Covid-19 is not the first pandemic to kill millions. The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 sickened upwards of 500 million people with as many as 100 million dying. The Black Plague in the 1350’s killed up to 200 million, probably many more. Mosquito borne disease kills more people annually than those who die from acts of violence—upwards of 600,000 per year. Human are highly vulnerable to the countless viruses which stalk us.

These statistics are sobering, but rather impersonal—until you factor in Covid. You, the reader, may have had a severe case. You may know of someone who fell gravely ill. Or you may even know of (or know personally) someone who died from Covid. News accounts speak of families who lost several members without being able to say “goodbye” due to enforced isolation—a tragic thing.

We have now lived through a pandemic. So did most of our ancestors. There have been countless localized epidemics throughout the course of human history which sickened or killed many in their community. The disease hits, and then disappears as quickly as it came on. What follows is an account of a family tragedy in which a diphtheria epidemic struck a small community near Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, in the Fall of 1862.

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