Portrait, gold badge of ‘Magnificent Seven,’ one of Spokane’s first sheriffs, now hangs in Spokane’s Public Safety Building

One of Spokane’s first law enforcement leaders led the notorious “Magnificent Seven” posse in killing and capturing members of the James-Younger gang nearly 150 years ago in Minnesota.

James Glispin was the only man to serve as Spokane police chief and Spokane County Sheriff.

Now, a portrait of Glispin, adorned with an elaborate frame, and his specially designed solid gold badge hang next to other informative Glispin history pieces in the hallway across from current Sheriff John Nowels’ office.

Nowels and Undersheriff Justin Lundgren helped hang the portrait Thursday during a ceremony for the donated portrait. The Owen family, which has collected historical items at the Owen Pioneer Museum near Chattaroy for decades, donated the portrait to the Spokane Regional Law Enforcement Museum.

Nowels and Lundgren thanked the family for its generous donation and posed for photos with the portrait and the Owen family.

Lundgren called the portrait a “bridge back in time” and “a connection to all those who served before us.”

“To be able to serve the community, whether you did it in the 1800s and you’re on horseback or whether you’re using the Real Time Crime Center today to help solve robberies and all the different crimes that occur in our community, there’s this connection and there’s this mission, this purpose, in law enforcement,” Lundgren said. “And when we can go down the halls and see a portrait of our fifth sheriff, his actual badge that he wore, there’s a really special connection to the past.”

Glispin led a posse that captured the Younger brothers in 1876 after a bank robbery erupted in gunfire, according to a description of Glispin’s law enforcement career on the sheriff’s hallway wall.

The James-Younger gang robbed banks, railroads and stagecoaches for a decade in the 1860s and 1870s, killing 25 men during those robberies. Their crime spree came to an end in September 1876 during a robbery of the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota.

Three members of the gang and two Northfield residents died during the “onslaught of gunfire.” Glispin led a posse of six, tracking the killers to the Watonwan River where another gun battle ensued. Glispin shot and killed gang member Charley Pitts.

The posse loaded Pitts and three wounded Younger brothers into a wagon. They were eventually taken to jail and sentenced to prison. Glispin and his posse became famous for capturing the infamous gang members.

Although dubbed the Magnificent Seven, “The Magnificent Seven” films are not based on Glispin and his posse, but instead inspired by “Seven Samurai,” a 1954 Japanese film.

Actors Yul Brynner, Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen starred in the 1960 film while the remake starring Denzel Washington and others was released in 2016.

After three terms as Watonwan County, Minnesota, sheriff, Glispin and his wife, Ella, arrived in 1883 in the Spokane Falls area of the Washington Territory. Washington entered statehood in 1889.

Glispin was elected city marshal in 1885. He ran again for the position, renamed police chief, and won, becoming the first titled police chief in April 1886.

He was the second police chief for the area, but the first one who was elected, according to previous Spokesman-Review reporting.

In January 1886, he was appointed deputy U.S. marshal for the Spokane region, according to the informational document in the sheriff’s hallway. He was elected sheriff in 1887.

Two months before his death in 1890, he became one of the people elected to draft a new city charter. He died from an illness on Nov. 23, 1890, at his Spokane home with his wife at his side. He had no children.

A newspaper story stated he “contracted a severe cold from getting wet.” His illness thought to be minor at first became “rapidly worse” and a “fatal termination was but a matter of time.”

“According to statements made at the time of his death, Glispin was a conscientious, painstaking, vigilant man and the soul of integrity and worth,” according to a news release about Thursday’s ceremony. “It was said that his sense of duty, justice, and bravery was unwavering.”

Sue Walker, secretary-treasurer of the Spokane Regional Law Enforcement Museum, said Thursday Glispin was “highly respected.”

He’s buried at Fairmount Memorial Park where a monument was dedicated in his honor.

Glispin held other titles during his 44-year life. He was a mill worker in Massachusetts, where he was born; an agricultural implement salesman in Minnesota; and a mercantile businessman in California.

Sue Owen-Mauro, a descendant of the Owen family that settled on the Chattaroy property in the 1880s and continues under Owen ownership, said the family started the Owen Pioneer Museum in 1948, collecting historical items from kind donors.

Tom Owen, Owen-Mauro’s brother, said a 93-year-old man named Charles Hopkins, of north Spokane, donated the Glispin portrait to the Owen family in 1967.

Hopkins’ relationship to and how he acquired the portrait of Glispin is unknown, according to the release.

Owen-Mauro connected with Walker at an event two months ago commemorating the history of the railway once above the Monroe Street Bridge. The Glispin portrait was discussed and, one thing led to another. She said the hallway inside the Public Safety Building was the rightful place for the portrait.

“This is the perfect place,” she said.

Tom Owen said his family members took the initiative decades ago to start the museum.

“That allows us today to bring this here,” he said. “It’s great and it’ll be great that it will be on the walls in the hallway here for the public and for Spokane to enjoy.”

Lundgren said Glispin’s portrait and badge will be cherished forever.

“It’s an irreplaceable, priceless piece of our agency’s history,” he said.