dabney
Member
In 1981, while employed with the Sheriff's Office, I would make a transfer that would ultimately lead me to the position of Chief in a very small town-within-a-city agency, Bibb City Police Department. The small town was located within Muscogee County (Ga.) and was had some of the 'best' people in the world living there. It was very similar to the fictitious town of Mayberry on the Andy Griffin Show. We had a couple of town drunks and a low crime rate. The governing body was composed of a Mayor and five council members, all retired/current supervisors of the Bibb Mill. The Bibb, as we called it, was the biggest source of tax revenue for the city and always had a strong presence with the way the town was governed. All to the good, I might add. This job, this honor and privilege, of serving the fine people of Bibb City as their Chief of Police, would become the 'high' point of my service to man.
The job of Chief in the Bibb City PD required the Boss to wear many hats of responsibility. Basically anything that went wrong during the course of a day would land at the Chief's small office. A norm for a small town police chief, one must adjust quickly and successfully to multi-tasking. A gift for the Chief, only during his tenure, was the Chief's Gun. The Chief's Gun dated back to about 1935, info from city records, and was purchased by the city for the Chief to carry on duty. The Chief's Gun was a four-inch, nickel finish .38 Special S&W Military & Police Model of 1905 4th Change Service Revolver. When I was promoted to Chief, a brief ceremony followed, with the retiring chief passing the Chief's Gun to his successor. I was but 34 years old then (1985) and remember thinking that I had to get my tried and trusted Colt OP in my duty holster to replace this relic from the past. The Chief's Gun was showing much wear and still retained the original walnut factory service grips, common to the 1930's S&W M&P six-guns. The trigger-action was silky smooth that heavily accented the old long trigger-pull of the pre-war S&W's. As time went by,I would become enamored by the history of this PD service revolver. There was still a couple of former Chief's still living then that provided me a wealth of data/info on this one gun. Along with some carefully guarded city records and finally a letter from renowned S&W Historian Roy Jinks and I had the 'complete' down low on this nickel blast-from-the-past.
THE HISTORY
The city records indicated a September 1934 purchase date and this was supported by Mr. Jink's letter that had a September 1934 shipping date to Beck & Gregg Hardware Store in Atlanta, Georgia. This hardware store was a business very familiar to the Bibb Mill in the 30's and 40's as a lot of business was transacted with this hardware store city records indicated. The Chief's Gun was special, being nickel plated, as the patrol officers were purchased the blue steel models. This same letter indicated two other S&W's, like the Chief's Gun, were blue steel. The small quirk (nickel finish) was for the Chief alone and all subordinates carried blue steel. This info was supported by all the retired, still living, Bibb City PD Chiefs I talked to. The Chief's Gun was passed down to each reigning chief and, by tradition, never traded in or sold off as surplus. This classic six-gun was a silent witness to many great and not so great moments in six-different chiefs career. From late September 1934 until I retired there in 92 this same .38 served and protected on the hips of all of us, fortunate and honored to be the Chief in Bibb City. You talk about "carried much and shot little", well this service revolver personifies that phrase! As I was going out (retiring and going to work again later), I was presented the Chief's Gun as a small token of appreciation from the wonderful folks of Bibb City to the retiring Chief. I would later have this same M&P refinished with a new nickel and cleaned up the original service grips, serial numbered to the gun. I added the black rubber grips, seen in photo, and do carry it on duty at Fort Apache. The trigger-action rivals custom jobs, but alas, the current crop of law enforcement have little or no interests in blasts from the past and the only time I'm able to command their attention to one of the finest handguns 'ever' developed, is on the range at qualification. They will never know the smooth long trigger-action of the older six-guns of S&W, heck, even the post war revolvers will and do go unnoticed by this youthful bunch. Please forgive an old lawman's rant here as I wish there was more respect/appreciation for the hardware and people who were there before them. Thank you my friends and sorry for the long length here. I do appreciate being numbered amongst you wonderful people!
David
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