James A. Givens

Charleston Police Officer from 1900 to 1914.

I ran across this photo completely by accident while searching for someone on Find-A-Grave.  When I saw it, I was hoping it was a Charleston policeman.  It was.  You see, I only have a couple somewhat poor photos of  Charleston policemen wearing a "Bobby" style helmet like they do in England, and to find this photo was a very happy find indeed. So who was this young man?  I discovered that his life ended in a motorcycle accident in 1914, of which he died soon after in 1915.  He lived at 1316 Magazine Street, which was at the mouth of Magazine Hollow. That street has been gone for many decades.  He had 6 children by 2 wives. His first wife died suddenly right on Capitol Street.  He lived to be only 42.

This was a sad day for James Givens.  Fortunately, the boy lived.

In part of the 1900's, Officers were not only assigned to locations in the city, but those locations were published every week in the newspaper.

Here are two different weeks. Givens was assigned often to the 8th & 9th Wards.

Here's where James Givens lived.  This was "Magazine Street", not to be confused with Magazine Hollow, although this street ran
right in front of Magazine Hollow. Givens lived in a small house with his wife and kids.  Policemen didn't make much money back then.

And this is the house, although this photo was taken about a decade after his death.

 

Givens was a motorcycle cop, and he had to be one of the first. Both bikes above are 1914 versions of what was popular at the time: Harley Davidson on the left and Indian on the right. We don't know which motorcycles the city bought at that time, but we know that Givens rode one of them.  The motorcycle was also the machine that sealed his fate....

This is how it started....

And according to this article, Givens was on the mend and almost ready to return to duty.

BUT THEN....

   

But the family story doesn't end there...

I cant help but wonder if this was the same boy that was accidentally shot.  The outcome of this trial is unknown at this time.

Here are the only three photos I have showing Charleston policemen in the 1900s wearing Bobby helmets.

Capitol & Virginia Street. Could that be James Givens? 

1230 Washington St E at the corner of Morris St.  Charleston General is there now.

So you can see why I was excited to find the photo of James Givens as a single portrait  and not part of a group, but more importantly the story behind the photo. The one thing we haven't discovered yet was why he had a passenger on the back of his bike when he crashed. That passenger was never described as another police officer, so who knows and who cares?

James Givens on Find-A-Grave