In April of 1918, the Sault Ste. Marie Council of Women met to discuss an innovative idea: hiring a woman to work with the local police. Mrs. C.V. Plummer, heading up this initiative, reported that she had reached out to policewomen in major cities.
While the initial plan was to advocate for the hiring of a police matron, she found out through her research that an unmarried policewoman might prove more helpful “to women in difficulty.” As a result, the Women’s Council recommended to the Sault Ste. Marie Police that they should “have a capable woman appointed to the police force as a police woman.”
The job was posted, and by the end of June, one application had come in. Whether additional people applied or not is unclear, but in September 1918, the Sault Daily Star proclaimed that Miss Agnes Stark started work as Sault Ste. Marie’s first policewoman.
As a child, Agnes Stark appeared on the 1881 census as living in Toronto, the daughter of a Scottish shoemaker. She was one of at least eleven children, roughly half of whom survived into adulthood.
By 1891, Agnes lived with her family in Sault Ste. Marie.
In 1901, she appeared in the City Directory, with her profession listed as a nurse; she lived with her parents and siblings on Church Street, and her father continued to work as a shoemaker.
In 1915, she applied unsuccessfully to work as the local Public School Nurse. That same year, her father passed away after a lengthy illness, and in 1916, her brother William was killed in action and buried in the Somme area of France.
In 1918, at the age of 45, Agnes stepped into her police role, with plenty of experience helping others. One Sault Daily Star article claimed that she had similar work experience in Philadelphia. However, it wasn’t clear if this was accurate, when this occurred, and for how long.
Local records indicate she was a nurse in Sault Ste. Marie for much of her working life up to that point, although a person of the same name did appear on census records from Copper Cliff in 1911 as a domestically-employed nurse.
As for the sorts of duties she would complete as a policewoman, a Sault Daily Star article noted that while she would focus her efforts on women and children, she did not have the authority to enforce the law and would act instead as a “counsellor and friend.” By 1919, her title would be updated to Police Woman and Social Worker.
In a speech to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union Mothers, she discussed some of the areas with which she had already assisted after half a year on the job.
“Women who must work to support three or four children, girls employed here whose homes are elsewhere, girls coming from the country and securing employment here, to see that children under 16 years of age are not on the street after nine o’clock unless accompanied by parents or guardians, and to look after cases that are taken to court.”
She also worked with various organizations, spanning not just the police but also the Canadian and American immigration departments, local societies such as the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire and the Patriotic Society, and businesses including the Steel Plant and Spanish River Pulp and Paper. She appeared in court, returned runaways to their homes, assisted the Children’s Aid Society, dealt with juvenile delinquency, assisted mothers whose husbands were in jail, delivered Christmas cheer to families through the Santa Claus Fund, helped local visitors to town secure shelter if needed, provided advice to mothers concerning their daughters, and even escorted “an insane patient to a hospital for the insane.”
During the Spanish Influenza pandemic, she took on duties as a nurse.
She was heavily involved in the local relief committee, working with local sewists to distribute handmade garments to children in need. She recommended the founding of the Social Welfare Council. By the early 1920s, she had taken over supervision of relief work in the city and worked out of the library hall on Queen Street in a “bare little room… devoid of everything but the barest necessities; guiltless of comforts.” From this office, she helped to coordinate food, clothes, employment opportunities, and more for those in need. Shortly after that, her office moved a couple of buildings down the road, to the police department.
As Agnes became busier and busier, some organizations advocated for hiring more policewomen, including the Local Council of Women in October 1922. The police commission was not in favour of the move, inquiring what duties Agnes was not completing that a second officer would take on.
To this, the Women’s Council raised the issues of “dance halls and girls roaming the streets” – while there was a bylaw in place prohibiting young women under 18 from attending dance halls unattended, it was not enforced. After a brief back and forth between Police and Women’s Council representatives regarding if this would fall under Agnes’ job duties, the police declined to hire a second policewoman but did opt to enforce the bylaw. Dance halls would restrict girls under 18 from attending or risk their license being revoked.
As for Agnes, she stated that she did visit dance halls when she could but had found more pressing duties in relief work. She also advocated for boys under 18 to be barred from dance halls, stating that young people of both genders “should be at home in bed by nine o’clock.”
By 1923, the newspaper started referring to Agnes as the City Relief Officer, and by 1924, her time was almost entirely consumed by the relief cause.
One Sault Daily Star article noted that while she was hired to be a policewoman, her duties had changed, meaning that “there [was] no one to give particular care to the unfortunate women and girls who appear in police court from time to time.”
Once again, the Women’s Council requested the hiring of another policewoman, suggesting that Agnes be assigned permanently to relief work while a woman in uniform could “do a great deal perhaps in cleaning up” local issues. In their delegation to the police, the Women’s Council praised Agnes’ work, describing it as “a contribution no money can buy.”
However, they also cited complaints about “petting parties” that occurred when young people parked at the canal and along Queen Street, requesting that a policewoman be sent out to patrol “and give girls kindly advice if necessary.” They also said an additional policewoman could help control overcrowding at boarding houses. Once again, the police commission denied the request.
Despite the overwhelming focus on relief work, there was still the occasional piece of police business that made the news. In 1924, Agnes was involved in the case of a Kitchener couple who had driven up to Sault Ste. Marie with the goal of eloping. Before they could get married, they got into a car accident in the Soo, and police picked the man up for car theft. Police from Kitchener drove up to escort the man back; Agnes sent the woman home.
Agnes was well-liked by the community and generally viewed as fair and just. As part of her role, she attended countless meetings, fundraised, and even posted classified ads soliciting donations for the people she assisted. In 1924, she won a charity contest run by a local clothing shop, receiving more votes than such organizations as the YWCA, YMCA, Children’s Shelter, Salvation Army, and local hospitals. In doing so, she received a donation of $150 to go towards local relief efforts.
In 1925, the Sault Daily Star noted that Agnes had been forced to take time off due to illness but would be returning on a part-time basis. By 1928, Agnes was forced to step down from her job due to health issues. Miss Anna Coulter replaced her as the city’s relief officer.
Agnes never married, and she continued to live in her family’s Church Street home for the entirety of her time in Sault Ste. Marie. She would disappear from the City Directories in 1928, and in the 1931 census, she was listed as both a patient and a ward worker at a hospital in Whitby, Ontario. In 1955, at the age of 82, Agnes Stark passed away in Toronto. She may not have spent her final years in Sault Ste. Marie, but her headstone can be found in Old Greenwood Cemetery.