The population of the community in the early years was
thinly spread. Puritan ideas prevailed eliminating the need of any
one group to compel others to obey the law. An annual election was
held to choose certain men to be tithingmen. It was the duty of the
tithingmen to see that all persons be at meeting on the sabbath.
Tithingmen were elected in Chelsea until 1834, when the title was
changed to constable and given statewide powers when serving warrants
in civil and criminal cases. The insignia of office was a long staff.
There was no regular salary attached to the office but if called upon
to keep peace at assemblies, the constable was paid a fee of one
dollar. John Low and Benjamin Shurtleff were elected the first
constables for Chelsea.
In 1847, for the first time, a night watch was instituted by the
town at a cost of forty dollars for the year. As a result the town
authorized the selectman to employ a night watch when they deemed it
necessary. During the next two years it cost the town one hundred
dollars for a night watch. During October 1849, a large number of
fires were being set, {sometimes as many as three a night}. As a
result, extra night watch was hired for the month.
Prior to 1851, the town used a lightly built two story wooden
shack for locking up law-breakers. It was located in what would
become the yard of the town hall on Shurtleff Street. The second
floor of the shack was the town paint shop. This created a hazardous
condition, in the case of fire, for the law breakers who had to be
handcuffed to prevent them from walking out. In 1851, a new lockup, a
two story stone building was built on Division Street in the rear of
what would later become Engine #1 fire station. The lockup was
destroyed in the fire of 1908.
One thousand dollars was appropriated in 1854, for night watch and
Sunday Police. This was the year the “Knownothing Society”
was active in Massachusetts, causing havoc and creating uprisings
against foreigners and Irish Catholics. Chelsea experienced a part in
this uprising when a group of Knownothings attacked the St. Rose
Church, {then on Cottage Street}. They caused minor damage before
being driven off by fifty hastily appointed policemen and a call for
the militia.
A police court was established in 1855, at 220 Broadway with
Hamlet Bates as the first justice. The first Chelsea city government
in 1857, passed an ordinance establishing a Police Department with a
marshal and six assistants. During the year there were a number of
special officers appointed. The budget for the Police Department for
the first year as a city, was $4450. Erastus Rugg was appointed first
city marshall at a salary of $800 a year. The first entry in the
police journal, made on July 13, 1857, read “Write anything you
think will be interesting to the Police Department each day with your
name.-E. Rugg.” Five entrees followed: two arrested for
drunkenness, a man arrested for shooting robins, an assault and
battery complaint, a larceny and a boy and girl lost.
On July 7, 1871, the first death of a police officer in the line
of duty was recorded: “For no explainable reason a man
approached David Weber, on duty at the time, and shot him in the
region of the heart from which he died.”
In 1881 the title City Marshal was changed to Chief of Police,
with two deputies and fifteen patrolmen. The first horse drawn patrol
wagon was bought by the department in 1890. On October 25, 1898, the
new $82,000 police station at 17-19 Park Street, was dedicated, on
the former site of the Park Street School. The Gamewell Police
Signal, a telephone system was installed in 1896. The first motorized
vehicles were bought for the police in 1912, one was a Moon Touring
Car for regular use, the other was an Essex coupe for the Chief. The
strength of the Police Department at the time of the Chelsea fire of
1908 was one chief, thirty eight regulars and eleven reserves. All
regulars and reservemen responded on the sounding of the second alarm
at 10:56 A.M.. April 12, 1908, nineteen of the regulars and eleven of
the reservemen lost their homes that day to the fire.
The only man to serve as both police and fire chief was David M.
Hudson. Serving as Police Chief 1902 to 1908 and as Fire Chief 1912
until his death in 1938.