The City Of Chester.

Mrs. Lizzie Coppock, L. H. P. Meetings are held in Odd-Fellows' Hall, Penn Building.

Crystal Fount Division, No. 20, Sons of Temperance.-The division meets at Dickinson Hall, No. 504 Market Street.

Nonpareil Lodge, No. 30, Sons of Progress. - This lodge was instituted on the 17th of July, 1883. It has for its president David R. Worrilow, and has a membership of twenty-five. Meetings are held in Cutler's Hall, Third and Kerlin Streets.

The Post-Office. - When the postal service was first instituted under the Federal government, an office was established at Chester. Particularly at that time the town was in a measure headquarters for naval officers, and a place where captains of ships would send ashore to get advices from the merchants in Philadelphia, if anything had been overlooked when the vessel sailed from the latter place. Early in the century the post-office was located at Fourth and Market Streets, where M. H. Bickley's drug-store is now. Mrs. Mary Deshong was postmistress. Caleb Pierce followed Mrs. Deshong, and the office was removed to Market Street, in a building (now removed) adjoining the Central Restaurant. William Doyle superseded Pierce, and the migratory office was on the east side of Market Street, in an old house torn down by James Gardener when building the present stores on its site. In a short time it was removed by Doyle to a frame house, where Beaver's tin-store now is, on Third Street, adjoining Penn Buildings. Mrs. Doyle was appointed postmistress, and removed to Fourth Street, near where the Farmers' Market now is. In 1857, George W. Weaver became postmaster, the offce being in the old building which stood on the site of Brown's Hotel. Y. S. Walter, in 1861, was appointed, and the office again changed its locality, being in a small store in the angle of Penn Buildings, on Market Square. Maj. Joseph R. T. Coates, in 1864, followed Walter, when, in 1866, the office was removed to the city building, and under the mayor's office. While located there William G. Price was postmaster, and was followed by William H. Martin, the latter holding the position for eight years. During 1880, Levi G. James erected the present post-office, on Edgmont Avenue, above Fifth Street, under an agreement with the United States that they would lease the lower floor for a term of five years. In 1881, John A. Wallace, the present incumbent, was appointed postmaster.

The First Jewelry-Store in Chester. - The frame building recently removed by Henry Borden, to erect on its site the present commodious cigar-store and manufactory, was occupied sixty years ago by Charles Alexander Ladomus, who located in a room in the Steamboat Hotel, then vacant, where he repaired clocks and watches. So marked was his success that he removed to the frame house on the west side of Market, above Third, where be added jewelry to his business of repairing time-pieces. Ladomus had an eventful history. He was a Frenchman by birth, and at the outbreak of the Revolution of 1793, his mother (being of an aristocratic family) was compelled to flee in the night-time to Germany with her children. Charles was at that time a lad of ten years. All the family remained in the land of refuge, and after the battle of Jena, Oct. 14, 1805, Charles A. Ladomus was in Berlin when the defeated Prussian army fled through that city. When the French occupied it, he acted as an interpreter for Napoleon. He subsequently made a tour of Europe on foot, which, as he practiced his occupation as a watchmaker in the mean time, consumed twelve years. In 1824 he came to the United States, married Catharine Schey, a widow, and settled in Chester, where he followed the business of a jeweler and watchmaker until within a few years of his death, which took place Dec. 30, 1859.

Old Settlers. - On August 8, 1834, William Long died in Chester, at the advanced age of ninety-one years and six months. It was worthy of note, for the newspapers of that day assert that at the date of his death his descendants numbered nine children, thirty-five grandchildren, fifty-five great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild. Dr. Smith states that on Sept. 14, 1678, Rebecca Pedrick was born at Marcus Hook, "the earliest well-authenticated birth within the limits of Pennsylvania, where both parents were natives of England," that had come under his notice.¹ The Pennsylvania Gazette, issue for "June 28th to July 5, 1729," contains the following item:

"On the 30th of May past the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of Richard Buffington, Senior, to the number of one hundred and fifteen, met together at his house in Chester County, as also his nine sons- and daughters-in-law, and twelve great-grandchildren-in-law. The old man is from Great Marle, upon the Thames, in Buckinghamshire, in Old England, aged about eighty-five, and is still hearty, active, and of perfect memory. His eldest son, now in the sixtieth year of his age, was the first born of English descent in the Province."

The fact that Rebecca Pedrick's birth antedates that of Buffngton is established by Mr. Smith's researches, and hence "the first child of English parentage born in Pennsylvania" was not a male, but a female, and the place of birth removed from Chester to Marcus Hook.

General Items. - Chester in the first half of this century had ceased to show almost all evidence of enterprise. In the summer and fall of the year sportsmen came hither to shoot rail- and reed-birds in the marshes of islands and flats, and it was the resort on Sundays of persons who drove from Philadelphia for recreation. Among such visitors were many turbulent spirits, and the village authorities were powerless to preserve order. So widely known was this immunity from arrest of Sabbath-breakers from other places that the Philadelphia Herald, in 1834, stated that a young lad who had spent a summer in the borough, on his return to his home, exclaimed, "Oh, ma, how