Law and Disorder in the 1870's

Tom’s note:
This is a transcription from the original column using a process called “OCR,” which stands for optical character recognition. A very small portion has been edited in order to clarify Mr. John Cleary’s references to persons, places and things which today may be confusing to the reader. The original column is in the Hamilton Library’s Local History Collection.
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Trenton in Bygone Days
Sunday Trenton Times Advertiser
July 14, 1938

An old police docket loaned to Dr. John J. Cleary by de­scendants of one-time City Marshal John Tyrrell contained many items that bear repetition. Mr. Tyrrell headed the local gendarmerie back in the seventies, long before that office rated the title Chief of Police.
To those f familiar with the quasi-­military discipline that now rules our bluecoats, it will come as some­what of a shock to learn that drunkenness on the force became so much of a public scandal that Mayor John Briest on December 28, 1874, called the members of the department at the City Hall and lectured them on the subject, touching pointedly on the topic of their visits to drinking places while on duty.
Charges of inebriety were fre­quently made against the boys in blue. One instance records that an officer was found prostrate in the Warren Street Station of the Belvidere Railroad, so outraging the feelings of a sober citizen that he stripped off the patrolman's hat, club and badge and took them to the police station. Putting aside the embroidery of comment, we quote some of the items in the old Tyrrell docket:
Saloonkeeper arrested for sell­ing liquor in smaller measure than a quart on Sunday. Four boys arrested for stealing pears from an orchard, repri­manded and discharged. Baker & Bros. store robbed of $2,000 worth of dry goods. No arrests. City perfectly quiet. Dead horse found lying at the head of Spring Street. Mad dog bit a woman in the Second Ward." .
At 10 P. M. Officer B___, attract­ed by a horrible stench on Hanover Street, at Warren, caused by night scavenger's leaky carts. Ten men arrested for drunken­ness and rioting at ball in Wash­ington Hall, Officers Zerman, Wheatley and Vanderveer making the arrests. All were held for court and Dan Higgins became their bondsman.
"Drunks" of that period were usually conveyed to the station in a wheelbarrow. For instance: Of­ficer King arrested William ("­and wheeled him to the City Hall in a barrow: He was fined $3.20 (the reg­ular tariff for that offense.) One chap conveyed to the bastille on a stretcher got 30 days.
A tremendous number of fire alarms, false and real were listed. They kept the volunteers on the hop. Police were often the first on the scene, and the record shows that sometimes they put out the blaze before the firemen arrived. Incendiaries were active. One of their visits touched off the stable of "Curly" Sampson, well known horseman of the time, at South Broad Street and Hamilton Avenue. Two trotting horses were lost in this August, 1873 blaze, and the damage was put at $2,500. The Fashion Stud Farm stables also were leveled at about the same time, also by a firebug who possibly had been wagering on the nags with small success. On September 29, of the same year, Slack's stocking factory. This was one of South Trenton's most important industries located at Warren and Bridge Streets. Four officers were reported for not showing up at the fire. Even the firehouses themselves did not escape. The Harmony stables were the scene of one blaze, but more serious indeed was the conflagration that swept the Eagle stables on June 23, 1874, when four fine horses were destroyed as the building burned to the ground.
A significant quotation: "Alarm of fire last night (June 26, 1874). The cracker bakery of Mr. Pullen in Market Street caught fire from some cause unknown and was totally destroyed. The depart­ment got the flames subdued about 4 A. M. All the officers (police) were present except Assistant Marshal Robert M. Parks, who says he heard no alarm."
A few days later a terrific elec­tric storm broke over the city. A bolt struck the very pinnacle of the Third Presbyterian Church steeple. Fuel was added to the blaze by a globe of pitch pine at the crest of the spire.
This ele­vated torch caused the firemen no end of trouble until finally, after much din of breaking hose lines, the Good Will and Union Com­panies got it under control. A few years later Fourth of July fire­works ignited the same spire and the resulting flames practically ruined its slender beauty.
April 3, 1875, the wire mill (Trenton Iron Works) was de­stroyed by flames.
“Sleighing Days Recalled”
Sleighing days are recalled by a note of January 2, 1875:
"the Marshal recovered a buffalo robe and horse blanket belonging to J. Y, Force, all left in the National Hotel stable yard."
One January afternoon 25 citizens were arrested for fast driving, apparently for racing over the snow, as was the custom on the stretch from the canal feeder to Roebling's mill on South Broad Street.
The worst boys of the town were in the gang that once hung around the Taylor Opera House, making life miserable for Special Officer Gandy. They would play all sorts of pranks and pester the patrons as they left the theatres, begging them for the "return" checks. The neighborhood was none too well lighted, and when pursued the lads usually made their getaway, but once in a while the police over­hauled them, and the appearance in court of four of them is re­corded, with note of their dis­charge with a reprimand.
It was one of the duties of the police to light and extinguish the city's lamps; one item reporting that "Officer Hartman fell off his ladder while putting out his lamps, strained his ankle and is not fit to report for duty."
Also repeated is the word that "Officer Lane, while in the act of extinguishing one of his lamps, the ladder slipped, fell and broke three of his ribs while in the perform­ance of his duty."
Apparently this simple chore was accompanied by certain dan­ger.