Martin Conway

Martin Conway (Jr. in the earlier reports) was a Billerica police officer from the 1890s and the first man to sign the town's annual police report as Chief of Police. The town reports of the 1880s and 1890s call him Martin Conway Jr.; an older Martin Conway, aged 74, died in Billerica on January 13, 1905, and from 1906 on the reports drop the "Jr." from his name. On August 14, 1899, he married Frances E. Whelan of Lowell.

He first served the town as a fireman. Around 1890 he was paid as captain of Engine Company No. 2, and in 1891 he was one of the five-man committee, with Charles H. Kohlrausch Jr., Frederick S. Clark, Edward B. Haskell and Andrew Morrissey, that bought new fire apparatus for North Billerica: a Silsby engine, hose carriage, ladder truck and supply wagon. He was paid for setting up the engine himself. By then he was also one of the town's constables, paid by the month for "services as constable, janitor, etc.," and one of its truant officers, serving Precinct 2. Town meeting elected him constable every year from about 1890 until 1915, and he was chosen a field driver from 1894 on and was also a keeper of the lock-up. In 1898 the town meeting chose him for a five-year term on the Bowers Fund committee.

From the late 1890s the town paid him $730 a year for his services as one of its two police officers, alongside Everett W. Livingston. He signed the police reports for the years ending in February 1904 through 1907 as Chief of Police, the first Billerica officer to use that title. His report for the year ending February 1905 recorded 107 cases investigated, eight burglaries, fourteen intoxicated persons cared for and eleven dogs killed. In the next four reports he signed simply as police officer for Precinct 2, and in 1911 as special police officer, but he signed as Chief of Police again in the report for the year ending February 1913. By 1915 the police report was signed by Henry D. Livingston and William H. O'Brien.

In 1915 he ran for the Select Board and missed a seat, finishing fourth. He was elected the following year and served as a selectman from 1916 to 1918 with Ralph E. Manning and Prescott L. Pasho, the three also acting as the town's fence viewers; his name is on the town warrant of January 10, 1918. The town's list of deaths for 1924 records a Martin Conway, aged 64, who died on April 23 of that year. If this was the former chief, he was born about 1860.

References

1. Selectmens accounts, Fire Department, 1890 (captain, Engine Co. No. 2)
2. Report of the Committee on New Fire Apparatus for North Billerica, 1892
3. Annual Town Meeting, 1898 (Bowers Fund committee), Town Report 1899
4. Marriages, 1899 (Town Report 1900)
5. Police Report, 1904 (signed as Chief of Police)
6. Deaths in 1905 (Town Report 1906)
7. Town Officers, 1916
8. Deaths, 1924