Henry D. Livingston

Henry Damon Livingston (1872-1938) was a Billerica police officer from about 1912, Deputy Chief in active charge from 1922 to 1928, and Chief of Police from 1929 until his death on January 7, 1938. He was also a constable of the town from 1912 until 1938. According to his age at death he was born in June 1872. On December 10, 1896, he married Emma Maud Wilkins, both of them of Billerica; they had a daughter, Helen Doris, and a son, Percy Damon, born on January 30, 1907.

Before he joined the police he worked with horses. The list of jurors drawn up in 1898 calls him a clerk, and later lists call him a teamster; from the mid-1890s the town paid him for teaming, labor, snow work, the use of his horses, and wood and hay. Town meeting added his name to the surveyors of wood and lumber in 1904, and he was paid as a special police officer in 1910. In 1912 the voters elected him constable with Martin Conway, and he was also chosen a field driver and keeper of the lock-up. From 1915 he and William H. O'Brien were the town's two regular police officers and signed the police reports together. In 1922 the selectmen also appointed him a Public Weigher.

In 1922, the selectmen reported, "the Police Department was reorganized and Officer Henry D. Livingston was promoted to Deputy-Chief in active charge." Their report spoke of officers posted at busy corners for the heavy summer automobile traffic on Sundays and holidays, and of raids made to enforce prohibition. He signed the police reports as Deputy Chief of Police through 1928. That year the selectmen, citing a lack of discipline in the department, promoted O'Brien to Deputy Chief under Civil Service, and early in 1929 they "appointed Officer Livingston as Chief of the force."

As chief he led a department of four regular officers, O'Brien, John F. Trainor, Edward O'Connor and Albert S. McSweeney, with a roster of special officers. In his report for 1934 he wrote that the new police radio "has proved to be of great advantage to the department," noted that riot guns and tear gas shells had been added, and asked the town to buy a new scout car every year, since the one-year-old car had already covered about twenty thousand miles on rough roads. He also asked for street and traffic signs and for a committee to rename streets, because so many bore the same name that officers had trouble serving summonses and warrants. He died in office on January 7, 1938, at the age of 65. The selectmen wrote that "the memory of his fine personality and unselfish devotion to duty will long be remembered by the Board, the townspeople and all who had dealings with him," and at the town meeting of February 12, 1938, Andrew P. Sousa read a tribute to him that the meeting adopted as its own. O'Brien succeeded him as chief.

References

1. Marriages in 1896 (Town Report 1897)
2. Annual Town Meeting, 1898 (list of jurors), Town Report 1899
3. Annual Town Election, 1912 (constables), Town Report 1913
4. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1922 (promotion to Deputy Chief)
5. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1929 (appointed Chief)
6. Report of the Police Department, 1934
7. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1937 (his death)
8. Deaths recorded in 1938