Ernest W. Spencer
(1853 – 1930)
Chief - August 1, 1892 – November 11, 1892
(1853 – 1930)
Chief - August 1, 1892 – November 11, 1892
Ernest Spencer was born in Ohio in 1852 and started his career on steamboats in the Mississippi River as a teenager. He came to Portland in 1875 at the age of 23. Spencer worked as a steamboat captain on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, breaking several speed records. In 1882 he married Lizzie Irving, the daughter of another Captain, and they lived for a time in The Dalles before coming back to Portland.
The election of 1891 saw major changes for Portland. The city, which had only included the west side of the Willamette, combined with East Portland and Albina. Consolidation doubled the city’s population and almost tripled its land area. The City Council expanded from nine to sixteen members and the Police Commissioners were elected at large, rather than being appointed. Public disgust at the perceived corruption of the Republican administrations of the Corbett-Simon faction and their political in-fighting with the Mitchell “Ring,” led to the election of William S. Mason and a “Reform Ticket” of Republicans and Democrats. One of Mason’s campaign promises was to enforce anti-gambling laws and the new Chief of Police was tasked with fulfilling that promise.
Spencer was 42 years old when he took office as Police Chief. He was not very active in politics and had no experience in police work; both facts were seen as assets for the new chief. Early in 1892 the first of Portland’s “Vice Probes” discovered that powerful members of the city’s establishment, such as District Attorney John Caples and Republican Party head Joseph Simon owned buildings where illegal gambling and prostitution were conducted. The entrenched nature of vice in Portland, and the establishment’s dependence on illegal activities for income would lead to real problems for the new Chief of Police.
Ernest Spencer remained Police Chief for only a little more than three months, but they were intensely active months. Less than two weeks into his administration Spencer began to raid gambling establishments, especially in the North End. With his stated goal to “purify the moral atmosphere of the city” not a week went by without at least one highly publicized raid on bawdy houses, gambling, a bar where women performed the “Honolulu” and “Hula Hula” dances, a campaign to register and tax fortune tellers and even new rules banning smoking in the city jail; for inmates and police officers. Pressure on Spencer was intense and rumors that he would be ousted began to be heard less than a month after he took office. Spencer, used to the unquestioned autocracy of a ship captain, had trouble conforming to the restrictions of his office. The last straw for Spencer came on October 29, 1892 in a confrontation with Frank Middleton, a reporter for the Sunday Welcome. Middleton, who had been writing critical articles about Spencer for weeks, accused the chief of bribing reporters to write positive articles about him. When Spencer denied the charge Middleton called him a liar. That was too much for the Chief and he slapped Middleton. Less than two weeks later Spencer was fired for “lack of necessary qualifications for the position.”
Spencer, bitter over his treatment by the Police Commission, claimed that he had been approached by relatives of two Police Commissioners who offered him bribes to leave their gambling establishments alone. He insisted that his refusal of the bribes had been the cause of his removal. He went back into the steamboat and wharf management businesses. During the gold rush of 1898 he shipped two dismantled boats to Alaska, re-assembled and sold them. He had a long career in transportation and died suddenly at the age of 77 in 1930.
The election of 1891 saw major changes for Portland. The city, which had only included the west side of the Willamette, combined with East Portland and Albina. Consolidation doubled the city’s population and almost tripled its land area. The City Council expanded from nine to sixteen members and the Police Commissioners were elected at large, rather than being appointed. Public disgust at the perceived corruption of the Republican administrations of the Corbett-Simon faction and their political in-fighting with the Mitchell “Ring,” led to the election of William S. Mason and a “Reform Ticket” of Republicans and Democrats. One of Mason’s campaign promises was to enforce anti-gambling laws and the new Chief of Police was tasked with fulfilling that promise.
Spencer was 42 years old when he took office as Police Chief. He was not very active in politics and had no experience in police work; both facts were seen as assets for the new chief. Early in 1892 the first of Portland’s “Vice Probes” discovered that powerful members of the city’s establishment, such as District Attorney John Caples and Republican Party head Joseph Simon owned buildings where illegal gambling and prostitution were conducted. The entrenched nature of vice in Portland, and the establishment’s dependence on illegal activities for income would lead to real problems for the new Chief of Police.
Ernest Spencer remained Police Chief for only a little more than three months, but they were intensely active months. Less than two weeks into his administration Spencer began to raid gambling establishments, especially in the North End. With his stated goal to “purify the moral atmosphere of the city” not a week went by without at least one highly publicized raid on bawdy houses, gambling, a bar where women performed the “Honolulu” and “Hula Hula” dances, a campaign to register and tax fortune tellers and even new rules banning smoking in the city jail; for inmates and police officers. Pressure on Spencer was intense and rumors that he would be ousted began to be heard less than a month after he took office. Spencer, used to the unquestioned autocracy of a ship captain, had trouble conforming to the restrictions of his office. The last straw for Spencer came on October 29, 1892 in a confrontation with Frank Middleton, a reporter for the Sunday Welcome. Middleton, who had been writing critical articles about Spencer for weeks, accused the chief of bribing reporters to write positive articles about him. When Spencer denied the charge Middleton called him a liar. That was too much for the Chief and he slapped Middleton. Less than two weeks later Spencer was fired for “lack of necessary qualifications for the position.”
Spencer, bitter over his treatment by the Police Commission, claimed that he had been approached by relatives of two Police Commissioners who offered him bribes to leave their gambling establishments alone. He insisted that his refusal of the bribes had been the cause of his removal. He went back into the steamboat and wharf management businesses. During the gold rush of 1898 he shipped two dismantled boats to Alaska, re-assembled and sold them. He had a long career in transportation and died suddenly at the age of 77 in 1930.