03/07/1951
Police Chief Willard Cline Woolverton, retiring after 35 years in El Paso Police Department, Tuesday put aside his guns, cleared out his desk and left for a delayed fishing trip t the Gulf Coast.
He is ending over 40 years of service with the city.
The 65-year-old executive, who had held the police chief post since 1949, will retire officially on May 1, but, meanwhile, is taking accumulated sick leave and vacation time for a fishing trip.
“It’s a thrilling job,” is the way Woolverton describes his long service with the department, 20 years of which was spent as detective division chief.
The officer first joined the police department in 1916, when he drove the department’s only patrol wagon, an old Reo.
“Fort Bliss then had around 65,000 state militia and around 30,000 regular soldiers, and they were a tough problem for the local police department,” he said. “The militia didn’t have much respect for the regular soldiers and the regular soldiers didn’t have much respect for the milita. We really had a hard time on the 3 to 11 and graveyard shifts.”
“The old Black Maria served as an ambulance as well as a patrol wagon. All the policemen were mounted on horses then, and posted at four sub-stations.
“It took the mounted policemen so long to get anywhere, that we nearly always took the patrol wagon out on all calls,”Woolverton said.
Quelling an uprising of 70 hobos who appropriated a freight train was the job on which eh had most fun, Woolverton remembers. The hobos took over the freight some distance from El Paso and were bringing it into town when they were met by 20 or 25 policemen and stopped by a road block.
“They scurried up over the hill by the Smelter and the battle began,” Woolverton said. “It took about two hours to get them all rounded up. There was a lot of shooting, but only one man was wounded.”
His most exciting job with the department was arresting a man, wanted for murder in Montana, in a downtown El Paso hotel.
The incident occurred in 1932, when Woolverton was with the detective division. The fugitive had been tracked through the co-operative efforts of Montana and El Paso peace officers, to a local hotel, which he had listed as his El Paso address.
Local officers kept an eye for several days on the hotel, Woolverton said. When the wanted man finally called the hotel to see if he had any mail, there was no one available to make the arrest besides Woolverton.
WENT ALONE
Unable to find any help, he went alone to the hotel and found the fugitive standing at the desk with a gun pointed at the clerk. Woolverton walked up behind him, grabbed his gun and said, “I’m an officer, here to arrest you for stealing a car.” The man was relieved at the lesser charge and let Woolverton take his gun and snap on the handcuffs.
Woolverton is a native of Anderson County, Texas, and was reared in Uvalde. He attended school in Del Rio, after taking a business course in San Angelo. He came to El Paso in 1907 to work for his brother, who ran a local grocery store.
He first started to work for the city in the Fire Department and served as captain of East El Paso Fire station. With the Police Department he was first drive of the patrol wagon, late serving as jailer and sergeant of police. In 1929 he became captain and was in charge of the detective division for nearly 20 years.
He resides with his wife at 3509 North Kansa Street. He has a daughter, Mrs. Pat Cogswell of El Paso and a son, Willard, Jr., who operates Woolverton’s farm in Hudspeth county.
Anita Blair who was the first women elected to the state house in 1952 defeated him . Many was shocked and could not see how she won
Posted by: joseph | June 22, 2011 at 11:15 PM
Forty years city service,It's a long time.Show my respect for him.
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Police officers have made a lifetime commitment willingly - to accept a life of risk to serve a cause. This is a commitment most dare not make and a challenge only the best are capable of honoring.
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