Cheltenham Township police officer Edgar Lincoln Peterson was killed in the line of duty on Sunday, March 3, 1946, while responding to a domestic disturbance. He was 56 years old.

According to local historian Chuck Langerman, after suffering a heart attack, Peterson’s patrol car struck a telephone pole on Glenside Avenue, 100 feet west of Lynwood Avenue, while he was taking evasive action to avoid hitting a dog in the roadway. He suffered severe injuries and died after being transported to a local hospital.

Peterson lived at 603 Central Avenue in Cheltenham Village and was survived by his wife and three children.

A U.S Army veteran, he had been on the force for 19 years and was well known to schoolchildren in Glenside. A plaque in his honor was dedicated on April 13, 2009 in Cheltenham.

“It is fitting to honor Officer Peterson and the police officers who have given the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty,” Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman told the 100 people who gathered outside the station house on Old York Road in Elkins Park, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Hero Cops plaque detailed how he died “protecting the citizens of Cheltenham Township on March 3, 1946.”

According to Langerman, Peterson was the first and only Cheltenham Township police officer to die in the line of duty since the inception of the Cheltenham Police Department 121 years ago in 1903.

More details about Peterson can be found below:

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