’s house and said that he was pressed for
money. It being after banking hours the priest saw no harm in
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262 OUR POLICE.
cashing a check for §400, and did so without any hesitation.
On the following day when he presented the check for payment,
the reverend gentleman was amazed to learn that it was worthless.
The authorities were notified, but Schumann was no where to be
found, so quiet was his actions, until the middle of January
following. On the fifteenth of that month, he called upon Father
Danenhower, of St. James’ Catholic church, and requested him
to cash several checks. The priest pursuaded Schumann to leave
the papers, which he did. The former then immediately went to
the banking house of Messrs. Nicholson & Sons, where his suspicions
that the checks were worthless were verified. The police
authorities were notified at once. Detective Seibold was detailed
upon the case. After a diligent search of three days he found
the man in a house in Hanover street. Schumann was convicted
on the charge of obtaining $400 from Father Ziegler and sentenced
to two years imprisonment. His portrait has graced
Baltimore’s rogues’ gallery for many years.
During the years 1882 and 1883 Mr. Cowman, of the drygoods
firm of M. Cowman & Co., was annoyed by having his
store robbed at short intervals of small sums of money. These
robberies, he discovered, after they had continued for some time,
always took place at night, and the money was usually abstracted
from a tin box which was kept under the regular
money-drawer. He suspected all of his employees in turn,
until he satisfied himself of each one’s innocence. The peculiar
feature was that although the doors of the shop, having
been locked securely at night, were always found undisturbed
the next morning, the peculations continued with unbroken
regularity. Sometimes not more than $3 would be taken, at
other times as much as $ 10. Mr. Cowman at last called upon
the police for help. Detective Seibold was detailed upon the
case. For some nights he and Mr. Cowman watched the entrance
to the store from a position on the opposite side of the
street. No one was seen to enter, still it was found that
money had been stolen. At last the detective asked to be
locked up alone in the store. This was done by Mr. Cowman
after all the employees had left in the evening. At half-past
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OUR POLICE. 263
ten o’clock, while he was sitting in the back part of the shop
without any light other than that which shone in from an electric
lamp on the opposite side of the street, detective Seibold
heard a noise in a rear room. A few moments afterward the
transom over the door just above the officer’s head was opened,
and the woolly skull of a young negro appeared. An instant later
his body came through the opening and the fellow let himself
drop softly down upon the floor. Although it was almost quite
dark in the place at the time, the negro noticed a shadow where
the detective was sitting. He turned to advance that way when
Mr. Seibold sprang at his throat, wrenching it so as to render
him unconscious for a few moments. The ” nippers” were on
the burglar’s wrists before he recovered his senses. Dragging
his prisoner to the front of the store, Detective Seibold rapped
on the glass of the front door and Mr. Cowman unlocked it for
him. The negro turned out to be James Gates, who had been
employed by Cowman & Co. about two years previously. He confessed
that he had been getting through a small window in the
rear of the establishment ever since he was discharged, by going
up a small alley back of the store. Gates was convicted and
sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment in the penitentiary.
Detective Seibold went to New York city on May 26, 1884,
and in company with Detective Thomas F. Adams, of Inspector
Byrnes’ staff, arrested August Lydecker alias George Kline, the
confidence man and swindler, who was charged with obtaining a
gold watch and chain valued at $75, by means of a worthless check
passed on Mr. Charles F. Wagler, thejeweler in West Pratt street.
Lydecker was brought back on a requisition. In the autumn of
1886, after being released, Lydecker remained in Baltimore until
December 1, when he went to New York city, and on February 15,
1887, he went to Tiffany’s jewelry store, and representing himself
as a nephew of the Rev. Dr. Sayle, and upon presenting a
forged letter of credit, obtained a valuable gold watch and
chain, was caught almost immediately near the store by a special
officer employed by the firm. He was convicted and sent to
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264 OUR POLICE.
Sing Sing prison for eight years. Lydecker on one occasion
went to a prominent undertaker in Broadway, New York, in
great distress, and said that a particular friend of his had died,
and that he wanted him huried as nicely as he could afford. He
selected a casket and gave the undertaker the number of the
house in which the dead man was lying. Then telling the undertaker
to make out the bill, which was $55, he gave him a check
for $75, getting $20 change. When the undertaker went to deliver
the casket he found that there was no dead man in the
house.
On February 15, 1887, Detective Seibold accomplished a very
clever piece of work and made an important arrest in Ellicott
City. On the Saturday night previous to the arrest, the dwelling
of Mr. Isaac Strassburger, in Main street, Ellicott City,
was entered during the absence of the family. The thief broke
open a trunk containing a pocketbook in which was $200, made
up of one $100 bill, four $20 bills, two $5 bills and $10 in silver.
Chief of Police Vansant considered the robbery a very mysterious
one. Captain of detectives Freburger, in this city, was
applied to for assistance. He detailed Detective Seibold to
cover the case. After consulting with the Ellicott City chief
of police, the detective learned that suspicion pointed to a colored
woman named Lizzie Johnston. The woman was known as a
shrewd negress who, up to a month previously, had been a domestic
in Mr. Strassburger’s family. She lived about half a
mile from the city. Detective Seibold disguised himself as a
peddler, obtaining the outfit from a ” fakir ” who had been arrested
a few days before in Ellicott City. Providing himself
with a small tin trunk which contained spectacles, suspenders
and a few cheap watches, Detective Seibold started out to ply
his new vocation. The woman Johnston was leaning out of the
window when the detective rapped at a door several houses above,
and waited until he came to her door, and after long dickering
bought a silver watch for $6.
” Can you change a note, sir?” asked the woman,
” I f not too large, madam,” replied the peddler.
The woman went into the basement, and after remaining ten
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OUR POLICE. 265
minutes returned and gave the detective a new crisp $100 bill,
which she said was $10. Giving her $4 change the detective
left. Being satisfied that he had found the guilty party, he reported
the fact to State’s Attorney Joseph Maguire and Chief of
Police Vansant. A search warrant was obtained and the woman
was put under arrest. In the cellar of the house about $70 of
the remaining money was recovered. This included three of the
$20 bills and most of the silver coins. Having completed his
work Detective Seibold returned to Baltimore covered with
glory. The newspapers contained detailed accounts of his adventure
and he was loaded with congratulations.
Detective Seibold while an officer in the old Western district
made many very important arrests in connection with sergeant,
now captain, Cadwallader. The district at that time included
what are at present the Northwestern and the Southwestern
districts. Mr. Seibold is well versed in the German language,
and this fact has been of the greatest importance to him in his
career as a detective.
In the midst of the fertile agricultural lands of Howard
county, Maryland, lie the well cultivated acres of farmer John
W. Rhine. The old white farm-house, covered with running
rose-vines and trumpet creeper, is half hidden from the broad
Marriettsville turnpike, near which it stands, by a row of thick
boughed young maples that line the road in front of the door
yard. The 26th of April, 1886, had been a bright, warm, spring
day, and Mr. Rhine and his two hired men, wearied after long
hours of labor in the fields, retired to bed as soon as they finished
their evening chores. A feeling of well-earned satisfaction filled
the breast of the thrifty farmer as he closed the doors of his trim
barn and granary, and glancing through the small windows saw
his eight well-fed horses contentedly munching their evening oats.
The moon was just rising over the distant hills into the starlit
heavens when the last light in the farm-house was extinguished.
All was still save for the merry chirrup of the crickets. The
big black Newfoundland watch dog had buried his nose
between his paws on the front porch after having made a final
tour about the yard, when a sinister visaged old man with white
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266 OUR POLICE.
hair and a stubby gray moustache clambered stiffly over a stone
wall on the opposite side of the road and made his way silently
toward the shadow of the budding maple trees. The man had a
peculiar limping gait, and his clothing, as shown in the bright
moonlight, was old and patched, like that of an ordinary farm
hand. As he shuffled stealthily along under the trees the big
dog came out to meet him. It was evident that the animal knew
the man, for he did not bark at him, but walked along wagging
his bushy tail and looking up into the old man’s face in a manner
that might have indicated surprise or wonderment on the part of
the intelligent brute. At the entrance to the farm yard, a few
rods beyond the house, the man stooped and caressed the dog for
a moment. Then snapping his fingers for the animal to follow,
he led him to a kennel close by. Suspicious, yet obedient, the
dog allowed himself to be chained there, and then lay down
quietly, as the old man left him and walked toward the barn.
Passing around to the rear entrance he poked a stick up through
a knot-hole in one of the boards, and lifting the latch on the
inside, opened the door without a noise. A moment later the
sound of horses’ hoofs as they sprang to their feet in their stalls
was heard, and then all was quiet again until the old man reappeared
leading a large heavily built bay mare out into the barn
yard. He walked the animal around to the door of the granary,
where he tied her to a ring in the side of the building. Then by
poking a stick through a knot-hole in the door, as before, he entered
the granary. The sound of horses’ hoofs was again heard, and in
a few minutes the old man again reappeared leading a neat limbed
young colt, across the back of which a blanket was strapped with
a surcingle. Fastening the colt to the same ring to which he had
tied the big mare, he loosened the latter and led her into the
granary, where he left her.
Then taking the docile colt by its headstall, the man made his
way around the barn and down to the road, only stopping to
speak a few low, pacifying words to the Newfoundland dog, which,
at the sight of the colt, had begun to tug at his chain and growl.
A short distance down the road the man again tied the colt and
returned to the barn and granary, in each of which he remained
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OUR POLICE. 267
for several minutes. When he left he did so hastily, looking
cautiously about him, and then hobbling diagonally across the
adjoining newly planted cornfield to the spot where he had left
the colt. The animal suffered itself to be led close up to the
stone wall, from which the old man clambered upon its back.
They then disappeared quickly down the road.
It had grown late, and some young farmers, a few minutes
afterwards, were returning along the turnpike towards Carroll’s
Manor on their way home from a rural entertainment. They
had passed by the thrifty looking farm-yard and were speaking,
perhaps somewhat enviously, of farmer Rhine’s well filled barn
and granary, when suddenly a bright light burst out about them.
Each man wheeled in his tracks as if moved by the same instinct.
The entire roof of John Rhine’s great barn was a mass of red,
leaping flames.
” F i r e ! Fire!” shouted the young men, as they ran back in
the direction of the conflagration.
When they drew nearer they saw that the granary was also in
flames. They were too late to save anything. The fire fiend
raged in complete control of his prey. It was impossible to approach
either building. Both were burning fiercely from within.
Farmer Rhine and his family, suddenly awakened by the roar of
the flames, stood helplessly by in scanty clothing as they saw the
results of years of toil and economy wither away in the consuming
fire. The hired men at first hurried to dash pails of water through
the windows of the building, but it was a hopeless task, and the
heat, too, grew so intense that they were driven away. Half
dressed neighbors from adjoining farms began to hurry toward
Mr. Rhine’s house. They offered what words of consolation they
could, but in the intensity of his grief he scarcely heard them.
The roar of the flames increased as the roofs of the buildings
began to cave in. Burning brands flew high into the air and
floated away in the great column of brown smoke, till they became
scarcely distinguishable from the stars. Then the floors of both
the barn and the granary fell through. The heavy mowing
machine, which was standing on the barn floor, was heard as it
fell upon a new light buggy that had been Dut in the basement
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268 OXJR POLICE.
of the building the previous day. One of the great doors burned
from its hinges at the top, fell over, and the unfortunate horses
were seen still struggling in their horrible agony. In the granary
there were three horses. Some boards being burned away at the
top fell outward, and showed the poor animals here also kicking
and writhing in mortal pain.
The holocaust was soon over, and the neighbors with parting
words of sympathy dispersed to their homes. They had done
nothing. They could do nothing. Leaving one of the hired
men to keep watch, Mr. Rhine and the family sadly returned to
their beds to get what needed sleep they could.
Meanwhile the old man had ridden the colt rapidly in the
direction of Baltimore. It was evident that the jolting of the
animal caused him pain, for he grasped the animal’s mane tightly
to steady himself, and once in a while gave vent to a low curse.
When he had gone about two miles he drew his horse up on one
side of the road and turned his face in the direction from which
he had come. Thus far no one had passed him on the way. He
had been standing scarcely a minute when the blaze of light
burst out upon the sky from farmer Rhine’s burning barns.
Then quickly taking a firmer hold of the colt’s mane with one
hand, and in the other holding the halter which he had converted
into a bridle by tying it tightly around the animal’s under jaw,
he resumed his rapid ride towards Baltimore. At the outskirts
of the city the old man dismounted, and throwing away the blanket
and surcingle, began to lead the animal. The sun was peeping
above the tall roofs of the great city and had faded the gray
dawn into daylight when the first person appeared who had
crossed the old man’s path since he left Mr. Rhine’s farm-yard.
This man appeared to be a farmer. He was driving a two-horse
truck-wagon out toward the country. The old man stopped him,
and in broken English of a German accent, asked him to buy
the colt. But the farmer refused and drove on. The next person
the old man met was also a farmer, and to him, too, the colt
was unsuccessfully offered for sale.
Having been thus twice repulsed the man did not again approach
anybody until he reached the Marsh Market, where he
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OUR POLICE. 269
met a man named Quigley, an English gypsy, who lived in a
cottage at Homestead, Baltimore county. Quigley made a business
of trading horses, and he readily bought the colt when it
was offered to him for $75. The gypsy’s son, a bright, blackeyed
boy about eleven years old was standing by when his father
paid the old man the money. The latter took the roll of bills
eagerly, and with trembling hand unbuttoned a curious leathern
flap that covered his trousers pocket. He put the money in the
pocket, and after feeling of it carefully several times to make
sure it was there, laboriously buttoned the flap down again.
At the time when this scene was taking place the farm-yard of
Mr. Rhine in Howard county presented a rueful appearance.
The black, sooty ruins of his barn and granary lay within their
stone foundations, still smoking in some places. The charred
remains of the horses and other live stock lay half exposed in the
ashes.
It was a severe blow that had fallen upon farmer Rhine, and
the grief of his family was deep and poignant. But in their great
sorrow the calamity which seemed to sink deepest into their
hearts was the death of their beautiful colt, which they called
” Billy.” He was Mrs. Rhine’s particular pet. Her lamentations
were all for him.
“My poor Billy,” she cried; “burned to death. He will
never come to the door to beg for sugar again !” And the griefstricken
lady again burst into tears.
Farmer Rhine sat silently on the broad stone door-step of the
farm-house kitchen. A number of the neighbors dropped in to
see the results of the conflagration, and various speculations as
to the probable cause of the fire were discussed. An old maiden
lady who lived in a small cottage about a quarter of a mile down
the road advanced the opinion that it was the result of Divine
wrath, for she had seen Mr. Rhine trimming his grape vines on
the previous Sabbath. The suggestion was countenanced if not
exactly upheld by the Baptist dominie who had driven up in his
buggy. But the more practical neighbors were convinced that
the buildings must have been deliberately set on fire. Suddenly
a cry of surprise was heard from one of the farm-hands, who had
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270 OUR POLICE.
been poking over the ruins in idle curiosity with the long handle
of a rake which had been left standing against the barn the night
before, and the teeth of which had been burned away. He had
discovered that there were but four carcases lying underneath the
barn where five horses had been left the night before. The big
bay mare which had been in the middle stall was missing. A
hasty examination of the ruins of the granary showed three carcases
lying there, which was the right number. The incendiary,
then, was a thief, who had stolen the old mare and had burned
down the two buildings to conceal his crime ! It seemed too
heartless to be true. Yet there was the big bay missing while
the remains of the other animals were in their places.
Desperate with grief and indignation, Mr. Rhine hastened to
the nearest telephone and called up the marshal of the police in
Baltimore. Marshal Frey had just arrived at his office as the
telephone bell rang, and he answered it in person. He heard the
farmer’s brief story, and at once put the case into the hands of
detectives. Captain Lewis W. Cadwallader, a most able and
efficient officer, was at that time at the head of the detective bureau.
He immediately warned his men to look out for anybody
trying to sell a ” large round-bellied bay mare,” which was the
description the farmer had given of his missing animal.
Mr. Rhine came to Baltimore the same afternoon and called
upon the marshal. Captain Cadwallader’s detectives had returned
and reported that they could find no animal answering the description
given among the horses offered for sale in the city. Detectives
Freburger and Pontier said, however, that they had come upon a
young bay gelding in the hands of a gypsy named Quigley, who
lived out on the Belair road, in Baltimore county, which the
gypsy had purchased that morning under suspicious circumstances,
having paid only $75 for the animal, its real value being
nearer $250.
“You’d better go out and see the colt,” suggested the marshal
to Mr. Rhine.
“No; there’s no use in doing that,” replied the farmer in a
hopeless voice. ” My horse is a big bay mare. No one could
mistake her for a colt.”
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OUR POLICE. 271
•4
” But why not try it ?” persisted the marshal. ” This colt is
the only horse sold about here this morning by a stranger, and
the animal you describe is not in any stable in the city.”
But argument was useless. The farmer replied somewhat
peevishly that he had experienced enough trouble in one twentyfour
hours without undertaking a wild goose chase in addition.
He promised, however, to examine the carcases in the ruins when
he reached home, to make certain which horse was missing.
Heavy hearted, Mr. Rhine turned his face homeward.
As he entered the gate of his front yard his Avife met him and
cried excitedly: ” It’s colt ‘Billy’ that’s been stolen, not the
big mare!” —
” How do you know ?” demanded the farmer in astonishment.
” Why, the blacksmith was here, and he noticed that there
were shoes on all the dead horses, while the colt had never been
shod!”
Sure enough. The bay mare had been substituted in the colt’s
stall before the fire.
” Then the detectives were right after all,” exclaimed Mr.
Rhine. ” If it’s not too late; we will get back our ‘ Billy.’ ‘
A spark of joy lighted up the gloom that had fallen upon the
household, and preparations were made for the return of the
family pet. The thief had evidently placed the other horse in
the colt’s stall, so that if the loss was discovered a wrong description
would be given the police. Farmer Rhine was at police
headquarters in Baltimore next morning almost before the marshal.
Somewhat shamefacedly he apologized to Mr. Frey for
his stubbornness on the previous day, and begged to be directed
to the place where the gypsy Quigley lived. Captain Cadwallader
and detective Freburger, who had found the colt the
day before, went to Homestead with Mr. Rhine. As they approached
the place the latter recognized the colt standing in a
field, and gave a peculiar whistle. The animal raised his head,
and seeing his master, ran toward him with a neigh of joy.
Tears came to the farmer’s eyes as the affectionate beast stretched
its head over his shoulder and then sniffed at his pockets for
the accustomed lump of sugar. The gypsy allowed the colt to
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272 OUR POLICE.
be led away without protest when detective Seibold told him
how it had been stolen, and he gave a minute description of the
man from whom he had bought the animal.
* * * * * *
But the night of the conflagration was not the first appearance
of the old man on Mr. Rhine’s farm. The dastardly outrage
committed by the aged incendiary and thief was accompanied by
circumstances which made the crime doubly atrocious. It was a
chilly evening some months before the events above related took
place, when the same old man arrived, hungry, foot-sore and
shivering at the door of Mr. Rhine’s house. The man was so
old and his condition so pitiable that the kind-hearted farmer,
accustomed as he was to the sight of tramps, took him in and
gave him food and shelter. All through the winter until late in
the following March the old man was allowed to stay there. He
did light work about the place and received regular wages from
Mr. Rhine. On three occasions during that time he fell
sick and was nursed with motherly care by Mrs. Rhine. Toward
the close of March, just as the season was at hand when he might
have been of some use on the farm, the old man suddenly made
up his mind to go to Baltimore. The following day he left, after
bidding all a friendly adieu. What he did in Baltimore was
never known. He was of an extremely economical disposition,
in fact miserly, and he had in his possession the whole of the
wages Mr. Rhine had paid him during the winter. He was
probably living on this money up to the time he went out to his
benefactor’s farm on the night of April 20, and set his buildings
on fire.
For a long time the identity of the perpetrator of the outrage
was an unfathomable mystery. The detectives were certain that
he was some one who had lived on the farm, and were from the
first strongly inclined to suspect the old man, whose name was
Henry Leentoe. Mr. Rhine and every member of his household
were so positive, however, that “old Henry” would never be guilty
of such a crime, that the police did not publicly charge that he
was the guilty man. They hunted for him, nevertheless, high
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OUR POLICE. 273
and low throughout Baltimore and the State, but without success.
Finally Marshal Frey caused a thousand postal cards, containing
the description of the old man as given by the gypsy Quigley
and his little son, to be printed and sent to the police departments
in every part of the country. Several replies to the card
were received at the police headquarters, but none of them
proved satisfactory. On one occasion two detectives were sent
to Newberne, North Carolina, to look at a man who had been
arrested on suspicion in that town. But he proved an alibi and
was released. Finally, more than three months after the commission
of the crime, on the morning of July 26, 1886, the Marshal
found among the letters in his morning mail one bearing
the imprint of the sheriff’s office of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.
The letter stated that an aged German, who exactly answered
the description given of the barn-burner on the postal card
received from the Baltimore police headquarters, was in custody
at the Lancaster jail. The man was known in Lancaster county,
having been convicted there in 1870 of a similar crime, and sentenced
to twenty years imprisonment. He served the whole
term, less the commutation for good behavior. Detective Seibold
and patrolman Frank Devon were sent at once to Lancaster.
After interviewing the prisoner they were convinced that they
had run down the right man at last. In his possession were
found the trousers with the leathern flaps over the pockets,
which the son of the gypsy Quigley had described. The aged
prisoner was evidently accustomed to his surroundings in jail.
He was dogged when spoken to about barn-burning, however,
neither effectually denying nor admitting it.
The gypsy boy was sent for and the old man was brought before
him for identification in the midst of a dozen other aged prisoners.
The boy stepped up to him at once and pointed him out,
saying:
” Don’t you see he’s got something the matter with his eye,
the way I told you ?”
Mr. Rhine was then shown the prisoner, and recognized him
at once as “old Henry.” Not until that moment was the farmer
thoroughly convinced that he was the guilty man.
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274 OUR POLICE.
At the sight of Mr. Rhine the aged criminal endeavored to
turn away. Hardened as he was, he was unable to meet the eye
of the man whose kindness he had abused so atrociously. The
farmer did not speak. “With one reproachful glance at the prisoner
he turned and left the room.
A requisition signed by the Governor of Maryland effected the
delivery of the white-haired scoundrel to the custody of Detectives
Seibold and Freburger, who brought him to Baltimore. He
was shortly afterward tried in Ellicott City, Howard county, on
a charge of horse-stealing and convicted. The leather-patched
trousers found in the prisoner’s possession in Lancaster played an
important part in the trial. Judges Miller and Jones sentenced
him to fourteen years imprisonment from October 6, 1886. The
maximum penalty for arson in the first degree, such as old Leentoe
had been guilty of, is death, in the State of Maryland. His
best chance to escape this punishment lay in pleading guilty when
arraigned on the other indictment for barn-burning. His counsel,
assigned to him by the court, advised him thus. He therefore
plead guilty, and Judge Duffy, of the Baltimore Criminal
Court, before whom he was brought this time, sentenced him to
twelve years additional in the Maryland penitentiary, making
twenty-six years in all. As the prisoner was sixty-nine years of
age when sentenced, he will probably never live to see freedom.
The career of Leentoe, as developed at the trial in Ellicott
City, had been a most extraordinary one. He emigrated from
Germany in 1853 and lived for some years in the mountain counties
of Maryland, until he was convicted of horse-stealing in
1858, and sentenced to nine years imprisonment. After serving
this long term he drifted up into York and Lancaster counties,
Pennsylvania, where he fell into the hands of the law several
times for small offences and suffered short imprisonments.
Finally, as has been stated above, he was convicted of horsestealing
and barn-burning, and sent to prison for twenty years in
1870. This crime bore a remarkable resemblance to the one in
Howard county. He stole a bay horse from the stable of his
employer, a large farmer, one night, and then to conceal his
crime set fire to the building. Seventeen horses and cows per-
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OUR POLICE. 275
ished in the flames. He was met by two neighbors of the farmer
about a mile from the burning barn with the stolen horse in his
possession. He was arrested, and the horse being quickly identified,
was held for trial. More than two-thirds of the man’s life
since he landed in America has been spent in prison. He has
come to regard a cell as his natural home, and after his late trial
he said he was happier in confinement than free.
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276 OUR POLICE.
CHAPTER XL
THE DETECTIVE FORCE. (Concluded)
WILLIAM HENRY DROSTE.—THE LAST WORK ON THE MERRIMAC.
A BAD EXPERIENCE AS A BLOCKADE-RUNNER. THE
EMANCIPATION CELEBRATION. A BOGUS BILL-OF-LADING
THIEF. CATCHING THREE FORGERS. THOMAS BARRANGER.
PURSUING A CONVICT.—A DEAF MUTE AS A HORSE-THIEF.—
CAPTURING CHARLES H. HOCH.—STEPHEN J. O’NEILL.—FETTERED
BY STOLEN GOODS.—A YOUNG BUT NOTORIOUS BURGLAR.—
A STRUGGLE TO THE FINISH.—AQUILLA J. PUMPHREY.—
A CASE OF MUTUAL SUSPICION. SWINDLING AS A MISSIONARY.—
JOHN E. REILLY.—A BRAVE DEED.—COMPLIMENTED
BY THE DEPARTMENT.
Among the most widely known detectives on the police force
is William Henry Droste. His life has been an exceedingly
eventful one, having to do with the stirring scenes of the civil war,
as well as those scarcely less exciting events which occur in the
life of a patrolman and detective. He is a man of large physique
and of immense muscular development. His features are clean
cut; his nose betokening to the student of physiognomy an
incisive and inquiring intelligence. His eyes are sharp and
noticeably bright. He wears a slight black moustache. His
career as a policeman has- been a long one, and he has made
quite as many arrests as any other member of the force. The
heads of the department place the greatest confidence in his
judgment and sagacity.
Mr. Droste was born at No. 107 Hill street, the same house in
which he now lives, on October 16, 1838. His father’s name was
John II. Droste; he was a German blacksmith. Young Droste,
from the outset, was of adventurous disposition, and as a
result he did not altogether fancy the confinements of school life,
so when he was quite a boy his father apprenticed him to a firm
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OUR POLICE. 277
of ship joiners, Messrs. John E. Mills & Brother. He did not
remain long in their yard, but he clung to his trade and finished
his apprenticeship in the employ of Skinner Brothers. Droste
worked at his trade until the breaking out of the war. He
was a warm Southern sympathizer, and no sooner had the
first gun been fired than he went South. He was employed by
the Confederate Government as a ship-joiner and was put to work
upon the famous Merrimac, then building. Mr. Droste claims
that he did about the last bit of work on that terror of Northern
shipping. He placed the ” combing” above the batteries which
had so much to do with making her armor so effectual a defense
against the shots of the Federal men-of-war. When the Merrimac
was completed Mr. Droste went to Nashville, Tennessee,
where he was to do considerable work reconstructing some river
steamers into gun-boats. He got there just about as the battle at
Fort Donelson was being fought. On the Saturday previous to the
surrender of Donelson, Mr. Droste and a number of other men
were sent down the Cumberland river with orders to erect works,
so that further navigation could be obstructed. On Sunday, however,
work on these forts was stopped and the place abandoned,
for Donelson had fallen and the Federal troops were practically
masters of the entire region. Two large river steamers upon
which Mr. Droste had been working were burned, partly on his
suggestion, in order to save them from capture by the enemy.
Nashville, after the surrender of Donelson, became rather warm
for Confederates, owing to the arrival of the Northern army, and
so Mr. Droste went to Richmond, where he was immediately employed
in the construction of what was then known as the ” Ladies’
Gun-Boat,” but which was afterwards given the name of
” The Virginia.” After this work was ended Mr. Droste enlisted
in the Confederate army and served at the battles of Drury’s Bluff
and Seven Pines.
But even war was not adventurous enough for Mr. Droste.
He wanted something that was more exciting—perhaps, too,
more profitable. So he began blockade-running. His first trip
was from the Potomac river to Baltimore, in an eleven-foot
metal life-boat, for the purpose of getting supplies for the army.
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278 OUR POLICE.
His trip was comparatively uneventful. He returned to his starting-
point in a big fishing-boat, in company with four other men
and with a load of valuable army and navy stores. This trip
turned in a large amount of money. The profits enabled Mr.
Droste to make a much more extended trip the next time; he
went to New York, purchased supplies there, made the run down
the coast without event and landed safe and sound on the Virginia
shore. The next trip was somewhat disastrous. He had
made a run from Curtis’s creek, near Baltimore, to the Virginia
shore in a small boat laden with valuable supplies. He entered
the Potomac and made his way to the Kappahannock river, landing
finally in a little stream running into the larger body of
water. At about that time a regiment of Federal cavalry was
raiding the North Neck, but of this Mr. Droste was not aware.
He could see the morning after he came to anchor that there had
been trouble on the other side of the river, and he determined to
cross to ascertain the reasons. He found out with a promptness
that was not immensely amusing to him, for a squad of cavalry
swooped down upon him and captured both him and his goods.
He was taken up to the military prison at Falmouth, and after
being imprisoned there for a short time was paroled. He -immediately
went ” down country” again and got some goods which
his friends had saved for him, amounting in value to perhaps
$400; this put him on his feet again, and he made another trip to
New York, which was very successful. This expedition was so
profitable that he resolved to repeat it on a larger scale. He
chartered a boat called the Cora Hatch, and loaded her with
leather hose for the Richmond fire department and hemp packing
for the water department of the same city. He purchased a big
yawl and put it on the Cora Hatch, intending to use it for the
landing of the goods when the Southern lines should be reached.
Mr. Droste cleared New York all right and got down the coast
without event until the Virginia shore was reached. Then one
very dark night the yawl was run overboard and the goods were
packed into her. Mr. Droste was in the yawl helping to load
when he discovered, to his alarm, that she was not water-tight.
The men on the Hatch persisted, however, in loading her down,
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OUR POLICE. 279
and despite Mr. Droste’s protestations, piled the valuable supplies
so high that the yawl was actually top-heavy. Then the Captain
cut her adrift with Mr. Droste and two other men on board.
The party in the yawl thought the shore was only a short distance
away but they were mistaken. The darkness of the night
had deceived them. The boat was unseaworthy and the breakers
were dangerous. At every lurch the boat shipped large quantities
of water, soaking the supplies and threatening the men with
death. They tore the crowns out of their hats and tried to bail,
but the water came in faster than they could get it out, and they
felt that the probabilities of their ever seeing shore again were
very small. Bailing and rowing alternately they had got near the
shore when a big wave struck the boat and she almost filled and
was about to sink, when Mr. Droste tossed over the goods, losing
within five minutes nearly $5,000. Finally only a trunk and a
keg of whisky were left. Tearing open the former, Mr. Droste
seized the tray and used it with such good results that the boat
was made navigable again. But all three men were exhausted
from the terrible exertions they had made to save their lives.
The Afhisky brought them strength again and they finally reached
the shore nearly expiring from their long exposure. Mr. Droste
had just sufficient strength to enable him to drag himself to a
farm-house near by. There, after telling of his companions, he
fell to the floor, remaining unconscious for two days. His feet
had been frozen, and had it not been for his extraordinarily strong
constitution he would never have recovered from his experience.
He gathered together the remainder of his goods on board the
Cora Hatch and recovered sufficient from their sale to repair his
losses. Not yet disheartened he returned to New York, and on
his next trip cleared about $20,000. Again he went back to the
metropolis, and buying a large boat loaded it up with all sorts of
supplies. Among the men whom he consented to have return
with him was a young man who had been sent North by Colonel
Kane, afterwards Mayor of Baltimore, for the purpose of buying
clothing for the Confederate troops. He had a big hand-bag
with him containing, unknown to Mr. Droste, documents important
to the Confederate Government and addressed to President
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280 OUR POLICE.
Jefferson Davis. The boat made its way to the Narrows in New
York harbor, and had got right under the guns of the forts when
she was stopped and boarded by a number of detectives. Inquiries
followed and were answered apparently satisfactorily when
one of the officers suggested that a search be made. The suggestion
was carried out, when, to the delight of the Federal detectives
and the consternation of Mr. Droste, the hand-bag was
discovered. It was opened, its contents discovered and the men on
the boat were immediately placed under arrest. The unfortunate
owner of the bag was sent to Boston, to be tried as a spy. He
would have been hanged in all probability had ho not leaped
from a window of the train on the way there and so escaped.
Mr. Droste was held a prisoner on his boat for about six weeks,
when the war was ended and he was discharged.
He immediately entered business in New York as a butcher,
and remained until the autumn of 1805, when he went to New
Orleans and worked at his trade as ship-joiner for six months,
making considerable money and many friends. After a few months
he returned to Baltimore and again worked at his trade until
June 5, 1868, when he was appointed a patrolman on the police
force of this city and was assigned to the Southern District, then
commanded by Captain (now Marshal) Frey. Since that time Mr.
Droste has been concerned in the detection and arrest of so many
criminals that the mere enumeration of them would exceed the
limits of this sketch. There have been few great crimes occurring
in this city during the last fifteen years that he has not assisted the
police department in ferreting out. His name appears frequently
in the narratives in other chapters, and he is deservedly regarded
as one of the shrewdest and most experienced men under Captain
Freburger. His first murder case was the shooting of Samuel
Barrett in 1870. The hight had been given over to political
parades, the partisan feeling in that year running very high.
The Democrats were marching through all the main streets, cheering
for their candidates and arousing enthusiasm among the citizens
of like faith. At Gay and Baltimore streets a party of
men, all Republicans, were standing talking with Mr. Barrett
about the chances for victory. As the Democratic procession
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OUR POLICE. 281
marched along Barrett answered its cheers with one for his candidate.
The Seventeenth Ward Association happened to be passing
at the time and a row immediately ensued, in the midst of
which a pistol-shot was fired from the ranks of the procession and
Barrett fell dead. A meagre description of the murderer was
given to the police, and the case was turned over to Sergeant
Droste, who had obtained that rank on April 21. The Sergeant
followed clew after clew, which led to a notorious character named
“Dick” Willing, and finally fastened the crime upon him so conclusively
that he felt himself justified in arresting him. But the
court required direct evidence instead of such as Mr. Droste had
secured and Willing was acquitted. It was in this year that the
negro emancipation celebration was held in Baltimore, and Sergeant
Droste saw what was perhaps his severest service on the
force. For two days and nights he was unable to get any sleep,
so necessary was it for the police to guard the public from any
possible race riots. Sergeant Droste remained in the Southern
District until March 18, 1875, when he was transferred to the
Middle, or what is now the Central District. It was while in
this District that he had the greatest number of cases, as he
served both as reserve and patrol sergeant and so was continuously
occupied. He made frequent raids upon gambling houses
and policy-shops, and acquired an enviable distinction by always
succeeding in making these raids effectual, not alone seizing the
“lay-out,” but capturing his men. Among his arrests during his
service as sergeant, was that of Charles Spottswood, a notorious old
thief, who had a record as dark as that of any criminal in the country.
He had just left the penitentiary after serving out a sentence
of fourteen years, during which time he had made a desperate
attempt to escape, and when captured by Mr. Droste was fresh
from a daring burglary in the upper part of the city. He
was sent back to the penitentiary. On November 6, 1876,
Sergeant Droste captured Edward Lillie, alias Henry A. Watson,
a confidence man whose work has extended over all parts of the
country. When arrested he had just swindled a Baltimorean
out of $280, and was enjoying himself hugely with his ill-gotten
gains. He gave Mr. Droste no trouble in the arrest, the
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282 OUR POLICE.
description given of the swindler being so good that he was captured
within a very short time. On December 31, 1878, the
Sergeant secured the conviction of Henry Snitzer, a notorious
thief, for stealing a large amount of tobacco from some downtown
warehouses. Snitzer was tried on two indictments and sentenced
to the penitentiary for two years and four months.
Sergeant Droste was transferred from the Central District to
service on the detective squad at police headquarters on April
16, 1882. Since that time he has been steadily engaged as a
secret service officer, and has frequently received the thanks of
the department for his work. It was on January 16, 1883, that
Detective Droste captured one of the most dangerous criminals.
in the country, a confidence man named Benjamin Spandauer.
He pretended that he was expecting to receive a large amount of
money from Germany, and on” these expectations he induced an
old German living in this city to advance him §1,500. He also
fastened his claws upon a divorce case at that time, and by, as the
police termed it, “playing the two ends against the middle,” succeeded
in swindling all the parties out of a very large sum of money.
The descriptions furnished of Spandauer were so accurate that
Detective Droste had little difficulty in running the fellow down and
getting him a sentence of three years in prison. When he was released
he was promptly arrested and sent back for another crime.
In April, 1883, the up-town police districts were visited and
“worked” with much thoroughness by a gang of burglars from
New York. These men were in the habit of visiting the houses
they intended to enter, early in the evening while the families were
at church or at places of amusement, and within half an hour
ransack each place. The only clew that could be obtained was the
fact that in one house the detectives found a piece of watch chain
which had been apparently broken while the owner was endeavoring
to escape. Detective Droste, shortly after this clew was found,
arrested John Randall, James Howard, and George W. Boadley
as suspicious characters. Their lodgings were searched and there
a quantity of “stuff” was found which clearly proved that they
were criminals of considerable importance. In the fire-place of
one of the rooms was found the remainder of the watch chain.
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OUR POLICE. 283
Upon this evidence the men were sent to the penitentiary for
four years.
On September 17, 1884, Detective Droste captured another
New York criminal who was reaping a harvest in this city. His
name was James Lee, and he was known to have swindled persons
in almost every large city in the country. His manner of working
was to ring the door bell of a house which he knew had been
left in charge of servants while the family was in Europe, and
inform the person who answered the summons that the family had
sent a case of goods home “from the other side.” “This case is
now at your disposal,” he would explain. ” There are $9.98
still due upon it, and if you will pay that amount you may have
this bill of lading which will entitle you to the goods.” The
$9.98 was forthcoming in almost every instance. A photograph
of such a swindler was obtained from New York and was identified
by one of the victims. Detective Droste followed this clew with
so much celerity that within twenty-four hours he had found out
where Lee lived and had arrested him. Lee got a long term in
the penitentiary.
Detective Droste prides himself upon the fact that he has never
yet been attacked by a prisoner or received any bodily injury in
the discharge of his duty.
Detective Thomas Barranger was born in this city on March
14, 1845. He was educated in the public schools, and entered
the Police department when twenty-two years old, receiving the
appointment as patrolman on July 20, 1867, and being assigned
to duty at the Central Station. He was promoted to a Sergeancy
in his district on September 9, 1874, and was transferred
to the City Hall for detective duty on April 3, 1883. The first
case of importance with which Detective Barranger was connected
was the capture, after a most exciting chase, of an escaped negro
convict named Albert Fortune, from the Richmond, Virginia,
penitentiary. Fortune was a notorious horse thief and was
undergoing a long term of confinement when he conceived an
ingenious escape. A wall was building around the prison yard
and a derrick had been erected within the inclosure. By some
means Fortune secured a rope and file which he secreted in his
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284 OUR POLICE.
cell. He then sawed through the bars over his window and
throwing his rope over one of the derrick’s guys, swung himself
to the top of the wall, jumped to the ground and was at liberty.
Circulars announcing his escape were sent over the country, and
the police here were on the look-out for the fugitive. On the
morning of April 19, 1873, Officer Barranger and Sergeant
Frazier espied a negro on Baltimore street, who they thought
answered the description of Fortune, and followed him. Before
the man reached Liberty street he knew he was observed, and
ran, with Barranger and Frazier in hot pursuit. He turned into
Liberty street, and three or four citizens who tried to stop him
were knocked down. He then tried to burst open the door of a
house, hoping to escape through the dwelling. By the delay
caused by this attempt Officer Barranger was enabled to come up
with him, but while reaching out to grab his man the policeman
was thrown violently to the ground. The fugitive then ran through
a feed store in Liberty street, above Fayette street, up stairs
through a bed room, upsetting a cradle with a baby in it on his
way, jumped out of the second story window to the yard below,
scaled a fence nearly twenty feet high into Park street, and then
ran through several other houses and got into Lexington street,
where the officers ran him to cover in a soap factory, and brought
him to bay under a tank, after levelling their revolvers at him
and threatening to shoot him. He offered his captors $300 to
“go about their business.’,’ They turned him over to the
Richmond authorities. Fortune was desperate, and succeeded in
escaping from the Richmond officers between Washington and
that city. He was recaptured, however, and returned to the
penitentiary.
On July 11, 1872, Officer Barranger arrested “Dick” Moore,
Frank Johnson and ” J e r e ” Crosson, all colored, for highway
robbery. They “held up” an old colored man named Edward
Davis, who had just returned from Guano Island, and robbed
him of $74.50. Mr. Barranger happened to be coming along
the street and heard the cry of ” police ! ” Seeing three men
running, he gave chase and captured one at Ilolliday and Fayette
streets. The other two he arrested subsequently in South street.
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OUR POLICE. 285
The three culprits •were each sentenced to two years imprisonment.
On January 13, 1871, he arrested George Dexter, alias Wilson,
for burglary at Bernard’s restaurant, where he stole $60 worth
of cigars. Dexter was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
On July 2, 1882, he “picked up” John S. Thro, a bogus check
man, for passing a worthless check for $40 on Charles McCrae.
On the night of Saturday, June 4, 1882, Edward H. Frames
was shot and killed in the northeastern district. Late in the
evening young Frames and a companion named Weldon observed
two men and a woman going towards McKim’s Hill, and the
young men followed them. Without warning one of the men
with the woman turned and fired a pistol, killing Frames. The
case excited great interest and a large number of officers were
engaged on it. During the’ next day, Sunday, Officer Barranger
and Sergeant Ryan succeeded in locating the woman who had
accompanied the murderer, and she made a confession to. the
officers. They accordingly proceeded to arrest Charles, alias
” Polly ” Hopkins, whom they found at Greenmount avenue and
Eager streets. The next day Charles Digan surrendered himself
at the Marshal’s office, as the other man in the party. Hopkins
was tried in Baltimore County for the murder of Frames and
convicted, and is now serving his sentence of eighteen years.
Digan was tried in Baltimore City and acquitted. Miles Jackson
was arrested by Sergeant Barranger on February 23, 1883,
for burglary in the store of Robert Bogue, where Jackson was
employed as porter. Jackson broke into the place with a hatchet
in the night-time and stole silks valued at $465. He was
sentenced to three years imprisonment. On March 20, 1875,
Harry Loughlin, a notorious thief, since dead, was arrested by
Sergeant Barranger for stealing a gold watch worth $165 from
George T. Clark. He also arrested William Emry, alias ” Husky
Bill,” a notorious pickpocket, on September 3, 1878; George
Croswell on October 9, 1878, who was convicted in six cases of
obtaining goods on false pretences from different merchants, and
was sentenced to two years imprisonment and to pay $50 fine;
on April 12, 1879, he captured Mary Lanehart for picking the
pocket of Miss Amanda Smith of $27; and on July 3, 1880,
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286 OUR POLICE.
he arrested Charles Benderfield on the charge of embezzlement
of $500 from Kruger Brothers.
The notorious bank-sneaks, “Jim” Burns and “Tom”
McCormack made Sergeant Barranger’s acquaintance in his
official capacity on December 1, 1876, when he arrested them
here and locked them up. They were picked up before they had
done any work in the city, and after being detained several days
were sent out of town. Burns is now serving a term in a European
prison and McCormack is in durance somewhere in the
West. On the same day that he made these arrests Sergeant
Barranger captured George Harris, alias ” Old Boston,” and
James B. Norris, alias “Jimmy” Brown, also bank-sneaks, as
suspicious persons and made them leave the city limits. On
the night of September 14, 1883, during the “Oriole,” Barringer
noticed a man at Baltimore and Eutaw streets acting
in a suspicious manner in the crowd and arrested him. His
prisoner turned out to be John Nolan, alias McGovern, and on
him were found seven pocket-books which he had stolen. Six
cases were proved against him and ho was sentenced to four years
in the penitentiary.
On information received from the authorities of Talbot county,
Maryland, Detective Barranger was detailed to find William
Harris, alias “Jim” Wilson, who was charged with stealing a
team in that county. Accordingly on September 16, 1884, he
arrested his man in Paca street with the stolen property in his
possession. Harris was turned over to an officer of Talbot
county, who after placing hand-cuifs on his prisoner’s wrists
started back home with him. On his way Harris jumped from
the train while it was in motion and made his escape. Going to
a farm-house about three miles from Upper Marlborough, he
represented to the farmer that he was a commercial traveler and
had been attacked by a party of tramps who hand-cuffed him and
then robbed him of his goods and money. The farmer believing
his story had a team hooked up and sent his son and a colored
man as driver to carry Harris to Upper Marlborough, where he
said he wanted to go and have the manacles cut off his wrists.
Shortly after starting he knocked his two companions out of the
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OUR POLICE. 287
wagon, and driving within a mile of the town turned the team
loose. He then secured the services of an old negro to cut off
the hand-cuffs, imposing on him with the same story he had
told the farmer. Through this negro he was afterwards brought
to justice. About six months’ after he was arrested in Laurel,
Maryland, where he had married and engaged in business.
Harris was convicted and sentenced to seven years and six
months imprisonment. On December 29, 1883, Detective Barranger
arrested John Saylor, alias “Hen” Smith, for robbery
committed upon Wells, Fargo & Co. in California. Saylor had
been “wanted” for five or six months, and circulars had been
sent to the police throughout the country with his description.
Detective Barranger and Captain Cadwallader succeeded in
locating him at a well-known saloon in this city, and learned
that he intended to set sail for Europe on the following day.
They arrested him at Fell’s Point on his way to the ship. William
Lee, alias Burch, alias Layton, a bogus Custom-house officer,
fell into Detective Barranger’s net on February 21, 1884. Lee’s
plan of operations was to go to various institutions and represent
that a valuable cabinet of minerals had arrived from Europe for
the institution, which would be delivered on payment of the custom
duties. Eight cases were proved against him and he was
sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. Another criminal in
the same line of business was James Lee, alias “Joe” Hartman,
alias J. E. Cottman, alias Harman Goethe, who was arrested by
Detective Barranger accompanied by Detective Droste, on September
18, 1884. His victims were private citizens, Mrs. Ross
Winans being among the number. He pleaded guilty to eight
charges and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. Lee
had previously served a term in New York where he was arrested
by Detective Silas Rogers.
Thomas Mitchell was arrested by Detective Barranger on December
26, 1884, for burglary and sentenced to two years in the
House of Correction. On June 21, 1885, he arrested John
Smith, colored, for a burglary committed in Martinsburg, West
Virginia. He recovered all the stolen property. Smith was returned
to Martinsburg and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
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288 OCR POLICE.
One “would hardly expect to find among the ranks of desperate
criminals a deaf mute, but such was John Bitzer, a horse-thief,
whom Detective Barranger arrested on August 8,1885. The stolen
horse was sold at a bazaar in this city and was subsequently
recovered in Kent county. Barranger arrested Bitzer on a Saturday
night at a little inn at Tomansville, Baltimore county.
Congregated about the place were forty or fifty white and colored
men who evidently sympathized with Bitzer. The latter
” showed fight” when the detective undertook to arrest him.
“See here,” called out the bartender, when Barranger attempted
to put the hand-cuffs on his prisoner, ” don’t you hurt
that man,” and the crowd grew threatening.
” I ‘ l l put these hand-cuffs on him or kill him,” replied the detective
as he drew his revolver.
“Permit me to assist you,” said the awed bartender, and the
bracelets were adjusted and the prisoner removed.
A pair of “bunco-steerers” were balked in their game by Detective
Barranger on February 18, 1886. He observed the men
first in Baltimore street and thinking they were ” crooks” he
watched them. Presently they approached the Rev. Dr. Gouchar
of Baltimore county and inveigled him into a room on St.
Paul street above Mulberry street. Barranger immediately sent
word to headquarters for assistance, and Detectives Pontier and
Freburger came. While Detective Freburger covered the rear
of the house, Barranger and Pontier entered, arrested the men
and captured their “lay-out” and “boodle.” The prisoners
were “Tom” O’Brien, alias Hudson and George Post, alias Potter.
They gave bail and decamped.
A Washington confidence man named Robert Johnson, alias
“Bob” Murphy, was arrested by Detective Barranger on May
31, 1883, for obtaining by a confidence game §200 from John
W. Waters, in Washington. Johnson was returned to that city
for trial. On August 15, 1883, he arrested Came Shibe, alias
Trayner, for robbing Robert Comas of $200. On October 12,
1883, he captured Walter Gordon, colored, for stealing a gold
watch and chain valued at §150 from Daniel Hays. Gordon
was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary.
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OUR POLICE. 289
A notorious “fence” was caught by Detective Barranger on
March 15, 1884, when he arrested Franklin C. Bishop. For
a long time the cars of the Baltimore and Ohio, Northern
Central, and Philadelphia, “Wilmington and Baltimore Railroads
had been subject to the depredations of thieves, but the efforts to
discover them were unavailing. Finally Detectives Barranger
and Gault traced a stolen caddy of tobacco to Bishop’s place,
made a raid and recovered more than two wagon loads of stolen
property. With Bishop they also arrested Foley Humphries,
George Biley, George Billups, and ” Jake ” Emerine, all boys.
who had been robbing the cars and carrying the plunder to
Bishop. The boys were sent to the House of Correction and
Bishop is now serving a term of three years under a conviction
for receiving stolen goods in another case. After these arrests
the depredations on the railroad cars ceased, the whole gang
being broken up.
Early in the summer of 1886, a young man calling himself
J. E. Adams made his appearance in Baltimore, evidently attracted
by the facilities of enjoyment offered a man of means by
the gay city. He immediately began a life of dissipation, and
among a certain class soon became known for his lavish expenditure
of money. He rented a furnished house on Raborg street
above Pine street, in which he installed a woman known as Sadie
Gordon. Two other women were soon after placed there under
his protection. Drives, expensive suppers, and all the associations
of a fast life was the daily program of young Adams and his
female companions. Shortly after the arrival of the stranger,
information was received at police headquarters that one Charles
H. Hock, a clerk in the office of the West Shore Railroad
Company at Boston, had stolen $837 of the company’s money
and absconded. The case was placed in Detective Barranger’s
hands, and an investigation disclosed that the fast young man,
Adams, and the embezzling clerk, Hock, were identical, and on
July 9, 1886, Detective Barranger took him into custody at the
house on Raborg street. He was turned over to Inspector Watts
of Boston, and taken to that city for trial.
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290 OUR POLICE.
Detective Stephen J. O’Neill’s connection ‘with the police
force of Baltimore began on June 22, 1875, when he was appointed
a patrolman and assigned to duty in the Western District.
He was never connected with any other district than the Western
until he received his assignment to the Detective Squad on
November 11, 1880. Mr. O’Neill was born in Philadelphia on
December 12,1848. When he was seven months old his parents
moved to Baltimore. Since that time he has lived constantly in
this city. As a boy he attended the St. Peters Roman Catholic
school, and afterwards learned the trade of machine moulding in
the Mount Clare shops of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway
Company. His apprenticeship ended in 18G9, and at once obtaining
employment as a journeyman, he worked for the
Baltimore and Ohio Company for six years, or until his appointment
to the police force in 1875. In 1881, on September 6, he
was promoted to be sergeant, and three years later, having done
much meritorious service in that position, he was raised to the
rank of lieutenant. His commission was dated July 17, 1884.
Finally, having acquired a good deal of celebrity by his arrest
of John Thomas Ross, the murderer of Emily Brown, in the
notorious burking case, and a vacancy occurring in the detective
squad, he received an appointment as a detective on November
11, 1880. The story of Mr. O’Neill’s career on the police
force is full of thrilling encounters with noted thieves, and
sensational incidents in which celebrated criminals find the
leading parts. He is now considered one of the ablest officers
on the detective force.
In 1877, while he was a patrolman in the Western District,
he arrested a notorious negro ruffian named Matamora Cole.
Policeman O’Neill was patrolling his beat on Howard street,
when he saw Cole, whom he knew to be a professional sneak
thief, enter Hecht’s pawn-shop with a large quantity of clothing
on his arm. O’Neill followed the fellow into the pawn-shop and
found him trying to drive a bargain with the proprietor for the
sale of the articles. „ Convinced that the goods were stolen the
policeman sharply questioned the negro concerning them, and
not receiving satisfactory replies to his queries took him into
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OUR POLICE. 291
custody. The negro carried the clothing, consisting of coats,
trousers, a saddle cloth, a riding habit, etc., on his right arm,
while the policeman grasped his left. Suddenly the thief turned
and quick as a flash flung the things around his captor’s feet,
completely tying him up. He then wrenched himself loose and
started to run. Finding himself unable to move Officer O’Neill
drew his pistol, and firing two or three shots into the air in rapid
succession called to the fellow to halt. The latter, frightened at
the whizz of a bullet close by his ear, obeyed. By this time the
policeman had succeeded in ridding his feet of the incumbrance
about them and he recaptured his man. It was discovered on
reaching the station that the articles which Cole was trying to
pawn had been stolen by him the night before, November 21,
from the carriage house of Dr. George Rueling, in the rear of his
residence, No. 79 West Monument street. Cole was sentenced to
four years confinement in the Maryland State Penitentiary at
hard labor. In prison he gave his keepers no end of trouble.
He refused to work, and being forced to do so spoiled large quantities
of the material which was put into his hands. He was
finally set to cutting leather shoe soles, with a man watching him
constantly to prevent him from doing mischief. Finding himself
absolutely forced to work, he one day thrust his hand into a steam
cutting machine and had the tops of the fingers of his left hand
cut off. This expedient was unsuccessful, for as soon as the
wound healed sufficiently he was set to laboring harder than ever.
He was released in 1881, and shortly afterward was convicted
of another theft and recommitted to prison, where he has spent
the most of his time since.
On July 12, 1881, Officer O’Neill arrested a negro named
Elijah Brogdon, alias Charles Diamond, for safe-burglary. Brogdon
was a notorious criminal, and though but thirty years of
age had already served more that twelve years in the prisons of
Maryland and Pennsylvania. After being released from the
Moyamensing, Pennsylvania, prison, he came to Baltimore and
got employment as a porter in the wholesale hat store of Mr.
James E. Trott. While there he learned the combination of the
safe-lock, and on the night of July 11, opened the safe and
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292 OUR POLICE.
stole $100 in bills. The following morning Mr. Trott notified
the police of tlie robbery. Officer O’Neill was put on the case.
As soon as lie learned that Brogdon was employed in Mr.
Trott’s store he felt convinced that he was the guilty man. He
arrested the fellow and brought him to the station, where the
negro afterwards confessed. Brogdon was sentenced to the penitentiary
for four years.
The ” Oriole” of 1883 brought a great number of criminals
from all parts of the country to Baltimore, and the police force
of the city was put to its utmost resources to protect the property
of the citizens from the depredations of the rascals. Wherever
a policeman saw a professional “crook” he was ordered to arrest
him as a suspicious person, to be held until the celebration was
ended. Many such persons were incarcerated in the stationprisons
on the night of September 4, 1883, the gala night of the
” Oriole.” About midnight, when the people returned from
witnessing the parade, several complaints of burglary, simultaneously
reached the Western District station. As many as half
a dozen private residences within the District had been entered
during the parade and ransacked from top to bottom. Detective
O’Neill, at that time a Sergeant of Police, was detailed to investigate
the burglary of No. 23 South Fremont street. He
learned of several facts which led him to suspect three Philadelphia
thieves, two of whom were at the time locked up in the station,
having been arrested by Captain of Detectives Freburger,
and the third of whom was a boy of seventeen named Frank
Cochran, alias Frank White, as vicious a youth as has ever been
brought before the criminal bar in Baltimore. After searching
all night for this youthful burglar, Sergeant O’Neill finally located
him in a house of ill-fame in Raborg street, where he found
him asleep and arrested him. In the station the sergeant succeeded
in extorting a confession from the boy, and induced the
latter to agree to show him where the plunder he had stolen was
hidden. Cochran led the sergeant to an out-house in the rear of
No. 29 Raborg street, where he had been captured, and there
brought forth a quantity of jewelry, etc., which was returned to
its owners. At the trial of the three burglars they were
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OUR POLICE. 293
convicted and sentenced to five years each in the penitentiary.
They are still serving their terms.
One of the most violent prisoners Detective O’Neill ever arrested
was Edward Capp. This man was one of the phenomena
of wickedness who are happily known to few outside of the police.
He was a reckless criminal from his boyhood, and for years
previous to this arrest he never made any pretence of working
honestly. He had served many terms in various prisons, scarcely
leaving one place of confinement before he was caught at some
crime that brought him into another. Strangely enough he was
married to a respectable and pretty young woman, whom he
treated with great brutality, and several times nearly beat to
death. On the night of June 4 1884, he and a ” pal” undertook
to rob the house of Mr. Richard Sutton, the Baltimore
street dry-goods merchant, who lived in North Calhoun street
near Franklin street. The burglars entered the lower part of
the house and turned the gas on to light it. They let it blow
for some time before applying the match, and a considerable
amount of gas thus escaped up-stairs. Mrs. Sutton happened to
be awake, and smelling the gas, feared there might be something
the matter in her daughter’s room. She arose and was going
thither when she noticed a light below. Thinking it was her
son, who had a habit of getting up early at that season of the
year to go gunning, she went down stairs. On seeing two
strange men bending over her sideboard she screamed and raised
an alarm. The men rushed out of the house, but Capp’s ” pal”
was caught by a policeman who saw him running through an
alley. Detective O’Neill when he recognized the “pal” suspected
at once that the other burglar was Capp. He went to
the house of the latter in Burns’s court, near the Western
Schuetzen Park in South Baltimore, and there found his man
lying across a bed in a semi-nude condition. Capp did not move
as he saw O’Neill enter, and the latter understood at once that
the man was going to resist arrest. The policeman ordered him
to get up and dress, but the command was ignored. Capp’s
wife then begged him to submit peacefully to the officer. This
aroused the brute to make a violent kick at her, which had he
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294 OUR POLICE.
struck her must have inflicted severe injuries. Then the policeman
grappled with the fellow and a struggle began which lasted
more than twenty minutes without a respite. The two rolled
about the room, breaking furniture and almost shaking the rickety
house down. Capp bit and scratched and struck his captor at
every opportunity. Finally they reached the top of the stairs
and tumbled down the steep steps in each other’s embrace. The
fall seemed to have hurt Capp, for after he reached the bottom
he threw up his hands and said he would surrender. He asked
to be allowed to go up stairs and put on his clothing. As soon
as O’Neill freed him the fellow made another blow at his wife.
Then another struggle ensued in which Detective O’Neill came
out victorious and took his man to the station, being obliged,
however, to club him every few minutes to subdue him. Capp
was tried for burglary, and being convicted was sentenced to the
State Penitentiary for four years. A few weeks before the expiration
of his sentence he committed suicide by jumping off a
high corridor in the prison. His death ended the career of one
of the most desperate white criminals who have troubled Baltimore
in recent years.
Detective Aquilla J. Pumphrey was born in this county on
November 10, 1852. He was educated in the public schools of
this city, his parents having removed him hither when he was a
child, and he afterward learned the fruit-canning and preserving
business. He worked at this trade until his appointment to the
police force in 1875. He became a patrolman on February 12, and
was detailed to the Southern precinct. His first promotion was
to the position of station-house clerk in 1884. On June 16,1885,
he became a squad sergeant in the Southern district, afterward
being made patrol sergeant. He served in the latter position
until January 10, 1887, when he was appointed to his present
position on the detective squad. While he was a policeman in
uniform Mr. Pumphrey made a number of important arrests, and
since his connection with the detective force he has been extremely
active in the pursuit of criminals.
On October 29, 1881, at the time when he was a private in the
Southern station, he arrested Thomas Cooper, a noted burglar who
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OUR POLICE. 295
had robbed a large number of bouses in the new portions of the
city. Baltimore at that time was suffering severely from the
depredations of burglars, and the police seemed unable to prevent
the robberies that were of almost nightly occurrence. On policeman
Pumphrey’s beat was the old Three Tuns Hotel at Pratt and
Paca streets. The hotel, though formerly a very respectable
house, was at that time known to be a favorite stopping place for
thieves. One night the policeman noticed a man on the hotel
porch who he thought carried himself in rather a suspicious
manner. As soon as the man saw the officer approaching he
walked away. After he had done this several times Mr. Pumphrey
inquired of the hotel clerk who the man was.
” Oh, he’s a farmer from the country,” replied the clerk. “His
name is Thomas Cooper.”
Notwithstanding this information the policeman followed the
man whenever he saw him leave the hotel. He usually walked
about through the better streets, occasionally stopping to scrutinize
a house, but always returned to his hotel and disappeared to
his bed-room before one o’clock. One night the policeman saw
him stop before the house of Mr. Alfred S. Gardner at No. 305
Lombard street, and look it over carefully. The man then
returned to his hotel as usual, and the policeman assuming that
he had retired for the night resumed the patrolling of his beat.
A few hours later he learned from another officer that Mr. Gardner’s
house had been robbed. Notwithstanding the fact that he
had seen the man go to his hotel apparently for the night,
Policeman Pumphrey could not help connecting him with the
burglary. He hurried back to the Three Tuns Hotel and inquired
of the night clerk whether Mr. Cooper was in.
” Yes; he came in a little while ago, with a bundle,” replied
the clerk.
Feeling convinced now that the thief was none other than
Cooper, the policeman went to a drugstore on the opposite corner
where he kept a suit of civilian’s clothing. He hastily took off
his uniform and dressed himself in the other suit. Then placing
himself on watch before the hotel he was soon rewarded by seeing
his man come out with a small package in his hand. This package
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296 OUR POLICE.
was addressed and stamped for mailing. Cooper laid it on
top of the letter box at Portland and Green streets, and then
returned toward the hotel. As soon as he saw him enter the
building, Policeman Pumphrey ran back to the letter box and
looking at the package saw that it was addressed to a well-known
Philadelphia “fence.” He took the package and gave it to a
clerk in the drug store on the corner for safe keeping, and then
went back to the hotel intending to go to Cooper’s room and
arrest him. But just as he reached the hotel the man was coming
out again with a large bundle. After letting him walk for a block
or so Pumphrey arrested him. The fellow took his capture coolly
enough. In his bundle was found a lot of clothing, silverware, and
jewelry, which were afterward identified by Mr. Gardner as his
property. The small package which was captured contained about
$3,000 worth of bonds and checks which, together with a watch
and $380 in money, the thief stole from Mr. William T. Shoemaker,
a drover who was visiting Mr. Gardner at the time of
the burglary. Mr. Shoemaker had his vest containing his valuables
under his pillow. The burglar drew the garment from its
place and abstracted the watch, money, and papers without
awakening the sleeping man. He then went through the entire
house, facetiously stopping a clock at twenty minutes past two
in order to inform the family what time the robbery took place.
He had entered the building from the rear by boring two holes in
a window sash and then loosening the catch by putting his fingers
through the openings Thanks to the skill and energy of policeman
Pumphrey all the stolen property was returned to its owners
the same morning on which the burglary took place, before the
hour when the family usually breakfasted.
Cooper promptly admitted not only that he had entered Mr.
Gardner’s house but that he had been the author of six other
burglaries within the previous fortnight. Turning to policeman
Pumphrey in the station-house, he said:
” I always had a suspicion about you.”
“Then it was a case of mutual suspicion,” returned the officer
with a laugh.
Cooper pleaded guilty to one indictment and was sentenced to
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OUR POLICE. . 297
eighteen months imprisonment. He was one of the coolest and
cleverest burglars who ever visited Baltimore. Yet he was almost
always caught at his crimes, and he said that out of fifty years
of his life he had spent more than twenty behind the bars.
A safe burglary remarkable for its effrontery rather than for its
importance, was that which took place in the counting-room of
Mr. C. E. Eichler’s feed store at South Howard and Pratt streets
on October 14, 1882. At about two o’clock in the afternoon,
when large numbers of persons were passing along both streets,
a young man named Edward Stephens went by the Howard street
entrance to Mr. Eichler’s store, and seeing the office vacant
walked in. He swung back the door of the large safe, and taking
a small chisel pried open several of the interior drawers till he
found the one in which the cash was kept. He shielded his
actions from observation from the street only by turning his back
to the open window. Just as he opened the money drawer Mr.
Eichler’s son, a youth of nineteen, saw the fellow and ran toward
him. Stephens had time only to seize a five dollar bill and turn.
A small memorandum book chanced to be between this bill and
the money underneath it. Seeing himself confronted by young
Mr. Eichler, the thief drew a’ revolver and pointing at the young
man kept him off till he escaped through the door. But policeman
Pumphrey, who happened to be outside gave chase and
pursued the fellow until he finally caught him in a vacant house
on Eutaw street into which he had run. He was hiding in a
closet when caught. Stephens was convicted and sentenced to
two years imprisonment.
Another clever capture that won officer Pumphrey much praise
was the arrest of Josiah Brooks, a colored thief who within a
few days in December, 1881, committed burglaries upon Rouse,
Hempstone & Co., Meyer, Reinhard & Co., Burgunder & Greenbaum,
and Broderick & Brothers, all large mercantile houses in
this city. The burglaries caused the police much perplexity, as
the thief left no clew by which he could be traced. The burglary
at Broderick & Brothers was discovered shortly after it occurred,
and policeman Pumphrey heard of it from another officer. A
few minutes later as he was patrolling Dover street near Green,
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298 OUR POLICE.
it being then lialf-past five o’clock in the morning and dark, he
saw a young negro standing in the second story window of a
house smoking a cigar. He thought this a rather suspicious occurrence,
and he determined to investigate the circumstance as
soon as the negro left his house. It was ten o’clock before he
saw the fellow go out. Then under pretence of wishing to
inspect the sanitary condition of the house, officer Pumphrey got
into the room in which he had seen the negro smoking that
morning. There he found on the bed two blankets which had
been stolen from Broderick & Brothers, and also a number of
other articles, proceeds of the same burglary. Pumphrey waited
until the thief returned and arrested him. His name was Josiah
Brooks. He was only twenty-one years old, and the series of
robberies he had just committed were the first he had been engaged
in. His arrest blighted his criminal career while it was
still in the bud. He pleaded guilty to one charge and was
sentenced to the penitentiary for three years.
Shortly after officer Pumphrey’s appointment to the detective
squad the cities of Baltimore and Washington were flooded with
counterfeit silver dollars. Several persons who had been imposed
upon gave the police a description of the man who was passing
the spurious coins, and Detective Pumphrey was detailed to hunt
the counterfeiter. On March SO the detective learned that the
man had been working in the vicinity of Liberty and Baltimore
streets. He went thither at once and began to make a tour of
the shops in the neighborhood. In O’Brien’s saloon in Liberty
street he found the man trying to pass one of his coins on the
bartender. Recognizing the detective the counterfeiter made a
break for the street and started to run. He had not gone more
than a block, however, when Detective Pumphrey caught him.
At the police station he gave his name as Frederick Jordan
Mezza, an Italian. He had already served three terms for
counterfeiting.
The case of Arthur M. Morrison, who was arrested by Detective
Pumphrey on April 24, 1887, created a considerable sensation
in this city and in Brockton, Massachusetts, the young man’s
home. Morrison is the “black sheep” of a highly respectable
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ouu POLICE. 299
old New England family. His parents live in the quiet village
of Brockton, his father being a wealthy farmer, cultivating a large
tract of land just outside of the village. On April 5, Morrison,
•who is about thirty years old, arrived in Baltimore and registered
at the Carrollton Hotel. He represented himself to be a detective
engaged on the Rahway murder case, and hired a horse and
buggy from Mr. Manly, the Carrollton Hotel livery stable proprietor.
He drove the horse to York, Pennsylvania, where he
placed it in a stable, and hiring another and more valuable animal
drove to Pittsburgh. He was attired in black clothing of a
somewhat clerical cut, and on his way to Pittsburgh he called
upon several Methodist clergymen, representing himself to be a
foreign missionary on his way through the country collecting
money to prosecute his mission work in Africa. He preached
two missionary sermons in different country churches and delivered
three missionary discourses. In each church a collection
was taken for the alleged missionary, and in one of them more
than thirty dollars was secured. Morrison sold the horse and
buggy when he arrived in Pittsburgh, and was next heard of in
Brockton, Massachusetts, whither Detective Pumphrey went and
arrested him at his parents’ home. The young man was formerly
a student at the Middletown, Connecticut, Wesleyan University,
and afterward studied theology at College Hill, Massachusetts.
He was tried and convicted in three days, and was sentenced
to seven years imprisonment in the Maryland Penitentiary,
where he is now learning to make shoes.
Detective John E. Reilly was born in Baltimore on February
24, 1844. He was educated at public and private schools in the
city and afterwards entered business as a butcher. He began
his connection with the police Department as a patrolman on
May 1, 1867, and was assigned to duty at the Central Station.
On May 7, 1886, he was promoted to the sergeantcy, and on
May 5, 1887 he was made a detective.
While acting as patrolman Mr. Reilly greatly distinguished
himself for coolness and bravery in connection with the explosion
and fire at the Maryland Sugar Refinery at O’Donnell’s wharf,
in July, 1870. On the day of the occurrence he was patrolling