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A Book of the Saint Paul Police 1838 - 1912 — 5

Photo of City Hall and Court HouseIn 1868 Dr. Stewart again became mayor and the new mayor immediately set about reforming the system of handling female prisoners. Up to this time all women sentenced to the workhouse or rather to the city jail for there was no real workhouse, were herded together and those who had not yet become hardened criminals were face to face and had to bump elbows with a vicious element. In this way many who would otherwise be turned back into a clean life were ruined for good and all. The city council thereupon designated that all first offenders and those who had no vicious tendencies or serious criminal records be confined thereafter in the House of Good Shepherds. The following year James T. Maxfield came into the mayor’s chair and he was immediately confronted by a petition signed by over 1,000 citizens asking that so far as possible the Sunday operation of disorderly houses and saloons be abolished. The mayor did very well with this proposition with a small force of police to handle it and satisfied all the citizens. At the mayor’s suggestion Luther H. Eddy, formerly chief of the Fire Department and for eight terms a member of the city council was named as Chief of Police with a $1200 salary. He was also required to be present at every fire. In addition to the chief there were 14 roundsmen and one detective in the department. William Lee became mayor in 1870 and served until 1871. He had a force of nineteen men in his police department. Dr. Stewart was again elected mayor in 1871 and he served till May 5, 1875. Patrolmen were each raised to $840 per year and the chief was given $1500 per year salary. In the main room of the central police station today there is a picture somewhat faded but still quite distinct as to features showing the entire police department of the year 1874. This is the earliest picture of the complete department that is now obtainable. This picture has printed on it the names of the men who constituted the force at that time and here is the roster: Chief, J. H. McIlrath, Captain, James King, Sergeant, Charles Weber, Officers Calvin, Mitchell, Kenaley, Voegili, Cayen, Ross, Wahlstrom, Rouleau, Nolan, O’Keefe, Morgan, Petriss, Christoph, Murphy, Oelkler, Lowell, Palmer, Bressette, Clark, Bremer, Putzier, Ryan, Nugent, Nygard and Dowland. Of this array of names familiar to every citizen of St. Paul, even to the younger generation there are still alive four men, Capt. James King, Patrolman Kenaley, Rouleau, Murphy and Clark. Capt. Clark everybody knows. He is now Assistant Chief of Police. (Kenaley is a detective, Rondo Street station). Lowell died a dozen years ago. Rouleau is still connected with the force and Sergeant Dennis Murphy is still at the Margaret street sub-station. All the rest have been gathered to the great army of the dead, but so long as the record of the St. Paul Police Department shall be in existence the names of these men, most of whom died while in service, will remain as their monument to police efficiency and police integrity. In 1874 the police faced a terrible murder mystery which they successfully cleared up. Mrs. Ulricka Lick had a quarrel with the family of Peter Rapp. Mrs. Lick and her husband had returned home on Sunday November 1st, and as they entered the kitchen Mrs. Lick saw the face of a woman at the window of the kitchen. She and her husband opened the door and were met by two men and a woman. One of them seized Mrs. Lick and the other two seized her husband. The man who had attacked Mrs. Lick cleaved her head in half with a hatchet. One of the other of the attacking party drew a knife across the throat of Mr. Lick but a red bandanna handkerchief which he wore on his throat probably saved his life. The attacking parties ran away leaving Lick unconscious and his wife dead. Lick gave the police a clue toward the Rapp family who with Otto Loutenschlager were arrested and after trial sent up for life to Stillwater penitentiary. Michael Kelly was another murderer caught during the year and sent up for life. He is still doing time at Stillwater. He stabbed Barney Lamb during a fight with knives at Rice and Wabasha. Kelly got away and was at large for several hours. The police wove a splendid net about him. The third and last murder of the “bloody fall” came when John H. Rose a discharged laborer employed by Patrick O’Connor a contractor, shot his employer killing him instantly. The murder occurred at 4th and Sibley in the open street. Officer Cutzier two blocks away heard the shot and pursued Rose whom he captured at 7th and Jackson streets. Rose was given a life sentence, but was released by the Board of Pardons in 1897, after serving 23 years in the penitentiary. 24 patrolmen policed the town in 1874 during this seige of murders with a population of 30,000 people. One third of the men were on duty by day and two thirds at night. The police had their hands full with other matters. A city council that did not know what harm they were doing insisted upon a rigid enforcement of a city ordinance compelling every travelling man who wanted to do a moments business in the town to take out a ten dollar per day license kept the police busy enforcing this law without doing anything else. The hotel and commercial men of the city finally secured its repeal.

Photo of the new Post OfficeIn 1868 a new charter having been adopted by the city went into effect with the election of Mayor James T. Maxfield in December 1874. The new charter provided that the mayor shall go into office in January instead of in May. In the spring of 1875 the police force was increased from 24 to 30 men. In 1874 during a session of the legislature a bill was passed creating a Municipal Court for the City of St. Paul. Mayor Maxfield immediately acted on this suggestion and S. M. Flint, then a city justice, was elected as the first judge of the Municipal Court at a salary of $2500 per year. James F. O’Brien and Thos. K. Robinson were appointed special judges with a salary of three dollars a day for actual service to act when Justice Flint was unable to take up the cases. The city also established a workhouse at the county jail which relieved the city lockup then sorely overtaxed. In the latter part of his term Mayor Maxfield became seriously ill and William Dawson, president of the common council was named as acting mayor. At the expiration of Mayor Maxfield’s term Mr. Dawson was elected mayor and served until 1881, having previously served as president of the common council from 1865 to 1868 and from 1875 to 1878. One of the first acts of Mayor Dawson was to detail Wm. Nolan a patrolman to act as police court bailiff, the first time this position had ever been recognized in the history of the St. Paul department or the municipal court. James King still living but recently retired from the department was Chief of police until 1879 when he was succeeded by Sargeant Charles Weber. Owing to hard times the salaries of the patrolmen were reduced from $840 to $780 and the officers reduced the same way. Again let us quote from the history 1904 of the Police Department.

“The precursor of the great tower topped building at Como which is known as the St. Paul Workhouse, was instituted in 1879. The first workhouse was a wooden structure built to supply the demands for a place in which to keep habitual vagrants. The site was Smith Park and the building was surrounded by a pile of stone. In a capacious tool-box within, were sledge hammers which were used to maintain the industry of the inmates of the workhouse. Men who had been fined and were unable to pay the money were sent here to work out, on the stone pile, their fines at the rate of $1 per day. November of this year the tendencies toward smaller salaries was felt by Judge Flint. The sum of $250 was cut from his annual wages, but though his salary was not restored a rising tendency in the salaries of the men connected with police department became a reality in the spring of 1880, and the former wages of the police and patrolmen were restored. The payroll for the year was $29,186 as compared with sum of $10,000 smaller for the previous year.

The workhouse idea during its short existence proved to be a good one and in April of 1880 the present site of the workhouse was secured in the northeast forty acres of the land surrounding Lake Como, which had been purchased for park purposes. F. A. Renz was elected superintendent of the workhouse, and he was succeeded by Jas. Fitzgerald in 1885.” Mr. Fitzgerald retired four or five years ago and was succeeded by Frank Horn the present incumbent. Mr. Horn has been remarkably successful in his management of the workhouse. He was for many years a patrolman and later was made a lieutenant and placed in charge of the police court prosecutions. Mr. Horn has made the workhouse almost self-supporting. He rules with an iron hand and no prisoner has ever had a word to say against him, for though restrictive discipline is enforced, the man who attends to his business and obeys the rules is not treated like a criminal, but like a workman, for Mr. Horn conducts the most model broom factory in America at his institution. In 1881 Judge Flint was retired as municipal judge and Walter E. Burr was elected. In the same year Edmund Rice, a man whose name is revered by every man who ever served in the police department became mayor. The first thing Mayor Rice did was to investigate the whole police department of the city. On May 4th, 1882 he sent a message to the council decrying the use of the old city hall lockup, saying that the conditions, were unsanitary and that pestilence was threatening and that the jail was insecure inasmuch as four prisoners under sentence to Stillwater for long terms had ripped up the floor, dropped into the cellar and escaped through a cellar door. On June 17th, 1882, Daniel O’Connell, attempting single handed to arrest two desperate burglars, lost his life from a bullet wound inflicted by one of the men whom he was attempting to arrest.

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