This week marks the 171st anniversary of the birth of the Marblehead Police Department. Though the town was incorporated in 1649, it wasn’t until nearly two centuries later that the first chief of police was selected.
According to “Historical Outline of the Marblehead Police Department” by Town Historian Donald Doliber, on April 11, 1853, Adoniram C. Orne was appointed as the head of an “efficient police” with the “purpose of carrying into effect the “liquor law.” According to the Marblehead Historical Commission, the Police Department was officially organized four days later on April 15, 1853.
Orne was appointed by the Select Board through a petition by Capt. Samuel Gregory and 70 other citizens.
“His deputy was Henry B. Winslow, who served ‘when called into ordinary service’ and was paid 50 cents for each duty,” Doliber wrote.
That year, a conflict arose between druggist F. D. Rogers and Orne over “Blue Law Violation (selling medicated candies on
a Sunday).”
Flash forward to today, and Dennis King is now Marblehead’s chief of police. Fittingly, almost to the week of the birthday of the Police Department, King had the honor of recommending promotions for his first time as chief to the Select Board, in addition to conditionally hiring a new officer.