Police badge returned home to Gatesville from Canada

Don Edy, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and a former Canadian Mounted Policeman, recently mailed a surprise gift to the Gatesville Lions Club. He sent an antique police badge once worn by a patrolman employed by the Gatesville Police Department.

Edy, who has been a member of the Lions Club in Canada for 52 years, was visiting a Christian re-sale shop near his hometown where he saw a small, engraved badge for a patrolman which said, “Gatesville Police Department, Gatesville, Texas.” At that point, he purchased the badge and sent it to the Gatesville Lions. How the badge ended up in a re-sale shop in Canada remains a mystery.

According to club member Rhonda Mohler, Edy told her “I thought at the time that this is something that someone needs to have, and so I decided to send it to the Gatesville Lions Club.”

After receiving the badge, Mohler decided to do a little research on its background. She contacted former Chief of Police, Carroll Duke, who said he “kind of remembered” that type of badge, but that was way before his time. Duke thought that the little charms hanging from the points on the badge might have been given when an officer did something special and they would get a little charm. “Kind of like receiving a sticker, but we really don’t know,” Duke said.

Badges worn by local police officers have traditionally been a seven-point star. Some of the early day badges dating back to the late 1800s were five, six, and even a few seven-point stars. Police badges were worn by officers to identify them to anyone interested and to verify their authority. Back then, there were a wide range of badges cut from tin cans to elaborate carved badges made of gold.

Jeremy Stills, president of the Gatesville Lions Club, recently presented the antique badge to the current Chief of Police, Brad Hunt. As for Rhonda Mohler, she continues her search about the history of the badge as she compiles a list of former Police Chiefs in Gatesville.