Category: History

Here are two photographs of Mrs. Sarah B. Schaeffer: one upon her appointment to the Minneapolis Police Department and one upon her retirement.

Mrs. Schaeffer was appointed by Mayor A. A. Ames to the role of Police Matron in 1901 at the salary of $726 per year.

She served at the City Jail, located on the top floor of the Minneapolis City Hall.

As Police Matron, Mrs. Schaeffer had responsibility for women, and juvenile girls and boys.

Mrs Schaeffer retired from the Minneapolis Police Department, during Mayor Leach’s term, in 1927.

When asked about her plans for retirement she stated that she was looking forward to retiring to her bungalow and tending her garden.

Top photograph courtesy of Policewomen: A History by Kerry Segrave

Bottom photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library

Those were the words of John L. Lynch, President of the Minneapolis Retailers’ Association on September 16, 1922

Mr. Lynch was speaking of the Minneapolis Merchants Fashion Show.

The show took place over three evenings and drew more than 500,000 attendees. It was considered an innovation and attracted attention throughout the country, especially in the larger East Coast cities, as a model to be followed.

Of the Minneapolis Police Department, Mr. Lynch said: “Great commendation is due the police of Minneapolis for their handling of the large crowds and the traffic problems engendered. It was the best example of police cooperation I have ever seen or heard of.”

Story from the Minneapolis Morning Tribune of September 16, 1922

Photograph of Minneapolis Motorcycle Police Officers from 1921 courtesy of Hennepin County Library

Just what were the salaries of the members of the Minneapolis Police Department in 1884?

A glance into the Proceedings of the City Council shows annual salaries for 1884 to be:

• Chief – $1800
• Captain – $1200
• Lieutenant – $1100
• Sergeant – $1000
• Detective – $1200
• Patrol Officer First Year – $828
• Patrol Officer Second Year and Above – $900
• Mounted Patrol Officer – $260 Additional for Maintenance of Horse
• Patrol Officer Serving Civil Papers including Horse Hire – $960

To give some additional perspective, here are the costs for some common items in 1884:

• Total Coal for the Minneapolis Police Department for one year – $2,151
  • 175 tons of Lasalle lump coal for the Department @ $3.40 per ton = $595
  • 80 tons of Anthracite stove coal for the Department @ $8.25 per ton = $660
  • 200 tons of Youghiagheny lump coal for the Department @ $4.48 per ton = $896

• To buy a large lot and an 8 room house on Washington Avenue North and 15th Street – $3200
• To rent a 10 room house off 6th Avenue – $50 per month
• To rent a 2 room apartment at 608-13th Avenue South – $11 per month
• To rent a 2 room apartment at 1229-6th Street South – $5 per month
• To rent a one room office at 26 Washington Avenue South – $8 per month

• Flour – 3 cents per pound
• Beef and Pork – 10 cents per pound
• Sugar – 7 cents per pound
• Molasses – 60 cents per gallon
• Coffee – 28 cents per pound
• Milk – 6 cents per quart

Salary information taken from the Proceedings of the City Council of the City of Minneapolis, April 1884 – April 1885

Throughout its history, the Minneapolis Police Department has valued its many excellent civilian employees for their contributions to the smooth operations of the Department. One such esteemed employee was W.G. Barber.

W.G. Barber was born in Somerset, New Jersey on January 16, 1846. He enlisted in the 38th New Jersey regiment commanded by Col. William J. Sewall (who was afterwords for several terms United States Senator from New Jersey). Mr Barber served in the Army of the James and was stationed in front of Richmond until the close of the Civil War. He was mustered out of the service on July 15, 1865. Soon afterwards, he moved west and settled in Illinois, living first at Fairview and later at Peoria.

Mr. Barber came to Minneapolis in 1879, entering the employment of the Washburn-Crosby Milling Company, where he remained for eight years. He was a conductor on the Minneapolis streetcar line for several months, and then became the Health Inspector for the Fifth Ward for two years.

In 1891 Mr. Barber was appointed as a Telephone Operator at the Minneapolis Police Headquarters by Mayor Winston. We have no records of Mr. Barber after 1900, but we know that in 1899 he was still serving as a Telephone Operator at the salary of $900 per year.

Mr. Barber was married on October 29, 1872, to Miss Alice Stoddard, of Illinois, and was living with his wife and their two children at 3104 Stevens Avenue in 1899.

He was a member of the Morgan Post of the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R) which was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), Marines and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service who served in the Civil War. 

Engraving of W.G. Barber taken from History of the Fire and Police Departments of the Twin Cities published by American Land & Title Register Association, 1899.

Detective John E. Morrisey was born on a farm near Albany, New York on March 12, 1858 and moved with his family to a farm near Brownsville, Minnesota in 1866. He came to Minneapolis in 1881 where he first worked as a streetcar driver.

On May 1, 1886, he was appointed Patrolman by Mayor A.A. Ames and assigned to duty at the Central Station. In June of 1892, Mayor Eustis appointed him to the detective force where he served for the remainder of his career.

Detective Morrisey was one of the detectives on the Ozark Flats Murder case. In its day, it was the most spectacular murder-for-hire trial Minnesota had ever seen and it was featured in newspapers across the country.

If you would like to read Detective Morrisey’s court testimony as it appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune on February 9, 1895, just click on the link below and scroll down to page four.

https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0005%2F1DFC5F59%2F95020901&query1=&recoffset=0&collection_filter=1a9ae500-bb04-4cc1-b561-375dde8926af&collection_name=4a0c6900-28ec-40e6-bafa-8705a70f68f8&sort_col=relevance&objRsltIdx=3&CurSearchNum=6&recOffset=0

Minneapolis Tribune courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society

In doing research for an upcoming feature on Early Detectives, we discovered an article in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune of February 28, 1915 which may be of interest to many.

Here is an excerpt from the article called “Behind the Scenes in the City Adminstration – Day’s Work of Real City Detective”.

“It was 8:30 am when two adventurers, one of whom desired to see how a real detective works, strolled into the detectives’ room at Police Headquarters. One of the pair had had considerable experience with police ways and police methods. He knew how much, how little, similarity there is between the average day’s work of a reel detective and a real detective.

About a dozen detectives were sitting around the room at headquarters when the two adventurers arrived. They were waiting for the regular morning roll call. Some were making reports of the previous day’s work, others were studying circulars giving pictures, names and descriptions of men wanted by the police in various parts of the country. Still others were merely smoking and talking in order kill time until they received instructions for the day.

The visitors who came in search of excitement picked Detective Frank Colwell as the man whom they would follow during the day. With Colwell was Detective Joe Berry, his partner. Most of the detectives work in pairs. Colwell, although friendly enough, did not appear particularly anxious to have company for the day. Contrary to expectations he seemed to be a bit reluctant. “Well, I suppose you’ll have to come,” he said. “Wait a couple of minutes until roll call is over and we’ll see what we’ve got to do.”

John Galvan, the day captain of police, came into the room shortly afterward and gave out the orders for the day. There were general orders for all of the detectives, descriptions of out-of-town men wanted by the police who were likely to be in the city, reports of persons missing and also descriptions of two men wanted in connection with a series of holdups. Besides these instructions, which were taken by the entire squad, each of them received special assignments”….

If you are interested in learning more about what the day held for the two detectives and their guests here is a link to the story. Just scroll to page 32 to read the article in its entirety.

https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0005/1DFC5G5B/15022801&query1=&recoffset=0&collection_filter=All&collection_name=addabf07-f848-43e3-a488-2782562f220d&sort_col=relevance&objRsltIdx=32&CurSearchNum=1&recOffset=0

Minneapolis Morning Tribune courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

The Bryant Boys Club had its first meeting on March 13, 1941 at the Bryant Avenue Precinct.

The meeting began with a snack which we can see from the photograph included hot dogs, buns and pop.

Pictured serving the club members are (L to R) Officer Earl Aitchison, Officer Edward Bolstad, Captain John Finlayson, Officer Phillip Carlson, and Sergeant Charles Gannon.

Photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library

During the Second World War, most U.S. factories shifted their production lines from manufacturing household goods to producing munitions and military goods.

Formerly common materials such as metal, rubber, and paper became scarce and salvage drives became popular crowd-sourcing events to help address the shortages.

In addition to shoring up supplies of needed materials, salvage drives gave citizens a sense of pride because they were contributing to the war effort.

On April 26, 1944, Minneapolis held the “W-Day Salvage Drive” and asked the community to contribute their waste paper with the goal of collecting 1,000,000 pounds.

The waste paper collected would go on to be used for shell casings, bomb bands, plasma cartons, K-ration boxes, and packing material.

On April 26, 1944, people all across Minneapolis pitched in to make a difference.

In the top photograph, the Boy Scouts of Troop 152, Zion Baptist Church, are shown delivering 700 pounds of waste paper they have personally collected.

In the middle photograph, members of the Chicago-Lake Businessmen’s Association are pictured doing their part.

In the bottom photograph, three tons of ledgers, journals, and confidential files from Northwestern National Bank dating back to 1884 are taken under guard for shredding. Shown L to R are: Minneapolis Police Officer Charles Keehn, Bank Caretaker Karl Karzeniowski, Minneapolis Police Officer Chris Peterson, and Bank Clerk Carole Anderson.

Photographs courtesy of Hennepin County Library

It was two days before Christmas Eve in 1944 when Minneapolis Police Officer Marion Brindley took on the job of moving a cow from a Northeast Minneapolis intersection. The cow had escaped from a livestock truck after the vehicle was hit by a coal truck at the corner of Northeast Harrison Street and 3rd Avenue. No injuries were sustained in the accident.

Photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library

You may recall the story of Officer Marwin A. Wicklund whom we honored in a post on May 24.

Officer Wicklund was the only member of the Minneapolis Police Department ever to be killed while on military duty.

In this photograph, Officer Wicklund is shown (right) writing a citation for streetcar driver Katherine Hanson (center) as Officer Carl Johnson (left) looks on.

This photograph was taken on June 25, 1944, just five weeks before Officer Wicklund was accepted into the Marines.

Photograph courtesy of Hennepin County Library