to me and sometimes to other people. An online magazine © 2019-2024. Quoted material may contain coarse language.
in the cafeteria after hours
you had your checkbook out
and I asked you
to write me a check
how much you said
two million dollars I said
you wrote it and signed it
and passed it over
the background showed
the sun at the horizon.
I called it a sunrise;
you laughed and said
that was funny,
because you’d
always thought of it
as a sunset
So if this job was so great, why would I leave?
I wasn’t doing the programming work I loved anymore; mostly I managed the people in my department. Sometimes I had to get involved in office politics, in my opinion a low activity.
Twice a year I had to do performance appraisals; these gave me problems getting to sleep and a nervous stomach on appraisal day. My boss made me review each one with him beforehand; in his management book, everyone has something in serious need of improvement, even if we have to stretch the truth. This feels dishonest.
My group researched and travelled to manufacturers’ sites to identify the best new midrange computer for the branch offices. When we made our recommendation, we unfortunately chose a “wrong” brand, not the one favored by our higher-ups. The company president made a crack to me about “shitting in the punch bowl”, that is, spoiling something that was going along oh-so-well. Not a career booster.
Insco had been paying me pretty well over the years, and it seemed unlikely anyone else would pay me that well to do something I liked doing, so I wasn’t really looking for another job. Life at Insco wasn’t so great anymore, but it was still borderline okay.
Then one Sunday I was browsing the New York Times help-wanted section, and saw a job that seemed to have my name on it: IBM’s Yorktown Research Laboratory, not very far away, was looking for VM/370 systems programmers. Programming! Hands-on tech stuff! I thought about it for a day, then had a talk with Mimi. She was ready for a new adventure, and I started working on my resumé .
Some people in Yorktown already knew about helpful improvements I had made to the VM operating system, and I was invited for an interview.
The clerk who phoned to set up the interview said to bring a copy of “my highest degree”. When I told her I didn’t have a degree, she said “Not even a bachelor’s?” She sounded very young. Remembering the “figure of speech” issue that came up at Insco thirteen years earlier, I had been very careful when filling out my application, and I asked “Is that a problem?” She seemed flustered, and answered “Oh, no, no, not at all.” When you drop out of school, the explaining never ends.
I got through my interviews and the physical just fine, and was offered a job again doing the work I loved.
Side story: The physical was quite thorough, and included taking a blood specimen. While checking my blood pressure later, as the pressure cuff was doing its stuff, the doctor asked if I had any objection to them running a drug screen on my blood. I said that would be fine. I think the odd timing of that question was calculated to produce a pressure spike in pot smokers or such.
When I gave notice at Insco, nobody was surprised.
Here’s a link to my daily life at Yorktown and beyond. I stayed at IBM until I took their generous 1992 buyout offer and retired.
Comment on smoking: I started smoking as a teenager, and have quit many times – for a few hours, a few days, once even for five years. I always went back. At Insco, the stress of being in management got me smoking again. Sitting on the beach the day after my last day at Insco, I realized I no longer had an excuse or the desire to smoke, and I quit again, this time for good. I do sometimes wish I had a cigarette though, even 36 years later. Don’t smoke, kids. You’ll be sorry.
Epilogue
Continental Insurance
Continental Insurance was taken over by CNA Financial, who now send me a small check every month.
The site
Sometime in the 1990s, Continental’s lines of business dried up or were sold off, and Continental leased the Neptune building to Prudential. I don’t know how long Prudential stayed there, but a Google Earth timeline shows no sign of life after 2006. When I drove by in August 2020, the main building was being demolished.
Old Rob and me
I recently got on the ordering line at a Jersey Mike’s, and recognized the gent ahead of me as someone who was a programmer at Insco 35 years ago. After we talked for a few minutes, I couldn’t help myself, and made a little joke, “Wow, you got old.” I don’t think it was well received. It would have been a better joke, and much more accurate, if I had said “Wow, we got old.”
A few Insco stories that didn’t fit anywhere else
Henry
In my layman’s opinion, Henry offers a good example of what stress, competitive pressure and overwork can do to a brilliant mind. Henry was a proud member of Mensa who also played chess and bridge competitively.
He was also a talented programmer, and late one summer night he was summoned to work to solve a production problem. He arrived wearing flip-flops, a bathing suit and a bathrobe, probably what he was wearing when the phone rang.
A guard who went to check on him found him at play in the second-floor men’s room. He had filled the sinks, and was splashing in them like a child, scooping water from one to the next.
His family got him into the Carrier Clinic, a well-regarded behavioral-health hospital. Friends who visited him during what he called his “vacation” reported he was feeling fine, and in few weeks he was back at work, with a reduced workload.
Sunny
The company hired a records clerk who was flashy and sexy and wore short skirts. The men loved her, the women not so much. Someone, probably a fellow female, gave her a nickname that I won’t repeat here. It wasn’t dirty, it was just mean. Let’s call her Sunny, that’s a nice nickname.
When Sunny was hired, space was short, and she had to double up in a cubicle with my friend Fran, who formed an instant dislike. Fran tried to engage me in an anti-Sunny discussion, trying to get a rise out of me, trying to get me on her side.
Fran (to me): She’s not a lady, you know.
Me: (Silence)
Fran: You know how I know?
Me: (Silence)
Fran: She lifts her leg to fart!
As for the other women “seeming” to dislike Sunny, she once exited the ladies’ room with her skirt tucked into the back of her pantyhose and her butt showing, and none of them said a word.
Maddie
During the search for new branch-office computers, I was promoted to head up a new unit, which meant the unit and I rated our own secretary. This would be a one-person net increase in the site’s secretary count. The woman in charge of managing secretaries wanted to assign me one, a sweet girl named Maddie, but I wanted to interview more-experienced candidates from the outside world. I did eventually hire someone from outside, and I apologize to Maddie, who was next in line for a promotion, for causing her to miss out.
Sandy
Sandy was a computer operator and a breath of fresh air. When the evening shift began at four o’clock, she’d send a message to everyone on the system, “Hi, anybody need a tape mounted or anything?” She was super helpful and pleasant, and instead of replying “OK” to requests, she charmed us with a happy “OKEYDOKEY”.
Carl
Carl was also a computer operator. If you didn’t know him, he could be scary. Carl was a deaf mute, but not entirely deaf and not entirely mute.
Programmers brought jobs to be run to the computer room, filled out a ticket, and left the deck of punch cards on the job table. When your job finished, Carl would phone you to come and get your output. As I said, Carl could hear a little bit, and when he heard your phone pick up, he did his best to say “Your job is done.” We all knew Carl ‘s voice, so there was no mistaking the message. In addition, we could always tell when another programmer’s job was finished, by hearing that person shout into the phone, “OKAY, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”
The year I turned 50, for my birthday I got a ton of crap mail from AARP and everybody else that wanted to make a nickel off my advanced age and vulnerability to illness, death and bad investments. If you’ve made it to 50, you know what I mean.
One mailing in particular ticked me off. I can’t remember the name of the cemetery, so I’ll make one up by borrowing a trope from Seinfeld, let’s call it “The Memorial Gardens of Del Boca Vista”, or DBV for short.
DBV informs me that it’s time to think about my “final arrangements”, and encourages me to select my “final resting place”. They have inside crypts, outside crypts, chapels, gardens, niches inside, niches outside, family rooms, perpetual care. You say you want a rotunda? We’ve got a rotunda! Lock in today’s prices!
Along with the glossy brochure comes a prepaid return postcard to fill out. Among the information it seeks is a multiple-choice section headed “Please check one” that looks something like:
I would like to:
[ ] take a tour of DBV
[ ] receive a planning guide about DBV
[ ] have a representative visit my home and tell me more about DBV
Annoyed, I invent a 4th option, put an x in the box, and label it:
[x] have a representative visit my home and give me one last blowjob before I die
I don’t fill in any of the personal information. I show the postcard to my wife, who worries “What if they find out it’s you?” I tell her “They won’t” and head for the mailbox. Mission accomplished.
But wait, there’s more!
A few weeks later, the phone rings. They have tracked me down, probably because I am the only male on their 50th-birthday list who lives in the same zip code as the post office the postcard was returned from.
A woman says “This is Miss so-and-so of DBV. We’re just checking to see if you’ve received our latest brochure in the mail.” There is at least one other person in the room, because I hear stifled laughter in the background. I say “Um, no, I don’t think so.” Miss so-and-so says “Alright, thank you” and hangs up. My wife says “Who was that?” and I just say “Telemarketer.”
It seemed that almost everyone in Florida started out somewhere else. Mimi and I ended up in Florida after my first project at IBM was cancelled and I flew down for an interview in the middle of January. I fell in love with Florida’s green, tropical lushness.
After my transfer was approved, we began house hunting west of the Florida Turnpike, where houses were cheaper and the streets had numbers instead of names. When a trial run from IBM to a potential house took 40 minutes, we decided to stretch the budget a little and get something closer, in Boca Raton proper.
Boca was mostly an upscale town, but our development was one of the less expensive ones. I remember watching a Rolls-Royce wander through the neighborhood, obviously lost, with the passenger looking anxious about the modest houses and scruffy homeowners doing their own yard work.
Mimi loved helping other people and got involved with the library’s adult-literacy program. Her first student was a truck driver – one day his truck broke down in an unfamiliar area and he couldn’t read the street signs to tell his employer where he was. Another student was a woman originally from Itta Bena, Mississippi. She learned to read, then how to read a map, then how to read a map of her home state. One day she had a breakthrough, saying “You know, you could use this map to take a trip!”. The volunteers received fancy award plaques from the Sun-Sentinel and had their pictures in the paper. Mimi was proud of her award.
Beyond her literacy work, Mimi got a paying part-time job as a medical-records clerk at the hospital in Delray Beach. Her hours were from 9 to 3. She enjoyed working with a group of other women, and knowing she was making a contribution. The other women soon discovered that Mimi knew a lot about a lot of subjects, and would come to her with questions beyond those about proper spelling or writing style. Her manager had her ghost-writing herreports to upper management and they were happy. Mimi really loved that job.
For a while we socialized with our next-door neighbors, seemingly nice people from Canada who turned out to be stingy tippers of waitstaff and low-grade grifters. We saw the light when the wife scammed us on tickets to their daughter’s dance recital. We made better friendships with people we knew from IBM and the library.
We were in Florida for Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm that leveled entire towns 50 miles south of us, but left Boca relatively intact. The Friday before landfall was predicted, my buddies at work laughed when I left early to tape my windows and bring the potted plants inside. They weren’t laughing on Monday when they saw how terribly the storm had damaged the state. We were lucky, and lost only some patio screens, but during the highest winds we hid in the dark between a sofa back and a wall, with a flashlight and a hatchet in case we had to chop our way out. We promised each other that next time we’d get in the car and head north at the first warning.
Even before the hurricane, Mimi wasn’t happy about being in Florida. She missed her family up north, especially her sister, for whom she’d been more like a mother than a sister growing up. One day we had visitors, and when they casually asked “How long have you been here?” we answered simultaneously – I said “About a year and a half”, but Mimi said “18 months”. When I heard her say it that way, I knew we weren’t going to be spending the rest of our lives in Florida.
It turned out that staying in Florida forever wasn’t an option. IBM had a company-wide downsizing of personnel, and offered buyouts to employees like me who would be of retirement age by a certain date. They offered to credit me with an additional seven years of service, giving me the 15 years required for a decent pension. I signed up and never looked back.
I couldn’t find a job in Florida that paid anywhere near what IBM had been paying, so we packed up and started working our way back north, first stop Atlanta. In Atlanta I worked for the software company KnowledgeWare, and we learned how to live happily in a high-rise apartment building, one that happened to overlook Stone Mountain.
After I got the job at IBM Yorktown, I needed a place to stay during the week until we found a house in the area. Someone in the personnel department had the job of finding leads to short-term housing. There were always people living near the lab who were happy to rent rooms to IBMers, for if you can’t trust an IBMer, who can you trust? With my leads came a document that basically said “IBM takes no responsibility for whatever terrible things may happen to you there”.
Mrs. Fraser & Katonah, NY
One of the leads was to a room with private bath in Katonah, a quiet town on the commuter line to New York City and about ten miles from the lab. The room was expensive for the time, $300 a month. On my way over to check it out, I saw lots of roads that looked good for running. When I got there, I saw that the house was in a green, wooded area next to one of New York City’s beautiful reservoirs. The owner, Mrs. Fraser, showed me the room, which had an easy chair, a TV, a table and a bed — what more could I want? It was on the lower level of the house, with a private entry by sliding doors facing the woods. When I drove up from New Jersey the next Monday morning, I brought my suits and my running gear and moved in.
Mrs. Fraser’s husband owned a business in Europe and spent most of his time there, so I didn’t meet him for a few weeks. I don’t know how he felt about having a non-dweebish IBMer in the house with his wife, but I know my rent helped out with the bills.
On the day I have come to think of as BPD, Bachelor Panic Day, there was a surprise, late-season snowstorm, and at 10 o’clock in the morning IBM sent everyone home. Virtual bachelors like myself, who now had nowhere to get lunch, rushed the vending machines, emptying them completely of junk food and canned soup. When I got back to the house, Mrs. Fraser invited me to have lunch with her and her daughter, home from school on a snow day. It was the first I’d ever been upstairs.
Normally, there were plenty of small restaurants and diners where I could stop for a meal after work. I had a bottle of port wine I bought to keep me company in the evening, and on general principle I hid it so that Mrs. Fraser wouldn’t see it when she cleaned. I went for a morning run twice a week, saw lots of deer and once got lost in Pound Ridge Reservation – not Hansel-and-Gretel lost, but lost enough that I had to flag down a passing car and ask for directions.
For the Fourth of July, I was worried about traffic and decided not to drive home. I drove over the state line into Connecticut, where the town of Wilton was having an old-fashioned Fourth, with beer, fireworks and a parade. Norman Rockwell would have been completely at home in Wilton.
The way it worked out, I drove home to the shore on Friday night and back to the lab on Monday morning. The trip took two hours each way and could be difficult, especially the trip home Friday evening. But, at only twice a week for a few months, it was tolerable. During the week, I’d look at houses with a realtor, Irene. She was really sharp, and after a while understood what I liked and what I didn’t, and we generally didn’t waste each other’s time. If she showed me a house I thought was a strong “maybe”, I’d bring Mimi up to Westchester on the weekend so we could look at it together.
One place I was shown was a townhouse in Bedford Hills. It was nice, but as we were about to leave, I realized the kitchen had a clear view of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a maximum security prison surrounded by razor wire and only a quarter-mile away. When I said I wasn’t in love with the view, the seller’s agent reassured me by saying “Oh, they can’t get out.”
On one of our cross-Westchester drives to see a house, we passed a beat-up Volkswagen bus parked alongside the road, where a woman had set up a sort of flower stand. She may have had other flowers too, but there were roses, lots of them. Mimi said “Oooh, look at the roses!” I said “Yeah!” in agreement, and kept on driving.
On the way back, she said “There’s that rose lady again!” and when I didn’t respond, she gave up and said “Can we get some?” Well, I can take a hint, and I pulled over. I bought a dozen roses from the lady, who was acting all goofy, as through love was in the air and I was buying flowers for her instead of from her. I got back in the car and handed the flowers over to Mimi, saying something like “Here ya go.” Yes, I am aware this all makes me sound like a jerk. Mimi didn’t say anything, and both she and the flower lady seemed disappointed in my presentation. For the rest of the day, Mimi called me “Mr. Romantic”.
Seeing a car with Jersey plates driving around Westchester County was like a thumb in the eye to the locals there. Also annoyed sometimes were the State Police. One Saturday morning out house-shopping with Mimi, I was doing about 75 on one of the expressways, along with everyone else, when a cop pulled me over. Once it became clear he was going to write me a ticket no matter what, I said I couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t pulled over the black Jeep that just passed me doing about 90. He replied “I didn’t see him. I saw you.” After that, I decided it was time to become an official New York State resident, and switched my plates and driver’s license from New Jersey to New York.
A lot of New Yorkers drive like idiots, and that includes both driving too fast and driving too slow. New York didn’t yet have the common-sense law that says “keep right except to pass”, so I’ll chalk up the slow-driving-in-the-left-lane idiocy as mostly the state’s fault.
After I switched over to New York plates, whenever I was back in Jersey on the Parkway, maintaining my speed in continuous traffic and passing in the left lane like I’ve been doing since I was seventeen, there was always some Jersey jerk coming up behind me and flashing his lights to get me to move over. By definition, if you have New York plates and are in the left lane, you are driving too slow. You just can’t win.
As I often say while recounting Everything That Happened, all good things must come to an end, and one day Mrs. Fraser knocked on my door and said their son would be coming home from school and they’d need the room by the end of the month.
I went back to the personnel department and told them I needed a new place to stay. They gave me the number of a woman in Peekskill who took in transient IBMers, Mrs. Garrison.
Peekskill is a working-class town on the Hudson River. Mrs. Garrison’s house looked old but was well maintained, with a long set of stairs leading up from the sidewalk. She appeared to be in her early 70s, and mentioned she was a widow. She began showing me around the first floor, starting with the front entryway. On the table there was a framed photograph of two men dressed to go fly fishing. She said the man on the left was her late husband Everett, and the other was Hoagy Carmichael. “Hoagy Carmichael?!” I said. Carmichael was one of America’s greatest singer-songwriters, hugely popular from the 1920s through the 1950s, and I reflexively crooned the opening of his theme song and greatest hit, Stardust:
Sometimes I wonder why I spend
the lonely night
Dreaming of a song…
Mrs. Garrison got all teary-eyed, and said “I never thought anyone as young as you would know that song.” I gave her my standard response to people that I somehow favorably surprise, a gentle “Well, I know some things.”
(FYI, Willie Nelson sings a lovely version of Stardust in his familiar, reedy voice.)
She showed me the room and I took it, even though I’d have to share the bathroom with two other IBMers who had rooms there, and pay a few dollars extra for electricity if I wanted the window air conditioner hooked up. Writing about charging for electricity makes her sound like a cheapskate, but she wasn’t; she was just trying to get by on her Social Security and some income from her roomers. She was a pleasure to chat with in the evenings, sitting in her ‘parlour’. The other IBM roomers were basically children, and had no interest in anything an old lady might have to say.
Mimi and I eventually found a place we liked, an almost-new townhouse in the sleepy village of Croton-on-Hudson. The price was higher than we were comfortable with, and we tried to negotiate. The owner was an IBMer who was retiring, and he would not budge an inch. I think he expected the housing market would improve enough to meet his price if he just held out long enough. We hadn’t found anything else we liked, and now we had an offer to buy our house in New Jersey, so we bit the bullet and signed for the full price. The market was indeed improving, because when IBM cancelled my project eighteen months later and I transferred to Boca Raton, we priced the townhouse high, so high that Irene thought we were delusional, and made a profit.
Jumping back a bit, the day we moved into the townhouse I stopped by Mrs. Garrison’s to say goodbye, and I made sure to bring Mimi along to meet her. Mimi knew the words to Stardust too.
“When you quit school in ninth grade and you’re smart, you spend your life in some small or large way proving yourself” – George Carlin
I interviewed for and was hired as an advisory programmer at IBM Research, based mainly on some helpful improvements I had made to IBM’s CP-67 and VM/370 operating systems when I worked for Continental Insurance. Unlike Carlin, I waited until my high school senior year to drop out.
From Wikipedia, edited for length: The Yorktown Heights building, housing the headquarters of IBM Research, is a large crescent-shaped structure consisting of three levels with 40 aisles each, radiating out from the center of the crescent. Due to this construction, none of the offices have windows. The lowest level is partially underground in some areas toward the shorter side of the crescent, which also leads to the employee parking lots. A large overhang protrudes from the front entryway of the building, and faces the visitor parking lot.
I was going to start off by saying “everybody here is a self-serving jerk”. Well, of course that’s an exaggeration, but there are very few team players in Yorktown. Most people are only interested in advancing their own career.
To give you an idea of the attitude at Yorktown, a local doctor visits the site every week to do pre-employment physicals. Arriving mid-morning, he always has difficulty finding a spot in the visitor parking lot, and as a courtesy the company installs a “DOCTOR PARKING” sign in the spot closest to the front door. The sign doesn’t improve things for the doctor; the space is always taken when he arrives. One parker, a PhD of course, when questioned responds that he is a doctor, so what’s the problem? In my imagination I see dozens of proud PhD’s setting their alarms for four o’clock in the morning to get to that spot of honor first. The sign is removed, and a week later replaced by one that says “MEDICAL DOCTOR PARKING”.
Company rules are more relaxed here. At most IBM sites, drinking at lunch would be unthinkable. Founder T.J. Watson had a strict no-alcohol policy, and that included drinking at home. When our small department first goes out to lunch and the waiter asks “What will you have to drink?”, all eyes go to our manager. We expect him to take the lead, we will follow. He replies “Bottle of Sam Adams, please” and now we too are free to have a beer.
The four programmers on our project team usually have lunch together in one of the local restaurants. The other three are various degrees of beer snob; they drink the latest trendy or exotic brews. I usually order a Budweiser just on general principle. When the snobbiest of them mocks my choice, I say “Just because Bud is the most popular beer in the world doesn’t mean it isn’t any good.” He also sneers at the idea of playing the lottery. On my mental list of things to do when I hit the Big One is to send him a case of Budweiser longnecks. He’s fun to troll.
When I go to the Poughkeepsie site for a week of classes, I am steered to a nearby restaurant frequented by IBMers. I sit alone in a booth wearing my IBM badge, a habit as natural as wearing a wristwatch. I surprise the waitress by ordering a bottle of beer; she smiles as though she’s just seen the cutest puppy ever running around her feet. While I have my lunch, people seem to walk by just to look at me; they see an IBMer daring to have a beer during the working day. They glance at my badge, not to take down my name but to learn what site this rare bird comes from.
If you visit Yorktown, you may hear one or the other of two fictional characters being paged over the PA system, Captain Strang and Mr. Sassoon. Yorktown is more than a computer lab, it’s a wet lab that uses hazardous substances, and accidents happen. The page “Captain Strang, aisle 24, level one” means there is a FIRE! in aisle 24, level one, and an internal firefighting squad, or squads, respond. The words “Captain Strang” have an attention-getting bite designed to cut through any absent-minded reverie; say it out loud when you are alone. Say it out loud three times in front of a mirror and who knows what will happen.
A page for “Misssster Sassssoooon” mimics the hiss of a gas leak, another site hazard, summoning a squad in protective gear. There are dozens of compressed-gas tanks, large and small, behind the building. One cool thing to watch is a tanker truck delivery of liquid nitrogen, which creates a stagecraft-like London fog over the parking lot.
In the auditorium there are occasional “brown bag lunches” that anyone can attend. Similar to a TED talk, they feature a presenter knowledgeable in computing or some other science. Today, the presenter is Linus Pauling, who in 1955 won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The doctor is briefing us on research he’s doing in his new area of interest, the structure of the human brain. His experiments require large numbers of cat cortexes, that is, cat brains. A concerned scientist questions Pauling closely about how the cats are obtained, how they are treated in life, and how they are put to death.
The only famous scientist I ever met personally here is Benoit Mandelbrot, IBM Fellow and father of fractal geometry. One day he steps up to the urinal next to mine and nods in greeting; I nod back.
In many cases a project is pure research, there is no product and there never will be a product. A newly-minted manager has the audacity to warn a research staff PhD about regularly stretching his lunch break to two hours on the tennis courts. His response is “Yes, but while I’m playing, I’m still thinking.”
There is a basic impracticality to some of what we do here The idea behind the project I am part of is to prove that eight $200,000 midrange computers can cleverly share a workload and take the place of one $3,000,000 mainframe computer. Once it started becoming clear that yes, yes we can, someone in authority did the basic arithmetic in light of the reality that we are here to make money for IBM, not to save money for the customer. The project was cancelled. In today’s world I would be sent home with my personal belongings in a cardboard box, but in 1986 I am encouraged to check the internal job listings for another position inside the company.
I find a listing in Boca Raton that might be a match. I arrange an interview and fly out of LaGuardia on a miserable, slushy January day. When we land in Florida, and I get my first look at the pure tropical lushness of it, I know how Ponce de León must have felt. I admit to myself “I’m probably going to take this job no matter what.”
IBM people hold high opinions of Yorktown. When Mimi and I start looking for a house in Boca, our real-estate agent happens to mention that her husband holds some sort of senior position here at IBM. Later, when she’s alone with Mimi, the quiz begins. She tries to guess, where in New York had I worked? Poughkeepsie? Fishkill? She guesses other sites in the Hudson Valley but comes up dry. She finally gives up, and asks the question straight out. When Mimi, always my biggest fan, says “Yorktown”, the agent is surprised and dispirited. One-upped, she improvidently volunteers that her husband had always wanted to work there, but couldn’t get an interview.
People in Boca think it odd that anyone would ever leave fabled Yorktown Research. My new friend Victor asks what it was like working there. He knows I was not happy. I think for a while, then ask if he remembers the smartest kid in his school, and what that person was like? He nods, and I go on. “Okay, imagine there are 2000 people in this room and they went to 2000 different schools. Now imagine that the smartest kid from each of those schools all went to work in the same building.” He understands.
While my family is getting relocated to Boca, our rental apartment and groceries are paid for by the company. After I turn in my first expense voucher, with supporting register tapes, I get a call from a person in accounting, who tells me “We’ll pay for your groceries, but you have to pay for the Heineken yourself.”
Back when the connection from my brain to my mouse and keyboard was faster, I always took the online Jeopardy! entrance test when it came up. I think I usually passed, but they don’t tell you unless you’re selected for an audition, and I never was.
To me, the contestant-interview part of the program is usually boring; some viewers even fast-forward it. I resolved not to be fast-forwarded, and to have the required “Five interesting facts about me for Alex” ready well in advance.
They were:
For extra credit,
I can’t remember where I was working at the time, but I remember a discussion with a co-worker whose wife had just had their first baby, and him saying, “I want my son to have a job with a chair.”
Here’s part of my own strange path to a job with a chair.
When I was driving for Dugan’s Bakery, I got interested in the stock market. I studied the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s Magazine, and bought a couple of stocks, Clorox and Reynolds Tobacco. They went down instead of up, so I tried to figure out where I went wrong, and became interested in technical analysis, a way to predict where a stock price is headed based on how it’s behaved in the past. Mostly it works, but sometimes it doesn’t – it’s more of an art than a science. I kept daily charts on about 20 stocks.
If I finished my route early, I sometimes stopped in at the Nugent & Igoe brokerage in East Orange, where my broker was Walter ‘Tiny Hands’ Wojcik. If you ever went by and saw a bakery truck parked around the corner, that was probably me. There were eight or ten regulars who hung around watching the electronic ticker tape crawl along one wall, and, when inspiration struck, speed-walking over to their broker’s desk to make a trade. The room was not unlike an OTB horse parlor, and the tone of the conversation was similar. Maybe that’s another article one day.
After Dugan’s was sold down the river in 1966, I collected unemployment for a few months while applying for stockbroker jobs in New York City. Meanwhile, I subscribed to a weekly chart service and continued to make small trades and read all the financial stuff I could get my hands on.
I learned one thing about unemployment that I’ll pass along: if you show up for your weekly appointment wearing a suit and tie, they’re not going to hassle you too much. So, Mr. Smithee, you want to be a stockbroker but have only the most remote of qualifications? Here’s your check, and good luck with next week’s search. After many weeks they got sick of seeing me, and put me with a group of others who hadn’t found jobs, to take a manual-dexterity test with a view toward getting us assembly line jobs somewhere. That’s another article some day, too.
At the Nugent & Igoe office, I was friends with a young guy named Jerry, who would look over my shoulder at my charts. He said if you like doing stuff like that, you should get into computers. There was a programming and control-board-wiring school directly across the street, and I paid them a visit. Programming school was not in session, but they showed me their accounting machines and the control boards, and I fell in love with the boards’ combination of complexity and orderliness. I filed Jerry’s career suggestion in the back of my mind.
A while after Dugan’s went out of business, I got a call from Tommy MacMillan, a former supervisor who knew I was interested in the stock market. He suggested I might like working for Mayflower Securities. At the time, Mayflower was on the level; I know that because I asked my bank to get me a Standard & Poor’s company report on them.
My eventual manager Skip Zarra had no interest in the finer points of the stock market or investing; his only interest was in making sales. During my interview, he asked who in the world of finance I most admired, but didn’t recognize the name Jesse Livermore, a famous day trader, and on and off one of the richest people in the world. That’s not exactly a black mark on Skip, but it tells you something.
Mayflower and other securities firms sent their prospective brokers, aka “registered representatives”, to an intensive three-weekend securities course held in a classroom in the instructor’s home in Union. As I recall, we had to pay for the course ourselves; fair enough, I suppose. The object was to pass the SEC Series 7 Examination to get our brokers licenses. I’ll let the SEC explain it:
“Individuals who want to enter the securities industry to sell any type of securities must take the Series 7 examination—formally known as the General Securities Representative Examination. Individuals who pass the Series 7 examination are eligible to register to trade all securities products, including corporate securities, municipal fund securities, options, direct participation programs, investment company products, and variable contracts.”
Next we took the examination, which was multiple-choice. I’ve always been a good test-taker, and I passed.
Mayflower gave a Christmas dinner for their sales people and spouses. I’m not sure if there were any female sales people at the time, but there might have been. It was at a fancy restaurant, and the sky was the limit. Mimi and I were seated with Skip and Tommy and their wives, and there was good conversation all around. No introductions were offered beyond an informal “Hi, I’m…”.
After the meal Gene Mulvihill, founder and owner of the company, got up to give a motivational speech. During the speech, Skip leaned over and whispered to me “His wife owns thirty percent of the company”. I whispered back “Yes, I know” and he seemed surprised. During a lull in the conversation later, he asked how I knew about Gene’s wife’s partial ownership, and I said it was in the company’s S&P report. He next asked how I had come to see an S&P report on the company, and I said I had asked my bank to pull one for me. This did not go over well, and he said “You pulled an S&P report on us? YOU pulled an S&P on US?”, as though the world had turned upside down.
A couple of weeks later, I phoned Tommy’s house with a procedural question and his wife answered, She said he wasn’t home, and asked if she could take a message. I said “Yes, this is Paul Smithee”, and when she didn’t respond, added “We met at the Christmas party.” After a second, she said “Oh, at the Christmas party, right.” The next day, Tommy phoned to ask what my question was, and also said “That wasn’t my wife at the party.” I apologized profusely, but he said it was his own fault for not properly introducing his friend. When I passed this news along to Mimi, she was not surprised, and said “I thought there was something funny going on with them.” Hey, thanks for telling me.
Early on, I went to Brooks Brothers and invested in an expensive three-piece British tweed suit and a good tweed overcoat. I wore them to every job interview and important meeting I had for years afterward. I also bought a new car, a ‘67 Valiant, partly to impress clients that I had a new car, and partly because I needed one. That car lasted a long time, almost as long as the suit, which eventually no longer fit.
Making sales
After we were SEC-licensed registered representatives, we were trained to go to commercial areas such as strip malls and ask small-business owners “Has anyone ever talked to you about mutual funds?” Mutual funds were just then coming into their own and getting a lot of positive press coverage. We sold monthly investment plans in Oppenheimer and Dreyfus funds, nothing shady about either one, both are still around today. The SEC required we make potential clients aware that half their first year’s investment went toward sales commissions, so it would be important that they continue the plan and not cash out early. Some salesmen conveniently forgot to mention that point, but I never did.
I sold an Oppenheimer monthly plan to my upstairs neighbors; they needed to cash it in the next year and took a big hit, and I felt bad. I also sold an Oppenheimer monthly plan to a restaurant owner who I happened to catch during the afternoon lull. When I went to his home to pick up his shares of AT&T to sell to pay for the Oppenheimer, his family was very suspicious of me and the whole deal, but over the years he got a much better return with Oppenheimer.
As a kid trying to sell newspaper subscriptions, I realized right away I was no salesman. Looking back, I was too ready to accept the prospect’s first “no” and move on, instead of trying to counterpunch and wear down their resistance. Mayflower encouraged us to talk to 30 people every day, and I bought a pocket clicker to keep track. Hairdressers always seemed to have time to talk, but they never bought anything. One day working my way through a strip mall, I spotted a city worker hand-digging a hole for a traffic sign. I walked over and said “Excuse me, but has anyone ever talked to you about mutual funds?” He looked up and said “No entiendo.” Even as I clicked my clicker to count the contact, I knew I was just kidding myself.
I finally quit Mayflower when they changed their philosophy and wanted us to start pushing penny stocks they bought by the bushel, instead of standard, legitimate mutual funds.
Mayflower was later absorbed by the infamous “pump and dump” penny-stock outfit First Jersey Securities. First Jersey was headed by Robert Brennan, later described by Forbes as “a swindler of a recognizable type: totally unscrupulous, with the nerve and audacity of a second-story man”. In 2001, Brennan was found guilty of money laundering and bankruptcy fraud, and sentenced to nine years in prison.
After looking into other schools, I used the GI Bill to register for a computer programming course at Automation Institute, and an old friend gave me a lead on a night warehouse job I could work at while I attended school during the day. I was on my way.
One Sunday in March, I drive into New York City with my young family to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There is nowhere nearby to park, so I drop my family at the side entrance and keep looking. I work my way across town, still no luck. At a parking lot with a “full” sign posted I get an inspiration and show the attendant a ten dollar bill. He agrees that there is just enough room for one more car, and I walk back to the museum to catch up with my family. While we are in the Arms and Armor room admiring Henry the VIII’s steel codpiece, we hear the noise of a brass band out on Fifth Avenue. We have forgotten it is Saint Patrick’s Day!
We step out onto the museum’s broad front steps. Many people are here already, watching the remaining groups and bands organize and warm up before they march off to connect with the parade’s main body. The groups nearest us are at a momentary standstill. One man standing near us on the steps incessantly blows a green plastic horn. Blat. Blat. Blat. Finally, from half a block away, we hear “HEY YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER, STOP BLOWIN’ THAT HORN!” Our step-mate pauses to consider, tucks the horn under his arm and leaves.
The following day, the New York Times features a photo of Ed Koch at the parade, wearing a tweed cap and cable-knit sweater. The mayor is shouting at someone out of frame, his hand to his mouth like a megaphone, probably just repeating his catchphrase “How’m I doing?” demand. I entertain myself by drawing him a felt-tip word balloon of the demand we heard yesterday.
My wife’s sister Marg went to parochial school at Saint Columba’s, just a couple of blocks from where we lived in Newark.
Marg’s friend Sandy was as innocent and bashful as any 16-year-old Catholic school girl could be. Her mother sent her to the butchers to get chicken breasts for dinner, but she was too embarrassed to say the word “breasts”, so she asked for “chicken chests” instead.
I was barely out of my own teens then, and I loved ferrying Marg and her girlfriends back and forth from their dances and other school events. It was like having a carload of ultra-cute nieces. Besides Sandy, the regular passengers I remember were Dolores, Geraldine, Loretta and Annette.
There was a Barbara, too, sometimes. She lived the furthest from the school, out by Ballantine’s brewery. I’ve always been partial to the name Barbara, so she was kind of my favorite; there’s just something about that name. I never had a girlfriend named Barbara, but I did have a cousin Barbara that I liked a lot when I was kid, so maybe that’s it.
Writing this, I could picture one other girl, but couldn’t remember her name. I knew it sounded French and that I’d recognize it if I saw it. Google led me to a site promising “Top 1000 popular baby names in 1944”, the year Marg and probably most of the other girls were born. The site was babynames.it, the ‘.it’ meaning located in Italy. I began scanning the girls’ names column, stopping at times to recall a bit of life detail floated up by a familiar name. Eventually, at 307th in popularity, there it was, “Camille”.
Camille herself wasn’t French, though, she was Italian like most of the other girls. A few years later she stayed with Marg babysitting our kids when Mimi and I drove up to Expo 67. She was sort of a favorite too, and maybe a little more sophisticated than the rest. Later, she worked at Bamberger’s and let me use her employee discount to buy stereo gear, so that was nice.
Also at the baby names site, I learned how to pronounce the newly-popular girl’s name ‘Saoirse’, as in actress Saoirse Ronan. It’s properly pronounced SEER-sha, assuming we can trust the pronunciation of an unusual Irish girl’s name to an Italian web site. SEER-sha does sound like the way I’ve heard it, though.
I was working at the Foodland store in Elizabeth then, and companies like Heinz pickles and Sta-Puf fabric softener were always competing to get more shelf space for their products, usually by gifting store management with some thing of minor value. At Foodland, the definition of “management” was loose, extending all the way down to the bookkeeper, me.
One company tried to curry Foodland favor with tickets to a concert by Bobby Darin, the teen heartthrob of the day — ‘Dream Lover’, ‘Beyond the Sea’, lots more. No one else was interested in going, so I collected their tickets and turned them over to Marg to pass along. I provided concert transportation too, but didn’t go inside.
One summer Mimi and I rented a house up at Lake Hopatcong for two weeks. I had just changed jobs, so I didn’t have enough seniority to take my vacation during the summer. I commuted daily from the lake to Newark on I-80, not finished yet but hosting light traffic. There were no police assigned to the stretch yet, so you could go as fast as you thought you’d still be able to stop for a deer, if that’s clear. Fortunately I never saw any deer; I think the new road and its shoulders were so wide the deer were afraid to venture into all that open space.
The house was right on the lake and we had lots of room, so Marg invited her girlfriends to stay, visiting in shifts. They were good kids, and we loved having them around.
After Mimi and I were married, we lived with her sister and mother on Pennsylvania Avenue in Newark. Her sister was about 16, and as she walked to school, boys in passing cars would call out to each other “Mira! Mira!”.
Mimi took the bus to work every day, at the Mega Foods store in Scotch Plains where she was the bookkeeper. I picked her up every night, and that’s where we bought our weekly groceries. A hundred dollars’ worth of groceries filled the trunk and half the back seat.
At the end of Pennsylvania Avenue was small, triangular Lincoln Park. President Kennedy’s motorcade was once rerouted past it to counter a threat about traveling on Broad Street. Mimi didn’t know Kennedy was in town that day, but she and our 3-year-old got to see him and wave as he went by.
A little-noted Lincoln Park event months earlier was a battle between blacks and Puerto Ricans. During the fighting, park benches were disassembled and their slats used as lances and clubs. When I saw the fighting from a block away, I thought to myself, “Boy, I’m glad I’m not involved.” The police eventually arrived and broke it up. Helping to keep the city’s lid on, the newspapers made no mention of the event.
We seldom overslept on holidays, because if there was a parade involved the sections formed up in front of our house before moving to the main route on Broad Street. We shared our porch steps with excited band families and early parade-goers.
Mimi and I went to the Mosque Theater, now Newark Symphony Hall, to hear Nina Simone. We were led to the balcony and seated there with the other white people, 20 or 30 of us. We didn’t care, she was fantastic.
Mimi has read about a cooling summer drink called “The Pimm’s Cup” which requires 3/4 cup of Pimm’s #1 liqueur. She asks me to pick up a bottle, and next day on my way home I stop at the S. Klein On The Square department store, which has a liquor department. I ask the help for a bottle of “Pimm’s Cup”, having to repeat myself twice. They chortle, this is a new one on them, and they keep calling back and forth “Pimp’s Cup, Pimp’s Cup” until they locate one.
There was a small, smoky fire in the rooming house across the street. Even before the fire trucks arrived, the residents were outside on folding chairs, watching a ballgame on their rabbit-eared TV, an extension cord plugged into the vestibule of the church next door.
Our neighbor dies and while the family is at the funeral his house is robbed. The neighborhood is changing.
Young Hendrik was a sailor in the Kaiser’s navy. A year or two before the First World War broke out, his ship visited New York Harbor and he liked what he saw. He jumped ship and stayed in America. I don’t know how he spent the next fifty years, so this won’t be a very detailed story.
He lived in a rented room on the third floor of the house in Newark where my wife and I had our first apartment. He waited tables in a restaurant downtown.
Now about eighty years old, he still had a heavy German accent. My three-year-old loved listening to him talk, trying to figure him out. Henny loved him right back.
I had a wholesale bakery route, a good job for a morning person. I would set my alarm early enough to get to the garage, load the truck, and be on the road by six in the morning. I was usually back at the garage by three in the afternoon, leaving a couple of afternoon hours free.
I was a pretty good ten-pin bowler, and I believed that with enough practice I could improve my scores enough to become a professional. I kept my ball and shoes in the trunk of the car, and once or twice a week I’d stop at a bowling alley on my way home and roll some practice.
One day as I was bowling, the desk manager came over, asked if I was Mr. Smithee, and said I had a phone call. When I picked it up, it was my wife, and she said “Henny’s dead!”. I said “Are you sure?” and she said “Yes, he’s on the back stairs and mother says he’s cold.” They had located me by looking through the Yellow Pages for Newark bowling alleys.
A little family background – I knew Mimi’s mother had shared with her a suspicion that my afternoon bowling sessions might be something else. That was mean and destructive, but I understood her thinking – she had caught her own husband cheating. He had a thing going on with a waitress, coming home late at night with white shoe polish on the back of his pants.
When I got home, the mother said “We were so happy to find you at that bowling alley!” I wanted to say “Yeah, sorry to disappoint you”, but didn’t.
I went to see about Henny, and yes, he was dead. He was sort of wedged in on the landing halfway down the stairs. It didn’t look like he fell, it was more like he got tired and just sat down. You could see he’d been there a while.
“Take his ring off,” the mother said; “the ambulance people will steal it.” No doubt she had already tried to remove it. It was heavy and silver, with a worn-down coat of arms instead of a stone. His fingers were swollen and I tried to turn the ring to loosen it, but it was too tight. I left the removal to the slandered ambulance crew or the funeral director.
I don’t know who paid for Henny’s funeral; maybe he had insurance or they took up a collection at work. There was a visitation at the small funeral home a block away on Pennsylvania Avenue. Next day we drove to a memorial chapel in the middle of Rosehill Cemetery, a green parcel of land sandwiched between U.S. 1-9 and the Bayway refineries. After some words of prayer and farewell, the ushers led us next door into the crematory. They rolled in the casket, stopping by the steel doors to the furnace. A few more words were said, then we were asked to leave.
So long, Henny. Rest in peace.
Moving in
When Pennsylvania Avenue started going downhill, Mimi and I found an apartment in a two-family house in a nicer part of town, Highland Avenue in Newark’s North Ward. It was near Branch Brook Park and close to my job. For a few weeks before we moved in, I stopped by for a couple hours every day on my way home, painting and putting up wallpaper. The owners, Fred and Evelyn, lived in the upstairs apartment and were happy to see the downstairs looking nice again. Our rent was very reasonable, only $90 a month. A few years later, they raised it, apologetically, to $95.
The neighborhood
With some exceptions, our neighborhood was Italian, from the family-friendly bar at one end of the block to Celentano’s latticini food store and pasta works at the other. A fancy Italian bakery was a few blocks west on Bloomfield Avenue; small and casual Vesuvio’s restaurant was a half block east. A tiny grocery store, John’s, was in the middle of our block, two steps down into what was once someone’s cellar. On the narrow shelves along one wall, there was just enough room for four units of any item you might need to make a meal or do a load of laundry. After you left, John would go into the back room and restock the shelf.
One exception to the mostly-Italian rule lived a few doors down, an Irish gent so pale that our new neighbor Josie referred to him as Mozzarella Face. My family and I were also exceptions to the rule, the worst kind, new arrivals to the neighborhood. When the window of a garage behind our back fence had a rock thrown through it, the owner implied that our five-year-old was responsible, saying “There was never any trouble in this neighborhood until your kind moved in.” I asked my son about it later. He didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, but he finally told me who threw the rock. I was happy to tell the garage owner that she might want to talk to little Carlo Parisi, a budding sociopath from the other end of the block.
The Saint
It’s true – you don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. One day we heard the sound of a brass band, and a religious procession began making its way down our cobblestone street. If you’ve watched the Sicilian funeral procession that opens Godfather II, you know what they sounded like. Our landlady Evelyn ran downstairs to announce “The Saint is coming!” and asked “Do you have your money ready!?” Mimi and I just looked at each other. By nature, I am a suspicious type, and I asked why we needed money. She said “For the Saint! To put on the Saint!”, as though it was the dumbest question she’d ever heard. Mimi was brought up Catholic, but this was a new one on her too, and we looked at each other again. Evelyn said “You have to, it’s bad luck if you don’t!”
So we located some cash and stepped outside. I hate making another Godfather comparison, but if you’ve seen the feast day procession in Godfather II during which Don Fanucci meets his end, you’ve seen the feast day procession of Saint Gerard too, Saint Gerard’s on a smaller scale of course. When the procession paused for a moment, someone gave us pins and we pinned our offering to the statue of Saint Gerard Majella, patron saint of motherhood, pregnancy, and those trying to conceive.
Summer fun
During the summer, portable kiddie rides like the Whip and the Ferris Wheel came by and parked for a few hours. Looking at the pictures now, the rides look pretty tame, but the smaller kids were crazy about them. A Good Humor or Mr. Softee ice cream truck usually tagged along.
For personal fun, Fred made radio-controlled airplanes in his cellar workshop, big buzzy ones with a four-foot wingspan. I went flying with him once out in the boondocks. It was fun, but I think he was disappointed that I wasn’t interested in taking it up as a hobby myself.
The North Ward seemed to be hosting the last hurrah of the horse and wagon. A wagon carrying fresh, green produce clopped down the street regularly, and every Friday a peddler of tripe, a local favorite, came by shouting “a-tree-po! a-tree-po!”. For anyone wondering, tripe is the stomach lining of a cow. I have not tried it. Occasionally the ragman’s sad wagon came by, with him calling out his offer to buy rags and old clothes.
I was making good money on my sales route, and we bought a window air conditioner, one of the first on the block. I put strips of red reflective tape on the sides so no one coming up the alley after dark would walk into it. With Fred’s blessing, I hired an electrician to add another circuit to our box downstairs. Under the air conditioner’s friendly hum, on Memorial Day 1964, Mimi and I made another baby.
Toward the end
The father who was treasurer of our son’s Cub Scout pack skipped town with the proceeds of a candy sale they held to finance a trip. I was elected the new treasurer. When I called Scout headquarters to ask what the Scouts could do about the stolen money, basically they said “Tough”, and that the kids were out of luck. So, the kids did not get to go on their trip, and justice was not served. I regret now that I didn’t threaten to notify the newspapers; that would have made them step up, I’m sure. Of course, nowadays the Scouts have bigger embarrassments to worry about.
A young Hispanic couple moved into the second floor of the building across the street. Their electricity wasn’t on yet, but I could see generally what was going on. She was leaning with folded arms on the windowsill, watching traffic. He stepped up behind her, flipped her dress over her back and together they christened their new apartment. I didn’t watch all of it, but it was sweet. May their first child be a masculine child.
While still on Highland Avenue, I finished computer school and got my first programming job, at Condé Nast Publications in New York City. Looking back, Condé was the best place I ever worked. I loved working there, but I didn’t love getting there — if it weren’t for the commute, I probably would have stayed there until they carried me out. Instead, I took a programming job at Hess Oil in Woodbridge, with the goal of eventually moving my family to the shore.
Moving out
While I worked at Hess, we took the next step. We found a winter rental at the shore and made it our base while we looked for what optimistic people call their “Forever Home”.
Our Newark neighbors, including Mozzarella Face, whose real name was Tom, helped us load the U-Haul.
I began commuting from the shore to Hess, 40 minutes each way, always keeping an eye out for a job closer to home.
As promised, here’s more about Josie, our friend and upstairs neighbor on Highland Avenue.
Josie and her husband Martin moved into the apartment upstairs from us after our landlords Fred and Evelyn bought a house “out west” in Morris County and moved. They kept the Highland Avenue house and were still our landlords, nice ones and good people. Mimi and Paul (me), Josie and Martin became friends.
Josie was 100% third-generation Italian, skinny and fierce; Martin 100% fresh-off-the-boat Irish. He drove a delivery truck for the Rheingold brewery in Orange. The two would often fight, shouting and saying terrible things to each other. One fight ended with Martin’s clothes, plus his suitcase as an afterthought, tossed from a second floor window into the back yard. By the next day the storm would have passed. Mimi and I didn’t grow up in shouting families, and we agreed that if we ever said some of those things to each other, our marriage would be over.
Mimi was a good cook, especially of Italian food, including the best tomato sauce gravy in the world, and a rich, delicious lasagna. I forget where her lasagna recipe originally came from, but it was authentic. One day she decided to make one, and she and Josie went down to Celentano’s latticini cheese and meat store at the end of the block. Celentano’s foods were authentic too, and became a national brand. At the store, aromatic clusters of imported cheese, salami and prosciutto (“pro-zhoot!”) hung from the ceiling. Through the low cellar windows, you could see their trademark round-not-square ravioli being made and packed, 12 to a box.
When it was Mimi’s turn to order, she gave herself away as a Medigan, a respectable white American who unfortunately is not Italian, by pronouncing aloud the final ‘a’ in mozzarella.
Where I grew up, to be referred to as a Medigan was almost an honor, similar to being addressed as yourname-san by a Japanese acquaintance. If you’re not Italian and you’re not a Medigan either, you don’t count for much around the neighborhood.
Italian food clerks and waiters just smile when you pronounce Italian words the wrong way; they’ve heard it all. They know what you mean, and never correct you. The clerk asked “salted or unsalted?”, and Mimi said “I don’t know… whatever they sell in the supermarket, I guess.” Josie was horrified to hear Mimi admit to buying mozzarella in a supermarket, and told her later “I have never been so embarrassed.”
Early on, Josie teased me about being “old”, five years older than she was. On her 25th birthday I got even, saying “Wow, a quarter of a century!”. That ended the teasing.
They had a baby they named Colin, and Josie relied a lot on Mimi’s past experience taking care of her own. For convenience, Josie bathed Colin in the kitchen sink. That probably sounds strange now, but Josie kept her kitchen, including her sink, spotless. Colin didn’t like being bathed, but he didn’t cry. A passive baby, he showed his displeasure by rocking and banging his head softly against the sink, eventually developing a callus on his forehead. One day he switched speeds, and banged his head so hard that he surprised himself. He cried for a while, but didn’t do that anymore.
Josie once locked herself out of the apartment, leaving year-old Colin alone. She came downstairs in a panic, asking me to please get the door open. There was no question of waiting for a locksmith. I told her I didn’t know what to do except break it open, which turned out to be not as easy as it looks on television. Before each run I took at the door, Josie hollered “Don’t be scared, honey, it’s going to be all right!” When the lock finally broke out, Colin was just sitting on the floor, taking it all in.
Josie was a neat-freak, and kept her apartment scrupulously clean. As he got older, Colin accumulated lots of toys, but was only allowed to play with one at a time, and had to put that one away before he could play with another. We thought that was mean, and told Josie so. She said she just couldn’t stand a mess. I think she was almost sick when she came downstairs one Christmas and saw how our kids’ Hot Wheels track had taken over the living room.
When we went on a two-week vacation, we asked her to collect our mail. When we got back, she was angry because we got too much mail to fit in the kitchen drawer she had assigned to it, shouting “Why do you need so many goddamn magazines?”
One day Josie and Mimi wanted to go shopping. Mimi didn’t drive yet, and asked me if it would be okay for Josie to drive our car, since Martin had theirs. I didn’t have a good reason to say no, so I said sure. I wasn’t watching at first, but then I heard our Pontiac’s engine revving fast but under strain, making a sound something like rrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr, over and over. I went to the window, and with each rrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr the car sort of leaned forward, but didn’t move. When I park, I always set the parking brake, just like I learned to do when I was 17, even on a level street like Highland Avenue. I went out on the porch and between rrrrrrrr’s shouted to Josie TAKE! THE BRAKE OFF!
She did, but because she had been jamming the gas pedal all the way to the floor with no effect, she jammed it all the way down again. The car peeled out with a screech, leaving a cloud of rubber smoke and a long streak on the cobblestones. It was everyone’s lucky day that there were no cars parked ahead of her to run into. Grudging kudos to Josie, who did not lose control. After swerving and recovering, she slowed to a reasonable speed and headed toward downtown.
When they got back, Josie started to ask why I had the parking brake on, but before she could finish I said SHUT UP and told her she was a stupid, stupid, person and could have killed my wife, no seat belts then. I feel bad now about saying that, but I was still upset. Both women had a cry, and the subject was never again mentioned. I think the near-crash led to Mimi taking an extra year to get her driver’s license.
When I learned to drive, what we now call the ‘parking brake’ was the ’emergency brake’. Car manufacturers probably stopped calling it that because their lawyers worried drivers might expect an emergency brake to be useful in an emergency, which usually they were not, and file lawsuits.
We generally didn’t lock the door between the building’s shared front hallway and our apartment. I never went upstairs uninvited, but Mimi and Josie circulated freely. The apartments were what they call railroad rooms, with the living room in front and the bathroom at the back, where you could see straight through the rooms from one end to the other. One day Mimi was out with the kids when I came home from work and took a shower. After I dried off, I started toward the front of the house to get clean underwear, only to see Josie stopped dead in the front room. She was screaming curses at me for being naked. I kept walking, reminding her that “I live here.” She turned and ran back upstairs. Martin and I had a laugh the next day when he told me “My wife says you’re a fine figure of a man.” I’m sure she didn’t say that at all.
Both sons in the back seat
south on the Parkway
to the Shore for the day
they’ve been fighting all morning.
They are
getting to me.
Knock it off, I say or I’m
turning this car around.
Born five years apart,
they laugh and egg each other on.
They do not knock it off, and I,
I am sick of it, I’ve had it.
Next exit Irvington.
I take the exit
then a left, then another.
Now we’re back on the Parkway
this time headed
back north.
Now the sound
of someone weeping.
It’s my wife.
Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore
It would be so fine to see your face at my door
– Carole King
In a moment of nostalgia, I look on Google Earth for the Continental Insurance data center in Neptune where I worked 35 years ago. The once starkly modern three-story building looks abandoned, its parking lots empty and overgrown. Trying to find an earlier view with any signs of life, I have to go back in the timeline more than twelve years.
I drive past the building to get a closer look, and see that giant demolition machines have begun chewing away at it. Already one corner of the building has been torn away – the third-floor executive offices are now just a ragged hole and a pile of broken concrete. Gone too is my up-and-comer, double-size cubicle location in the corner of the floor below. I think of my lost friends and moving myself and my family around the country chasing the next, better job.
All lost in the moves, me, all, all lost in the moves.
Even moving to another town, let alone another state, we lose something. It’s too bad we can’t all stay and live and love where we were born and not have all this loss.
When we lived in Newark in the 1970s, our neighbor Josie introduced us to her friend, a woman of about 50 that we already knew had won one of the first New Jersey lotteries, with a prize of a million dollars. Mimi said how wonderful that must be, but the woman seemed afraid we might ask her for some of it, and said a million dollars wasn’t really that much (although it was, in the 1970s), and went into a big explanation of why she and her husband were not quitting their jobs. They did not have great, interesting jobs you’d want to keep doing for the rest of your life; I think the husband was a school custodian.
Back then if you made $10,000 a year you were doing pretty well. I remember in the mid-1960s, the first year I ever made that much, how quietly proud it made me. By my ballpark estimate, if they took the cash-now prize option, after taxes they could have lived comfortably for another 40 years without working.
Maybe they just didn’t want to be together all day, and going to their jobs gave them a break from each other. Or maybe they wanted to leave it all to their kids or to the Church. The choice was theirs, but whatever the reason was, Mimi and I thought it was sad. When your ship comes in, you should get on it.
I haven’t been inside a brick-and-mortar library in years, but the one in my town kept the public computers out in the open so the librarians could keep an eye out to help anyone who got stuck. Here’s how that worked out one day for me.
While my wife wanders around picking out books, I grab a computer to kill some time catching up with the news. When I sit down, there’s a string of tiny windows across the bottom of the screen. As soon as I try to close one, a regular-sized window pops up, with a closeup of a couple in flagrante.
No matter what I try, I can’t get any window to close; new ones keep popping up, and soon I’m standing up to block the screen while I click away. So of course one of the librarians sees me having a problem of some sort and comes over to help. I have to give her credit – once she gets close enough to see what’s going on and I say something like “Um, I’m having a problem closing these windows that were up already when I got here, I swear”, she says “Damn those high-school kids”, grabs the mouse and starts closing windows herself.
This apparently is one of those sites that doesn’t want you to leave, so there’s fresh activity blooming all over the screen and we’re both embarrassed and trying to address the problem of closing the windows while making believe we don’t see what’s going on IN the windows. After another minute, a different librarian figures there’s a computer problem that can’t be resolved and SHE comes over to help, leading to a discussion of whether to restart the machine instead. So there I am with two librarians next to me, porn all over the screen, and down the aisle starts my puzzled-looking wife with her bag of books to tell me it’s time to go. All I can say as I turn her around and walk her toward the elevator is “I can explain everything.”
While doing family tree research, I ran across a file that listed the cause of death and other details for 15,339 burials in the Wilkes-Barre, PA city cemetery. They date from the mid-1800s up to about 1960, when they slow down and stop, probably because of computers. Causes include such as “dropsy”, “fits”, “powder mill explosion” and “suicide by whisky”.
Here is what people were dying of back then, with the count for each cause. Many of these 2,300+ causes are duplicates except for small spelling or stylistic differences. I didn’t try to fix anything. When there was only one instance of a particular cause, I left the count blank to avoid clutter.
Trigger warning: some of these will make you very sad.
| count | cause of death | |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | ? | |
| ? & confinement 3 | ||
| 2 gsws in back of head: murder investigation | ||
| 35 yrs. | ||
| abb appendix | ||
| abcess | ||
| abcess of limbs | ||
| abcess of stomach | ||
| abcess on brain | ||
| abdominal aorta | ||
| abdominal cancer | ||
| abdominal tuberculosis | ||
| abdominal tumor | ||
| abnormal aorta | ||
| abortion | ||
| 7 | abscess | |
| abscess & died in hospital | ||
| abscess in foot | ||
| abscess in the head | ||
| abscess inside | ||
| 4 | abscess of brain | |
| abscess of lob. | ||
| abscess of lung | ||
| abscess of lungs | ||
| abscess on head | ||
| abscess on lung | ||
| 4 | absess | |
| absess & sore on leg | ||
| absess in head | ||
| absess of bowel | ||
| absess of bowels | ||
| absess of liver | ||
| absess of stomach | ||
| 84 | accident | |
| accident - fractured skull | ||
| accident crushed head | ||
| accident dislocation vertebrae | ||
| accident due to burns | ||
| 9 | accident in mines | |
| accident on cars | ||
| accident on r. r. | ||
| accident on railroad | ||
| accident swallowing meat | ||
| accident with street car | ||
| accident: fell in stone quarry | ||
| accident; collapse of the bennett building | ||
| accident; struck by car june 14th | ||
| 17 | accidental | |
| accidental (jumped from window-suicide) | ||
| 2 | accidental burns | |
| accidental choking | ||
| accidental death: mine explosion | ||
| accidental drowing | ||
| 2 | accidental drowning | |
| accidental drowning in susquehanna river | ||
| accidental electrocution | ||
| 2 | accidental fall | |
| accidental fall of rock | ||
| accidental gun shot wound to the heart | ||
| accidental hanging while trying to get in window | ||
| accidental r/r | ||
| 2 | accidental shooting | |
| accidentally run over by street car in miner's mills | ||
| accidently killed | ||
| accidently run over in mines | ||
| accidently shot | ||
| accidently shot by brother at lake nuangola | ||
| accidently shot by his brother william while hunting at fox hill | ||
| acdinental fall | ||
| acute aedema larynx | ||
| acute aftersis myocardial infection | ||
| acute albuminuria | ||
| 9 | acute alcoholism | |
| 2 | acute appendicitis | |
| 4 | acute brights disease | |
| 6 | acute bronchitis | |
| 5 | acute cardiac dilatation | |
| acute cardiac dilation | ||
| acute cardiac dilatitis | ||
| acute cardiac failure | ||
| acute cardiac insufficiency | ||
| acute cardio failure | ||
| acute cerebral vascular accident | ||
| acute circulatory failure | ||
| acute congenital heart failure | ||
| 2 | acute coronary occlusion | |
| acute coronary thrombosis | ||
| 11 | acute dilatation of heart | |
| acute dilation of heart | ||
| 2 | acute dilitation | |
| acute dilitation of heart | ||
| 2 | acute dysentery | |
| 2 | acute endocarditis | |
| acute endoracditis | ||
| acute enteritis | ||
| acute erysipelas | ||
| acute exaculation of a chronic alchoholism | ||
| acute gas | ||
| acute gastio intestinal infection | ||
| acute gastriitis | ||
| 5 | acute gastritis | |
| acute gastro enteritis | ||
| 2 | acute heart disease | |
| 6 | acute heart failure | |
| acute hemorrhagic gastritis | ||
| acute hepatitus | ||
| acute hydrocefalus | ||
| acute hydrocephalis | ||
| acute ileo colitis | ||
| 5 | acute indigestion | |
| acute indo carditis | ||
| acute intestinal obstruction | ||
| 2 | acute laryngitis | |
| 3 | acute meningitis | |
| acute mi | ||
| acute myocardial infarction | ||
| acute myocardial infection | ||
| acute myocardial insufficiency | ||
| acute myocardio infection | ||
| 6 | acute myocarditis | |
| acute myocarditis infection | ||
| 15 | acute nephritis | |
| acute nephritis after scarlet fever | ||
| acute occlusion | ||
| acute pancarditis | ||
| 2 | acute pericarditis | |
| 2 | acute peritonitis | |
| acute peutonitia | ||
| 2 | acute pneumonia | |
| acute pulmonary edema | ||
| acute pulmonary hemorrhage | ||
| acute pulmonary tuberculosis | ||
| acute sinusitis | ||
| acute tonsilitis | ||
| 2 | acute tuberculosis | |
| addisons disease | ||
| addison's disease | ||
| adema | ||
| adema of lung & heart disease | ||
| adenitis | ||
| advanced bright's | ||
| aedema gottidis | ||
| 3 | aedema of lungs | |
| aedemia | ||
| aeute nephritis | ||
| affection of brain | ||
| 5 | ague | |
| albumanic | ||
| alcholism | ||
| alcohilic stimulant | ||
| alcohol poisoning | ||
| alcohol toxemia | ||
| alcoholic neuritis | ||
| 3 | alcoholism | |
| alectesis | ||
| alectises | ||
| 14 | amputation | |
| amputation; arm taken off by cars. | ||
| amputation; falling under cars | ||
| 10 | anemia | |
| anemia & general debility | ||
| anemia pectoris - acute indigestion | ||
| aneurysm | ||
| aneurysm of aorta | ||
| angina pectoria | ||
| 9 | angina pectoris | |
| anthososilicoies | ||
| anthra sclerosis | ||
| anthracosis | ||
| anthrasicicosis | ||
| anthristosis | ||
| anthro sclerosis | ||
| anthrocosis | ||
| antra coliscosis | ||
| aoatetis | ||
| aorta regurgitation | ||
| aortic aneurism | ||
| aortic insufficiencies | ||
| aortic insufficiency | ||
| aortic obstruction | ||
| 3 | aortic regurgitation | |
| 2 | apendicitis | |
| apoplegy | ||
| apoplely | ||
| apopletic fits | ||
| apoplexa | ||
| 124 | apoplexy | |
| apoplexy & dropsy | ||
| apoplexy & paralysis | ||
| apoplexy and paralysis | ||
| 12 | appendicitis | |
| appoplexy | ||
| appoplictic stroke | ||
| apuosis | ||
| arrest. | ||
| arsenic poison | ||
| artereo sclerosis | ||
| arteri sclerotic heart | ||
| arteria selerocis | ||
| 8 | arterial sclerosis | |
| arterial sclerosis heart disease | ||
| arterial sclerotic heart disease | ||
| arterio claratic heart disease | ||
| arterio occlusion | ||
| 2 | arterio schlerosis | |
| arterio schlerosis heart disease | ||
| arterio scleroris | ||
| 28 | arterio sclerosis | |
| 3 | arterio sclerosis heart failure | |
| arterio sclerosos | ||
| arterio sclorosis | ||
| 10 | arteriosclerosis | |
| arteriosclerosis heart | ||
| arteriosclerosis heart failure | ||
| arteriosclerotic heart | ||
| arteriosclerotic heart disease | ||
| 2 | artero sclerosis | |
| artery selerocis | ||
| artherio sclerosis | ||
| arthritis deformities | ||
| arthrosclerosis | ||
| 2 | ascuhd | |
| ascvd | ||
| ascvhd | ||
| ashd | ||
| ashd (heart disease) | ||
| ashma | ||
| 15 | asphyxia | |
| asphyxiated by gas | ||
| 5 | asphyxiation | |
| aspiration pneumonia | ||
| aspirin poisoning | ||
| assault | ||
| asthema | ||
| 2 | asthemia | |
| 67 | asthma | |
| 2 | asthma & dropsy | |
| asthma and fits | ||
| asthma and heart disease | ||
| asthma and stomach trouble | ||
| asthma cardiac | ||
| asthma; general debility | ||
| ataxia | ||
| atedectosis | ||
| 2 | atelactasis | |
| atelactasis pulmonalis | ||
| atelectasis | ||
| atelectasis pulmonalis | ||
| 2 | atelectosis | |
| atelectosis pulmonosis | ||
| atelectrosis | ||
| ateledosis | ||
| ateloctysis of left lung | ||
| atelsctrosis | ||
| 2 | aterio selerosis | |
| athero sclerosis | ||
| athesia ani vesicalis | ||
| atolectrosis | ||
| atrophy | ||
| atrophy of liver | ||
| 13 | auto accident | |
| auto accident - fractured skull | ||
| autopsy requested | ||
| axlectulis | ||
| azotemia | ||
| 3 | baby sore mouth | |
| bilateral p | ||
| bilious | ||
| 2 | bilious colic | |
| 6 | bilious fever | |
| bilious fever & ague | ||
| bilious intermittent fever | ||
| biliousness | ||
| billious colic | ||
| 2 | billious fever | |
| bite of a dog | ||
| 2 | black fever | |
| blast/explosion | ||
| 2 | bled to death | |
| bleeding | ||
| blood aspiration trachea | ||
| 5 | blood poison | |
| blood poison and childbirth | ||
| blood poison from popping a pimple with a pin | ||
| 9 | blood poisoning | |
| blood poisonmiong | ||
| body found in river | ||
| boiler explosion | ||
| born dead | ||
| 7 | bowel complaint | |
| bowel complications | ||
| 4 | bowel obstruction | |
| 4 | bowel trouble | |
| 3 | brain abscess | |
| brain affliction | ||
| brain croup | ||
| 8 | brain disease | |
| brain embolism | ||
| 59 | brain fever | |
| brain fever & inflamation of bowels | ||
| 3 | brain trouble | |
| 4 | brain tumor | |
| brancho pneumonia | ||
| 2 | breast cancer | |
| bright disease | ||
| 55 | brights disease | |
| 29 | bright's disease | |
| brights disease - heart trouble | ||
| brights disease & pneumonia | ||
| brights disease (kidneys) | ||
| 2 | bright's disease of kidneys | |
| brights disease: apoplexy | ||
| brobchitis | ||
| brochal catarrh | ||
| 6 | broken back | |
| broken hip | ||
| broken leg and complications | ||
| 2 | broken neck | |
| broken neck; accident | ||
| bron?? pneumonia | ||
| 3 | bronchial asthma | |
| 25 | bronchial pneumonia | |
| bronchio asthma | ||
| 5 | bronchio pneumonia | |
| bronchio pneumonia - influenza | ||
| 5 | bronchio-pneumonia | |
| 97 | bronchitis | |
| bronchitis & croup | ||
| 2 | bronchitis & old age | |
| bronchitis and bowel trouble | ||
| bronchitis pneumonia | ||
| bronchitis whooping cought | ||
| broncho infection disease | ||
| broncho pneumoni | ||
| 80 | broncho pneumonia | |
| broncho pneumonia following measles | ||
| 35 | broncho-pneumonia | |
| bronco pneumonia | ||
| brunt | ||
| 3 | bullet wound | |
| bullet wound of chest | ||
| buried alive in sand while making a tunnel with his companions. | ||
| buried with mother ellen | ||
| burn | ||
| 17 | burned | |
| burned at mines , by explosion of gas at wyoming colliery | ||
| burned at sickler's fertilizing plant | ||
| burned by gas | ||
| burned by gas in mines | ||
| burned by stove cleaning polish explosion | ||
| burned in accident | ||
| burned in mine | ||
| 13 | burned in mines | |
| 2 | burned in prospect shaft | |
| burned in stanton mines | ||
| burned in the mines | ||
| burned in the stanton shaft | ||
| 3 | burned to death | |
| burned to death by parlor matches | ||
| burned to death in blacksmith shop | ||
| burned with kerosene oil | ||
| burned with powder | ||
| 42 | burns | |
| burns about head | ||
| burns from hot ashes | ||
| burns from mine accident | ||
| 4 | burnt | |
| burus | ||
| by fall of roof in mines | ||
| c. s. meningytis | ||
| 116 | cancer | |
| 2 | cancer & old age | |
| cancer amputation | ||
| cancer in stomach | ||
| cancer in the womb | ||
| 2 | cancer of bowel | |
| cancer of bowels | ||
| cancer of esophagus | ||
| cancer of hand | ||
| 6 | cancer of liver | |
| cancer of mouth | ||
| cancer of pancreas | ||
| 3 | cancer of rectum | |
| 14 | cancer of stomach | |
| cancer of stomach and liver | ||
| cancer of throat | ||
| 3 | cancer of uterus | |
| 6 | cancer of womb | |
| cancer on liver | ||
| cancer on womb | ||
| cancer uterus | ||
| cancerous tumor | ||
| canker sore mouth | ||
| cankered throat | ||
| can't read the cause | ||
| capilary biomilitis | ||
| capilary bronchitis | ||
| 8 | capillary bronchitis | |
| cappilary bronchitis | ||
| car. of cervix | ||
| 2 | carbolic acid poisoning | |
| carbon monoxide poisoning | ||
| 2 | carbuncles | |
| carbunkle & fever | ||
| 2 | carcenoma | |
| carcenoma general | ||
| carcimona of pyforus | ||
| carcimona of rectum | ||
| carcimona stomach | ||
| 34 | carcinoma | |
| carcinoma left breast (breast cancer) | ||
| 2 | carcinoma of breast | |
| carcinoma of breasts | ||
| carcinoma of bronchus | ||
| carcinoma of cervix | ||
| carcinoma of duodenum | ||
| carcinoma of esophagus | ||
| carcinoma of forehead | ||
| carcinoma of glands | ||
| carcinoma of heart | ||
| carcinoma of intestines | ||
| 3 | carcinoma of jaw | |
| carcinoma of larynx | ||
| 3 | carcinoma of liver | |
| carcinoma of lung & breast | ||
| carcinoma of ovaries | ||
| carcinoma of ovary | ||
| carcinoma of pancreas | ||
| carcinoma of pancres | ||
| carcinoma of prostate | ||
| 3 | carcinoma of rectum | |
| 2 | carcinoma of right lung | |
| carcinoma of right womnary island | ||
| 13 | carcinoma of stomach | |
| carcinoma of the prostrate gland | ||
| carcinoma of uterius | ||
| 5 | carcinoma of uterus | |
| 2 | carcinoma prostate gland | |
| carcinoma sigmoid | ||
| carcinoma stomach | ||
| carcinoma upper gastral | ||
| carcoma of neck | ||
| cardia rine disease | ||
| 2 | cardiac | |
| cardiac arithmia | ||
| 9 | cardiac arrest | |
| cardiac arrhythmia | ||
| 5 | cardiac asthma | |
| cardiac convulsions | ||
| cardiac damage | ||
| 2 | cardiac decompensation | |
| 2 | cardiac decompression | |
| cardiac degeneration | ||
| 2 | cardiac dilatation | |
| cardiac dilatutions | ||
| 2 | cardiac dilitation | |
| 3 | cardiac disease | |
| 2 | cardiac dropsey | |
| 6 | cardiac dropsy | |
| cardiac dylation | ||
| cardiac embolism | ||
| 36 | cardiac failure | |
| cardiac hypertrophy | ||
| 2 | cardiac insufficiency | |
| cardiac insuffiency | ||
| 5 | cardiac paralysis | |
| cardiac renal | ||
| cardiac renal disease | ||
| cardiac respiratory failure | ||
| cardiac secumpution | ||
| cardiac syncope | ||
| cardiac valvular disease | ||
| cardio disease | ||
| cardio myopathy | ||
| 2 | cardio pulmonary arrest | |
| 4 | cardio renal | |
| cardio renal disease | ||
| 2 | cardio respiratory failure | |
| 3 | cardio vascular | |
| 4 | cardio vascular disease | |
| cardiopulmonary arrest | ||
| cardiovascular disease | ||
| 2 | carditis | |
| cariac failure | ||
| caries of spine | ||
| cat. pneumonia | ||
| catalase of stomach | ||
| 8 | catarrh | |
| catarrh of stomach | ||
| 3 | catarrhal pneumonia | |
| 2 | catherine kechline & louisa bevan on same line of lot record | |
| caught in machinery | ||
| 2 | cause not given | |
| cause unknown by person who applied for burial permit | ||
| caused by drinking alcohol | ||
| cba | ||
| cellulitic pelumn | ||
| 2 | cellulitis | |
| cellultiis | ||
| ceptic degeneration of uterus | ||
| 4 | cerebal hemorrhage | |
| cerebis - spinal syphylis | ||
| cerebral ??something | ||
| cerebral anemia | ||
| 8 | cerebral apoplexy | |
| cerebral applexy | ||
| cerebral arteriosclerosis | ||
| 3 | cerebral compression | |
| cerebral congestion | ||
| cerebral disability | ||
| 9 | cerebral embolism | |
| cerebral embolysm | ||
| cerebral hemmerhage | ||
| 2 | cerebral hemmorage | |
| 3 | cerebral hemmorhage | |
| cerebral hemmorrhage | ||
| cerebral hemorage | ||
| cerebral hemorhage | ||
| cerebral hemorrage | ||
| 100 | cerebral hemorrhage | |
| cerebral hemorrhage - from accidental fall | ||
| cerebral hyperaemia | ||
| cerebral injuries | ||
| 9 | cerebral meningitis | |
| cerebral spinal meningitis | ||
| 7 | cerebral thrombosis | |
| cerebral tumor | ||
| cerebral valvular disease | ||
| 2 | cerebral vascular accident | |
| cerebral vascular disease | ||
| cerebral vascular thrombosis | ||
| cerebritia | ||
| cerebro meningitis | ||
| 4 | cerebro spinal meningitis | |
| cerebro spinal syphilis | ||
| cerebro-spinal meningitis | ||
| 4 | cerebrovascular disease | |
| cerebrovascular occlusion | ||
| cerebutis | ||
| cetebral anaemia | ||
| ch. myocarditis | ||
| ch. pul. antheaposis | ||
| change of life | ||
| chemia | ||
| 3 | chicken pox | |
| child bed fever | ||
| 10 | child birth | |
| child birth & tuyphoid pneumonia | ||
| childbed | ||
| 34 | childbirth | |
| childs sore mouth | ||
| chills | ||
| 2 | chills, infl. | |
| choera morbus | ||
| choked on piece of meat | ||
| 2 | choking | |
| 3 | chol. inf. | |
| choleceatitis | ||
| 2 | cholecystitis | |
| 6 | cholera | |
| 2 | cholera imorbus | |
| 14 | cholera infantium | |
| cholera infantm | ||
| 700 | cholera infantum | |
| cholera infantum & measles | ||
| cholera infantum & pneumonia | ||
| 2 | cholera infanum | |
| 2 | cholera infanutm | |
| cholera infection | ||
| cholera morbers | ||
| cholera morbis | ||
| 2 | cholera morbitus | |
| 25 | cholera morbus | |
| cholera murbus | ||
| cholera pneumonia | ||
| choleramorbus | ||
| choleva morbus | ||
| 3 | cholic | |
| chorea | ||
| chr. alcoholism - heart failure | ||
| 2 | chr. myocarditis | |
| chronic | ||
| chronic alcoholism | ||
| chronic anthia silicous | ||
| 2 | chronic asthma | |
| chronic atrophy | ||
| chronic brain disease | ||
| chronic brights disease | ||
| chronic bright's disease | ||
| 4 | chronic bronchitis | |
| chronic cardiac disease | ||
| chronic cysititis | ||
| chronic cystitis | ||
| 13 | chronic diarrhea | |
| chronic diarrhoea | ||
| chronic dyspepsia | ||
| chronic elino. | ||
| 6 | chronic endocarditis | |
| 3 | chronic enteritis | |
| chronic gastritis | ||
| chronic heart | ||
| 2 | chronic heart disease | |
| chronic heart trouble | ||
| chronic hypertensean | ||
| chronic inflamation of bowels | ||
| chronic inflamation of stomach | ||
| chronic intestinal catarrh | ||
| chronic laryngitis | ||
| chronic mastoiditis | ||
| chronic mylitis | ||
| chronic myocardia | ||
| 29 | chronic myocarditis | |
| chronic n?phi?tis | ||
| 30 | chronic nephritis | |
| chronic omyocarditis - apoplexy | ||
| chronic passive congestion | ||
| chronic pluericy | ||
| chronic pulmonary disease | ||
| chronic pulmonary tuberculosis | ||
| chronic rheumatism | ||
| chronis pulmonary disease | ||
| cinsumption | ||
| cirorsis of liver | ||
| cirrhosis | ||
| cirrhosis liver | ||
| 23 | cirrhosis of liver | |
| 5 | cirrhosis of the liver | |
| cnsumption | ||
| cnvulsions | ||
| coasting accident on new year's day | ||
| cold | ||
| cold & rheumatism | ||
| cold from bathing | ||
| 2 | cold on lungs | |
| cold settled on lungs | ||
| 3 | colic | |
| 3 | colitis | |
| collapse of heart | ||
| colored: died from stab wounds | ||
| complete facture skull | ||
| complication of diseases | ||
| complication of bowels | ||
| 16 | complication of diseases | |
| 86 | complications | |
| complications - embolism | ||
| complications following pneumonia | ||
| complications from intestinal obstruction | ||
| complications of diseases void ? | ||
| 3 | complications of disease | |
| complications post mortem | ||
| complications with ? | ||
| complications; acute indigestion | ||
| 3 | compression of brain | |
| concussion & hemorrhage | ||
| concussion fo brain | ||
| 61 | confinement | |
| confinement fever | ||
| confinment | ||
| congenital asthma | ||
| congenital debility | ||
| congenital heart defect | ||
| congenital heart disease | ||
| congenital luis | ||
| congenital malformation | ||
| congenital stricture | ||
| congested heart failure | ||
| congested u of a failure | ||
| congestiion of lungs | ||
| 2 | congestion of bowels | |
| 27 | congestion of brain | |
| congestion of kidneys | ||
| 2 | congestion of liver | |
| 2 | congestion of lung | |
| 32 | congestion of lungs | |
| congestion of lungs and meningitis | ||
| 2 | congestion of stomach | |
| 3 | congestion of the brain | |
| 2 | congestive chills | |
| 9 | congestive heart failure | |
| congestive pneumonia | ||
| congestrual heart failure | ||
| conggestion of lungs | ||
| conmvulsions | ||
| constipation | ||
| 467 | consumption | |
| consumption & asthma | ||
| consumption & heart disease | ||
| consumption and bright's disease | ||
| consumption convulsions | ||
| 12 | consumption of bowels | |
| consumption of brain | ||
| 4 | consumption of lungs | |
| consumption of stomach | ||
| consumption of the bowels | ||
| consumption of the lungs | ||
| consumptionm | ||
| convulsion | ||
| convulsion fits | ||
| convulsiona | ||
| 425 | convulsions | |
| convulsions & fits | ||
| convulsions caused by burn? | ||
| convulsions following whooping cough | ||
| convulsions with measles | ||
| convulsive chills | ||
| convulsive fits | ||
| convultions | ||
| convultions ? | ||
| convulusions | ||
| copd | ||
| cor. patmorale | ||
| cor. thrombosis | ||
| 2 | coronary | |
| coronary acclusion | ||
| 2 | coronary artery disease | |
| coronary artery occlusion | ||
| 2 | coronary embolism | |
| coronary myocarditis | ||
| 70 | coronary occlusion | |
| coronary oculsion | ||
| coronary sclerosis | ||
| 25 | coronary thrombosis | |
| coroners office | ||
| cou. of brain | ||
| could not tell the cause | ||
| cousetonic? | ||
| 28 | cramps | |
| cramps and lockjaw | ||
| cramps in stomach | ||
| cronic bronchitis | ||
| cronic endocarditis | ||
| cronic gastritis | ||
| 9 | cronic myocarditis | |
| 3 | cronic nephritis | |
| 219 | croup | |
| croup & congestion of lungs | ||
| 14 | croup & diphtheria | |
| croup & fits | ||
| 2 | croup & inflamation of lungs | |
| croup & inflammation of lungs | ||
| croup and defiletheria | ||
| croup following measles | ||
| croup, diptheria | ||
| croupous pneumonia | ||
| croupus pneumonia | ||
| crushed by fall of rock | ||
| crushed by fan dropping on him in mines | ||
| crushed pelvis | ||
| ct. of nosophargr?? | ||
| cut while shaving | ||
| 4 | cutting teeth | |
| 2 | cva | |
| 10 | cyanosis | |
| cyclone | ||
| cyclone accident | ||
| cyonosis | ||
| cystis with senectis | ||
| 4 | cystitis | |
| dead 2 weeks before birth. | ||
| 10 | dead born | |
| deadborn | ||
| death caused by eating lye | ||
| death caused by gun shot. | ||
| death during delivery | ||
| 19 | debility | |
| decapitated by cars while working in franklin colliery | ||
| 4 | decline | |
| decline (old age) | ||
| dehydration | ||
| 3 | delerium tremens | |
| delerium tremons | ||
| dementia | ||
| demtia | ||
| 29 | diabetes | |
| diabetes (2nd word unreadable) | ||
| diabetes gangrene | ||
| diabetes meelitis | ||
| diabetes melitis | ||
| 7 | diabetes mellitis | |
| 3 | diabetes mellitus | |
| diabetes millitus | ||
| 2 | diabetic coma | |
| diabetic gangrene | ||
| diabetic mellitis | ||
| 2 | diabetis | |
| diarhoea | ||
| diarhora | ||
| 64 | diarrhea | |
| diarrhea & ague | ||
| diarrhea & croup | ||
| diarrhea & teething | ||
| 2 | diarrhoea | |
| diarrhora | ||
| diarrhorea | ||
| dibility | ||
| 2 | did not know | |
| died 8 wks. after surgery for an intestinal obstruction | ||
| died after a short illness | ||
| died after an operation; 3rd child of abraham broody to die within 5 months | ||
| died at city hospital | ||
| died at hospital | ||
| died at hospital of fits | ||
| died at the hospital | ||
| died from a fall | ||
| died from injuries rec'd in laurel run colliery accident on 27 jul 1906 | ||
| died from injuries received in laurel run colliery accident on 27 jul 1906 | ||
| 4 | died from injuries received in mines | |
| died from injuries received. | ||
| died in childbirth | ||
| died in harrison co., oh | ||
| died in hospital | ||
| died in south carolina | ||
| died in the hospital | ||
| 2 | died in utero | |
| died same day | ||
| died suddenly of heart disease | ||
| diffi ??? | ||
| difficult labor | ||
| 2 | dilatation of heart | |
| dilatation of the heart | ||
| dilated heart | ||
| 3 | dilation of heart | |
| 3 | dilitation of heart | |
| dimentia | ||
| dinerrhora | ||
| diph | ||
| dipheria | ||
| 2 | diphthemonia | |
| diphthera | ||
| diphthereia | ||
| 7 | diphtheretic croup | |
| diphtheretic paralysis | ||
| 536 | diphtheria | |
| diphtheria & blood poisoning | ||
| diphtheria & cholera infantum | ||
| 24 | diphtheria & croup | |
| diphtheria & dropsy | ||
| 2 | diphtheria & membranous croup | |
| 7 | diphtheria & scarlet fever | |
| diphtheria & scarletina | ||
| 6 | diphtheria and croup | |
| diphtheria and membranous croup | ||
| diphtheria and scarletina | ||
| diphtheria and weakness | ||
| 2 | diphtheria croup | |
| 3 | diphtheriatic croup | |
| diphtheric croup | ||
| 6 | diphtheritic croup | |
| diptheratic croup | ||
| 61 | diptheria | |
| 2 | diptheria & croup | |
| diptheria & scarlet fever | ||
| 2 | diptheria and croup | |
| 4 | diptheria croup | |
| diptheria laryngitis | ||
| diptheria scarlet fever | ||
| diptheriatic laryngitis | ||
| diptheric croup | ||
| diptherite shotriatitis | ||
| diptheritic croup | ||
| dirrohea | ||
| disease not known | ||
| disease of bowels | ||
| disease of kidneys | ||
| 2 | disease of liver | |
| 2 | disease of spine | |
| disease of womb | ||
| disease organite | ||
| dislocation of hip | ||
| dislocation of neck by hanging | ||
| disorder of brain | ||
| dopsy of brain | ||
| double lobar pneumonia | ||
| dragged by a mule | ||
| 5 | dropsey | |
| 179 | dropsy | |
| dropsy & asthma | ||
| dropsy & bronchitis | ||
| dropsy & confinement | ||
| dropsy & heaart disease | ||
| 3 | dropsy & heart disease | |
| dropsy & heart failure | ||
| dropsy & inflamation of lungs | ||
| dropsy & old age | ||
| dropsy & paralysis | ||
| dropsy and heart disease | ||
| dropsy and senility | ||
| 3 | dropsy of brain | |
| 4 | dropsy of heart | |
| dropsy of the heart | ||
| dropsy of the lungs | ||
| 2 | dropsy on brain | |
| dropsyconsumption | ||
| drosey | ||
| drowing | ||
| 36 | drowned | |
| drowned at blackman mines | ||
| drowned at retreat state hospital | ||
| drowned by his mother, who commited suicide | ||
| drowned in baltimore dam | ||
| 3 | drowned in canal | |
| drowned in canals | ||
| 2 | drowned in river | |
| drowned in sump in buttonwood | ||
| drowned in susquehanna river | ||
| "drowned: at first unknown, but now presumed to be that of john stephens, a | ||
| polander or hungarian from the poor district." | ||
| 24 | drowning | |
| drowning accident | ||
| drowning in the river | ||
| 2 | drug overdose | |
| drunkenness | ||
| dyotheria croup | ||
| 2 | dyphtheria | |
| dyptheria | ||
| 12 | dysentary | |
| 89 | dysentery | |
| dysentery & typhoid fever | ||
| 3 | dysentry | |
| 2 | dyspepsia | |
| dystentery | ||
| 9 | eclampsia | |
| ectopic pregnancy | ||
| 9 | edema of lungs | |
| effects of a fall | ||
| effects of accident in mine | ||
| electruction | ||
| elileptic fits | ||
| emaciation | ||
| embolis of brain | ||
| 13 | embolism | |
| embolism of brain | ||
| 10 | emphysema | |
| empyema | ||
| empyencg | ||
| emypynecia | ||
| encapaloclel | ||
| encepalitis lethargica | ||
| encephalitis | ||
| encephalomalosis, left | ||
| 3 | endo carditis | |
| endo myocarditis | ||
| 16 | endocarditis | |
| enlarged heart disease | ||
| enlarged liver | ||
| enlarged liver & spleen | ||
| enlargement of brain | ||
| enlargement of heart | ||
| 3 | enlargement of liver | |
| enlargement of the liver | ||
| 20 | enteritis | |
| 34 | entero colitis | |
| enteron colitis | ||
| entertis | ||
| entis colitis | ||
| entritis | ||
| 8 | entro colitis | |
| entro-colitis | ||
| enysipelas | ||
| epethetonia | ||
| 4 | epilepsy | |
| epilepsy & dropsy | ||
| epileptic convulsions | ||
| epileptic convuslion | ||
| eremia | ||
| erisypilas | ||
| ersipelas | ||
| eryciphelas | ||
| erycipilas | ||
| 2 | erycypilis | |
| erysepelas | ||
| 18 | erysipelas | |
| erysipelas (aka st. anthony's fire) | ||
| 2 | erysipelas from vaccination | |
| 2 | erysiphelas | |
| erysiphelas from vaccination | ||
| 2 | erysipilas | |
| erysiplas | ||
| erysyphelas | ||
| eterus colitis | ||
| euleritis | ||
| euremia | ||
| eurpynemia | ||
| 2 | euteritis | |
| 8 | eutero colitis | |
| exapthalmic goiter | ||
| 8 | exhaustion | |
| exhaustion - old age | ||
| exhaustion during labor | ||
| explosion | ||
| explosion accident in mines | ||
| 4 | explosion in mines | |
| 3 | explosion of gas | |
| 3 | exposure | |
| exsanguination | ||
| extensive burns | ||
| exzemia inflamation of cervical glands | ||
| fainting | ||
| fall | ||
| fall at work in mines | ||
| fall down a shaft | ||
| fall from a breaker | ||
| fall from wagon | ||
| fall in mines | ||
| fall of mines | ||
| 2 | fall of rock | |
| falling down shaft | ||
| falling in sewer trench | ||
| 3 | fatty degeneration | |
| 2 | fatty heart | |
| fatty inflamation of the heart | ||
| fecal impaction | ||
| fell dead from heart disease | ||
| fell down bank & broke his neck | ||
| fell down mine shaft at d.l.& w. | ||
| 6 | fell down shaft | |
| fell down stairs | ||
| fell down stairs of baptist church | ||
| fell down step | ||
| fell down steps | ||
| fell from car | ||
| fell in shaft | ||
| fell on sidewalk | ||
| fell through bridge | ||
| fell under wheels of d&h freight train while jumping off | ||
| female complaint | ||
| feveer & ague | ||
| 33 | fever | |
| fever & ague | ||
| fever; died at city hospital | ||
| fibroid phthisis | ||
| fibroid tuberculosis | ||
| fibrosis | ||
| 266 | fits | |
| 2 | fits & inflamation | |
| fits & influenza | ||
| fits & weakness | ||
| fits, cramps | ||
| flu | ||
| 2 | flu - pneumonia | |
| foot cut off by cars | ||
| found dead | ||
| found dead in river | ||
| found dead, cause unknown | ||
| found drowned in river | ||
| found floating in susquehanna river | ||
| found in old grave yard | ||
| found in river | ||
| found in river with throat cut | ||
| found on culm bank | ||
| found on empire culm bank | ||
| foundling from infants home | ||
| fracture of back | ||
| fracture of base of skull | ||
| fracture of hip | ||
| fracture of pelvis | ||
| fracture of skull | ||
| 2 | fracture of spine | |
| fracture of vertebra | ||
| fracture of vertebrae | ||
| fracture pelvis | ||
| fracture right scapula | ||
| 2 | fracture skull | |
| fractured base of skull | ||
| fractured femur | ||
| 2 | fractured hip | |
| fractured pelvis | ||
| fractured pelvis; accident at work | ||
| fractured ribs | ||
| 23 | fractured skull | |
| fractured skull & cancer | ||
| fractured skull due to tornado. daughter mary may have survived. | ||
| fractured skull due to tornado. father james survived. | ||
| fractured skull from a fall from telephone pole at work, 26 aug 1915. | ||
| fractured skull from being hit with a falling tree | ||
| fractured skull from falling 30 feet from a roof, while hanging laundry | ||
| fractured skull, struck by train | ||
| fractured spine | ||
| fractured vertebra | ||
| fractured vertebrae | ||
| fractured vertibrae | ||
| fractures and lacerated scalp | ||
| fractures of legs | ||
| frightened to death | ||
| from fall | ||
| from injuries received | ||
| from injuries received from a 17 oct 1916 automobile accident. | ||
| 5 | from injuries received in mines | |
| from injurries doing acrobatic stunts on an iron bar at meade st. playground. | ||
| 2 | frozen | |
| frozen dead | ||
| frozen on wilkes-barre mountain | ||
| fuerrcular menngitis | ||
| 2 | fusion of brain | |
| g. i. hemorrhage | ||
| gall stone surgery and weak heart | ||
| gall stones | ||
| gallstone colic - cronic intestial neph. | ||
| 2 | gallstones | |
| gangreen of lung | ||
| 4 | gangrene | |
| gangrene stomatitis | ||
| gas asphyxiation - suicide | ||
| gas poisoning | ||
| 2 | gastric cancer | |
| gastric carcenoma | ||
| 2 | gastric carcinoma | |
| 2 | gastric enteritis | |
| 3 | gastric hemorrhage | |
| 2 | gastric ulcer | |
| 3 | gastritis | |
| 23 | gastro enteritis | |
| gastro enteritis from ingesting poisoned candy given by a stranger | ||
| gastro entero colitis | ||
| gastro entritis | ||
| gastro intestinal hemorrhage | ||
| 2 | gastro uteral colitis | |
| 4 | gastroenteritis | |
| 4 | gastro-enteritis | |
| gathering in throat | ||
| gen debility | ||
| gen paralysis | ||
| general asthemia | ||
| 136 | general debility | |
| general debility & cardiac dilation | ||
| general debility and premature birth | ||
| general debility from gripp | ||
| 3 | general debiliy | |
| general deformity | ||
| 2 | general delility | |
| general dibility | ||
| 5 | general disability | |
| general paresis | ||
| general peritonitis | ||
| general prostration | ||
| general senility | ||
| general sypticemia | ||
| 3 | general tuberculosis | |
| general weakness | ||
| generalized anterio sclerosis | ||
| generlised sclerosis | ||
| gereral paresis | ||
| glomerulopathies | ||
| goitre toxemia | ||
| granular abscess | ||
| gravel | ||
| gripp and pneumonia | ||
| 6 | grippe | |
| group of diseases | ||
| 2 | gun shot wound | |
| gun shot wound by tony vergari | ||
| haematuria | ||
| haemofitysis | ||
| hanged in w-b for killing cameron cool of w. pittston | ||
| hanging | ||
| 2 | hanging by prison | |
| hardening of arteries | ||
| hardening of kidneys | ||
| hardening of the artery of the heart | ||
| 2 | head injuries | |
| 5 | heart | |
| 7 | heart attack | |
| 3 | heart clot | |
| heart desease | ||
| 265 | heart disease | |
| heart disease - arterio?l?rtic | ||
| heart disease & tumor | ||
| heart disease, scarlet fever | ||
| heart disease; found dead in draywagon. | ||
| heart diseasse | ||
| 101 | heart failure | |
| heart failure - broncho pneumonia | ||
| heart failure & dropsy | ||
| heart failure after diphetria | ||
| heart failure due to arterial sclerotic | ||
| heart scrafula | ||
| 24 | heart trouble | |
| heart trouble - pneumonia | ||
| heart trouble (didn't know exactly) | ||
| heart trouble and miner asthma | ||
| heart weakness | ||
| hearth failure | ||
| heat | ||
| 2 | heat exhaustion | |
| heat stroke | ||
| heat stroke & heart disease | ||
| heights; date: 1905-03-01; paper: wilkes-barre times | ||
| hemiplegia | ||
| hemirrhagia | ||
| hemmorage | ||
| hemmorage brain | ||
| hemmorage caused by stabbing: ruled murder | ||
| hemmorrhage caused by bullet wound | ||
| hemophlegia | ||
| 2 | hemoplegia | |
| hemorage | ||
| hemorahage | ||
| hemorhage of the lungs | ||
| hemorhagia cystitio | ||
| 39 | hemorrhage | |
| hemorrhage & stomach trouble | ||
| hemorrhage of bowels | ||
| 7 | hemorrhage of lungs | |
| 2 | hemorrhage of stomach | |
| hemorrhagic colitis | ||
| hemorrrhage of lung | ||
| hemorrrhage of spinal cord | ||
| hemplaza | ||
| hemylegia / r side | ||
| henorrhage | ||
| hepatic c. | ||
| hepatic cirrhosis | ||
| hepatic failure | ||
| hepotics failure | ||
| hereditary disease | ||
| 3 | hernia | |
| herniated umbilical | ||
| hiccoughs | ||
| hip disease | ||
| hipatee cirrhosis of liver | ||
| hippocratic pneumonia | ||
| hiptoma primary | ||
| hirschopring | ||
| hodgkins disease | ||
| hodgkins lymphoma | ||
| homorrhage | ||
| horde fever | ||
| 10 | hurt in mines | |
| hurt on railroad | ||
| hurt on railroad [died from injuries] | ||
| hydatios of liver | ||
| hydrated cyst | ||
| hydro cephilis | ||
| hydrocephalis | ||
| hydrocephalus | ||
| hydrocephalus (water on the brain) | ||
| hydrocephelas | ||
| hydrocephilus | ||
| hydrocephlus | ||
| hyperneuresis | ||
| 6 | hypertension | |
| hypertensive arteriosclerosis | ||
| hypertensive cardio-? | ||
| 2 | hypertensive encephalopathy | |
| hypertensive vascular heart disease | ||
| hyperthemia | ||
| hyperthoses | ||
| hypertrophy cirrhosis of liver | ||
| hypocephalus | ||
| hypoglycemic coma | ||
| 2 | hypostatic pneumonia | |
| hysteria | ||
| ibabition | ||
| icterus menbrane | ||
| icterus neonatalorium (jaundice) | ||
| ilea colitis | ||
| 17 | ileo colitis | |
| ileocolitis | ||
| 2 | ileo-colitis | |
| ilio colitis | ||
| illeus | ||
| 2 | imflamation of bowels | |
| immaturity | ||
| in hospital | ||
| inainition | ||
| inanitian | ||
| inanitiation | ||
| 53 | inanition | |
| 2 | inantion | |
| inantion plus lupus | ||
| 2 | inauition | |
| 5 | indigestion | |
| inf of bowels | ||
| inf of lungs | ||
| inf. & typhoid fever | ||
| 2 | inf. of bowel | |
| 4 | inf. of bowels | |
| 11 | inf. of lungs | |
| infant died at infants' home | ||
| 4 | infantile convulsions | |
| infantile diarrhea | ||
| infantile paralysis | ||
| infantils meningitis | ||
| infe. rheumatism | ||
| infection of bladder | ||
| infection of bowells | ||
| infection of brain | ||
| infection of kidney | ||
| 3 | infection of lungs | |
| infestation | ||
| 12 | inflamation | |
| inflamation & croup | ||
| inflamation & fits | ||
| inflamation caused by sprained leg | ||
| inflamation in head | ||
| 18 | inflamation of bowel | |
| 104 | inflamation of bowels | |
| inflamation of bowels & cutting teeth | ||
| inflamation of bowels & dysentery | ||
| inflamation of bowels & pleurosy | ||
| inflamation of bowels & teething | ||
| 25 | inflamation of brain | |
| inflamation of intestines | ||
| 2 | inflamation of kidneys | |
| inflamation of kungs | ||
| inflamation of liver | ||
| 408 | inflamation of lungs | |
| inflamation of lungs & bronchitis | ||
| inflamation of lungs & whooping cough | ||
| 2 | inflamation of lungs & bowels | |
| inflamation of lungs & consumption | ||
| inflamation of lungs & convulsions | ||
| inflamation of lungs & dysentery | ||
| inflamation of lungs & liver | ||
| inflamation of lungs & whooping cough | ||
| inflamation of lungs and bowels | ||
| inflamation of lungs and brain | ||
| inflamation of lungs and old age | ||
| inflamation of lungs, diptheria | ||
| 7 | inflamation of stomach | |
| inflamation of the bladder | ||
| 2 | inflamation of the bowels | |
| 8 | inflamation of the brain | |
| inflamation of the groins | ||
| inflamation of the kidney | ||
| inflamation of womb | ||
| inflamation on lungs | ||
| inflamatory rheumatism | ||
| inflamitory rheumatism | ||
| inflammation bowels | ||
| 11 | inflammation of bowels | |
| 5 | inflammation of brain | |
| inflammation of kidneys | ||
| 14 | inflammation of lungs | |
| inflammation of lungs & malaria | ||
| inflammatory diarrhea | ||
| inflammatory rhuematism | ||
| 37 | influenza | |
| influenza & pneumonia | ||
| influenza and croup | ||
| 3 | influenza and pneumonia | |
| influenza complications | ||
| 3 | influenza pneumonia | |
| injured at oakwood mines | ||
| injured by explosion | ||
| injured by horse | ||
| injured by street car | ||
| injured falling from wagon | ||
| injured in a fight | ||
| injured in mine | ||
| 4 | injured in mines | |
| injured in mines; died from effects | ||
| injured in steinheur planing mills | ||
| injured in the mines | ||
| injured on cars | ||
| 3 | injured on railroad | |
| injuried in mines | ||
| 6 | injuries | |
| 2 | injuries from cave in | |
| injuries from fall | ||
| injuries from falling down stairs | ||
| injuries in mines | ||
| 2 | injuries received from a fall | |
| injuries received from assault | ||
| injuries received in auto accident | ||
| injuries received in mine | ||
| injuries received in mines | ||
| injuries received in the mines | ||
| injuries to bus accident | ||
| injurues | ||
| injury at birth | ||
| injury of back and pelvis | ||
| injury of internal organs | ||
| injury received from fall | ||
| 2 | insane | |
| 3 | insanity | |
| insanity/apoplexy (died at retreat) | ||
| insolation | ||
| insufficient circulation | ||
| int. hemorrhage | ||
| inter cranial hemorrhage | ||
| 5 | intermittent fever | |
| internal cancer | ||
| internal cancer supposed | ||
| internal hem. | ||
| internal hemorage | ||
| 3 | internal hemorrhage | |
| 2 | internal injuries | |
| internal injuries - colliery accident | ||
| internal injuries & cramps | ||
| internal injuries caused by suicide attempt | ||
| internal strain | ||
| interstitial nephritis | ||
| intestinal catanah | ||
| intestinal catarrh | ||
| 3 | intestinal hemorrhage | |
| 5 | intestinal nephritis | |
| 17 | intestinal obstruction | |
| intestinal obstructions | ||
| intestinal paralysis | ||
| intestinal toxemia | ||
| intra hemorrhage | ||
| intuerruption of bowel | ||
| inuntion | ||
| inward convulsions | ||
| 6 | inward fits | |
| inward spasms | ||
| 12 | jaundice | |
| job accident, buried by sand | ||
| 2 | juliet catlin & james keithline on same line of lot record | |
| kicked by a cow; fracture of left tibia | ||
| kicked by a horse | ||
| kicked by a horse; fractured skull | ||
| 23 | kidney disease | |
| kidney disease & dropsy of brain | ||
| kidney disease & summer complaint | ||
| kidney infection | ||
| 3 | kidney trouble | |
| kidney, liver and heart disease | ||
| 5 | killed | |
| killed at [?] slope no.3, runaway car | ||
| killed at dorrance shaft | ||
| killed at empire mines | ||
| killed at hartford breaker | ||
| 2 | killed at parsons | |
| 2 | killed at pittston | |
| killed at port bowkley | ||
| killed by a fall | ||
| killed by a mule in the mines | ||
| killed by accident | ||
| killed by an axe. | ||
| killed by an ice slide in canada | ||
| killed by being run over | ||
| killed by car | ||
| killed by carriage in shaft | ||
| 22 | killed by cars | |
| killed by cars - fall of top coal | ||
| killed by cars at ?& h breaker, mill creek | ||
| killed by cars at franklin mines | ||
| killed by coal car | ||
| killed by d&h passenger train at scott st. crossing. | ||
| killed by electric car | ||
| killed by electric cars | ||
| killed by explosion | ||
| killed by explosion of mine gas | ||
| killed by fall of coal | ||
| killed by fall of rock | ||
| killed by fall of rock in mines | ||
| killed by fall of rock. | ||
| killed by fall of stone in marble yard | ||
| killed by fall off top coal | ||
| killed by falling | ||
| killed by falling down shaft | ||
| killed by falling on icy steps | ||
| killed by falling timber | ||
| killed by gas | ||
| killed by mule | ||
| killed by piece of coal from blast | ||
| killed by premature explosion | ||
| killed by railroad train | ||
| killed by rr cars (not taken) | ||
| killed by street car | ||
| 7 | killed by the cars | |
| 2 | killed by train | |
| killed by train of cars | ||
| killed by wagon | ||
| killed in a culm bank fire | ||
| killed in black diamond mine | ||
| 2 | killed in breaker | |
| killed in broom factory | ||
| killed in coal breaker | ||
| killed in daimond breaker | ||
| killed in engine house | ||
| killed in fight | ||
| killed in franklin coal mine by fall of top rock | ||
| killed in franklin colliery | ||
| killed in johnstown | ||
| killed in mine accident | ||
| 90 | killed in mines | |
| killed in mines: fall of top coal | ||
| killed in mones | ||
| 3 | killed in shaft | |
| 2 | killed in stanton shaft | |
| 9 | killed in the mines | |
| killed in the port blanchard mine shaft | ||
| killed in tornado in arms of her mother, elizabeth mcginley. | ||
| killed in wreck on lehigh valley rr | ||
| killed of railroad | ||
| killed on ashley planes | ||
| killed on c.r.r. of n.j. | ||
| killed on d&r rr | ||
| killed on l. v. r. r. | ||
| killed on lvrr | ||
| killed on lvrr at midvale | ||
| killed on railraod | ||
| 17 | killed on railroad | |
| 2 | killed on the railroad | |
| killer by car | ||
| killer on railroad | ||
| killled by engine | ||
| la gripp | ||
| 19 | la grippe | |
| la grippe - rheumatism | ||
| lagrippe | ||
| laryngeal abscess | ||
| laryngeal croup | ||
| 3 | laryngeal diphtheria | |
| laryngismus stridulus | ||
| laryngitis | ||
| laryngitis & pulmonary tuberculosis | ||
| larynxitis | ||
| laudanum poisoning | ||
| leakage of heart | ||
| leaky heart | ||
| legs cut off by cars | ||
| leptomening | ||
| leukemia | ||
| 3 | lingering illness | |
| listed in index, but not in lot records for lot 131 | ||
| liver | ||
| liver & kidney disease | ||
| liver abscess | ||
| 3 | liver cancer | |
| 21 | liver complaint | |
| 2 | liver complications | |
| liver complt | ||
| liver complt. | ||
| liver disease | ||
| 2 | liver trouble | |
| 95 | lobar pneumonia | |
| lobar pneumonia - diphtheria | ||
| lobar pneumonia following an operation | ||
| lobar pneumonia, tongue and lung cancer | ||
| 2 | lock jaw | |
| lock jaw (a.k.a. tetanus) | ||
| 3 | lockjaw | |
| loco ataxemy | ||
| 7 | locomotor ataxia | |
| locomotor atuxia | ||
| loomis | ||
| lubar pneumonia | ||
| ludwigs angina | ||
| lung abcess | ||
| lung abcess | ||
| 2 | lung cancer | |
| lung complaint | ||
| lung consumption | ||
| 17 | lung disease | |
| lung embolism | ||
| 9 | lung fever | |
| 2 | lung inflamation | |
| 6 | lung trouble | |
| lungs poisoned by acid | ||
| lymphatic leukemia | ||
| maeamcus | ||
| mal gestation | ||
| 14 | malaria | |
| malaria & typhoid | ||
| malaria and typhoid | ||
| 3 | malaria fever | |
| 12 | malarial fever | |
| malarial tuberculosis | ||
| malarial typhoid | ||
| 2 | malformation | |
| malignant pectule | ||
| malignant tumor | ||
| 25 | malnutrition | |
| malnutrition of spine | ||
| malnutrtion | ||
| 2 | malpractice | |
| mania & po | ||
| 2 | marasinus | |
| 3 | marasmas | |
| 155 | marasmus | |
| marasmus & yellow jaundice | ||
| marasuiris | ||
| 2 | marasums | |
| masosmus | ||
| mastoid anscess | ||
| mastoid operation | ||
| measales | ||
| measeles | ||
| measels | ||
| measels & croup | ||
| 84 | measles | |
| measles & diphtheria | ||
| measles & fever | ||
| measles & fits | ||
| 3 | measles & inflamation of lungs | |
| 3 | measles & pneumonia | |
| measles & whooping cough | ||
| measles and croup | ||
| measles and spinal meningitis | ||
| mediastatic emphysema | ||
| membramous croup & whooping cough | ||
| membramus croup | ||
| membrane croup | ||
| 12 | membraneous croup | |
| membraneous croupe | ||
| membraneous laryngitis | ||
| 87 | membranous croup | |
| 3 | membranous croup & diphtheria | |
| 2 | menbraneous croup | |
| menengitis | ||
| 6 | meningeal croup | |
| meningeal tuberculosis | ||
| 42 | meningitis | |
| meningitis (spinal) | ||
| meningitis following pneumonia | ||
| menningitis | ||
| mental insufficiency | ||
| merasmus | ||
| merentuic trombosis | ||
| merraeggattis | ||
| mesentens thrombosis | ||
| metatasis | ||
| metistatic endometrial cancer | ||
| miliary tuberculosis | ||
| millary tuberculosis | ||
| 77 | mine accident | |
| mine accident at d&h coal co. | ||
| mine accident; found dead in stanton colliery | ||
| 2 | mine explosion | |
| mine injuries | ||
| 21 | miners asthma | |
| 3 | miners' asthma | |
| 2 | miner's asthma | |
| miners astma | ||
| miners consumption | ||
| 2 | miners' consumption | |
| miner's consumption | ||
| 3 | miscarriage | |
| miteorl regurgitation - gen. debility | ||
| mitral heart disease | ||
| 5 | mitral insufficiency | |
| mitral insufficiency heart | ||
| mitral musupation of heart | ||
| 6 | mitral regurgitation | |
| mitral regurgitation colored | ||
| mitral stenosis | ||
| monstrosity | ||
| mortification | ||
| mortuary notice; date: 1905-03-17; paper: wilkes-barre times | ||
| mother had diabetes | ||
| mule kick | ||
| 3 | mumps | |
| 2 | murder | |
| murder - shot in heart | ||
| 4 | murdered | |
| myelitis | ||
| myocardiac infarction | ||
| myocardial damage | ||
| myocardial infection | ||
| 4 | myocardio infarction | |
| 200 | myocarditis | |
| myocarditis (chronic) | ||
| myocarditis heart condition | ||
| myocarditis heart disease | ||
| myocardits | ||
| 3 | myocharditis | |
| myoletis | ||
| narcotic poisoning | ||
| nasal diphtheria | ||
| 4 | natural causes | |
| natural fever | ||
| necrosis of spinal column | ||
| nephriths | ||
| 67 | nephritis | |
| nephritis - chronic heart trouble | ||
| nerve fever | ||
| nervous attack | ||
| nervous prostration | ||
| nervous prosttration | ||
| nervousness | ||
| neuralgia | ||
| neuralgia of heart | ||
| neuralgia on brain | ||
| neurosthemia | ||
| newsboy; killed by central flyer | ||
| nitral regrergitation | ||
| 126 | no cause given | |
| 2 | no cause listed | |
| 2 | no dates | |
| no entry | ||
| 5 | no given cause | |
| no information | ||
| 2 | none given | |
| not given | ||
| 2 | not known | |
| not listed | ||
| nothing listed | ||
| nural mitengation | ||
| obesity | ||
| 2 | obstruction of bowel | |
| 3 | obstruction of bowels | |
| obstuction of bowels | ||
| occlusive coronary | ||
| ocnsumption | ||
| oedema of lungs | ||
| of congestion | ||
| 143 | old age | |
| old age & dropsy | ||
| old age & general debility | ||
| old age & malarial fever | ||
| old age & paralysis | ||
| old age (exhaustion) | ||
| old age and cold | ||
| old colored woman died at city hospital | ||
| 2 | oleo colitis | |
| onthrocosis | ||
| operation | ||
| operation for goiter | ||
| 2 | organic disease | |
| 11 | organic heart disease | |
| 2 | organic heart disease and dropsy | |
| osteo colitis | ||
| osteo sarcoma | ||
| ovarian cyst & appendicitis | ||
| overdose of laudanum | ||
| overdose of laudnum | ||
| overdose of opium | ||
| palpitations of heart | ||
| palpural convulsion | ||
| 3 | palsey | |
| 14 | palsy | |
| pancreatic cancer | ||
| paraletic stroke | ||
| parallysis | ||
| 114 | paralysis | |
| paralysis - stroke | ||
| paralysis and apoplexy | ||
| paralysis and general debility | ||
| paralysis following diphtheria | ||
| paralysis following diptheria | ||
| paralysis of brain | ||
| 4 | paralysis of heart | |
| 3 | paralysis of insane | |
| paralysis of nerves | ||
| paralytic dementia | ||
| paralytic fit | ||
| paralytic fits | ||
| 11 | paralytic stroke | |
| parcetic dementia | ||
| parcoma | ||
| 3 | paresis | |
| paretic dementia | ||
| paretic dimentia | ||
| pectisis | ||
| pectoris | ||
| pediatric tuberculosis | ||
| pelvic abscess | ||
| pelvic cellulitis | ||
| pemphegos | ||
| pending (drug od) | ||
| perferia | ||
| perforated gastric ulcer | ||
| 3 | pericarditis | |
| periferal sepcis | ||
| perisis | ||
| peritonistis | ||
| 51 | peritonitis | |
| peritonitis following an operation | ||
| peritonitis with dropsy | ||
| peritonits | ||
| peritonits, typhoid fever | ||
| 3 | pernicious anemia | |
| perontitis | ||
| 3 | perotinitis | |
| phbhisis pulmonalis | ||
| phithisis | ||
| phithisis pulmonalis | ||
| phlebitis | ||
| 7 | phthesis | |
| phthesis puleroualis | ||
| 15 | phthisis | |
| phthisis pneumonalis | ||
| phthisis pneumonia | ||
| 7 | phthisis pulmonalis | |
| 6 | phthisis -tuberculosis | |
| 11 | phthsis | |
| phthsis paresis | ||
| phthsis pneumonia | ||
| phthsis pulmonaris | ||
| phthsis: complications | ||
| phthsis; tuberculosis | ||
| piles | ||
| piricarditis | ||
| pistol shot | ||
| pistol shot wound | ||
| pistol shot wound; suicide | ||
| "pistol wounds through heart and face by stewart whorley, a negro, supposedly over a mulatto girl named alice wilson. see article in w-b times dated 2 july | ||
| 1894. whorley claims it was self defense." | ||
| placenta previa | ||
| placenta previa (during childbirth) | ||
| pleural tuberculosis | ||
| pleuresy | ||
| pleuresy & pneumonia | ||
| 6 | pleurisy | |
| pleurisy of bowels | ||
| pleuro endocarditis | ||
| 7 | pleuro pneumonia | |
| pleuropneumonia | ||
| 2 | pleuro-pneumonia | |
| 5 | pleurosy | |
| pleurosy & inflamation of lungs | ||
| plu carcinoma | ||
| plural meningitis | ||
| pluresy | ||
| pluricy brights disease | ||
| pluro-pneumonia | ||
| plymouth disease: typhoid or malaria | ||
| plymouth fever | ||
| pnemonitis | ||
| pneumatic uremia | ||
| 2 | pneuminia | |
| pneuminia whooping cough | ||
| pneumonai | ||
| 715 | pneumonia | |
| pneumonia & cerebral meningitis | ||
| pneumonia & general debility | ||
| pneumonia & heart disease | ||
| pneumonia & hepititis | ||
| pneumonia & influenza | ||
| pneumonia & meningitis | ||
| pneumonia & whooping cough | ||
| pneumonia after appendicitis | ||
| pneumonia and croup | ||
| pneumonia following burns | ||
| pneumonia following measles | ||
| pneumonia following scarlet fever | ||
| pneumonia following whooping cough | ||
| pneumonia inflamation | ||
| pneumonia lagrippe | ||
| pneumonia lober | ||
| 2 | pneumonitis | |
| 2 | pnuemonia | |
| pnuemonia and inflamation of bowels | ||
| poisioning | ||
| 3 | poison | |
| poisoned | ||
| poisoned by paris green (an insecticide) | ||
| poisoned by wild parsnip | ||
| poisoning gas | ||
| possible suicide, under investigation | ||
| post scarletina nephritis | ||
| postfracture hemmorrage | ||
| potts disease | ||
| 2 | powder explosion | |
| powder explosion in mines | ||
| 3 | powder mill explosion | |
| pramature birth | ||
| 2 | prematire birth | |
| 20 | premature | |
| 239 | premature birth | |
| premature bitrth | ||
| premature childbirth | ||
| premature irth | ||
| 6 | prematurity | |
| primary anemia | ||
| proas abacess | ||
| probably heart disease | ||
| prolitis | ||
| prostate cancer | ||
| prostatic hypestrophy | ||
| protracted labor | ||
| prucious anemia | ||
| ptheisis | ||
| ptomaine poisoning | ||
| pueperal eclampisia | ||
| puerperal convulsions | ||
| puerperal eclampsia | ||
| 2 | puerperal fever | |
| puerperal infection | ||
| puerperal lepticalnia | ||
| pul pneumonia | ||
| 4 | pul tuberculosis | |
| pulm. tuberculosis | ||
| pulmanary collapse | ||
| pulminary tuberculosis | ||
| pulmnary hemorrhage | ||
| pulmonary ?? | ||
| pulmonary abscess | ||
| pulmonary asthma | ||
| 2 | pulmonary bronchial pneumonia | |
| 2 | pulmonary congestion | |
| 3 | pulmonary consumption | |
| pulmonary disease | ||
| 8 | pulmonary edema | |
| 4 | pulmonary embolism | |
| pulmonary endema | ||
| 5 | pulmonary hemorrhage | |
| pulmonary hemorrhage - mine accident | ||
| pulmonary hemorrhage - tuberculosis | ||
| pulmonary homorrhage | ||
| pulmonary hypo congestion | ||
| pulmonary infection | ||
| pulmonary insufficiency | ||
| 2 | pulmonary oedema | |
| 2 | pulmonary phthisis | |
| 2 | pulmonary phthsis | |
| 3 | pulmonary thrombosis | |
| 63 | pulmonary tuberculosis | |
| purpora hemorrhages | ||
| purura | ||
| pyanemia | ||
| pyelitis | ||
| pyena | ||
| pyjhlitis | ||
| pyloric stenosis | ||
| pyloric ulcer | ||
| pyonephrites (probably pyelonephritis) | ||
| pythisis - tuberculosis | ||
| 5 | quick consumption | |
| quick ocnsumption | ||
| quinzy | ||
| r. r. accident | ||
| rachitis | ||
| 49 | railroad accident | |
| 2 | railway accident | |
| 3 | rectal cancer | |
| rectal collapse | ||
| renal disease | ||
| 2 | renal dropsy | |
| respiratory and cardiac failure | ||
| respiratory collapse | ||
| 8 | respiratory failure | |
| result of a stroke on dec 3 | ||
| result of delivery | ||
| result of injuries received in a trolly car accident july 11th, 1911 | ||
| result of injury | ||
| result of railroad accident | ||
| result of trolly accident | ||
| rheumatic arthritis | ||
| rheumatic feveer | ||
| 5 | rheumatic fever | |
| 3 | rheumatic heart | |
| 22 | rheumatism | |
| rheumatism & dropsy | ||
| rheumatism & pneumonia | ||
| 7 | rheumatism of heart | |
| rhumatic inflamation & typhoid fever | ||
| rhumatic myocarditis | ||
| rhumatism | ||
| rhumetoid arthritis | ||
| 2 | ricketts | |
| rr accident | ||
| run over by a wagon | ||
| 9 | run over by cars | |
| run over by cars on july 17 | ||
| run over by coal cars | ||
| run over by d & h cars | ||
| run over by street car | ||
| run over by train while laying on tracks | ||
| run over by wagon | ||
| run ovver by train | ||
| 7 | rupture | |
| rupture bladder | ||
| rupture of aortic aneurysm | ||
| rupture of blood vessel | ||
| rupture of blood vessels | ||
| rupture of lung | ||
| rupture of lungs | ||
| rupture of ovarian cyst | ||
| rupture of spine | ||
| rupture of stomach | ||
| rupture stomach | ||
| ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm | ||
| ruptured blood vessel | ||
| ruptured liver | ||
| ruptured sacular | ||
| salt rheum. | ||
| 4 | sarcoma | |
| sarcoma of left ulna | ||
| sarcoma of liver | ||
| sarcoma of pelvis | ||
| sarcunis | ||
| saricoma of lung | ||
| scald | ||
| 11 | scalded | |
| scalded by bursting of steam pipe | ||
| scalded by explosion | ||
| scalded by water | ||
| 2 | scalded in mines | |
| scalding | ||
| 2 | scalds | |
| scarlatania | ||
| 2 | scarlatina | |
| scarlet feaver | ||
| scarlet feve | ||
| 183 | scarlet fever | |
| 4 | scarlet fever & diphtheria | |
| scarlet fever & dropsy | ||
| scarlet fever & heart failure | ||
| scarlet fever & inflamation of lungs | ||
| scarlet fever & measles | ||
| scarlet fever & measles & diphtheria | ||
| scarlet fever diptheltheria | ||
| scarlet fever diptheria | ||
| scarlet rash | ||
| scarlet rash & dropsy | ||
| 7 | scarletina | |
| scarletina & dropsy | ||
| scarofula | ||
| sciatica endocarditis | ||
| 2 | sclerosis | |
| 7 | scrofula | |
| 2 | scrofulus fever | |
| scrofulus sore mouth | ||
| sea poison | ||
| senile cardiac faillure | ||
| senile changes | ||
| senile depepuation | ||
| senile deterioration | ||
| senile gangrene | ||
| senile pneumonia | ||
| 7 | senility | |
| 3 | septacemia | |
| septenemia | ||
| septic cysts | ||
| 6 | septic infection | |
| septic meningitis | ||
| septic peritonitis | ||
| 5 | septic pneumonia | |
| 3 | septicaemia | |
| 16 | septicemia | |
| septicemia - due to infected naval | ||
| septicemia following blood poison | ||
| 2 | septiremia | |
| severe birth | ||
| severe generalized arteriosclerosis | ||
| severe illness | ||
| severe sickness | ||
| 10 | shock | |
| shock - burns | ||
| shock & concussion | ||
| shock accidental | ||
| shock during injury from being hit by train | ||
| shock following absess | ||
| shock following accident at unattended railroad crossing. | ||
| shock following birth | ||
| shock following injury | ||
| shock following miscarriage | ||
| shock following operation | ||
| shock following railroad accident | ||
| shock from injury | ||
| shock received from broken leg | ||
| shock; fractured skull from fall down stairs. | ||
| shot | ||
| shot by connell bros. | ||
| shot to death murder | ||
| sick suddenly | ||
| 2 | silicosis | |
| 2 | sinking of home, mine cave | |
| sirrosis of liver | ||
| 40 | small pox | |
| 5 | smallpox | |
| smothered in culm pile | ||
| smothered in mine | ||
| softening of brain | ||
| sore head healed too quick | ||
| 4 | sore mouth | |
| sore throat | ||
| 2 | spasm | |
| spasmadic croup | ||
| spasmodic | ||
| 35 | spasms | |
| spelled rasper in lot record; brought in from old point comfort | ||
| spimal meningitis | ||
| spina bifida | ||
| spinabufida | ||
| spinal & cerebro menengitis | ||
| spinal bifida | ||
| 13 | spinal disease | |
| spinal injury | ||
| spinal malaria | ||
| spinal mengitis | ||
| 3 | spinal meningitis | |
| 3 | spine disease | |
| 3 | spiral meningitis | |
| splenic anemia | ||
| 18 | spotted fever | |
| sprain | ||
| srterio heart disease | ||
| ssepticemia | ||
| stab wound | ||
| stagnation of the blood | ||
| starvation | ||
| starvation in prison confinement | ||
| statras thymicus | ||
| status epilepticus (convulsions) | ||
| still birth | ||
| 18 | still born | |
| still bron | ||
| stillbirth | ||
| stillbor | ||
| 1232 | stillborn | |
| 2 | stillborn - premature birth | |
| stillborn male | ||
| stillborn, premature birth | ||
| stillborn: anoxia | ||
| stomach canceer | ||
| 16 | stomach cancer | |
| 8 | stomach trouble | |
| stomach trouble cold | ||
| 2 | stomach ulcers | |
| stone gall of the liver | ||
| 4 | strangulated hernia | |
| 8 | strangulation | |
| strangulation - hanging | ||
| 3 | street car accident | |
| stricture | ||
| stricture of throat | ||
| 2 | stroke | |
| stroke of paralysis | ||
| struck by a car | ||
| struck by lehigh valley engine | ||
| struck by passenger train | ||
| 3 | struck by train | |
| struck by train 21 aug 1916 | ||
| 2 | struck by trolley car | |
| structure of bile ???? | ||
| suffication | ||
| suffocated by gas. | ||
| 6 | suffocation | |
| suffocation of gas | ||
| suffocation or inflamation | ||
| sugar diabetes | ||
| 49 | suicide | |
| suicide - alcoholism | ||
| 2 | suicide - hanging | |
| suicide (cut throat) | ||
| suicide (drowning) | ||
| 2 | suicide by carbolic acid poisoning | |
| suicide by drowning; jumped from dagobert st. into susquehanna a week ago. identified by 1910 miner's certificate found in his pocket. | ||
| 10 | suicide by hanging | |
| suicide by hanging in scranton jail | ||
| suicide by laudnum | ||
| suicide by pistol shot wounds | ||
| suicide by poisioning | ||
| suicide by revolver wound | ||
| suicide by shooting himself in the head at 87 dagobert st. spanish-american war veteran. survived by his father and 4 sisters. | ||
| suicide by whiskey | ||
| suicide from shotgun wound. | ||
| suicide, bullet through roof of mouth | ||
| suicide; jumped from the market st. bridge into the susquehanna river | ||
| summer c ??? | ||
| 2 | summer compalint | |
| 163 | summer complaint | |
| summer complications | ||
| summer croup | ||
| summer diarrhea | ||
| summer diarrhora | ||
| summer dranhora | ||
| summercomplaint | ||
| 2 | sun stroke | |
| 5 | sunstroke | |
| supposed he was murdered | ||
| susmmer complaint | ||
| sustained fractured skull | ||
| swelling in neck | ||
| swelling of the larynx | ||
| sycope | ||
| syncope | ||
| 2 | syphilis | |
| syphilitic | ||
| syphilitic aortitic | ||
| systhis of nephritis | ||
| syticemia | ||
| tabes dorsalis (a late form of syphilis resulting in nerve damage) | ||
| tachycardia | ||
| taking medicine | ||
| 53 | teething | |
| teething & cholera infantum | ||
| teething & croup | ||
| 2 | teething & dysentery | |
| 2 | teething & fits | |
| teething & measles | ||
| teething & summer complaint | ||
| teething and fits | ||
| teething and inflamation of brain | ||
| teething and membranous croup | ||
| teething cholera infantum | ||
| 4 | tetanus | |
| third degree burns | ||
| thphoid fever | ||
| 2 | throat cancer | |
| 2 | throat disease | |
| throat hemorrhage | ||
| 9 | thrombosis | |
| thyphoid fever | ||
| thypoid pneumonia | ||
| tibercular menengitis | ||
| toxema | ||
| 7 | toxemia | |
| toxic gastric enteritis | ||
| toxieosis | ||
| traumatic meningitis | ||
| traumatic peritonitis | ||
| traumatic shock | ||
| traumatic agitation ? | ||
| trouble with spine | ||
| tuarition | ||
| tubercular bronchial pneumonia | ||
| 8 | tubercular meningitis | |
| 4 | tubercular peritonitis | |
| tubercular pleurisy | ||
| tubercular pneumonia | ||
| 134 | tuberculosis | |
| tuberculosis - obit says dropsy | ||
| tuberculosis & premature birth | ||
| tuberculosis emphysema | ||
| tuberculosis meningitis | ||
| 2 | tuberculosis of lungs | |
| tuberculosis of rectum | ||
| tuberculosis of skin | ||
| tuberculosis pulmonalis | ||
| tuberculosis, whooping cough & pneumonia | ||
| tubicular mirentery | ||
| 3 | tuburcular meningitis | |
| tuburculer meningitis | ||
| 15 | tumor | |
| tumor & dropsy | ||
| tumor and dropy | ||
| tumor in brain | ||
| tumor of bowels | ||
| 2 | tumor of brain | |
| tumor of liver | ||
| tumor of spine | ||
| tumor on back | ||
| tumors | ||
| tumors of brain | ||
| turbercular meningitis | ||
| turbercular pneumonia | ||
| turmor in stomach | ||
| tyhoid fever | ||
| typhiod fever | ||
| 3 | typhoid | |
| typhoid and scarlet fever | ||
| typhoid feveer | ||
| 221 | typhoid fever | |
| typhoid fever & diphtheria | ||
| typhoid fever & kidney disease | ||
| typhoid fever & spinal disease | ||
| typhoid fever and heart failure | ||
| typhoid malaria | ||
| 30 | typhoid pneumonia | |
| typhus abdominalis | ||
| 3 | typhus fever | |
| ulcer | ||
| ulcer in throat | ||
| ulcerated stomach | ||
| ulceration of stomach | ||
| ulcers on lungs | ||
| undetermined | ||
| 24 | unknown | |
| 15 | unknown cause | |
| unknown cause of death | ||
| 3 | unknown causes | |
| unknown cod | ||
| upper gi bleed: anthracilacosia | ||
| ur..fibrillation | ||
| 9 | uraemia | |
| uraemia convulsions | ||
| uraemic convulsions | ||
| uranamia | ||
| urania poisoning | ||
| urasma | ||
| 49 | uremia | |
| uremia & heart disease | ||
| uremia & nephritis | ||
| 3 | uremia nephrosis | |
| uremia poisoning | ||
| 3 | uremic coma | |
| 3 | uremic convulsions | |
| 2 | uremic poisoning | |
| 2 | uterine cancer | |
| uterine hemorrhage | ||
| uterine sarcoma | ||
| utero colitis | ||
| utero hemorrhage | ||
| uterus | ||
| vaalvular heart disease | ||
| 2 | vaccination | |
| valoular heart trouble | ||
| valvular disease of heart | ||
| 15 | valvular heart disease | |
| valvulitis | ||
| vascular disease | ||
| vascular stroke | ||
| ventricular fibrilation | ||
| virus pneumonia | ||
| volivus | ||
| vomiting blood | ||
| water of brain | ||
| 8 | water on brain | |
| 2 | water on the brain | |
| 2 | weak heart | |
| weak lungs | ||
| 453 | weakness | |
| weakness & general debility | ||
| 2 | weakness from birth | |
| weakness from premature birth | ||
| weakness; la grippe | ||
| 4 | weeakness | |
| wesogestation | ||
| 90 | whooping cough | |
| whooping cough & complications | ||
| whooping cough & fits | ||
| 2 | whooping cough & pneumonia | |
| whooping cough & spasms | ||
| whooping cough & weakness | ||
| whooping cough croup | ||
| whooping cough w/ convulsions | ||
| whooping vough | ||
| whoopiong cough | ||
| wilkes-barre | ||
| wood alcoholism | ||
| worm fever | ||
| 2 | worms | |
| wound of brain | ||
| 3 | yellow jaundice |
Original file from
https://www.wilkes-barre.city/sites/wilkes-barrepa/files/uploads/wbcemeteryrecordscomplete.pdf