Age: 49
Served: 21 years
December 26, 1890 to April 20, 1915
OFFICER
Jim was l was born in Switzerland County, Indiana, and came to Cincinnati during the last half of the 19th Century.
He joined the Cincinnati Police Department in 1890 and was renowned – by other patrolmen, citizens, and criminals alike – for his ability to vigilantly and fairly control one of the toughest beats in the city. His beat was “The Bottoms” – a strip of land along the river containing nothing but warehouses, steamboats, dives, and the worst of humankind.
In short, Big Jim was tough. Yet, while patrolling his beat one day, he came across a scruffy puppy huddled in some debris. He brought the puppy to a boarding house to feed him and then to the District Two stationhouse on Hammond Street to care for him. The puppy, sarcastically named “Handsome”, became a fixture at the stationhouse and patrolled with Big Jim for years thereafter. Handsome, after more than ten years of service, died in 1911, but Big Jim continued. He transferred to District 9 (at State and Dutton Streets) where he ran another river beat in Sedamsville.
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