Evening Star Newspaper, November 10, 1929, Page 98

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, NOVEMBER 10, 1929 Jolnson of Old Second Precinct Was Fighting Leader BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. HE eighth police precinct, which is just now enjoying the spotlight, is {‘ one of the oldest precincts in the city. However, it has always held a very high place in the opinion of the people who live within the territory patrolled by its police officers. Originally the old second precinct in the organization of the Metropolitan Police Dis- trict of the District of Columbia, for many years its men patrolled more territory than did the officers of any other precinct. During the exciting years of the Civil War period the area it looked after embraced all of the Dis- trict of Columbia beyond Boundary street (now Florida avenue) and west of the Anacostia River to Rock Creck, and the writer feels satis- fied that at one time a large part of the northern part of the city south of Florida avenue was also included within its boun- daries. Shortly after the passage of the act of Con- gress, approved August 6, 1861, providing for the Metropolitan Police Force, the District of Columbia was formed into 10 police precincts. Precinct No. :1 comprised all the territory east of the Anacostia River—or Eastern Branch of the Potomac. To it were assigned one ser- geant and seven men, all mounted, with head- quarters at Uniontown. No. 2 precinct—subsequently the eighth, as before stated—had one sergeant and nine mounted men, with the station house “on Sev- enth street, near the first toligato.” Precinct No. 3 comprised all the territory lying west of Rock Creek, including Analostan Island in the Potomac River, and the city of Georgetown. It had two station houses, one on High street (now Wisconsin avenue), near old Bridge, or M street, as we call it now, and one in Tenleytown, which naume is being crowded out by the name Friendship, there having been considerable contention over the spelling of the former name. Incidentally, this is the passing of a very beautiful old name, which might well be re- gretted. Some argued the word had too many “n’s” and others that it had too many “I's.” The post office, however, did not fcel that way about it, and for years used the old spell- ing, “Tennallytown,” until the controversy grew s0 warm that it dropped the name entirely and used the word “Friendship.” In this connection it might b> said that the census of 1790, the first taken by the United States Government, at about the time this village was just coming into existence, gives the names of the heads of but two families of the name by which this village was for many . years known to us, and they were John “Ten- nerly” and Josiah “Tennely” and not “Tenley.” UT then changes of this nature have taken place all over the District. Uniontown be- came Anacostia, as we know; Brightwood avenue became Georgia avenue, and Tenley- town road was changed to Wisconsin avenue. Maybe some day those living around here will be calling Pennsylvania avenue Goose Creek avenue, after the old Tiber, or Goose Creek, which once flowed sort of east and west through the downtown section of the city. But to get back to the police precincts. No. 3 had 1 sergeant, 6 mounted policemen and 17 footmen. No. 4, which comprised the old first ward of the city during our limited suffrage days, was allotted 1 sergeant and 15 patrolmen, with its headquarters on K street, between Twentieth and Twenty-first streets northwest. " Precinct No. 5 took in the second ward of the city, with 1 sergeant and 17 men. For several years it seems not to have had a station house of its own and probably used the Central Grand House on the south side of Louisiana avenue, between Ninth and Tenth streets, as its headquarters. It took in the territory from Seventh to Fifteenth street and from H to N street northwest. Police precinct No. 6 took in the section from the Canal (B street northwest) to H street north, and from Seventh to Fifteenth street west, or what was known as the third ward. It had 1 sergeant and 18 men, and its headquarters was at the Central Grand House. Old No. 7 precinct included the fourth ward, with its station house in the basement of the east wing of the City Hall, with a force of 1 sergeant and 21 men, while No. 8 had its station house at the corner of Fifth and E streets southeast, with 1 sergeant and 12 police- men who patrolled the fifth ward. No. 9 precinct comprised the sixth ward. To it were assigned 1 sergeant and 10 men, and it had a station house on Garrison street, between E and G streets, in the Navy Yard section, and No. 10 took in the seventh ward. Its force included 1 sergeant and 18 policemen, and its headquarters were on Fourth street, be- tween G and F streets, in the section we old- timers used to call the “Island.” BY 1878 tHe police precincts had been re- duced to eight, with Lieut. Gessford in charge of No. 1; Lieut. Johnson, No. 2; Lieut. Skippon, No. 3; Lieut. Hurley, No. 4; Lieu. Austin, No. 5; Lieut. Greer, No. 6; Lieut. Kelly, No. 7, and Lieut. Noonan, No. 8. The writer remembers the original seennd precinct station house, which stood for many years opposite the base ball park on Georgia svenue, and which indeed was not torn down until about two years ago. It was erected as a large frame dwelling by Mary Hall, the writer was info! , before she erected the large brick dwelling at Maryland avenue and Four- and-a-half street southwest, now, or until re- cently at least, a cat and dog hospital. A picture of this early station house, taken in 1920, gives its number as 2042 Georgia avenue. Lieut. James Johnson, who was appointed on the police force late in 1861, shortly after the first men were taken on, was in charge of this station, according to the City Direc- tory, at least as early as 1862. From here the station was removed into the adjoining brick house to the south, about 1875. This Lieutenant Was Historic Figure in Wash- ington Police Records and Gathered Group of Brave and Husky Officers Who Faced Many Battles With Disturbers of Peace—Troubles Were Multi- plied in Days Following the Civil War. The first home of old “Number Two” at 2042 Georgia avenue northwest. latter house, 2040 Georgia avenue, is still stand- ing. Though quite a lad when 2042 Georgia ave- nue was being used as a station house, yet the writer vividly recalls seeing the policemen .occupying this building, and the long rail in front of the station, to which the mounted policemen tied their horses. Some of the men then serving with Lieut. Johnson whom the writer remembers were Hamilton K. Redway, J. N. Fifield, Thomas Markward, Joseph T. Morgan, Junius B. Slack, Officer Brown, F. W. Pfaff, James E. HefIner, Officer Sullivan, Daniel Slattery, Benjamin T. Rhodes, Norman H. Cole and William H. West, the last named and Officer Brown being col- ored members of the force. West was one of the most gentlemanly policemen the writer Lieut. James W. Gessford, who succeeded Lieut Johnson in command of the ’ old second precinct. ever knew. Very fond of good horses, he ale ways had the best, and any one who made him “eat the dust,” as the boys back in the bicycle days would say, was “going some.” OUNDARY street (now Florida avenue) was macadamized in the early seventies and was one of the best stretches of road within the District. They had their speeders and their speed regulations then, just as they have today, and they had their crazy drivers then —just as they have today. The man with a fast trotter or pacer, before the advent of the automobile, was just as reckless and needed just as much watching as the careless and inconsiderate automobile driver does at present. However, the difference then was that only people of means had horses and buggies, while now there are many cars that can make & mile a minute—more or less. No doubt the traffic conditions would have been just as bad then had there been as many horses and buggies as we have automobiles now, and with the same population. Indeed, it might be suc- cessfully argued that the conditions would have been even worse. It was then against the law “to drive any horse, mare or gelding in or on any street, avenue or alley of this city at a pace faster than a moderate trot or gallop, or to make any attempt or trial of speed between two or more horses.” If any one was injured dure ing a' violation of this law, the driver was subject to a fine of $20 and incarceration in the workhouse for not less than thirty mnor more than ninety days. Florida avenue proved a great temptation to a man with a good stepper, and many & driver contributed to the city's exchequer for trying to lower the record of Maud S. Many a desperate character was taken to the old second precinct during the approxie mately ten years it was used as a station house, When the precinct was moved next door, to 2040 Georgia avenue, that building housed for a time some, if not all, of the Hirth murderers. As you will recall, this was one of the most atrocious and diabolical murders ever occurring in the District of Columbia. George Philip Hirth was a young merchant of lovable character, who kept a store at 1504 Fourteenth street northwest. He had working for him, toward the close of the year 1879, a burly colored fellow named Babe Bedford, whom he discharged. In a vindictive mood, Bedford and three other colored men—Edward Queenan, Sandy Pinn and Johnson—caught Hirth on the night of January 7, 1880, and beat his skull in with a stone placed in a sock. Hirth—if the writer's memory serves him right—was withqut one eye, and the mur- ~derers, knowing this, approached him from the blind side. The scéne of the crime was on P street, near Eighteenth, then a section undeveloped and very lonesome after dark. Upon the occasion of this homicide, Hirth was on his way to sce a Miss Sinclair, to whom he was engaged to be married. For this crime, Bedford and Queenan were hanged at the District jail; Pinn died of tubere culosis in the penitentiary, where he was serve ing a life sentence, and Johnson was let off for giving testimony against the three others, Later, it is said, he met a just end somewhere out West, where he was hanged for murdering some one else. HEN the station house on U street was completed, about 1882, the second pre= cinct was moved there from Seventh street, and the U street station took over the northern area of the District, still with Lieut. Johnson in command. In January, 1883, an incident occurred here which greatly impressed the writer. It was shortly after the building was first occupied that a negro named Charles Shaw was exe- cuted at the District Jail for the murder of his sister. No sooner had he been interred than Virgo Jansen Ross, a local grave robber, had the body on the way to the Howard Uni- versity Medical School, where it was detected by a policeman, in a nightliner’s carriage in front of Freedmen’'s Hospital. v Of course, Jansen—as he was generally called—was arrested, and the body of the Negro taken to the U street station, where it was placed in the yard, exposed from the shoulders up. Together with other boys of the neighbor- hood, the writer viewed the remains from the top of the fence, and recalls vividly seeing the mark around the neck left by the hang- man’s noose. It was not long after the second precinct was moved to U street, between Ninth and Tenth streets, that Lieut. Johnson was retired and Lieut. James W. Gessford transferred, about 1884, to its command, where he remained in charge for a number of years, always re- garded by those who knew him as a man of sterling character and one who always re- flected great credit upon the Police Department of the District. The writer is told by Maj. H. L. Gessford, retired superintendent of police, and son of Lieut. Gessford, that the change in the number- ing. of the precincts was in accordance with General Order No. 198, dated July 28, 1886, and effective August 1, 1886. By this order No. 1 became No. 4; No. 2, No. 8; No. 3, No. 7; No. 4, No. 3; No. 5, No. 1; No. 6, No. 2; No. 7, No. 6, and No. 8 became No. 5. As the writer first knew the second precinct on Seventh street road, it had opposite, as its near neighbor, the Park Hotel, removed only a few years ago, and which at one time was known as the Maryland House. Where the ball grounds are now was then Beyer's Park. It was well wooded with sturdy oaks of the forest primeval The amusements included a dancing pavilion, bowling alleys, & merry-go= round and other attractions. Upon one occa=- sion the writer witnessed foot races there,