The History of Chester Borough Police Department
On July 15, 1819 there were a set of daring robberies in Chester. The most daring and masterly robberies were committed on a Thursday night in Chester by a villain who says his name is Peter Jones of Middlesex County. The robberies were as follows – He entered the dwelling of William Hunt for the purpose of getting something to eat, he then stole Mr. Hunt’s coat, and made off with it; he then entered the cabinet shop of Mr. Topping and took a set of tools suitable to break into the store of Mr. Lawrence, which he did and took goods, to the amount of nearly 1000 dollars. Then he proceeded to the barn of Richard Hunt and stole his horse, wagon and harness, and put his booty on board the wagon and made off. He had previously prepared himself with sheets, which he stole from Mr. Case’s store (now Pleasant Pools) to wrap the goods in. He then proceeded towards Philadelphia where he was taken into custody by Mr. Lawrence, Zephaniah Drake, James Stout and Alexander Dawson who had volunteered their services.
They had to go 80 miles without a change of horses. He was tied and brought back and was tried by the Magistrates of the Town and sentenced to be publicly whipped with 45 lashes on his bare back, which was executed. On hearing his sentence he fainted. He was then committed to jail and held for a County trial, where he received 6 years at hard labor in the State Prison.
In the village there was a whipping post. It stood in the park very near where the cannon stands today; and although it was taken down in 1828, a person living in 1911 remembered seeing a man tied to the post and whipped for stealing.
Because there were no local police, farmers in rural areas frequently had horses and other livestock stolen. This was especially true in New Jersey because of its convenient location between New York and Pennsylvania. As roads became wider and better, notorious horse thieves made their escape across state lines with more and more ease. Sheriffs and constables did their best, and newspapers carried advertisements of rewards for strayed or stolen animals. But the farmers did take steps themselves by forming vigilant societies to cope with horse thieves. There were usually directors who ran the society, and pursuers who went after the thieves and the stolen property. Most societies offered insurance protection against loss or damage, the loser receiving a percentage of the animal’s appraised value.
Chester’s “Vigilant and Protective Association” was organized in 1889, according to its Constitution and Bylaws:
“The object of this society…to be the protection of its members in the ownership of horses, mules, wagon, sleighs and harness; to assist owners in case of theft, and to reimburse owners in case of loss by theft. It cost $2.00 to join and the secretary was to receive $10.00 per year for his services. If the Society did not continue at the end of ten years, any money in the treasury was to be divided among the members, according to the amount they had paid in. However, the Society continued for a great many more than ten years, and in 1908 the dues were only fifty cents a year.”
In 1908, the “Law and Order League of Chester” was organized by local men, according to its Constitution and By Laws, “for the suppression of vice and immorality” because of the “lawlessness of the town.” The men cited a fight, which had occurred, and the “condition of a drunken man in the gutter covered with blood.” It must be remembered that there was still no police protection what so ever, not until the Law and Order League asked the Township Committee to appoint a Constable for the town. In 1909, Daniel McDonald was sworn in as the first Constable. Any resident could belong to the League, and most of the “best” townsmen did, 45 signing the constitution. William Collis was elected president.
The minutes tell of a case presented with the “culprit” accused of “being drunk and driving his horse over the sidewalk and disturbing the peace.” He “guaranteed that it would not happen again…and action was suspended.”
Another time, a committee of three was “elected to wait upon the proprietors of stores who keep open on Sunday evenings and endeavor to have them close,” for as a letter from a concerned resident stated, “they were open from 8 o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock or later every Sunday in the year, when all or nearly all the young boys would congregate and hear a great many things that it would be very much better for their morals if this was not allowed.”
In 1920, its been recorded, that Justice of the Peace Arthur Rockefeller was handling cases of litigation in a very efficient manner. Then in 1921, over one hundred able, law-abiding citizens were appointed as “police officers – to be on the alert at all times for thieves, robbers, crooks and all offenders of the law.” Several volunteered the use of their automobiles in running down offenders at any time. Soon seven arrests were made by these policemen and were disposed of by Police Judge Charles E. Tippett.
Not until the State Police was formed in 1921, for rural patrol, did the real solution come. Chester had a State Police barracks and it was located on Maple Ave., which was also called Mud Street.
In the early 1940s, Gilbert Hopler became the victim of Chester’s only hold up/murder. He had been a successful and popular owner of the general store at the corner of Main and Hillside Roads since 1909. This location is now a store called “Bizzy Lizzy” and use to be the town’s Post Office. Two men entered the store and demanded his money. He had always said, “Over my dead body!” He reached for a machete on the counter. The men shot him, took the money and disappeared, but were eventually caught after someone overheard them telling about it.
The Borough’s first full time policeman (a police chief) Joseph Feltmann came in 1960.
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