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A postcard of Darby Boro from about 1910. This is Main St. at Chester Pike. The view still looks pretty much the same.
Note: The first police woman in Delco is a mystery, please read the article below. Darby Boro had only 5 policemen for a population of ten thousand people certainly not enough by any standard. One of the boro's problems were "mashers" men who stood on corners and touched and harassed women as they walked by. Darby officials thought they had the answer in "Molly Maguire". Please read the story
CHESTER TIMES – October 3, 1922
DARBY IN DOUBT ON A POLICEWOMAN
“Molly Maguire” Said to Be Named to Clean Up Corner Loungers
Vesuvius
doesn’t appear to have much of an edge upon the Darby policing situation, that
is, so far as eruptions are concerned.
The police committee of the Borough Council, during the past month
particularly, has shown a penchant for getting at things which they consider
should not exist if the force ever is to become thoroughly efficient.
The
energetic action of the police committee upon two recent occasions created no
end of comment both among the patrolmen on the force and the residents of
Darby.
There
are those who, while frankly admitting the Darby police department probably
deserves some sort of “raking over the coals,” insist the present force of five
patrolmen is woefully inadequate to cover a borough with 10,000 population.
They
are divided into two shifts of two patrolmen on duty days and three on
nights. It also is agreed that, though
there is no excuse for the possession of an inefficient policing unit, yet the
present personnel deserve more credit than they are receiving for the work
accomplished.
But
the police committee appears more impressed with the purpose of securing a 100
percent efficiency standard in the present personnel before adding to its
numerical strength. However, Saturday
there was persistent gossip that the police committee has decided to add a
woman to the force. While there is no official
confirmation of this rumor, its source is rather dependable.
Coming
upon the heels of the demotion of the chief of police, the “shaking down” of a
patrolman and this latest alleged intention has the Darby police force guessing
and apparently worried. It is said this
policewoman is not to be a matron at the borough jail but is to take her
regular turn of patrol duty. She is not
to be uniformed at present, but detailed on plain clothes duty.
There
seems to exist a desire on the part of the police committee to break up the
prevalence of men lounging about certain rendezvous in the business section of
Darby. Women have filed innumerable
complaints about being approached by “mashers” holding fixed vantage places at
intersecting street corners. It is said
the most bothersome rendezvous for corner loafers are at Main and Fifth Street
and at the intersection of the pike, Main and Ninth Streets.
This
nuisance is said to be more flagrant during the early evening hours. At any rate, the Darby Police Committee
intends to mop these corners clear of loafers, and have decided the most effective
way to do so is to detail a woman for this clean-up act.
The
identity of this police woman is not known, nor will it be made public. It is said her name is “Mollie Maguire” and
that she weighs 240 pounds. She is an
athlete, having for several years acted as a physical director in a nationally
known institution. Of course, “Mollie
Maguire” is not her correct name, but this non de plume is considered desirable
for the time being.
The
Darby public is breathlessly awaiting the first arrest of a corner masher by
its police woman, and until she actually “pulls” some audacious youth for being
too fresh to feminine passersby, her identity remains a deep mystery.
Saturday
all sorts of rumors were prevalent about Darby, regarding this police
woman. It was even insisted “Mollie
Maguire” was really on active duty, and that she had cleaned up a gang at the
corner of Main and Fifth Streets. But
there proved no foundation of the fact to any of these tales.
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