100 YEARS AGO – 1908

What is believed to be the youngest person in the state of Pennsylvania that a criminal warrant was every served on is a 2-year-old boy from Ivy Street, Chester. He was arrested on the charge of throwing a stone and cutting the cheek of a 7-year-old boy in the neighborhood. The older boy slapped the younger boy and the younger boy picked up a stone and hurled it, making a deep laceration in the boy’s cheek. Alderman Stockman was astonished to see the little defendant. Stockman said that had he known the age of the defendant he would never have issued the warrant. While the youngest prisoner ever stood before him it was obvious he did not understand what the hearing was about. The alderman immediately dismissed the case.Wives and lady friends of the James F. Dougherty Fire Co. at Leiperville have formed an auxiliary. Mrs. George Worrall is president and Frances Cape is vice president.

75 YEARS AGO – 1933

Chester Mayor William Ward Jr. has told police that beer gardens, the owners of which furnish music and cabaret entertainment until daybreak to attract customers, are taboo in the city and he ordered police to close them.A king snake that is thought to have escaped from a carnival in Eddystone was found in the yard of Mrs. Anna Embon, Thirteenth and Saville Avenue, Eddystone. The snake was killed by neighbors. It had a head about 2-½ inches wide.

50 YEARS AGO – 1958

Barbara Rosenberg of Chester won the top $500 award in the sales day promotion by Chester merchants.Three Glenolden boys who said they had nothing to do in Glenolden came to Norwood for a little fun and threw a small wooden box through the windshield of a parked car, smashing it. All were turned over the county juvenile authorities.Two 1958 beauty queens were crowned by a pair of 1957 queens at Ridley Park Playground. Carol Ann Pfander, 12, of Swarthmore Avenue, was crowned by Mary Ellen Katein, 9, of Chestnut Street, last year’s queen. Cathy Katein, 7, Mary Ellen’s sister, was crowned by Benedetta Groover, 6, of Swarthmore Avenue, who reigned last year.

25 YEARS AGO – 1983

Chester Fire Chief James McDonald received the 1983 award of the Pennsylvania Association of Arson Investigators. Green Ridge Fire Co. in Aston is sponsoring a donkey basketball game at the firehouse field as a fundraiser.

10 YEARS AGO – 1998

Mr. and Mrs. William A. Happy of Trainer celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. He has been retired from Philadelphia Electric for many years.

---- LEN CASTERLINE

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