1906 WB Record Almanac, Luzerne Co in 1905 In every part of Luzerne County during the year 1905 the same prosperous condition as during the previous year prevailed. There were comparatively few strikes among the various trades and few about the mines and most of the latter were referred to the Conciliation Board. There was plenty of work in all departments and little cause for complaint. In August a violent epidemic of typhoid fever broke out in Nanticoke. For some weeks the local health authorities attempted to handle the situation, but when the State authorities heard about it, representatives came upon the scene and took charge. Scores of cases appeared in the town and the suburbs. An investigation reveal the fact that on the bank of a rivulet which flows into one of the streams supplying the town with water a case of typhoid fever existed and this was believed to be responsible for the outbreak. Dr Johnson of the State Department of Health called to his assistance a number of nurses from out of town and the city building was thrown open as an emergency hospital. Some cases were also sent to the Wilkes-Barre hospitals. The watershed was inspected and the sources of infection were attended to and the people were instructed to boil the water and clean up generally. The physician in charge scored the local authorities for allowing of filth and such disregard of the law, compelling property owners to connect their premises with sewers as he found. Disinfectants were carried to premises and were placed upon the streets and everything possible was done to make the town and premises cleaner. Nurses were sent from house to house to instruct the people in guarding themselves and in caring for patients. By the en d of the epidemic there had been 512 cases and 46 deaths in Nanticoke and vicinity. Many of the cases were caused by secondary infection, owing to carelessness and to ignorance on the part of some of those who were engaged in caring for patients. Other cases were caused by the obstinacy of some of the residents in refusing to follow out the advice with reference to boiling the water, etc. The water company assisted in every way possible to purify the supply. It is interesting to note that the memorable epidemic at Plymouth in 1888 and the later one at Butler PA., were presumably caused in the same manner as the Nanticoke epidemic,- by a previous case on the watershed of streams emptying in the reservoir. -------------- The territory lying along the Susquehanna escaped a serious flood during the year. With the memorable inundation of 1904 still fresh in the mind the spring freshets were awaited with considerable anxiety and people living along the lowlands made preparations for flight at the first sign of danger. Early in January there was considerable fear of a flood owing to the weather conditions, but it was allayed by the coming of a cold spell. On the 19th the water registered 19 feet and the most depressed portions of the lowlands were flooded, although few of the residences were affected. On the 21st the water began slowly falling, but by the 26th the full force of the freshet from up stream was felt and on that day the river gage at Wilkes-Barre registered 23 1/2 feet. The flats and some of the southern sections of town were under water, but there was no serious damage. There were no other freshets during the spring. In November action was brought by City Solicitor McHugh of Wilkes–Barre to restrain the coal companies from diverting culm and refuse to the river. -------------- The weather during the year was not marked by any great extremes in temperature. Jan 25. a quite serious blizzard prevailed. There was over a foot of snow in Wilkes-Barre and vicinity with the mercury near zero. Street cars were stalled and trains were late on all of the railroads. The inconvenience continued for several days. There were several days during the winter when the mercury went to zero and several degrees below, but there was no such extreme as during 1904, when the record breaking figure of 37 degrees below zero was reached on one or two places in the country. On April 16 there were flurries of snow and a temperature of 28 degrees and there was frost on the 23rd of May. The summer was noted for a warm spell in July that kept the mercury at 90 degrees and above for a number of days. On July 18 it reached 94 degrees. The month was one of almost continual severe heat. --------------------- The record of capital crime in the county during 1905 was larger than the previous year, there having been fourteen murders and three suspicious deaths. --------------- During the year some of the directors of the Wilkes-Barre Township school board were arrested on the charge of bribery, it being alleged that they demanded blood money from teachers. The cases were called for trial and the defendants were acquitted on account of lack of evidence. One of the justices of the peace of the county was also arrested during the year on the charge of securing money from the county on fictitious discharged cases. It has long been known that the county was being mulcted out of thousands of dollars annually by such methods. Justices of the peace and constables made demands upon the treasury for costs in scores of discharged cases in which the names of fictitious people were given. County Controller Norris laid down more stringent rules against whom evidence could be secured. ---------------- The Taxpayers Association was active during the year in investigating the affairs of school boards and councils in the boroughs and townships. The association is composed largely of representatives of the coal companies who pay the bulk of the taxes of the county and whose interest it is to see that the public plunderers are restrained. The association was the means of saving the taxpayers thousands of dollars. It expects to make a number of arrests in the course of the coming year. It is evident to many taxpayers that wholesale grafting has been going on among the smaller officials. In some of the wealthy townships of the county the schools have been greatly handicapped on account of lack of funds and it is very evident that much of the money has been diverted to the pockets of the plunderers. ---------------- In November the Taxpayers Association caused the arrest of a number of officials of Hanover Township, charging them with fraud and conspiracy to defraud the township. The cases were not called for trial up to the close of the year. The association offered a reward of $6,000 for the arrest and conviction of any person or persons engaged in “jury fixing”. ---------------- The agents of the Pure Food Department paid some attention to the county during the year. In 1904 the crusade resulted in the arrest of a large number of grocers, liquor dealers, milk and meat dealers, most of who were fined. During 1905 some meat dealers were arrested in Wilkes-Barre and vicinity, but that was about the extent of the prosecutions. ---------------- During the year one Luzerne County young man met death while in the service of the country—Martin F. Caffrey of Sugar Notch. Since 1898 forty-three young men from Luzerne County have met death in foreign countries of in the country while in the service and thirty members of the 9th regiment died while encamped in the South during the Spanish-American War or died at home of disease contracted in the South, making a total during the past seven years of seventy-three. ------------ There were two serious mine accidents during the year—one at the Conyngham in North Wilkes-Barre in April, by which ten men were killed by the rope breaking and the men being dashed to death at the bottom of the shaft, and one in March, by which seven men were killed at the Clear Spring mine in West Pittston also by the rope breaking. --------------- Nov. 8 six railroad men were killed and a number of passengers injured by a collision between passenger and freight trains on the D L & W near Shickshinny. -------------- During the summer seven men and boys ere drowned in the river at and near Wilkes-Barre while bathing. The record was not so large as in some former years. The erection of a tent on the river bank at Wilkes-Barre and the presence of an attendant doubtless helped in reducing the list of fatalities. ------------- March 25 the court ousted the Luzerne Borough councilmen, for the reason that they had been deadlocked over certain appointments and the business of the town was suffering. ----------- Wyoming Conference of the M. E. Church embracing a number of counties in Eastern Pennsylvania and in New York State, was held in the West Pittston M. E. Church, beginning April 4. --------- During the spring and early summer cerebro-spinal meningitis appeared in Wilkes-Barre and nearby places and caused nearly a dozen deaths. The dread disease assumed the form of an epidemic in New York and some other Eastern cities and its appearance in this vicinity caused considerable alarm. In one family at Breslau four or five cases appeared and there were several deaths. -------------- April 15 occurred in Plymouth the death of Isaac M. Mark, 80 years of age who it is said brought to the Wyoming Valley the first locomotive ever used here. -------------- May 6 Rev. Dr. T. C. Edwards’s Welsh church in Edwardsville was dynamited during the night and damaged to the extent of about $2,000. The perpetrators of the outrage had not been discovered up to the close of the year. The reason of the dastardly act was not known. --------------- During the year, by act of Assembly, the Luzerne County district attorney was given an additional assistant, making three altogether. The district attorney’s brother, Evan Jones, was named as the chief assistant at a salary of $2,500. The two other assistants r eceive $1,800. each.