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The 1918 Influenza Epidemic in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, also known as Spanish Flu, claimed the lives of 675,000 Americans and as many as 40 million people worldwide. The roll among U.S. servicemen during WW1 was especially severe. "Of the U.S. soldiers who died in Europe, half of them fell to the influenza virus and not to the enemy. An estimated 43,000 servicemen died of influenza." No part of America escaped this pandemic.

The Allen and East Pennsboro Society for the Recovery of Stolen Horses

Recently there has been increased interest in proposals to merge the several local police departments on the West Shore in order to improve efficiency and reduce crime. More than a century and half ago, when police forces were limited or non-existent, but a particular criminal act was not uncommon, citizens often banded together for their own defense.

Ambush at Willis Church

In January of 1861, State Representative Thomas N. Crumpler announced in the North Carolina House of Commons that Ashe County was not likely to support secession. Crumpler's estimation of his voters' opinion proved correct. In February, his constituents gathered in Jefferson to participate in what was described as a "lively debate" on the merits of leaving the Union and voted down a North Carolina secession convention by a count of758 to 144.

Americans Shall Rule America! The Know-Nothing Party in Cumberland County

In 1854 Americans took a detour from the road to civil war. It was the year of the Kansas-Nebraska act, which allowed slavery to spread into the formerly free Kansas territory. This act, the warfare between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas that followed, and the rise of the free soil Republican party, so inflamed hostile feelings between North and South that the firing on Fort Sumter took place less than seven years later.

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