Most children growing up are admonished not to take candy from strangers.

It's good advice, but it isn't advice that comes from nowhere.

It actually came from a particular incident over 150 years ago

that shocked the world and changed how we view children's safety.

It was an event the echoes of which can be seen today in efforts to find abducted children.

Learn more about the kidnapping of Charlie Ross on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The kidnapping of a child is an event that occurs infrequently, but when it does happen, it gains a great deal of attention.

Every so often in the news you'll hear terrible reports of children who go missing, and in some cases, they're unsolved investigations that can last for years.

The case of Charles Limburg Jr., of which I've done a previous episode,

was probably the highest profile case in American history.

However, when that case hit the headlines, it always referenced another case which came before it.

The first major case of a child kidnapping, the case which brought the issue to the public's attention,

occurred over 150 years ago in the city of Philadelphia.

It occurred in 1874 in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Germantown was one of the nicer areas of the city and the people who live there were amongst some of the upper crust of Philadelphia society.

The Ross family was one such family in Germantown.

Christian Ross and his wife lived in Germantown

with their seven children.

Struthen, Harry, Sophia, Walter, Charlie, Marion, and Annie.

The two youngest boys, Walter and Charlie,

were six and four years old respectively and were constant playmates.

On June 27, 1874, the two boys were playing outside their home when two men in a carriage pulled up.

They began talking to the two boys,

...