http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Canadian+America+first+female/3483450/story.html
For years, U.S. historians have been at odds over the identity of Americas first female cop. Was it Alice Stebbins Wells of the Los Angeles Police Department, who petitioned the city to get women on the force? Or Lola G. Baldwin of Portland, Ore., who crusaded for young, single working women and sought to weed out corruption in the city?
Now, a retired federal drug-enforcement agent and history buff from Chicago has come forward with what he says is unequivocal proof that the title actually belongs to Marie Owens, a tall, steely woman who specialized in enforcing the Windy Citys child-labour and mandatory-education laws and who hailed from Canada.
Rick Barrett says he has spent the last three years combing through Chicago city and Illinois state records, newspaper articles and genealogy documents, to chart the life story of Owens, who grew up in Ottawa, Ont., and then made her way to Chicago where she became a detective sergeant in 1891 predating Wells and Baldwin by at least 15 years.
For years, U.S. historians have been at odds over the identity of Americas first female cop. Was it Alice Stebbins Wells of the Los Angeles Police Department, who petitioned the city to get women on the force? Or Lola G. Baldwin of Portland, Ore., who crusaded for young, single working women and sought to weed out corruption in the city?
Now, a retired federal drug-enforcement agent and history buff from Chicago has come forward with what he says is unequivocal proof that the title actually belongs to Marie Owens, a tall, steely woman who specialized in enforcing the Windy Citys child-labour and mandatory-education laws and who hailed from Canada.
Rick Barrett says he has spent the last three years combing through Chicago city and Illinois state records, newspaper articles and genealogy documents, to chart the life story of Owens, who grew up in Ottawa, Ont., and then made her way to Chicago where she became a detective sergeant in 1891 predating Wells and Baldwin by at least 15 years.
