PAX Centurion - November / December 2015

Page 24 • PAX CENTURION • November/December 2015 617-989-BPPA (2772) patrolmen, in this year, too, a superintendent of hackney coaches and another of trucks and wagons were appointed. Previous to the reorganization, in 1854 the old watch system and the police were really under two heads, there was a captain of the watch, and there were stations which had two captains each. One cap- tain came on at sundown, and the other at midnight. The captains of the sta- tions reported to the “head captain” and the head captain reported each morning to the Mayor. The head captain didn’t have so much to do as the superintendent of police has today to occupy his time at the office. At the time of the reorganization in 1854, Captain James Barry was then the head Captain of the watch, and his office was whereYoung’s hotel stood. Captain Barry went about other business at the same time that he attended to the duties of the watch. TheWatch department had about 300 men in it at the time of the disbandment in 1854. The men usually wore the oldest clothes they could get, in case they should be handled roughly by some prisoner during the night. Many of them wore no badges besides their watch hook. This they carried under their coats. The police were first given their badges in 1847, which consisted of a white ribbon, with “POLICE” in black letters. Later on there was a leather strap with “POLICE” in silver letters, then a six-pointed, oblong brass star worn on the breast, and in 1854 there was a silver octagon, with the number of the man cut out. There is only one man in active duty on the police force in 1894. This man was Patrolman John M. Penniman, who was one of the night men at City Hall. Others who were on that old force were Captain George M. King who was one of the old time policemen and Captain H.J.V. Meyers, who, at the age of 73 conducted a detec- tive agency in Boston, though he was not hired to the Boston Police until 1858, Major Edward Jones, who was a Patrolman, Captain, State Policeman and Police Commissioner, passed through all the old “night watch days” just before 1854. Ex-superintendent Cyrus Small, whose home is in Roxbury, is also one of the “old-timers.” Those few names include about all of the men who were living in 1894 who were connected with the old force prior to 1854. They had many stories to tell of the old days, and the stories sounded very strange to the “younger fry” of 1894. Officer Penniman told the Boston Evening Globe , “I can’t help laughing sometimes when I think of the fun we used to have in the old day, but it wasn’t all fun, my boy – it wasn’t all fun. Why, is how we used to get the prisoners to jail when I first went on the force –the night watch – in September 1847? Just think of that, we had two watches, you know the first watch went on at 7 o’clock, 8 o’clock or 9 o’clock, according to the time of year; and that watch went off duty at midnight, during the hours of duty the prison- ers would be taken to the various station houses. Then, when the call sounded for the change of watch, the men going off duty would have to look out for the prisoner in hand, and get them across the city to the jail on Leverett Street.” “We had to march the prisoners across the city as best we could; I have seen as many as 30 prisoners for us to take across in one night. There would be four or five of us to do it, and we would chain some of them together, it was hard on the prisoner, but we had to do it.” “Sometimes a drunken fellow would be chained to some fellow who could help him to stand up and walk. Good for the drunken fel- low, but rather rough on the other man.” Salary?Why we got 90 cents a day in 1847, yes, and in 1849, when Mayor Bigelow was in office, we petitioned for a raise of pay and we were raised to $1.00 a day. The Captains had been getting $1.00 a day before for that time, and when we were raised to $1.00 the pay per day of the captains was increased to $1.25. And at the time when we were petitioning for the increase of pay Captain Barry, head of the watch, went to theAldermen, and said he could get all the men he wanted at 75 cents a day. But we got the “raise” just the same.” “We had some hard old scrabble in those days, but we stood a bet- ter chance of getting a man than we do now. For we had no uniforms, and a thief could not tell us from anyone else. We simply had the rattle and the hook, the hook was a pretty useful thing, and some of the men who ran away from us had reason to believe it was useful sometimes.” There were only seven stations, Station 1, was on Hanover Street, Station 2 was Court Square, Station 3 was on Leverett Street, Station 4 was on Boylston Place, and Station 5 was on Suffolk Street. Suffolk Street is now called Shawmut Avenue, There was only one station in South Boston, Station 6 on Broadway Street and Station 7 was in East Boston on Meridian Street. ...and more from the early years of the Boston Police Department… From More from the Early Years on page 22