1919 W-B Record Almanac, Luzerne County in 1918 Typed by Irene Transue The war was the all-absorbing subject of interest in Luzerne County in the year 1918, of course. The various activities set on foot, the demonstrations, the news from the front, claimed attention day after day. During the year the local regiment, the 109th Artillery, has trying experiences in battle and a number of casualties were reported. The details of the war of local concern are noted in a special article in another part of this almanac and in the Summary for the year. Most of the activities that usually loom up large were held in abeyance. Hundreds of men and women were more or less actively engaged in war work, and from time to time large numbers of boys left for the training camps. ----- During the year a new National Guard or State Guard regiment was formed, with Sterling E. W. Eyer of Kingston as Colonel, and drills were kept up. Wilkes-Barre was made the headquarters for the regiment, although only a few of the companies were located in Wilkes-Barre and vicinity. The purpose of the organization was in some measure to take the place of the old National Guard, which had become merged with the United States forces. ----- In January the County Controller reported that the resources of the county were $4,603,884 and the liabilities $2,805,326. The total receipts for the year 1917 were given as $1,960,573 and the disbursements as $1,387,945, The valuation of the county in taxable property was fixed at $322,719,500. a reduction of $3,426,626 from the previous year, due to allowance made for coal mined. Unless coal values are raised, the annual reduction for coal taken from the ground will seriously affect the county's revenues. There were no new developments in the assessment problem during the year,--a subject that for many years had claimed a good deal of attention. The fact that so many men left for the army and navy service and many others to take employment in war occupations caused a notable decline of the number of taxables, amounting to 500 in the 1918 report for the year 1917. Ordinarily there would have been an increase owing to increase in population. ----- The weather for the year was extraordinary. The Winter of 1918 was the coldest in many years and a number of records were broken. Ice harvesting began unusually early, in December of 1917. The river was frozen from shore to shore on the 11th of December, 1917, and the thermometer in Wilkes-Barre registered six degrees above zero. On December 30 the thermometer registered eleven and one-half degrees below zero in Wilkes-Barre and much lower in the mountain districts of the county, going as low as twenty-two degrees in some places. The weather bureau reported that it was the coldest December in thirty years. Zero weather continued early in January. On the 5th of February the thermometer in Wilkes-Barre registered nine degrees below and the ice was from two and a half to three feet thick, On the 21st of February a spell of thawing set in and the river rose to sixteen and a half feet. On the 2d of March the water measured eighteen and seven-tenths feet and on the 15th of March the highest for the year was attained, twenty-three feet, with the lowlands flooded. The early summer was quite cool. June 23 was the coldest June day in many years, with heavy frost, flurries of snow in high places and forty-nine degrees in Wilkes-Barre. In August there was a prolonged hot spell, the thermometer between ninety and one hundred and over for some days. The highest was one hundred and three degrees on August 7. ----- The epidemic of influenza and pneumonia that swept over the county in September and October created a condition of mind bordering on panic. It was at first called Spanish influenza, after the disease that originated in Spain and spread to other foreign countries, but physicians pronounced it an aggravated and dangerous form of the grip. and pneumonia followed in an unusually large numbers of cases. The fact that the epidemic prevailed in the army camps and that the people were in a nervous tension over the war added to the local alarm. In time the epidemic spread to about every State in the Union and there was great anxiety lest it interfere very seriously with war industry and with the movement of troops to France. The State Department of Health, in cooperation with local authorities ordered that all schools and churches, moving picture houses and theatres be closed, that public assemblages be discontinued, that funerals be private, that all saloons and wholesale liquor houses be closed, and this quarantine was rigidly observed. The State authorities also issued proclamations and appeals for hearty public cooperation in checking the ravages of the disease. Owing to the absence of many nurses and physicians in the service the demand greatly exceeded the supply. The Red Cross of Wilkes-Barre issued an appeal for nurses and for women with some nursing experience to register for duty and many responded. A number of nurses died in army camps owing to infection. The Armory in Wilkes-Barre was turned into an emergency hospital, with cots and supplies from the State arsenal, and physicians and nurses were appointed. Temporary hospitals were also established in Hazleton, Nanticoke and a few other places. Conditions in Glen Lyon, Exeter Borough, Hazleton and some other communities were especially severe, a considerable part of the population being stricken and the deaths going to an extraordinary rate. In many instances whole families were down with the disease and were desperately sick, and many deaths occurred because of lack of proper care of patients. In Wilkes-Barre as high as 110 cases were reported in a day. In places in the county the undertakers were so busy that bodies remained in the homes for a number of days before they could be buried. People with ordinary colds were greatly alarmed and remained at home from work. Physicians were so over-worked that in many instances they could do no more than telephone instructions to the homes of their patients. This state of affairs, added to the daily news of deaths of local boys in camp and daily news from local boys killed, wounded and missing in France, plunged the county in deep anxiety and gloom. The epidemic was most severe in September and October but it continued in severe form in November, and there were many cases in December. In Wilkes-Barre a second quarantine was imposed by the municipal authorities in November owing to the reappearance of the epidemic in alarming form closing all amusement houses, prohibiting public assemblages, and it was not lifted till Dec. 2. The public schools of the city were closed for nearly two months.