Thomas H Cottingham
1844-1900
Thomas H Cottingham was a native of Ireland, born 6 Apr 1844 who came to Newport in 1860. He married Mary Walsh at the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Newport on Oct 26 1869.
He first became a city fireman before he was hired as a policeman. The Newport Local commented in January 1878 that concern over crime continued to grow and "It looks as if a fellow who is able, can buy himself out of a sentence for $500. By the fall of 1878 Lt. Cottingham was named chief by the Newport Board of Police Commissioners. He immediately post special night patrols and captured a gang of thieves in November.
Police recovered a wagon load of stolen goods from a houseboat on the Licking River and and two homes on Goodman Street. Cottingham's honeymoon as police chief ended quickly, however. Burglaries continued and complaints increased. In January 1880 the police board reduced Cottingham to lieutenant and brought back David Lock as chief.
A smooth transition usually occurred between a department's outgoing and incoming members when the political winds changed, but legal challenges to partisan ousters occasionally kept the authority of firefighters, policemen or tax collectors in limbo for long periods. The worst such case in Newport ensued in 1892 when Mayor George Ahlering, a German Republican, tried to replace Police Chief (again) Thomas Cottingham, an Irish Democrat with Thomas Stewart. Cottingham filed suit against Ahlering's action. Campbell County Circuit Judge Charles Helm of Newport, a Democrat of good Confederate parentage, surprised no one by ruling for Cottingham in January 1893. When the Court of Appeals, also dominated by Democrats also upheld this decision, the Kentucky Post said "the city is now in a bad fix."
Cottingham and Stewart both showed up everyday claiming the right to run the Police Department. Each chief was backed by his own cadre of patrolmen, and apprehension steadily grew that violence might erupt between these rival camps and officers. The City Council also split, with Democrats championing Cottingham and Republicans upholding Stewart.
Democratic councilmen eventually abandoned Cottingham in the face of withering public ridicule over the spectacle of a police force that somehow managed to handcuff itself. "Disgusted with the way things were going and weary of the endless wrangling", Stewart withdrew on January 25. May Ahlering realized that if he could not beat Cottingham at law, so he decided in plain English to buy the police chief off. Ahlering secured Cottingham's resignation by paying him a full year's salary of $500 for a few months work, and also allowing his faction on the force to keep their pay. Ahlering then appointed his own man, W H Wallingford, as chief on March 3. Ahlering finally had his own police chief, Cottingham had a full year's salary, and the taxpayers had to foot the bill after enduring two months of chaos on the police force.
Cottingham died July 18, 1900 at the age of 57. At the time
he was working as a deputy sheriff at the Queen City Race Track in Newport.
He was buried in St. Stephens Cemetery and David Lock was among the pallbearers.
Mary Walsh Cottingham died in January 1919 and was buried in St. Stephens.
Children of Thomas Cottingham and Mary Walsh
1. Emma Cottingham bp-30 Nov 1878; m-John Maloney June 12, 1918