I’m a little late getting this one together, but better late than never! Fairly easy theme this week for me considering I have two photos of men in police uniform.
I believe both of these are of Earl Powis Sr. The one of the left looks to be of a PA state trooper uniform and on the right, it looks like an Amtrak police uniform. A story I recently heard says that Earl was a PA State Police officer and his brother Waldo also wanted to join the force, but he was married. The PA State Police didn’t allow married men to join until 1963. So, Waldo got divorced, but his application still wasn’t accepted. I haven’t been able to verify that on paper records, but the timeline makes sense. Most of this is speculation and stories. I’m fairly sure both of those photos are Earl, but there are no identifications on the back side. The photo on the left has a date, “Mar 29, 1960” but nothing else to let us know who or where. I believe Earl was also an Amtrak police officer which is why I’m saying the one on the right is an Amtrak Police uniform. The Amtrak police was established in 1970. There’s a number on his cap that reads “131” but I haven’t been able to trace that to any specific barracks or division. Of course, I could be completely wrong on all accounts!
So, I guess this week’s prompt has given me a little more homework to do! Had I started this three weeks ago like I usually do, I’d have more to show for the theme. Now it’s time to wrap this up and try to get ahead of the game for next week.
EDIT – 26 Oct 2014: Having put a little time between throwing the post together last minute and now, I’m leaning towards those two photos being Waldo Powis. I know he lived in Brooklyn for the last half of his life, and there apparently was a 131st precinct in Brooklyn at some point. I still need to find out if Waldo was a member of the NYPD, but it’s worth persuing since I’m now 99% sure that’s him in those uniforms. Time to ask living family members more questions!
Getting divorced in order to be accepted seems a bit extreme 🙂
It does! Jobs were pretty scarce in that area of Pennsylvania (central-ish, coal mining area), so I’m not surprised he’d go that far just to get a job that paid well. I want to say I saw the rejection letter and subsequent letter saying he was now single, but I don’t have the scans. I really need to do more research on this!
They look like the same man to me. Interesting back drop for the second picture.
I’m behind this week too! You are lucky to have two nice police photos. I have none! Good luck with your research.
People do drastic things sometimes to gain employment. Perhaps his wife had agreed to the ‘divorce’ so they could make ends meet. But I do hope they didn’t have any children at the time?
The more I think about it, the more I’m sure I have it wrong. That, more likely, is Waldo in those photos, the guy who got divorced. They did have two children at the time. I’m going to have to go back and ask some more questions about this one and see if there’s any documentation to support the crazy story!
The trouble with family stories is that there is usually a grain of truth in them even if it has got distorted over the years. I hope you gradually get to sort out your present seculations.
The closest I could get to the police was an unamed policeman’s daughter. There was no chance of one in the family. Hope the NYPD connection comes true.
Guess they had that rule because policing was seen as a dangerous occupation, but so are many other hazardous jobs, like the armed forces for example, and I’ve never heard of a restriction like that elsewhere, but for women on the other hand …