Losses on both sides of a family.

Tacony and Frankford, Philadelphia

My mother’s grandfather was Rudolph Campbell, and lost his mother and sister to the flu. I think they lived in Tacony. He drove the wagon and picked up bodies. My paternal grandmother recalled that bodies were stacked at the ends of streets and buried in mass graves.

My maternal grandmother lost her father to it. My great grandmother  (Great Grammy, to me) was left to raise a very young daughter Sarah. My great grandmother sold something in the shambles of Head house market. I have a cast iron egg pot with a lid that my mother gave me with the provenance that her mother, Sarah Campbell, earned it as a child for good behavior despite suffering from a toothache while her mother sold goods at Headhouse Market. I think they desperately needed the money and there was no one to watch young Sarah.

Evelyn’s father Charles Ribble lost his mother and sister. I believe one of them, if not both, was named Mary Ribble. His father was a hod carrier. On my father’s side, I am wondering if my great aunt Lillian Murphy’s daughter, Grace Murphy might have died from the flu. I think she died as a teen. Her father was Charles Murphy, an optometrist. I think they lived on Longshore Street.

Contributed by Carol Carrino, Great-great Granddaughter of Rudolf.