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Lumber barons, Red Sash Brigade, Potter Street, 300 saloons--if you were to live in Saginaw in the late 1800s, all of these things would seem very common to you. Lumberjacks were tough men who didn't think twice about getting drunk and getting into a fight. In reality, this happened all the time, every single day. How did things get so out of hand, and how did they get fixed? How would you like to have been a police officer during this time? Doesn't sound like too much fun, but Patrick Kain was put to the test and was very successful. Patrick Kain was one of the most influential men in the Saginaw Police Department's history.

Patrick Kain's original roots were Ireland, although he was born in Canada in 1851. Unfortunately, Kain didn't have a perfect life growing up; he was self-educated and by the age of ten his parents, William and Hannah Kain, had died. Then some attorneys came and took his home. Luckily, Kain still had his two brothers and one sister. He decided in 1866, at the age of fifteen, to live with his uncle in East Saginaw. He first worked at East Side Salt and Water Works, then worked as a blacksmith at Flint and Pere Marquette. By the time he reached twenty-one he started working at the East Saginaw Police Department, on October 30, 1873. His first beat was Potter Street, which at this time was the worst street for crime, averaging about 3,000 arrests a year. A year after starting at the police department, he got married to Anna Driscoll on May 21, 1874, and lived at 809 N. Seventh Street (McDonald).

Potter Street's bad reputation gave a lot of credit to the lumber barons and lumberjacks. They would get off the train at the Potter Street Station and spend their hard earned money at the 27 saloons down that street alone, even though Potter Street was only a few blocks long. The fights between river men were so bad and so common that "they fought as regularly as they ate, and if it was not another gang, they went at each other (McDonald 27). So how was a twenty-one year old guy supposed to tame these barons and 'jacks? Patrick Kain had a way and he took the responsibility with open arms.

Patrick had a different approach to the job. When a fight would occur between the 'jacks, Kain would get right in the middle and break it up regardless of the beatings he received in the process. Patrick Kain thought that a police officer's first priority to his job should be to keep the peace. This way of thinking gave him the nickname the "peace officer." Fred P. Schoenhoff, a former police officer for East Saginaw, says, "Kain was known by every lumberjack who walked Saginaw Streets in the 1870s. He walked Potter Street for ten years and he didn't make many arrests. But he kept the peace." When Patrick Kain started working he had the record for the most number of arrests, but that rapidly deteriorated after the first couple of years. If he was having troubles taking someone to the station, then it wasn't unusual for him to put them in a wheelbarrow and wheel them down to the station.

In those days that Kain patrolled, police officers didn't have uniforms. The only way they were told apart from the normal citizens was by a little star they wore on their coats. Saginaw's first police car was purchased in 1913, and at that time the department was pulling people over for going over eight miles per hour. The station was located on Germania Street, which is now Federal Street, where the parking ramp is.

Kain worked on Potter Street for only ten years, but by the time he was promoted to sergeant in 1883 and off the streets, Potter Street was no worse than any other business street. The arrests went from approximately 3,000 per year down to 1,600 per year. In 1890, Patrick Kain was promoted again, to Saginaw Chief of Police. During his years as a police officer he was also known for catching two robbers from New York who were involved in one of the biggest diamond robberies of the decade. Kain retired in 1919 and died in 1925 at Saint Mary's Hospital. He served forty-two years in the department and twenty-four years as Chief of Police for East Saginaw. He was associated with and known by every big city police department in the country and the "leading criminologist of his time" (27)

Patrick didn't hold a grudge against the people he arrested though. He was a very forgiving man. Kain states, "I can recall a number of instances where men who have served terms of imprisonment have started anew and are now leading useful and reputable lives, and I do not propose to put a stone in their path." By the time Kain retired, Saginaw had lost its bad reputation. His philosophy on policing is still used today. Patrick Kain played a big part in changing Saginaw's history as a lumberjack town.

Works Cited

• McDonald, Tom. "Patrick Kain ." A Parade of Saginaw Folks I Wish I had Known. Saginaw News.