File:Police - Mrs. Mattie VanOsdale, Brunswick's first police woman Circa 1950s.jpg

Summary

Mrs. Mattie VanOsdale, Brunswick's first police woman at her post at the foot of W. B Street and Petersville Road in the late 1950s. Her duties were to assist officers on patrol and look after the safety of children on their way to and from school.

(Courtesy of Robert Day)

Smoketown History (Brunswick, Md.) According to Bob Day, her grand-nephew, "Mattie Sigafoose was the first child born in Brunswick 1890. She was the daughter of Ben Franklin Sigafoose. Ben and Laura Sigafoose had 13 children of which 11 grew to adulthood. Ben's first child, 1877 was Charles Henry Sigafoose, my grandfather. The photo was in the fifties because she died in 1960. What I remember she lived on top of a hill. When you look down you would see the entrance to the bridge. Mattie Sigafoose VanOsdale lived with Lena and Frank Troxell. Lena was Matties sister. Also there was Bessie and Edgar Shelton who lived on Virginia Ave. Bessie was Mattie's other sister."