Other Times
100 Years Ago – 1920: There appears to be a wave of crime sweeping over Chester and the county. Murder, suicide, robberies, thefts of all kinds, and many arrests for drunkenness have held the boards for some days, and federal agents were called to Chester to fight the sale of dope. Here is a brief compendium of events since the Times went to press on Saturday: Man murdered in Essington; woman jumps
30feet from a second-story window to escape from the House of Detention; body of a man found floating in the Delaware River at Marcus Hook; three of the light-fingered gentry taken into custody by the police; many offenders against the Prohibition laws find their way to the City Police Court; drowning accident at Media.
75 Years Ago – 1945: A 49-year-old Chester man was dead and three others were injured after an accident which wrecked an oil tank truck, tore down an electric pole, badly damaged the Franklin Rescue squad ambulance and flooded the Shoemakerville Bridge with hundreds of gallons of fuel oil. The accident occurred when the ambulance attempted to pull out on Providence Avenue from 25th Street, Chester, carrying Edward Shoemaker, of 606 E. 24th St., who apparently suffered a heart attack and fell into Ridley Creek while fishing.
50 Years Ago – 1970: Pleasanton H. Ennis, division vice president of Fidelity Bank, was named Rotarian of the Year by the Chester Rotary Club at the club’s annual ladies night held Friday at the Drexelbrook Club in Upper Darby. Among his roughly dozen positions in county organizations, he is a director and vice president of Chester YMCA.
25 Years Ago – 1995: About 50 people at the Media Courthouse were forced into the sizzling outdoors when a fallen wire knocked out power for the county complex and 1,100 other PECO customers. Acting President Judge A. Leo Sereni ordered the courthouse closed at 3:20 p.m. as a precautionary measure.
10 Years Ago – 2010: Chester made it through the first night of the lockdown without a major incident Saturday night, the first of at least five mandatory nights in which residents are banned from public streets and areas between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Mayor Wendell Butler’s emergency declaration enacted the lockdown in five city areas designated as being hot spots for crime.