The City Of Chester.

Philadelphia. The steamboat did not reach the landing until eleven o'clock at night, but a line of boys, each bearing a lighted candle, was formed, extending, it is said, from the wharf to the Washington House. Most of the houses in the town were brilliantly lighted, and the windows decorated with transparencies and designs. At one o'clock in the morning the general and friends were "regaled with a sumptuous entertainment" at the court-house, which had been prepared by the ladies of Chester. Lafayette remained in the ancient borough during Wednesday, when he reviewed the volunteers of Delaware and Chester Counties, and on Thursday, at seven o'clock in the morning, he started in a coach and four for Wilmington, accompanied by a suitable escort.

The old jail, during the last ten years it was used as a place for the detention of prisoners, was "a miserable old rattle-trap, nearly all the bars of the windows rusted off and the ceilings and windows anything but secure." This is the description given of the jail building in 1841 by the editor of the Delaware County Republican. In truth it could only retain those inmates who were too indolent to make an effort to escape.

In 1824, when Joseph Weaver was sheriff, a convict named Tom Low succeeded in making his escape from confinement. He had been in the jail-yard, as was usual, at a certain time of the day, and, being forgotten, he managed to get possession of a spade, with which he burrowed under the yard-wall, coming out about fifteen feet from the court-house. He was never recaptured. In the latter part of May, 1844, Henry Johnson escaped from the jail by scaling the wall. His sentence would have expired the next day, but, learning that a commitment had been lodged against him in Philadelphia, and that he would be taken there for trial for another offense as soon as discharged, he declined to serve out the full term of his imprisonment. Indeed, the old jail had no terrors for the professional cracksman, for on the night of Jan. 20, 1844, the dwelling in the front, then occupied by Sheriff Hibberd, was entered by burglars, who decamped with the wearing apparel of the family and other articles of value. On Sept. 6, 1847, two prisoners attempted to escape by making ropes of their blankets, but a passer-by, noticing the head of one of the men just above the wall, gave the alarm, and they were prevented from making a general jail delivery. George Harris, a colored man, by the same means escaped on July 9, 1847, and was not recaptured, while another of his race (Brown), who had four times before left the jail without the consent of the county authorities, on July 4, 1848, took the privileges of the day and regained his freedom, shaking off the dust of the old prison for the fifth time. After the county buildings at Media were being constructed Arthur Goodwin, a prisoner in the jail at Chester, on Sunday, Dec. 1, 1850, dug through the walls. But as the convict returned to his own house the sheriff had little difficulty in recapturing him. This is the last prisoner who defied the bolts and bars of the old jail, for on Dec. 9, 1850, the property in the borough was offered at public sale by the county commissioners. The court-house and two lots were sold to the borough authorities for two thousand six hundred and one dollars, the prothonotary's office and lot, adjoining it on the north, to James Hampson for fifteen hundred and twenty-five dollars, and the jail and lots adjoining to James Campbell for three thousand five hundred and twenty dollars.

A large frame building which stood in the rear of the jail and work-house was bought by Campbell previous to his purchase of the old prison, and here he began alterations for the reception of looms. In the Delaware County Republican of Feb. 1, 1850, the following reference is made to the change then being made, - the dawning of Chester's prosperity:

"Improvements in Chester. - Appearances indicate that in the spring our borough will take a start in the march of improvement. Our friend, James Campbell, of Leiperville, has made arrangements for manufacturing of cotton goods in the building back of the jail. He will start with fifty power looms, driven by a ten horse-power steam engine, and will soon increase the number to one hundred. In this mill will be the first looms ever set in motion on the spot first occupied as the capital of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Campbell will be the Columbus in manufacturing in Chester."

In the issue of the same journal for April 5, 1850, appeared the following local:

"Pioneer Factory. - The new manufacturing establishment projected in the borough by Mr. James Campbell, of Ridley, was put in partial operation last week, and the puffing of the steam-engine and the music of the shuttle are daily heard in our midst, causing us increased wonder why a town possessing so many and rare advantages as our own was not years ago converted into a great manufacturing mart. Mr. Campbell is about to extend his buildings, and in a short time will have one hundred looms in active operation. The machinery used is handsomely finished and of a superior kind. We have examined a specimen of the goods made by it, and predict that they will find a ready sale in whatever market they may be offered."

As before stated, the factory mentioned in the Republican was the old bowling-alley, which stood on the north side of Fourth Street, where part of the markethouse is now located. The Republican failed to record an incident which happened when the first loom was started in the Pioneer Mills by the late James Ledward, then in Campbell's employ. A number of citizens of Chester were present when the machinery first began to move, and as they saw it in motion, all present broke into a cheer, and afterwards they one and all sang "Hail Columbia." Many who were then employed in the first manufacture of textile goods in Chester will recall this incident to memory. After Mr. Campbell purchased the jail and work-house, he tore down the northern wall of the old structure and built out in that direction, so that his mills, retaining the name "Pioneer Mills," extended over to and included the prison-yard walls. In the