Historian offers police background

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Vennus Campbell indicates the current address of the temporary Greenfield police station was 23 W. South St. It was listed incorrectly previously.

Charlie Gildwell, former chief of the Greenfield police provides us with an updated history of the department and corrects the existing on:

“The Greenfield Police Department was established in 1850 when Greenfield was incorporated with a town marshal system and the first serving marshal was indeed N.P. Howard, who was appointed because the elected town marshal wouldn’t serve after being elected.

“The first Greenfield police chief was John Francis Mulvihill, who was appointed in 1926. He later became a justice of the peace.

“The Greenfield Police Department also was responsible for animal control, as stated in your column, until approximately 1970. Officers carried a snare in the trunk of their vehicles; the dog pound was located in an old barn on what is now Davis Road just west of the old Greenfield open dump, which is where the current F.O.P. Lodge is. Animals that were not claimed were destroyed once a week.

“There was also a red light on top of a telephone pole on the northeast corner of State and Main with a call box also located on the pole. A police car would be parked at the southeast corner of State and Main, and when the red light came on they would go to the call box and call in.

“The Greenfield Police Department has had four homes, the first being in the Hancock County Courthouse. The police department moved to the newly constructed City Hall in 1956 and occupied the northeast corner of City Hall. The police department then moved to 23 W. South St. in 1963. In 1977 the police department moved to its current location at 116 S. State St. The article also states it moved to 23 W. South St.”

Thanks, Charlie. He is the historian of the Greenfield Police Department.

Enough. I have told you everything I know and some things I don’t. Talk to me.