4513

Virginia City Chief of Police and Fire Badge and Handcuffs

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:750.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Virginia City Chief of Police and Fire Badge and Handcuffs
SOLD
800.00USD+ (180.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2015 Apr 18 @ 17:08UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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This fabulous gold-plated brass badge came to us directly from the great-grandson of the officer! Please see photo (C.A. McGuigan is circled).



Front of badge reads: CHIEF/ C.A. McGUIGAN/ 1910/ VIRGINIA CITY, Reverse has maker's mark: C.D. REESE/ 122 NASSAU ST./ NEW YORK. Reese is a well-known maker of badges from this period.



Badge has the expected wear (rubbing of gold-plating) patterns on the front. Measures 3" x 2.25." Also included with the badge are a set of handcuffs from the family. Given that many members of the family were involved in law enforcement, it is uncertain if these particular handcuffs belonged to C.A. McGuigan. Handcuffs do not come with key.



Though born in Illinois in 1876, Charles Arthur McGuigan developed deep Nevada roots when he arrived to the Comstock. He married Clara Kenny in Gold Hill on April 22, 1897. Kenny grew-up on the Comstock and her father was a blacksmith for some of the leading mines. On the 1900 census, Charles is listed as a teamster in Gold Hill. In 1903, he appears on the Mardi Gras committee for the Comstock Carnival in Virginia City. At some point he became involved in mining, as evidenced by the 1909 issue of Miner's Magazine which lists him as the Gold Hill union chapter president for the Western Federation of Miners. His promotion to Chief of Police in Virginia City appears in a December 26, 1909 issue of the Nevada State Journal underneath the headline "Shake-up in Storey County." He replaced Dan O'Hagan as Chief of Police and of the Fire Department. It is unclear how long he held this post, though he is referenced as "Chief McGuigan of the Divide" in a Sept. 28,1913 NSJ article. By 1918, he has left the police force and gone back into mining: his World War I registration card lists him as a miner for the Ontario Silver Mining Co. in Park City, Utah, though his wife is still in Gold Hill. By 1920, he listed in the census as a "quartz miner," with 3 sons and 2 daughters. McGuigan left the Comstock in 1925 for Reno. By 1930, he had returned to police work, this time in Reno (along with two of his sons).



Charles Arthur McGuigan, Comstock miner and police chief, died on Dec. 3, 1952 in Reno after battling a "long illness."











City: Virginia City
State: Nevada,
Date: 1910

FHWAC#: 24773