Influenza swept through the Hensel family of Sheridan, Pennsylvania in October 1918, leaving three dead and lives changed forever.
What was it like to fall ill during the deadliest epidemic in human history?
"Sorrow and woe stalk almost unceasingly in our midst," wrote the Pottsville Republican in October 1918.
"Three hundred miles of funeral processions, and the tears and groans that accompany these sad partings."
During the height of the 1918 influenza epidemic, the women of Central Pennsylvania jumped into action.
In the communities of western Schuylkill County, influenza caused terror and grief as it claimed dozens of lives in 1918.
Undertakers in Harrisburg found their morgues full of flu victims in October 1918 with no way to give them proper burials.
"Good music always has an appeal to most people," wrote a reporter accompanying a Liberty Loan Drive parade through Central Pennsylvania in the early fall of 1918. And in the coal towns of Dauphin County's Williams Valley, the bands and singers were particularly successful in attracting a crowd. On the evening of October 2, 1918, … Continue reading Parade to raise money for World War I brought deadly influenza to Williams Valley in 1918
