The City Of Chester.

He is a man of genial disposition, a fluent and persuasive speaker, overflowing with broad and sound ideas on all subjects. He has aided many a young man and influenced him to make something of himself. The rules which he has followed and which be would recommend to all are these:

1. Keep your promises and appointments.
2. Never let a customer go away dissatisfied, if you can possibly help it.
3. Never lend a friend your note, rather loan him the money, if you can spare it. Never indorse another man's note as an accommodation.
4. Do no business with a man who is troublesome, and whom you know you cannot satisfy.
5. Pay your bills and workmen promptly when pay is due.
6. Be honest and honorable in all things, and kind to all men.

The rules are characteristic of a man whose life cannot be studied by young men without advantage, and who is worthy of the honors that have been conferred upon him by those who know his worth.

Sauville Spar-Yard. - In 1865 John Sauville established a spar-yard at the foot of Parker Street. The masts and spars used at Roach's ship-yard are here hewn from the large timbers which are brought from Clearfield City, in this State, and the spruce logs are brought from Maine.

The Frick's Boat-Yard. - In 1860, William Frick and William Wilson, formerly of the firm of Frick, Slifer & Co., of Louisburg, Pa., came to Chester and purchased a large tract of land on the river, adjoining the yard of Reaney, Son & Archbold. Here they erected piers, which extended nearly seven hundred feet from the fast land into the water, and expended thousands of dollars in filling in the low and marshy ground so that it might be utilized for the purposes of a boat-yard. The firm made a specialty of building canal-boats, and had established a large business, giving employment to nearly a hundred hands, when the civil war unsettled value and so advanced the costs of materials that it was very precarious to enter into heavy contracts to be carried out in the future. Frick & Co. had undertaken to build a large number of canal-boats at a designated price, which at the period the contract was entered into, and the cost of material at that time, promised to yield a large profit to the builder, but the inflation came, lumber and iron advanced threefold in value. The parties for whom the boats were to be built demanded that the firm should carry out its contract, although to do so would entail the loss of many thousands of dollars. Finding that the strict letter of the agreement would be required, Frick & Co. strove to carry out their obligation in good faith, but the losses entailed embarrassed them, and culminated ultimately in financial failure. The boats were delivered, but the builders were ruined, and that in a contract which when made promised a large margin of profit.

Besides the yards already mentioned, Charles A. Weidner, at the Chester Iron-Works, on Second Street, between Edgmont and Market Streets, built several river steamboats and other vessels. In 1873 the United States revenue marine steamer "Manhattan" was built at this establishment, and at the time was pronounced by the government inspectors the best vessel ever constructed for that service in the country. In 1876 Nathan Pennell and George Robinson had a ship-yard in South Ward, near Essex Street, and that year the tug "Mary Ann" was built at this yard. The depression of 1877 caused the proprietors to abandon and retire from the business, which was at that time very unpromising.

Court-Houses and Prisons. - At the session of Upland Court, Nov. 14, 1676, an order was made providing that Neeles Laerson be paid "for his charges for keeping the Court last year." Neeles Laerson was a tavern-keeper, and his inn is believed to have been on Edgmont Avenue, north of the present Second Street. He was the owner of one hundred and eighty-one acres of land in Chester, covering a large part of the present thickly built-up portion of the city to which I am now referring. Neeles Laerson was a quarrelsome neighbor, as will be seen by an examination of the records. In 1678, James Sandelands, on behalf of the inhabitants of Upland, called the attention of the court to the fact that Laerson had built a fence closing the old and usual way to the meadow, which obstruction the court ordered the latter to remove. On the same day the church wardens complained that in taking possession of two lots in Chester, which he had bought from Dominie Lasse Carolus, he had included some of the church or glebe lands. The court ordered that he should be allowed that which he had bought, but if it was found that he had taken more than was by right his, it should be annexed to the church lots.

The first court of which we have information was, as shown, held at Learson's inn, but the justice ordered, Nov. 13, 1677, that Capt. Hans Jargin, who had been occupying the building as a barracks for his company, should "fit up" the House of Defense, or block house, and furnish it "fitt for the Court to sitt in against ye next Court." Although there is no positive record showing that the House of Defense was used by the court for its sessions, it is now generally conceded that the evidence fully establishes the fact that it was so occupied. This building, which was constructed of logs, stood on the east side of Edgmont Avenue, about eighty-four feet from the present Second Street, was rectangular in shape, and was fourteen by fifteen feet in dimensions. It was erected at an angle to Second Street, and extended into the roadway of Edgmont Avenue. Neeles Laerson, March 13, 1678, was ordered by the court "to make or leave a lane or street from Upland creek to ye House of Defence or County House" between that time and the next court, and in default to be fined at