True crime stories have become popular on non-fiction best-seller lists, TV programs, and podcasts. Although Dover has never been known as a center of criminal activity, there have been a number of incidents over our 400-year history that make for some interesting reading. With that in mind, we hereby begin a series of stories–big and small–that I hope will entertain and enlighten, starting with a story of relatively minor wrongdoing:

It was Monday, Dec. 18, 1905. A Dover police officer, Walter Sterling, was walking the beat in the vicinity of Third Street when he heard some shouting from the direction of Silverman’s Pawn Shop. Upon arrival he found Mr. Silverman holding on tightly to a young man who was holding on tightly to a bear skin. According to the newspaper report, the latter identified himself as Peter Gurgeon of Somersworth, but a search of his person located identification belonging to Peter Turgeon of Salem, Mass. It seems that a few minutes prior to his apprehension, Gurgeon/Turgeon had passed the nearby premises of the American Fur Company, where the bearskin had been displayed as an advertising gimmick. He had decided to remove it to the nearby pawnshop. The problem was that Mr. Silverman, the owner of the pawnshop, was the brother of Mr. Silverman, who was the owner of American Fur, and he immediately recognized from whence it came. So Gurgeon/Turgeon was taken into custody, and held overnight in the city jail.

The following day, he appeared in the Dover District Court, where Judge George Frost presided, with City Marshall Edward C. McKone as Prosecutor. The defendant admitted to the crime but, in mitigation, claimed to be a first-time offender. Upon a finding of guilty, a fine of $2 plus costs was assessed, being a total of $9.80, stand committed until paid in full.

This would seem to be a more than reasonable sum and easily paid, but consider the following: in 1905, the average wage was 22 cents an hour, and the annual income was between $400 and $550. So the sentence amounted to something more than a week’s salary, assuming the defendant was employed. If the money was not immediately forthcoming, he would serve time in the County jail, “working it off” at so much a day.

The newspaper does not record the final outcome, but if there was to be time served, the jail in 1905 was the unique rotary design attached to the County jailor’s home. The jail portion is long gone, but the residence still exists–the brick structure on the high ground at what was then the far end of Washington Street, adjacent to Dover’s ongoing Waterfront development. The jail portion was demolished when a newer jail was constructed next to the so-called Almshouse on County Farm Road.

There is an interesting side-light to all of the above. Information relating to the arrest and the Court proceeding can be found in two consecutive editions of Foster’s. However, a search of the City Directory for 1905 shows no listing for a pawn shop on Third Street, no location for American Fur Company, or any residence or business owned or occupied by anyone named Silverman. It may well be a coincidence, but there was a Peter Turgeon living at 93 Main St. in Somersworth.

And as a preview of coming attractions: within a few short years, Walter Sterling, the arresting officer, will become the victim of a deadly confrontation with his son-in-law.