The History of the Burton Village Police Department

The Village of Burton was incorporated in 1895. The first election was held April 1, 1895. Charles Laraway was the first Marshall. Since that time, some of our Police Chiefs have been ~

Gary Barnes
Rand Barnes
Dorothy Wintermute (Mayor/Acting Chief)
Bernie Mullen
Robert J. Himmelein
Sally Hess
Dennis Nichols

In those early days there was a law that minors could not play pool. There were penalties for intoxication and driving over eight miles per hour. No one was allowed to pitch grouts on Main Street or play baseball in any of the streets. Now we have Gander Field behind the Elementary School and the Luoma horseshoe pit at the fairgrounds. We have come a long way.

In the 1880 Pioneer History book a few civilian run-ins with Law Enforcement are mentioned:

Mrs. Noyes was a person of large and powerful frame, and withal possessed a violent temper, a combination which did not fail to make her a woman of remarkable influence, especially when physical force was the agency employed to accomplish her purpose. She sometimes defied the officers of the law, as she would the encroachments of wild beasts. Nr. Noyes would contract debts without making provision for their payment. On one occasion the Deputy Sheriff (who is mentioned as being Uri Hickox) came to take some goods on execution. Mrs. Noyes seized him, and twisting a bed curtain around his neck, choked him until he was black in the face. Noyes trying to release him, she caught up a tailor's goose and hurled it at him, smashing his foot.

On another occasion the Sheriff, Joel Paine, attempted to satisfy an execution, when she struck him with a square-bottomed candlestick, cutting a hole in his scalp, above his eyes, from which the blood flowed, blinding him.

It gives new meaning to Stand By Your Man. See....even back then those domestic violence calls were dangerous for Police Officers!