He spoke very little and all I remember that he said, “you must stick together.”

Lebanon, PA

I am fairly certain that the grandfather that I never knew was a victim of the 1918-19 influenza epidemic. Now, he died in mid-March 1918….so I am only ASSUMING that it was related to an early instance of what became known as the Spanish Flu.  Lots of close proximity to many customers in his barber shop…a likely breeding ground.  Who knew that we’d be back to that situation 102 years later? 

 Clinton Kreider (1882-1918) was a solid citizen and owner of a barber shop on Cumberland Street in Lebanon, PA.  My father, Norris (1906-1986) was the youngest of three children in the family.  

My father was 11-1/2 years old; Clinton was 46 years old when he died.  His wife Annie was left to hold together the family, with three children who were 18-1/2, 17 and 11-1/2. . It was a sad end to my grandfather’s attempt to provide a middle class life for his family in the years before the Social Security program came into being.  When he passed, my Aunt Edna Kreider became the breadwinner at age 18-1/2 and began to teach school with only a certificate. 

Before his passing, I persuaded my father to write down memories of some of his family members. Attached is a copy of his page when he described the sad scene surrounding his father’s death in March 1918. 

“So lived the Kreider family until March 12, 1918 when Dad came home from the barber shop in mid-afternoon and said that he was sick and going to bed. He said this to Mother in [Pennsylvania] Dutch- they mostly used this dialect when conversing I think “it came out” easily. They always spoke English when at the table or when the children were in the conversation.

Dr. Bamberger came and gave Dad some pills and some liquid medicine. The next day the doctor said it was pneumonia- in those days this was a serious ailment. Early in the morning Mother asked we three children to come to Dad’s bedside- he had asked her to do this as he knew he was going to leave us. He spoke very little and all I remember that he said,” you must stick together.” And so Clinton Kreider passed on at 46. It was March 15^th, 1918- the Ides of March. I was 11 ½ years old, Olive was just past 17 years and Edna was 18 ½ years old.” I never knew neither my grandfather nor my grandmother.  I was born in 1946.

Contributed by Jerry Kreider, Grandson of Clinton Kreider.