JUNE 22, 2021 – On this rainy afternoon in late June, the doors to Chesapeake City Elementary swung open for friends, alumni, and former faculty to stroll through the hallways one final time. Children returning this fall will report to the modern, new facility south of town.
Chesapeake City Elementary School in the autumn of 2020 (Oct. 28, 2020))
The walls of this eighty-two-year-old schoolhouse went up on the south side of the canal in 1939 as people struggled to survive the Great Depression. One of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs financed the $135,000 job, which was awarded to Lang Brother Construction of Baltimore. They also built the Cecilton School.
That autumn in 1939, a couple of years before World War II disrupted the nation, youngsters reported to the combined school, which contained both the primary and upper grades. Edwin B. Fockler served as the principal of the high school.
The old center of learning, which had served the town since 1886, was dismantled by a Wilmington Contractor in July 1940. The wrecking company agreed to do it at no cost if they could salvage construction materials from the debris.
In 1958, Bohemia Manor High School opened and after the upper grades moved south of town this became Chesapeake City Elementary School.For eighty-two years the hallways, gym, and classrooms buzzed with activity, creating so many memories.
For additional photos see the Chesapeake City Elementary School album on Facebook.
For younger people today, it is something an earlier generation talks about. But those who lived through Tropical Storm Agnes in June 1972, will never forget the damaging force that disrupted lives along the lower Susquehanna River. Over a five-day period (June 20 to 24, 1972) the National Weather Service issued bulletins about the storm that moved along the coast, bringing torrents of rain. On June 21, 1972, the bureau downgraded Hurricane Agnes to a tropical storm, but it was bearing down on the Chesapeake.
After Tropical Storm Agnes passed through Main Street in Port Deposit was flooded. (Cecil Whig, June 28, 1972
As it wobbled across the bay, it brought a thorough soaking to Maryland. But after it passed through the state it hooked back and stalled, dropping even larger amounts of rain over the Susquehanna River watershed in New York and Pennsylvania. According to the National Weather Service, the “storm split into two centers over Pennsylvania, one hovering over the northeastern corner of the state and the other over the north-central portion.”
Just when some thought Cecil County had escaped the worst of the Agnes. the waterway and its tributaries upstream started rising dangerously, all that water headed south to Cecil and Harford counties at the mouth of the river.
Maryland thought it haD Escaped Agnes
Late on June 23, a mandatory evacuation of Port Deposit was ordered as the water continued to rise. Many evacuees were brought out by boat during an eight-hour period “as the brown water came thundering through the floodgates of the Conowingo dam with unprecedented force,” the Evening Sun Reported.
Main Street was like a canal, under 4 feet of water, the Evening Sun noted on June 24, 1972. Port Deposit was empty, having been evacuated early yesterday morning, the News-Journal added while parts of Perryville were also being evacuated.
In the center of Port, only one small part of a block of Main Street was dry. Since Port Deposit’s Water Witch Fire Company had been forced from its station house earlier by feet of water, the firefighters used this dry spot as its operational headquarters,” the Wilmington paper added. Across the river parts of Havre de Grace were being evacuated with State Police and National Guardsmen pitching in.
Port Mayor Ryan, observing the scene, said, “We’ll get by, we’ll get through.” Roland, Johnson, a Port Deposit man, since 1890, pointed to the post office at 15 S. Main Street, “See the mark on the brick wall? That’s where the water came up in the 1910 flood. That was the worst, but this one is worse than 1936.”
Clean-Up in Port Deposit
On Saturday as exhausted first responders watched, the bulk of their emergency response work having been completed as the water rushed into town, the river slowly started returning to its banks. Soon, it was time to begin the cleanup.“Never in eastern North America had a storm rained so hard across so many thousands of square miles – enough, it was calculated, to add two feet of water across the 2,500 square miles of the Chesapeake if the bay had been a reservoir, dammed at the mouth,” the Washington Post Reported.
The cab of a pickup truck is barley visible in flooded Main Street of Port Deposit. The photo was taken Friday after the Susquehanna River had overflowed. (Source: Cecil Whig, June 28, 1972)
As the nation prepares to celebrate Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, heard about their freedom, we are looking at emancipation locally.
Bishop Levin J. Coppin wrote about slavery in Cecil County. (Source: Google Books)
In 1860, Cecil County had nearly 24,000 residents. Sixteen percent were African Americans, and about 1,000 (4%) were enslaved. While spread across the county, this system of bondage was most deeply concentrated in Southern Cecil County–about 15% of the population in the land between the Bohemia and Sassafras rivers were enslaved.1
On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. However, for thousands of enslaved people locked in bondage in Maryland, it simply held out hope as the decree only offered freedom to those living in rebel states. Still, although the state was excluded, it offered prospects for the future while also causing fear and confusion as people puzzled over their status.
Father Jones, a highly respected African-American Minister in Cecil County, was “promptly on hand with Lincoln’s proclamation” in Cecilton. “But there was no one present with authority to say to the slave, you are free, so all remained in suspense,” Bishop Levi J. Coppin recalled as he wrote about those days in Cecil County.2">Life in Cecil County Around the Time of the Civil War,” Window on Cecil County’s Past, December 30, 2012 ))
Emancipation in Maryland
Under Maryland law, these people remained in chattel slavery, the property of an enslaver. So those laboring under this inhumane system had to wait until the state narrowly adopted a new Constitution in 1864, which freed enslaved men, women, and children.
Four African-American children and a woman are seen in this picture standing near the old cabins. The photo is undated, and there aren’t many specifics associated with it except that it was taken in Cecil County, according to the Maryland State Archives. Some sources said it was a cabin for enslaved people and others said it was a residence. (Source: Maryland State Archives)
That happened on November 1, and as the new instrument of government went into effect, African Americans across the state rejoiced as they now lived in a Free State, “finally and forever redeemed from the curse of slavery,” the Washington Evening Star Reported. The Christian Recorder, another newspaper, reported that there were “Colored People’s Jubilees” around Maryland. Of course, by this time, many Blacks in Cecil had taken matters into their own hands, either escaping to freedom or enlisting in the Union army.3
While lawmakers grappled with this inhumane system, Black soldiers first appeared in Cecilton. Bishop Levi J. Coppin remarked in the ” Unwritten History ” that this left no doubt about whether or not freedom would come, Bishop Levi J. Coppin noted in the “Unwritten History.” Lieutenant Brown and a company of Black soldiers arrived in the village to open a recruiting station one day in 1864. Many of these troops were from Cecilton, so they had returned to their hometown to help enlist more soldiers for the Union Army.
Of course, there was great excitement in the crossroads village and necks between the Sassafras and the Bohemia rivers as Black men under shouldered arms marched through Cecilton “without fear.” Some African Americans still held by enslavers came to the recruiting office to enlist and placed themselves under the protection of the flag. They were called the “United States Colored Troops,” Bishop Coppin remarked.
In Elkton, Lieutenant Frick arrived with a squad of five “colored soldiers.” The unit recruited “twenty-eight colored soldiers in the county seat in two weeks. 4,5
Cecilton
With the new constitution going into effect on November 1, this was Emancipation Day here. In Cecilton, when Uncle Jim Jones drove his mistress to Cecilton, a white person told him that he was free now, and it was his discretion whether or not he drove the carriage back. When Uncle Jim reached home, he told everyone what he had heard. A few evenings after that, his old master drove the carriage to town and was late returning; Uncle Jim decided to make a test of the case. He would remain to unharness the horse but said in a way that his master was sure to hear — there has to be a new understanding,” Bishop Coppin recalled.
African Americans welcomed the news in Cecil County with great enthusiasm, the joy unbounded among the people, wrote Bishop Coppin. “Besides the loud acclamations of joy expressed in shouting and singing and general hurrahs, the newly emancipated people gave vent to their feelings by going freely from place to place – a delightful privilege – and feasting and making merry . . . It was fair to suppose that everybody took some part in the general merry-making but the religious ones sought the Church as being the proper place to go and rejoice by giving thanks to Him, toward whose throne above their prayers had been so long directed. . . ,” the Unwritten History noted.
A Long Struggle for Equality Remained
Although freedom had arrived in Maryland, the reality of this period was another thing. There was the short-lived promise of Reconstruction, which was followed by a centuries-long struggle to achieve equality. Most immediately, some enslavers asked the Cecil County Orphans Court to bind newly freed Black Children to them as apprentices.
Nevertheless, November 1, 1864, was the date of emancipation for the enslaved in Cecil County, and it is an important, although forgotten, milestone in local history.
Crystal Beach made headlines every week in 1939 as the Manor Messenger, a newsletter, kept residents and guests informed about goings-on at the Cecil County vacation spot. At least for most of that summer, readers looked forward to the latest news, the four-page newsletter connecting them with all the happenings.
Crystal Beach Manor near Earleville sometime in the 1930s. (Postcard from personal collection)
The inaugural edition, June 30, 1939, used a large font for the lead story, the headline announcing that Crystal Beach anticipated the biggest season in years. The mud from the dredging was gone, and a newly paved road connected vacationers to major highways on Delmarva. Everyone recalled “the difficult dirt road that once led from Earleville to the Beach. It was rutted and bumpy and after a rain, it was nigh impossible to travel.”
Memorial Day weekend drew the best crowd in years. And the Manor Messenger knew how to cover its beat as things picked up, the slim little volume managing to pack a lot of names and community events in four pages. The previous Saturday, rubber lab workers from DuPont’s Deepwater Plant in Salem County, NJ visited the Inn. The contractor erecting the new Cecilton High School, Robert Lange, brought a party of sixteen guests from Audubon, NJ to the Inn for the weekend. There was lots of additional social news.
The Beach stood at the threshold of another major improvement, the editor remarked as he penned the first editorial, “Let there be light.” Prospects of getting electricity next year would mean running water, radios, electric stoves, good lighting and a thousand of the conveniences that have been sacrificed by everyone for the fresh air, the sunshine, and water.” Hopefully next summer, “we won’t have to say to our visitors: ‘We just camp out down here!’ No, with the advent of electricity . . . we will be able to say, ‘This is our summer home!’ And be proud of our summer home.”
After providing the weekly news, the newsletter turned its attention to history. “In 1925, the old Reybold farm was subdivided and the Crystal Beach Manor Corporation formed by Dr. Lewis and Mr. Heldmyer going into the beach business.” In 1935, William. E. Schultz took over the Heldmyer interest.
Crystal Beach struggled over the handicap of a bad road, then, in 1936, the Government dredging in the Elk River almost ruined the bathing grounds by causing several inches of mud to settle on the bottom. The natural movement of the water plus a good deal of scraping, however, saved the beach. From a few cottages in 1926, the Manor has grown into a village of ninety houses and fifty camping shacks in the Grove.”
In this era Cecil County was rapidly becoming a summertime vacation spot, as Crystal Beach joined other waterfront destinations around the county.
The Manor Messenger, the newsletter fo Crystal Beach.
Notes:
1. Two photocopies of the Manor Messenger from 1939 were given to us by a friend. Old sheets such as this provide unique insights into happenings. Hopefully, more of these survived as they provide a level of detail not available in other sources; 3) Electricity arrived at Crystal Beach in 1947; 3) We have shared some of the photos previously, but are reincorporating those into this updated album about Crystal Beach and its newsletter. and 3) We will scan all the newsletters so they reach anyone interested. Those items will be found on the blog, a Window on Cecil County’s Past. www.cecilcountyhistory.com. For more Crystal Beach and White Crystal Beach photos see this album. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=cecilcountyhistory&set=a.2204829406448641
The last direct link to the Civil War was lost when 93-year-old Henry Jackson died at his home outside Perryville on a cold November day in 1939. As a teenager, he ran away from home to serve in the War, enlisting in the Union Army for three years with Snow’s Battery. After emerging unscathed from the battles at Gettysburg and Antietam, he returned home.
Henry Jackson and Joseph Yocum were Cecil County’s last two surviving Civil War Soldiers.
During a long life, the soldier who was growing old watched the ranks of his comrades, men who knew the madness of that time thin. By the early 1930s, just a few old Civil War soldiers around Cecil recalled frightened, brave boys in blue hastily forming ranks to march into harm’s way. The first-hand memories of those years, a time that called for the best from comrades, were rapidly fading, as were the sad thoughts about comrades that fell on bloody, distant battlefields.
For Memorial Day 1938, the County’s two remaining veterans were unable to take up activities. The Morning News wrote: “For the first time in years, Cecil County’s two oldest Civil War veterans, Henry W. Jackson, 92, of Aiken, and Joseph Yocum, 91 of Leeds, were unable to take part in the Memorial Day exercises” in the County.
The last survivor of Snow’s Battery B 1st Maryland Artillery attended the final reunion of Battery B in 1927, according to Find a Grave. On the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1938, Private Jackson participated in the veterans’ reunion, the Midland Journal added.
Joseph T. Yocum, the next to the last of Cecil County’s Civil War Soldiers, died Nov 9, 1938, at his home near Childs. He was 91 but had been blind and deaf for many years. While serving with the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry, he spent most of his active duty during the War in the Shenandoah Valley and was in the Battle of Cedar Creek with Sheridan during his raid in 1864. After the War, he worked at Marley Mills. Private Yocum was buried at the Cherry Hill Cemetery. (Midland Journal, Nov. 18, 1938, and Find a Grave)
Jackson had been born in Craigtown, and he married Elizabeth Ann Pennington of Leslie. They had ten children (eight boys and two girls), five still living in 1938. They were Winfield Scott Jackson of Texas, PA; Earl of Fishing Creek, PA; William of Rising Sun; and Mrs. Samuel Thompson of Perryville (Midland Journal, July 8, 1938).
Seventy-five years after the bloody War staggered to a close, the final Civil War Soldier, Pvt. Jackson, was laid to rest at Asbury Cemetery near Port Deposit in November 1939. He was the last local survivor of that unforgettable time. Private Jackson passed away on November 23. His wife had died in 1918.
Note:
For additional photos see this album about the last two Civil War Soldiers in Facebook
This information about Civil War Soldiers, Henry Jackson and Joseph Yocum, comes from the Mahoney Civil War Inventory of county soldiers at the Historical Society. In the 1960s, the Mahoney file established a register of men from Cecil County who fought in the war.
Governor Larry Hogan today issued a full posthumous pardon for 34 victims of racial lynching in Maryland between 1854 and 1933, on the basis that these extrajudicial killings violated fundamental rights to due process and equal protection of law. It is the first time in history that a governor has issued a blanket pardon for the victims of racial lynchings.
“The State of Maryland has long been on the forefront of civil rights, dating back to Justice Thurgood Marshall’s legal battle to integrate schools and throughout our national reckoning on race,” said Governor Hogan. “Today, we are once again leading the way as we continue the work to build a more perfect union. My hope is that this action will at least in some way help to right these horrific wrongs and perhaps bring a measure of peace to the memories of these individuals, and to their descendants and loved ones.”
The governor made his announcement today at an event in Towson in honor of Howard Cooper, a 15-year old boy who was dragged from the Baltimore County Jail and hanged from a sycamore tree. In addition, Governor Hogan sent a letter to President Biden today encouraging him to establish a U.S. Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Commission. In 2019, the governor enacted into law a measure to establish the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconcilation Commission, the first of its kind in the United States. “A national commission would further this important work by examining racial healing through a larger lens,” the governor wrote. Read the letter to President Biden.
Earlier this year, the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project and Michelle St. Pierre’s students at Loch Raven Technical Academy in Towson petitioned the governor to issue a posthumous pardon for Howard Cooper. After receiving the request, the governor directed his chief legal counsel to review all of the available documentation and newspaper accounts of racial lynching in Maryland. Read the pardon request.
By his authority under Article II, Section 20, of the Constitution of Maryland, and having thought proper the extension of clemency, Governor Hogan has absolved these persons from the guilt of their criminal offenses, and any pains and penalties imposed upon them
Editor’s Note — Cecil County Lynching Victim Pardons
“Frederick,” a 13-year-old hung from a tree in or near Cecilton on or about September 1861, a PARDON as to the allegations of attempted rape for which he was arrested;
John Jones, who was traveling by carriage, waylaid by a group of men in the woods, and hung in or near Elkton on or about July 29, 1872, a PARDON as to the allegations of arson for which he was arraigned and remanded to jail;
In addition to the Cecil County Lynching Victims, the Governor pardoned 30 more men. For the complete list of pardons see the Governor’s Press Release
ELKTON, May 7, 2021 – On this Friday in early May, family, friends, police officers, firefighters, and public officials gathered at Hicks Home for Funerals to say a final goodbye to Deputy Chief Larry Coleman Storke. Born on December 14, 1941, the 79-year-old public servant passed away on Thursday, April 29, 2021.
A 1971 photo of Singerly Fire Company Officers. Larry Storke is the in the front row and on the far right side. (Singerly Fire Company Museum
Coming of age in the shadows of the Greatest Generation, the veterans from World War II, Larry had a strong sense of heritage, duty, sacrifice in the service of others, so he joined the Singerly Fire Company as soon as he was old enough. Starting on the force as a probationary member on May 5, 1958, the teenager steadily rose through the fire service ranks. Ten months later, the rookie firefighter was promoted to Assistant Pipeman, working under Chief Pipeman Jack Jamison. Moreover, as he marked his first anniversary on the force, he advanced to the rank of full membership in Singerly.
Throughout his adult life, some sixty-three years, Larry continued with the service, committing much of his life’s work to protect the people of Elkton and Cecil County.
In the late 1960s, he started volunteering in law enforcement, becoming an Elkton Police Department Auxiliary Officer. Within a few years, he commanded the volunteer officer’s corps, serving as Lieutenant. In time Chief McIntire placed Larry on the payroll as a part-time patrolman, filling in when one of the regular officers was off duty, or a situation called for extra staffing.
After he stepped away from police work, he started volunteering in what was then called Civil Defense. As that Cold War Agency focused on protecting Cecil County from a nuclear attack evolved into today’s Dept. of Emergency Services, Larry grew professionally along with the division. This was at a time when first responders started answering alarms for a growing number of dangerous chemical incidents, and Larry was well-prepared to bring his talents and experience to that challenge. Before joining Emergency Services, he worked as the Senior Safety Coordinator at Thiokol, so he leveraged that hands-on knowledge in rocket propulsion to move the county forward by modernizing the agency’s approach to hazmat calls. This new complex field required specialized training, equipment, and response units. As a member of the full-time career staff, Deputy Director of Emergency Services Storke established and supervised the county’s first hazmat team.
In the volunteer fire service, he held many fire line command and administrative leadership positions. He was the President of the Cecil County Firemen’s Association for many years, and he chaired the committee to create the Volunteer Length of Service Award Program (VLSOAP). This vital program supports volunteers today.
Larry commanded operations as a Deputy Chief on the fire ground while also serving on the Board of Directors. Moreover, as the decades slipped quickly by, the now veteran firefighter never stopped training. In 1959, he was in the first Maryland Fire Service Extension Basic Fire Training Course in Cecil County, a significant advancement as what would become the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute at the University of Maryland brought systematic, organized training to the state.
Chief Storke taught many of us in the next generation that was coming on in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s the ropes in fire suppression as we started riding the backstep of an engine and grabbing hoses to rush inside burning buildings for the first time. As a junior officer, assistant chief, and deputy chief, he was often at the side of the young firefighters, passing along the practical skills of a veteran firefighter to a new group of recruits. Larry’s strong, supportive leadership style strengthened the emerging generation that was coming on, many of whom would become fire service leaders.
Chief Storke, an innovator, helped modernize the Cecil County Fire Service. In addition to being tapped by Cecil County Government to spearhead hazmat, the forward-thinking leader always encouraged implementing modern practices and the advanced training that developed after World War II. As an example, he led the way to modernize rescue services, and under his committee leadership, Singerly purchased the county’s first specialized, heavy-duty rescue unit.
In addition to rushing to take charge of all types of emergencies for most of his adult life, Larry also served the fire company in administrative and financial posts. Judy was active in the auxiliary, and Larry was usually found working in the kitchen with the ladies as they served meals or worked some other fundraisers.
Leaving a long-lasting legacy of public service and commitment to the community, pursuits he stuck with since starting as a teen, Larry Coleman Storke had a central role in protecting the community for over sixty years. He is remembered as a dedicated public servant, a great leader, a friend, and a mentor.
His lasting impact and dedication to the community will not be forgotten. Those of us who served under and later alongside Larry have many fond memories, and he will be missed.
On the final ride to the cemetery, the funeral procession passed under the crossed ladders at Station 13 as firefighters standing at attention on the firehouse ramp paid their final respects. Earlier at the funeral home the final radio call for Chief Storke went out on the emergency services radio.
Larry Storke was laid to rest at the Cherry Hill United Methodist Church Cemetery
Once common in Maryland. Blue Laws, also known as Sunday Laws were designed to ban many activities on Sunday, according to Wikipedia. But some of these ancient restrictions were still hanging on in the Laws of Maryland when the new Elkton Drive-in Theatre at the edge of town ran afoul of the Maryland restriction in 1950.
As the spring darkness settled on Cecil County on May 14, and the big screen flickered to life, Cecil County Sheriff Elwood Boyd and his deputies moved in to close the Sunday show down. Sheriff Boyd also arrested Nathan Rosen of Baltimore, the owner of the drive-in, which had held its gala, grand opening two nights before on Friday, May 12.
The Elkton Drive-in Theatre in 1992, a few years after it closed. (Source: Maryland Historical Trust)
In a hearing before Trial Magistrate James Weinroth, Rosen’s counsel, Attorney E. D. E. Rollins, declared that no admission was charged so the rule prohibiting performances at “Opera Houses” didn’t apply to drive-ins. The Sunday evening show was free, a benefit performance for volunteers from the fire company, Union Hospital, Community Chest and other charitable groups as they took up collections during the performance. Counsel also pointed out that movies were open in Elkton, but the Magistrate said that resulted from a local referendum four years ago and Rosen’s drive-in was not in the Elkton Town Limits.
Near the close of the hearing, Mr. Rollins demanded that if the State was going to prosecute the owner of the drive-in, then States Attorney Henry L. Constable was obligated to close all restaurants with television sets, ballparks, and bathing beaches that were open on Sunday.
Magistrate Weinroth ordered the case held over for the September Grand Jury.
RISING SUN, January 26, 1983 — People who thought trains had disappeared from the Octoraro Branch Railroad years ago were surprised when 30 freight cars rattled on down the line from Chester County one Wednesday in January 1983. After slipping into Cecil County and clanging past the old Sylmar Freight House, the cars rolled past farms fields and woods, while making a run for Rising Sun.
The Sylmar Freight House in 2018
People stopped to watch as the first train in over a decade scurried through crossings and past former stations on the branch line. One surprised man said it was doing about 30 miles an hour when it passed his house, according to the Cecil Whig.
This unscheduled run kicked off when the cars became decoupled from a locomotive working over the line in Chester County. After that, the cars rolled backward for about a mile before coming to rest at a bridge on Stevens Road outside of Rising Sun. “There were about 15 cars on each side of an old railroad bridge when the impromptu express stopped,” Frank D. Ragan, President of the County Commissioners told the newspaper. Although the “train had no predetermined destination Ragan had no doubt that it would have arrived on schedule if it had.
”Freight service along the line had almost disappeared from the line by the late 1960s. The Pennsylvania Railroad abandoned the Octoraro Branch of south Colora in 1961 but had hopes of keeping the line open to that Cecil County village. But after Hurricane Agnes washed out sections of the track in June 1972, the railroad abandoned all service south of the Pennsylvania State Line. Thus, this was probably the last train to Rising Sun, albeit unplanned and scheduled. The bridge at Stevens Road was removed by the county in 1987.
About 30 railroad cars took an unscheduled tour of suburban Rising Sun after they disengaged from a train in Southern Chester County. (Whig photo by Thomas, Feb. 3, 1983)
For more photo album about the Octoraro Railroad see this album on Facebook.
ELKTON — Since we started researching the pandemic of 1918 two-years ago, we have spent many hours online and in archives studying death certificates, undertaker registers, and health department reports. After examining the curated sources for an area, we visit the cemeteries while collecting additional information and remembering those who perished in that perilous time when there was no vaccine to protect people from the virus.
Thus, on a dark, dreary day at the start of spring, while strolling through the Immaculate Conception Parish Cemetery in Elkton searching for victims, we paused at the headstone for Nurse Rose Cecilia Suter. The twenty-nine-year-old healthcare provider graduated from the Union Hospital School of nursing in 1916. With a diploma in hand, the healthcare professional soon took a job at the Kelly Institute, a Baltimore hospital.
While caring for infected patients there, she became an influenza victim. Rose Suter died on Dec 7, 1918. Her mother, six brothers, and a half-brother survived her. About a quarter of the United States population caught the virus, 675,000 died, and life expectancy dropped by 12-years. With no vaccine to protect against the pathogen, people were urged to isolate, quarantine, practice good personal hygiene, and limit social interaction. That was all they had.
Nurse Rose C. Suiter’s headstone at Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Elkton
