Local History Forgotten? How does this happen?

The east side of Lincoln Ave. looking north toward Chester Pike at 5th Ave. about 1920.
 

Note: I have been doing local history for 50 plus years now and it still amazes me what has been lost and forgotten. Sometimes minor things and other times big things. With local history a lot of the forgotten is just bad memory and then it amazes me what some people remember. The following story was a big shock to me.

Bob Robinson was every historians dream. He had lived in the same town, Prospect Park, his entire life and he remembered everything!! He never made up stories or exaggerated and he was always correct well for one time anyway. I was interviewing Bob for the little booklet I did on Prospect Park in the early 1980's. He asked me if he had ever told me about the Prospect Park Police Officer who was killed about 1920. Bob said his last name began with a "C" and he was killed directing traffic. I told Bob he had his years mixed up. He was thinking about Officer Horace Callahan who was killed in 1940 by a drunk driver while directing traffic in Ridley Park around a 3 car accident. Bob said no this was another officer. I was surprised to have another officer with the last name of "C' and to die the same way seemed impossible. But Bob had always been right so I checked. The police department and Prospect Park Boro both confirmed that Officer Callahan was the only one to die in the line of duty. Bob said this other officer had died when he was about 30 years old about 1920 and I asked about 10 Prospect Park residents who would have been in their late teens or early 20's when this officer died. They all confirmed no police officer had died. So Bob was wrong after all.

Or was he? In the early 1990's I began working on a booklet for Prospect Park's centennial. Bob Robinson was died by this time but I had all my notes from our talks. I still remembered the Officer "C" story and his death. One day I was talking to a friend of mines grandfather who had been born and raised in Prospect Park. He shocked me when he mentioned a Prospect Park Police Officer who had been killed at Chester Pike and Lincoln Ave. while directing traffic. And yes his last name began with a "C". He had been a young boy at the time but remembered it well.

Well I thought it was time to find out once and for all what the real story was if any. I went to the boro and began reading the boro minutes after 1918 when Bob Robinson said it had happened. In January of 1919, Luke Connor was appointed a special police officer by the mayor and in June he was made a permanent police officer. I said to myself maybe this could be the other officer. Yeah right. Then in the October 1919 boro council minutes the boro said they were looking for a new officer to take the place of Officer Luke Connor who had been killed directing traffic at Lincoln Ave. and Chester Pike. I went to the Chester Times and got out the microfilm for October of 1919. Officer Luke Connor's death was front page news for a number of days. I was shocked that of all the residents I had talked to about this officers death that no one remembered Officer Like Connor dying the the line of duty except Bob Robinson and one other. It has always amazed me since then what people remember and what people forget. Always take the time to listen to senior citizens or family members because you might be very surprised like I was.