At the age of 26, Patrolman Edward Dippel, then a 2-year veteran of the Metropolitan Police Department (forerunner to the NYPD) was assigned to the Broadway Squad of the 25th Precinct.
On July 14, 1863, during the Civil War, New York City was being rocked by Draft Riots on the heels of President Abraham Lincoln’s call for the first National Draft. Officer Dippel was assigned to 28th Street and 10th Avenue (in today’s 10th Precinct), and he responded with several other officers to a report of looters at the home of famed New York Tribune publisher Horace Greeley. While inside the home, members of a New York Infantry Regiment, recently back from the fields of Gettysburg, opened fire on the people inside the home. Dippel and two other officers were wounded.
Patrolman Dippel was removed to New York Hospital with a serious leg wound. Five days later, on July 19, he succumbed to his wounds and died, and was buried several days later in his hometown of Monroe. Officer Dippel left a wife, Mary, and a 3-year old daughter, Henrietta. Sadly, Mary Dippel died three years later, and was buried next to her husband. Their daughter Henrietta never married and died in 1947 in Newburgh, leaving no surviving family.
On July 18, 2003, members of the Jason Conklin Memorial Lodge 957 corrected a 140-year old error. Patrolman Edward Dippel’s death had never been recognized as a Line of Duty Death, but on that date, Officer Dippel received his “Inspector’s Funeral”.