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The City of Duluth is fortunate in having had for many years an honest and efficient Police Department.

E.W. Dindorf and W.J. Gibbions wrote a history of the Duluth Police Department which was published in 1920. Their account of the early days tends to hero worship, but perhaps the police of those days really were heroes.
Their number one superman was Jasper S. Daniels, who was made marshal in May 1880.
In their words, "No history of the Duluth Police Department would be complete without liberal reference to Jeff Daniels, a veteran of the Civil War.
"In earlier days he was chairman of the vigilance committee. He was a born police officer, just the kind of man needed during the time in which he served.
"And fight? - he could finish more men in less time than any man who ever lived here.
"A bunch of young fellows once trespassed on the sacred precincts of Jeff's domicile without an invitation and for the purpose of cleaning him up.
“There were 12 in the party and when they returned to the saloon from which they started 24 black eyes reflected in the bar room mirror
"While Jeff was marshal there came to Duluth from Buffalo a bunch of the toughest men that plied the chain of lakes. They were dock workers and believed when they reached here they had found an easy town that they could run as they did the waterfront in Buffalo.
"The first man they encountered was Marshal Daniels. The fight was fearful and there were a good many close calls, but when the fray was over, the marshal was boss.
"From that day they both feared and respected him, and there was not a man among them who would not lay down his life for Jeff Daniels.
"He was no Christian and he seldom saw the inside of a church; he did not always tread the straight and narrow path of personal rectitude, but in his dealings with others and with the city he was every inch a man, and men like Judge J. D. Ensign, Alfred Merritt and Walter Van Brunt united in paying high tribute to him for his unfaltering courage; his fidelity to duty and his 'many manly virtues.
"His salary was $60 a month in 1880. This was later raised to $1,000 a year."

Jasper S. Daniels was born 10/4/1838 in St. Lawrence County, New York He is the son of George Cook Daniels and is the grandson of Nahum and Ann (Cooke)Daniels of Mendon, Massachusetts.

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