100 YEARS AGO – 1908

A number of boys in the First Ward of Chester make a business selling watercress that is dug from the ruins in the city. Some of the lads make quite a snug sum for pocket money. The are eagerly greeted by the housewives who are glad to get the sprig greens. A few days ago a foreign woman called at the home of Mrs. Joseph Snyder on Lewis street in Chester and requested Mrs. Snyder to take care of her infant daughter that she carried in her arms for a few hours while she visited relatives. She said that her home is in Camden and that she came to Chester to visit relatives in the West End. Out of the goodness of her heart Mrs. Snyder agreed to take care of the little one until her mother returned. It was evidently a plan concocted by the woman to abandon her offspring as she failed to return for the child and has not been or heard from since by Mrs. Snyder. Mrs. Snyder said will be compelled to place the infant in a home for foundlings as she has several children of her own to look after.

75 YEARS AGO – 1933

Twenty-four in a case became popular with the flow of beer, but 24 in this particular case peeved Justice of the Peace John S. Meclary of Upper Darby. The two dozen referred to were arrested during the height of a gin party police raided at their hangout on the old Byrd Estate on West Chester Pike. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself,’’ commented the magistrate as he sentenced each to 30 days in the county jail.

50 YEARS AGO – 1958

A Chester woman from Potter Street would have completed her first year of employment with a Chester Realtor next Tuesday had she not been arrested. It was a profitable year for her, Realtor Oliver C. Armitage said. She pleaded guilty to theft of some $7,000 from the office. The 27-year old woman said “she frittered the money away.’’

25 YEARS AGO – 1983

Two women were arrested on prostitution charges after an undercover police officer was allegedly solicited in side a massage parlor on West Chester Pike, Upper Darby. Despite the arrests, the massage shop is still operating.

10 YEARS AGO – 1998

Springton Lake Middle School teacher Jennifer Rittenhouse has been selected as the 1998 recipient of the Northeast Conference Fellowship. She is the second Rose Tree Media foreign language to receive the honor. Spanish teacher Leslie Bullitt won the award in 1996.

--- LEN CASTERLINE

To contact Len Casterline,

e-mail: lencas1038@verizon.net

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or call (610) 565-4298