BeeLines - May 16, 2018
By Marybelle Beigh, Westfield Town & Village Historian
Following Up on the Police Photo ID
Several community folks and faithful readers have “weighed in” on attempting to identify the regular and auxiliary policemen in the 1960s photo shared in an earlier BeeLines. The first was a phone call from a reader in Ripley who identified Auxiliary Policeman Calvin Morse as the fourth person from the left in the front row. This was later confirmed by others who were sharing their observations.
One person brought in the newspaper article, with numbers on the photo, and a list of a dozen other names, all of which have been further confirmed by several other long-time first responders and village officials. One comment made is that a few of those in the photo may have been “short termers” in the police force or auxiliary police.
Here are the names confirmed to date in the above photo.
Front Row (left to right): (unidentified), Monty Karrow, Joe Worrell, Calvin Morse, Charlie Marsala, Dick Smith
Middle Row (left to right): (unidentified), Harold Robbins, Sy Caruso, Howard Peters, (unidentified), (unidentified – possibly Angelo Zappia or Carl Calabrese), Bob Peterson (who was Police Chief at the time of the photo)
Back Row (left to right): Glen Chapman, (unidentified), Maurice Chapman, Al Blanding, (unidentified), (unidentified), (unidentified).
…and Naming the Westfield Chiefs of Police over the Years
It seems that the small amount of history located in the “History of the Town of Westfield – 1802-1997” is not only incomplete but has some erroneous information regarding when Westfield first had a Chief of Police.
From the personnel files of the Village of Westfield, the following List of Chiefs of Police (going backward in time) have been documented:
2006 to present - Rob Genthner
1992 to 2006 - Ken Machemer
1981 to 1991 - Sam Arcadipane
1968 to 1980 - Floyd Black
1967 to 1968 - Emil Gunther (acting Chief of Police – resigned 10-4-1968)
1938 to 1967 - Robert Petersen (retired 1968, died 1975)
The following dates are from WR articles about appointments, deaths, resignations, etc.:
Aug. 1927 - Frank A Drake May 1927 - Edward Cranston May 1926 - Edward Cranston April 1925 - O. W. Stewart Aug/Oct 1924 - Martin Murray (resigned Dec. 1, 1924) May 1923, Jan 1924 - William Larson (controversial articles through 1923-24) April 1920 - L.L. Starkweather Sep 1918 - J. M. Shaw Jan 1915 - John F. Piehl March 1910 - J.W. Norton (when Dr. C.E. Welch was Village President)
Research is continuing on locating the names of other Westfield Police Chiefs, as well as additional historical information about the formation of the police department, and what type of Law Enforcement Officers were appointed or elected since the Village of Westfield was incorporated in 1833.
One of the first things required of the elected officers of the newly-incorporated Village was to write and approve By-Laws according to the laws of the State of New York. In addition to the elected offices of Village President (later changed to “Mayor “in 1927), five Trustees, one Clerk, one Treasurer, and one Collector (of taxes), the Village Trustees were to appoint a Pound Master, an Overseer of Roads, and organize a Fire Company for which they were to appoint 16 members and appoint a Captain. The board of Trustees were also to raise taxes to procure the necessary items for doing business, including setting up a “Pound” for the Pound Master, and purchasing or making hoses, hose carts, hooks and ladders, and storage for these for the fire company.
Your Westfield Historian had long been puzzled by the name “Pound Master” and was interested to discover that in the early years of our villages and towns, the farmers often lost track of their cattle, horses, and such, so they would wander about the area, eating crops and causing havoc when the stray animals might wander into a church or store. So, the Pound Master was basic the first law-enforcement officer of record, who was to obtain property and secure enclosure, for the purpose of containing the stray animals he caught, and then was to fine the owners when they came to identify and collect their animals. According to some of the old minutes, the fines helped pay the Pound Master for his work.
It wasn’t until after the end of the Civil War, about 1868, that the Village of Westfield appointed a Constable, as well as the Pound Master. Research is continuing to determine the duties of the Village Constable, as well as to find out when the Village started hiring policemen as well as a Chief of Police.