PORTLAND POLICE MUSEUM - Key Persons
Charles Hunt was born in Providence, R.I. in 1842. During the Civil War Hunt served under General Ambrose Burnside and participated in battles at Fredericksburg, South Mountain and Antietam. After mustering out of the service Hunt returned to Providence and joined the police force, he was 22 years old. Hunt began his police career as a patrolman and by 1880 he had been promoted to Chief of Police. He resigned that year, despite a petition signed by every member of the Providence police department asking him to stay, to take the position of Superintendent of the State Penitentiary.
In 1886 Hunt moved to Portland because the climate was considered better for his wife's failing health. Initially Hunt supported himself through real estate speculation and later became a deputy sheriff. In 1892, Hunt was named Chief of Police to replace the unpopular Ernest Spencer. During his first term as Chief, Hunt faced budgetary problems due to the worldwide depression of 1893, which was particularly severe in Oregon. Despite the reduction of the police force, Hunt had to deal with rising violence in Chinatown as the newly organized Tongs fought over control of gambling and opium. In 1894 he hired the first two African-American police officers in the department; both men were hired as Patrol Wagon drivers, but George Hardin eventually worked as a patrol officer as well. That year Hunt was removed from office after the political makeup of the Board of Police Commissioners changed.
After serving as Police Chief, Hunt traveled to Alaska where he worked as a manager of mining operations before returning to Portland and working in several different businesses. In 1903 he was reappointed Police Chief; overseeing a department that now had four detectives, three captains and four court guards as well as a large force of patrolmen. During his second term Hunt abolished the rock pile and ran a major campaign to clean up vice in the city before the Lewis and Clark Exposition of 1905. Hunt was a man who liked to be in control and all decisions had to be cleared through him. He redesigned the city's police badge twice; changing it from a seven-pointed star to the circle star. Serving as Chief during the Lewis and Clark Exposition Hunt received national attention for his efforts to clean up vice and gambling in Portland. He also made it a priority to protect the large numbers of young women who began flocking to Portland during and after the Exposition. To serve this end he hired Lola Baldwin as the country's second woman police officer. She was given a special badge during the Exposition and became a full-fledged officer in 1908.
Hunt resigned in the summer of 1905. He was well respected for his efficient operation of the police force; which he organized into a nationally recognized, modern and well-run force. He continued to visit police headquarters on a regular basis until his death in 1910 at the age of 69.
Daniel M. McLauchlan was born in Scotland in 1854, coming to America at the age of one. His family settled in the east coast where he became a mechanical engineer. He came to the west coast in 1879 and on to Oregon in 1880 at the age of 26. By 1883 he was living in Albina and in a career with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company for nine years as a Master Mechanic and then five years as the Superintendent of the Union Power Company. Prior to becoming the Chief, he was the Mayor of Albina from around 1889 to 1891, and he served for eight months as a Police Commissioner just prior to becoming the Chief.
Officer David Crowther was born in Boise, Idaho and raised in Portland. He graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1970. While attending Mt Hood Community College and Willamette University he worked as a hospital aid, lumber mill worker, park recreation leader and a security guard. He was a Corvallis police officer from 1976 to 1977.
Officer Dennis Darden was born and raised in Portland. He served in the armed forces in Korea.
On August 9, 1974 a lookout call was issued for a vehicle believed to be driven by an armed robbery suspect. About 8:00 pm, officer Darden stopped the vehicle at NW 23rd and Lovejoy. A moment later a backup officer, Randy Pulley, arrived.
Darden got the suspect out of the car at gunpoint and told him he was under arrest. He approached to handcuff. The suspect suddenly pulled a gun out of his pants pocket and shot Darden in his abdomen. Officer Pulley then jumped onto the suspect and the three men went to the ground. Not wanting to accidentally shoot his fellow officer, Darden struck the man with his gun. The suspect fired twice more, wounding Pulley and fatally striking Darden in the chest. He then ran away, with Pulley firing at him.
The suspect was cornered in a house about three blocks away where he committed suicide. It was discovered later that he had been wanted on a murder charge out of California.
Officer Darden was 29 and survived by his pregnant wife and three children.
Officer James Hines was originally from Fairview, Oregon. By 1920, he was 11 and his family had moved to north Portland. He served nine months with the Oregon National Guard and fourteen months in the Army in a medical department attached to the 162nd Infantry. Just before joining the Bureau he was a temp with the Fire Department.
Officer Hines was struck by an automobile on November 4, 1945 at North Portland Road near Swift Boulevard (Columbia). Hines was on patrol with officers Sizer and Tercek and was checking the occupants of a vehicle on the roadside that were suspected of illegally hunting. Hines was talking to the stopped vehicle driver when he was hit by a car and drug for some distance. He died at the scene of the accident.
Officer Hines was two days away from his 26th birthday was and survived by his wife.
Officer White was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital where he died a half-hour later. He was 35 and survived by his mother, wife and two young sons.
Richard Perkins was born and raised in Bristol, England, the son of a prominent cattle rancher. As a boy he trained as a butcher and practiced that occupation for much of his life. In 1851 Perkins immigrated to the United States where he settled in Toledo, Ohio and worked in a meat packing plant. In 1852 he took a job driving a yoke of oxen on the Oregon Trail. He arrived in Portland at the end of November with $16 in his pocket. Within a year he was a partner in the Empire Market, the city's leading grocer, where he operated the butcher shop. In 1854 the Democratic Party's "Businessman's administration" took office with W.S. Ladd as mayor and William Higgins as Marshal. When Higgins resigned three months later, Perkins was appointed in his place.
Richard Perkins served only a few months as marshal and had little interest in law enforcement. The Democratic administration was severely criticized for ignoring the operation of the city and Perkins practiced a similar policy in the marshal's office. During Perkins' term as Marshal the City Jail was burned in a fire set by escaping prisoners. The Territorial Government refused to allocate funds to rebuild the jail and Portland refused to pay for it for the next four years. During that time the Town Marshal had to use the Territorial Prison which completed building in South Portland in 1855 and later the County Jail of newly formed Multnomah County. After serving as Marshal, Perkins returned to the cattle business making regular trips to California, Texas and Idaho and leading large cattle drives which earned him a fortune. In 1889 Perkins began planning for the Hotel Perkins at the corner of SW Fifth and Washington and the Holton House at SW Fourth and Alder. The Hotel Perkins was decorated with a large golden bull, to memorialize the source of Perkins' wealth. The bull became a city landmark before it was permanently removed in 1957. The building was demolished in 1962.
Officer Drake was found on a pile of lumber at the base of a fifteen foot drop into an elevator shaft at 34 North Broadway. He had gone on duty in the evening of October 10, 1930, assigned to a different partner for the early morning. It appeared that he fell into the shaft around midnight, but wasn't found until building employees discovered him the next morning. He was unconscious and died shortly afterwards.
Officer Robert Murray was born in Corvallis, Oregon. He was a veteran of four years with the Navy, served as a police officer in Coos Bay and Dundee, and was a warehouseman when hired by the Bureau.
On May 2, 1962, officer Murray was on traffic detail at the east end of the Burnside Bridge. He had finished by putting standards back on the sidewalk on 3rd Avenue under the bridge. He drove off, heading north on 3rd when the motorcycle suddenly veered to the right and struck a bridge abutment. Murray was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. It appeared that his kickstand had dropped, causing the bike to go out of control.
Officer Murray was 36 and survived by his wife and two children.
was born in Custer, South Dakota. He graduated from Tualatin Grade School and Sherwood High. He was a member of the Oregon National Guard and had been in ROTC before joining the Bureau. Roger's previous job was as a service station attendant.
Appointed to the Bureau on July 24, 1953 at the age of 23, he was a motorcycle patrol officer.
Officer Davies was patrolling on his motorcycle, riding north on Front Avenue on April 18, 1961. A car driving in the opposite direction, turned left off of Front, causing Davis to broadside the vehicle on the passenger side. Davies died at the scene, the driver was uninjured.
Officer Roy Mizner was born in Portland, Oregon and settled in Tigard. He graduated from Benson High and was a machine gunner in WWII, a bus driver, and a truck driver.
Officers Mizner and Stroeder were killed at the corner of 82nd Avenue and Stark Street when an automobile smashed broadside into their patrol vehicle. It was 9:30 in the evening of February 18, 1956. Witnesses reported that the automobile, occupied by two young airmen, was driving south on 82nd at speeds between 80 and 100 miles an hour, running red lights and constantly blowing its horn.
Samuel Young was born in 1846 in Ireland where he married in and began raising a family. As a young man, he and his small family traveled to Australia where he was employed in the mining industry and was very successful. By the mid-1830's his fortunes reversed and he was bankrupt.
In 1884 the Youngs immigrated to Portland and in 1885, at the age of 39 he joined the Police Force.
Officer Stanley Pounds was born in Canby, Oregon and served in the Navy and in Vietnam during the 1960's.
On July 18, 1984, officer Pounds died at the scene of a two car accident just north of Canby, Oregon. He had been assigned to drug investigations and was enroute to a court proceeding.
Officer Pounds was 40 and survived by his wife, son and daughter.
Officer Thomas Jeffries was born in Roseburg, Oregon and attended high school in Estacada. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism and had written an unpublished novel. He worked as a reserve deputy for Polk County and a corrections officer for Oregon State Penitentiary.
Officer Jeffries was transported to a local hospital where he died just after midnight.
Samuel Holcomb is probably the most mysterious man to ever hold the office of City Marshal in Portland, because there is very little that can be found on his life or activities. He was born in Illinois in 1836 (or possibly 1832) and there is no record of when he settled in Portland. He served as City Marshal at the time Oregon was preparing to become a state and he faced the problem of trying to enforce the law with little or no guidance or structure from the City Council. The population of the city had grown to more than 2,000 and it was becoming difficult for a single marshal to enforce order. In 1857 the City Council, responding to public clamor for a California-style Committee of Vigilance, had passed an ordinance demanding that the city "think" about forming a permanent police force.
In April 1858 Marshal Holcomb, along with ex-Marshal William Grooms, became an officer in the Jefferson Guard - a militia group that could perform as a posse comitatus at need. Later that year he appointed two permanent deputies, forming the first Portland police force that consisted of more than one man. Traces of Holcomb's life after his service as City Marshal are conflicting. He married in 1859 and his wife remained in Portland the rest of her life, but Holcomb himself either died as a soldier in the Civil War in 1864, or he died in San Francisco in 1865.
William Higgins first came to Portland in 1843 as a member of the crew on Captain John Couch's second voyage to the Columbia. He visited the site where Portland would be in 1843, when there was only one permanent resident. A sailor, originally from Rhode Island, Higgins spent eight years sailing the Pacific and Atlantic oceans before settling in Portland in 1850. Higgins, who worked as a carpenter and building contractor, led in balloting to be the first city Marshal before Hiram Wilbur was elected in a compromise. When Wilbur's brief tenure ended Higgins was appointed to fill the vacancy and then won re-appointment the next year.
As Marshal, Higgins served as city tax collector and health officer, being paid at a piece rate for jobs performed. In September, 1851 the state legislature enacted a criminal code that departed from the Iowa code that had been in force in the territory since 1843. This was the first time that Oregon had criminal laws that were tailored to the reality of crime in the state. The new code increased the city Marshal's responsibilities. Higgins investigated the Bradbury murder on Sauvie's Island in 1851. The island was not within Portland's jurisdiction and Higgins's arrest of the killer, Creed Turner, was the first extension of the city's authority. Marshal Higgins served without deputies and many of the city's businesses hired private guards to watch over their businesses at night.
Higgins served as Marshal until 1853 and a second term from 1856 until 1858. He also served a brief term in 1854 when the Democrats took control of the city government, but he left office after only three months. Later he served one term on the City Council in 1861. After his public service he ran a construction business for decades building hundreds of homes and public buildings, including the city's first Post Office and second City Jail. In 1908, the year he died, he was recognized as the city's oldest living pioneer by the Oregonian. The quarter page article on Higgins' life contained a few factual errors; the most interesting was "Captain Higgins…has never held public office."