The officer in this story was Louis Basquill. I can’t recall off the top of my head which family he belongs to. He was born in County Mayo and emigrated to the US and lived the rest of his life in St. Louis, Missouri. He never married.
(ETA: He’s Louis F. Basquill, son of James Basquill and Mary Walsh, baptized 15 Feb 1854 in Killawalla, Ballintober Parish, County Mayo, Ireland. Baptismal sponsors James Jennings and Bridget Kelly.)
You have to admire someone who has the brass ovaries to lob pancakes at the first lady.
From: Decatur Daily Republican (Decatur IL) 10 Oct 1887
An Over-Zealous Prosecution.
Mrs. Annie Sax, the Pancake-Thrower, Fined Fifty Dollars.
St. Louis, Oct. 19.–The case of Mrs. Annie Sax, she of the griddle-cake-hurling propensity, came up in due course before Judge White in the Second District Police Court yesterday morning. The habitues of the police court were there in the usual proportion, but the great rank and file who manifested a temporary interest in the foolish caper were conspicuous by their absence, and had doubtless forgotten the existence of a woman who could throw a piece of fried dough fifty feet. The offense, as chronicled at the time, consisted in the eccentric manner in which Mrs. Annie Sax presented her last pancake to Mrs. Cleveland on Tuesday afternoon of Fair week, while the presidential party were driving by the “house of Comfort.” The greasy dodger struck Mrs. Cleveland on the sleeve, making a slight stain. Mayor Francis, without waiting for a fork, dropped the dyspeptic compound in the road. Meanwhile the heroic Annie had fled into the seclusion of a neighboring booth, whence Officer Basquill, a minion of the law, dragged her forth a few minutes later.
P.S. Lanham, Officer Basquill and Charles Klotter were examined, in turn. The fair defendant was given a hearing, and entered a general denial that she had intended to throw the morsel at any one. Mr. Lanham was recalled at this point and testified that Mrs. Sax had remarked that she wanted Mrs. Cleveland to know what St. Louis pancakes were made of, or words of similar import. The defendant here lost her naturally sweet temper, and was only prevented from giving vent to her indignation by the deputy marshal.
After the customary brilliant legal pyrotechnics on the part of Prosecuting Attorney Adams and Mr. Watson, defendant’s counsel, Judge White participated in the catechizing sufficiently to satisfy himself that Mrs. Sax had been guilty of “violent, tumultuous, offensive or obstreperous” conduct, as well as of a display of supreme disregard for the eternal fitness of things, in making the first lady of the land a target for her unerring aim. He accordingly fined her $50, from which decision Mr. Watson will take an appeal.
red paper boat 