March 4,1918

An army cook at Fort Riley, Kansas, reported to the infirmary with a temperature of 103.1 F.

Within two days another 521 men became sick. It is one of the first recorded outbreaks of what came to be known as the Spanish flu.

Approximately one-third of the world's population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths is estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.

Those of us who lived in the bucolic village of Sawmill, Pennsylvania, fared better than those residing in the crowded conditions of the big cities. We went about our daily lives. We held barn raisings, outdoor festivals, and church picnics. You might say we lived in our own little Shangri-La. But at last the plague of 1918 found us too.

And that silent killer was about to drag us into hell.