Temple, Carter [Carr Hopkins]
(born: 1842 - died: 1929)Four of the first African American patrolmen in Indianapolis, IN were William Whittaker, Benjamin Young, Sim Hart, and Carter Temple, according to an article in the Indianapolis Star newspaper. Carter Temple was born in Logan County, KY around 1842 and may have been enslaved prior to joining the Union Army in 1863.
Temple came to Indianapolis in 1865 and became a patrolman in 1876. He had been a patrolman for more than 20 years when he drew his revolver after approaching a stranger one early morning in Mayor Thomas Taggart's front yard; the stranger was Mayor Taggart.
Carter Temple was the husband of Martha Temple, born in 1844 in North Carolina. The couple married in 1871; the family of five lived at 182 Minerva Street in Indianapolis. Carter Temple, a Civil War veteran, was named Carr Hopkins when he enlisted in Gallatin, TN on November 1, 1863, according to Civil War records. He served with the 14th U.S. Colored Infantry and was promoted to Corporal, April 30th, 1864. Carter Temple died in 1929.
There were three other Indianapolis patrolmen from Kentucky: Edward Harris (b. 1851), Frank Hurt (b. 1859), and Johshua Spears (b. 1858). Harris, from Louisville, joined the force in 1874. Spears, from Paris in Bourbon County, and Hurt both joined the force in 1883.
For more see "Colored patrolman dies of paralysis," Indianapolis Star, 12/18/1909, p. 3; "Mayor Taggart finds a patrolman who wasn't sleeping," Fort Wayne Evening Post, 5/9/1896, p. 3; "First African-American Police Officer Honored," 2/2/2015, Indianapolis Star online; and "Our Colored patrolmen," Freeman, 3/16/1889, p. 5.