A Book of the Saint Paul Police 1838 - 1912 — 2

THE REAL HISTORY of the St. Paul Police Department must begin in the year 1838 when Pierre Parrent, better known as old “Pig’s Eye” constituted practically the whole settlement of the city, and necessarily of course, its Chief of Police. Old “Pig’s Eye”, called so because of a peculiar squint he possessed due to a little encounter with some fellow drunkards, was somewhat of a peculiar character. He was a dealer in furs, or rather that was the way he designated himself, but in reality he was a mere whiskey drummer to put the matter charitably. Parrent sold whiskey to the Indians for furs, and it was related as a rule old “Pig’s Eye” was his own best customer. Inasmuch as Parrent was his own Chief of Police and evidently believed in an “open door” policy, or rather the policy of a wide open town, St. Paul’s first Police Chief was not very strict in the enforcement of its law. Parrent was originally located near Fort Snelling at the mouth of the Minnesota River, but the soldiers at the Fort, or more particularly the officers, were somewhat like a modern reformer, they believed in more restrictive measures than quite suited Parrent’s idea of running the town, so one morning under dire threat the commanding officer at Fort Snelling ordered Mr. Parrent to stop his rum selling or do it somewhere outside of the jurisdiction of the Federal authorities at the post. Parrent persisted in selling his wares which were not even as good as the proverbial “forty-rod” kind, and the effect of the sale of his goods on some of the soldiers at the Fort was not of the best, so Parrent was bodily placed upon a raft with a keg of whiskey and a couple of blankets and ordered to go anywhere he pleased so long as he got away from the Fort. This was early one morning in 1838. Parrent was in a stupor at the time and when he finally aroused himself it was growing towards dusk. Quickly seizing a pole, he steered his miniature craft to the shore and landed near what would now be the foot of Ramsey Street, which then projected down toward Chestnut street to the rear. Climbing the hill toward the white bluffs, which are now covered with fine homes, Parrent took the logs out of his raft and with an ax that he found on the raft split up some more logs from the nearby woods and built himself a cabin in the lee of the White Bluffs.

Here may be said to be the foundation of the City of St. Paul. This point was six miles below the town of Mendota. There were a number of settlements lower down the river, and “Pig’s Eye” quickly learned that he could get a good trade from these settlements, because the current was swift and it was a pretty hard pull from “Pig’s Eye’s” cabin to Mendota, which was then the metropolis of what is now the State of Minnesota. The soldiers from the Fort were also liberal patrons of Parrent’s wares. Parrent now grew ambitious and desiring to rival the settlement at Mendota, determined to build his own city. He did a good deal of missionary work among the wild eyed patrons of his carivansary, and within a few months a community numbering sixty men and women grew up about “Pig’s Eye’s” cabin. The men were of the roughest type, and the women such as would follow men of this stamp; but to them more than to anything else does the present metropolis of the State owe its conception, for though Mendota had the peaceful element, and Fort Snelling the official element, then the aristocracy of the West, Fort Snelling is still today an army post and Mendota a tiny village, while the City of St. Paul has grown to be one of the great metropolitan centers of the country. Those were wild days. Murders were frequent, brawls, disputes, family troubles, all had to be adjusted by a single peace officer. That man was Henry H. Sibley of Crawford County, Wisconsin, a Justice of the Peace.

The Village of Mendota, which was also known as St. Peter, was the seat of justice at the time, and with the aid of an Indian Agent sent by the government to help enforce the law Justice Sibley did a great deal to prevent scenes of actual carnage. Some of the sentences of Justice Sibley will never be forgotten. It is recorded that one man was kept in confinement five days for selling whiskey to an Indian, while another one who had killed an Indian and had shown that it was by accident was ordered to pay a fine of three dollars. It is also recorded that for various repetitions of offenses fines and imprisonment were not imposed, but more vigorous measures taken. One man who had been guilty for the fourth time of selling liquor to Indians was quietly taken to the back yard of the Sibley residence, the first court house of the State of Minnesota and thrashed within an inch of his life. He was then brought back into the presence of the justice and fined five dollars which was an enormous sum in those days. By the year 1839 Pig’s Eye settlement on the site of the present City of St. Paul was increased by the influx of quite a number of a better element of traders who soon learned of the conditions about the rum seller’s cabin. The better spirited men were aroused and they determined to rid themselves of the lawless element. They wanted to go to the root of the evil so they determined to get rid of “Pig’s Eye.” So the better element moved lower down toward what is now Jackson Street and rebuilt their cabins, then when they had them in good shape they went up to Fort Snelling, procured the assistance of the Post Commandant and with a squad of soldiers came down upon Pig’s Eye City one fine morning of May in 1840, and swept the settlement off the map, by means of the torch. The Commanding Officer of the military post at Snelling then ordered that no more settlements be made by civilians between Jackson Street and the mouth of the Mississippi River at Fort Snelling. Parrent did not give up his struggle for a settlement which he wanted named after himself, and he started a settlement opposite to what is now Red Rock, five miles below the city. Franklin Ford, an Englishman, owned nearly a mile of the river bank and all adjoining land at this point and Parrent became a squatter on this land. Ford was an honest God-fearing man with a good eye on the nether end of a gun (which fact Parrent knew) so that when Parrent was told to move, or have his other eye shot out, he did so, and was never heard of since.

In 1841 the settlement at the foot of Jackson Street had grown to such proportions that a church was built of logs with a partly log partly rail fence around it. Father Lucien Gaultier, one of the Priests of the Diocese of Dubuque took charge of the church and named it the church of St. Paul and began his parish duties. The men who lived about this little church were hardy sons of toil, sturdy in body and their minds were filled with schemes for making St. Paul a great city. The lawless element was pretty well in the background and no police officers were needed to keep the city in proper order.

In 1848 the Territory of Wisconsin, in which St. Paul was located, was admitted to statehood. The Western portion of the Territory, however, was created into a new territory named Minnesota, and St. Paul was designated as the County Seat of the newly created Ramsey County, and the Capital of the new territory. Alexander Ramsey came to St. Paul the following year under appointment from President Taylor as the first territorial governor of the newly created State of Minnesota. On November 1st, 1849, the town of St. Paul was formally incorporated by legislative act. St. Paul then had eighteen houses, a church, a log cabin, city hall and a census of 840 persons. Dr. Thos. R. Potts one of the first physicians in the territory of Minnesota was the president of the first Common Council. Edmund Rice, afterwards mayor and a member of Congress was the first Recorder. The first trustees were W. H. Schwartz, Henry Jackson, A. L. Larpenter, D. F. Hoyt and William H. Randall. Jackson later became Postmaster, Hoyt was for many years Justice of the Peace at Rosetown and Larpenter is still among us, living at the Anchorage, Rondo and Dale Streets in the full enjoyment of his health.