The Sudden End of a Seattle Lawman
Bolton Rogers, a former police chief who rose from a hack-driver to the top of the department, has died following a struggle with brain fever.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Bolton Rogers, ex-chief of police of Seattle, died at 1 o'clock this morning. Mr. Rogers was stricken about three weeks ago with brain fever, following an attack of the grippe. Mr. Rogers was born in San Francisco, May 30, 1860. He moved to Seattle in the early eighties, and one of his first positions was a hack-driver for Charles Clancy. Mr. Rogers held several customs offices during Cleveland's first term, and he entered the police force in this city as a patrolman and later became chief of detectives. When Harry White was elected mayor in March 1898, Mr. Rogers became chief of police, and he held the office until 1900, when J. T. Ronald was elected mayor and Andrew Jackson was appointed chief. After leaving the police force, Mr. Rogers operated a detective agency and later, when Mayor Frank D. Hulbert was elected, he was again appointed chief of police, and served until the appointment of Chief C. W. Reed. Mr. Rogers was divorced from his first wife, but remarried shortly after. He leaves two children by his former wife, who reside in this city with their mother. Besides his wife, Mr. Rogers leaves a father and stepmother in Ukiah, Cal., a brother, who is a paymaster in the United States navy, and a sister in New York City. Mr. Rogers was a member of the order of Elks and the Eagles.
“When Harry White was elected mayor in March 1898, Mr. Rogers became chief of police, and he held the office until 1900.”
The career of Bolton Rogers reflects a common path for 19th-century law enforcement, where roles were often tied to political patronage and mayoral appointments rather than modern merit-based civil service. His life as a hack-driver turned police chief underscores the fluid, often chaotic nature of civic power in early Seattle, a theme that persists in local discourse regarding the professionalization of our city's leadership.
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