The Gadfly invites “local color” photos of this sort
Joy!
Moravian College
10am
Kate McVey
Month: April 2020
Information for possible Bethlehem Momentors
Latest in a series of posts on Bethlehem Moments
“Without a shared history, we are not a true community.”
1) The “Bethlehem Moment” is a scene or event from Bethlehem history anywhere from 1741 to the 1960s, usually no more than 20 typed lines, that can be read in approximately 3 minutes, that will be presented at the beginning of City Council meetings. The Moments will be archived in Council minutes and published on the Gadfly blog, as well as perhaps other places.
2) The purpose of the Bethlehem Moment in a town that has been the scene of so much important history and has three historical districts is to encourage everyone to learn more about that history. (For examples, see: https://thebethlehemgadfly.com/category/bethlehem-moments/.)
3) Willingness and interest are the most important things. You don’t have to feel you know anything at the beginning. A list of resources will be available. There will be people with whom to consult.
4) Help can be provided finding a topic, researching it, and writing the Moment if needed.
5) The topic is open, but you should clear it with the coordinator.
6) Good topics often start with a question: who? what? when? why?
7) Pick a topic that you know about, or, better yet, one that you want to learn about or feel that it is important that others know about.
8) There is no especial need to pick big topics, obvious topics, well-known topics. Aspects of our history that are little-known or hidden, that we might not have even heard of, might be better.
9) Likewise, you should feel no especial need to choose a celebratory, feel-good topic – our dark moments are part of our history too and equally important and illuminating.
10) It’s best if you deliver your Moment at City Council yourself, but others can read it for you if necessary or if you prefer.
11) City Council meets at Town Hall the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month.
12) You might not feel that you have anything to say at the beginning, but you will probably struggle to confine yourself to 20 lines/3 minutes after you have done some research.
13) The Bethlehem Moment is a project aimed at fostering a sense of community. You should feel it an honor to do one. We hope you will see it as fun.
14) After, we hope you will be an Ambassador for the project & encourage others to participate.
15) please contact:
Ed Gallagher
Coordinator pro-tem
ejg1@lehigh.edu
Guide to Bethlehem history (version 2)
Latest in a series of posts on Bethlehem Moments 
“Without a shared history, we are not a true community.”
Gadfly needs a list of resources for people interested in doing Bethlehem Moments, but, in general, we simply need a handy guide to resources for anybody studying Bethlehem history.
Gadfly knows that many followers are much more knowledgeable about Bethlehem history than he is, and thus this is an invitation to contribute suggestions for additions.
———-
Guide to Bethlehem History
Books:
Craig Atwood, Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem (2012)
Bethlehem of Pennsylvania: The First One Hundred Years, 1741 to 1841 (1968)
Bethlehem of Pennsylvania: The Golden Years 1841-1920 (1976)
Kate Carte Engel, Religion and Profit: Moravians in Early America (2009)
Katie Faull, ed., Moravian Women’s Memoirs (1999)
Mark C. Iampietro, “Then & Now” Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Mark C. Iampietro and John Marquette, Tamar Bair’s Bethlehem: The Colonial Industrial Quarter
Joseph Levering, A History of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892 (1903)
https://archive.org/details/historybethlehem00leve/page/n10/mode/2up
Richmond Myers, Lehigh Valley: The Unsuspected (1972)
The Richmond Myers papers are in the Moravian Archives
Richmond Myers, Sketches of Early Bethlehem (1981)
The Richmond Myers papers are in the Moravian Archives
Jeffrey A. Parks, Stronger than Steel: Forging a Rust Belt Renaissance (2018)
Kenneth F. Raniere, Karen M. Samuels, and the South Bethlehem Historical Society, South Bethlehem (2010)
Karen M. Samuels, Legendary Locals of Bethlehem (2013)
Kathleen Stewart, ed. Bethlehem (1997)
John Strohmeyer, Crisis in Bethlehem: Big Steel’s Struggle to Survive (1994)
https://sites.google.com/site/reytrgytjtyhuyt9htyjhyh/pdf-download-crisis-in-bethlehem-new-e-book—by-john-strohmeyer
Chloe Taft, From Steel to Slots: Casino Capitalism in the Postindustrial City (2016)
Kenneth Warren, Bethlehem Steel: Builder and Arsenal of America (2009)
William C. Weiner, Jr. and Karen M. Samuels, Bethlehem (2011)
William C. Weiner, Jr. and Karen M. Samuels, Bethlehem Revisited (2014)
Online:
Bethlehem Digital History Project (Bethlehem Area Public Library and Moravian College)
http://bdhp.moravian.edu/home/home.html
Beyond Steel: An Archive of Lehigh Valley Industry and Culture (Lehigh University)
http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/beyondsteel/
Local History Timeline (Bethlehem Area Public Library)
https://www.bapl.org/local-history/local-history-timeline/
Still Looking for You: A Bethlehem Place + Memory Project (Lehigh University)
https://memories.lehigh.edu/
Newspapers:
Globe-Times: Lehigh University
Morning Call: Newspapers.com (see Gallagher for log-in)
Libraries:
Bethlehem Area Public Library
Lehigh University
Moravian College
Archives:
Bethlehem Room (local history), Bethlehem Area Public Library
Moravian Archives, 41 West Locust, Bethlehem, PA 18018
Historical Societies and Organizations:
Bethlehem Historic District Association
https://bhda.org/
Historic Bethlehem
https://historicbethlehem.org/
Mount Airy Neighborhood Association
http://mana18018.org/
South Bethlehem Historical Society
http://southbethhistsoc.org/
Retail Book Store:
Moravian Book Shop, 428 Main St, Bethlehem, PA 18018
Unofficial historian:
Stephen Antalics: email Gallagher ejg1@lehigh.edu for contact info
A tip o’ the hat to Scott Gordon and Seth Moglen for suggestions for the original list.
Have you done a Bethlehem Moment yet?
Latest in a series of posts on Bethlehem Moments
“Without a shared history, we are not a true community.”
Well, if not, why not?
The Bethlehem Moments are mini-essays on Bethlehem history from 1741 to around the 1960s, delivered during public comment at City Council meetings and then published here on Gadfly.
The series of Moments is meant to generate a sense of community.
Without a history we are just an atomized assembly of individuals who happen to live in an arbitrary area.
When you do a Moment, you “own” a piece of the past, you become one with a piece of the past.
We’ve done 20 Moments so far. Alan Lowcher will do #21 on the occasion of next week’s Council meeting.
I’m under house arrest, and one of the things I’m doing is reading the 1968 history of Bethlehem.
In the next post you’ll find a “Guide to Bethlehem History.” Libraries are closed, but some of the books can be ordered online, and full texts of at least two can be found online. In addition, there are some valuable web resources.
So you could also be doing some reading about Bethlehem history during this forced hiatus in our workaday lives.
And you might also be thinking about finding some “moment” in our history to add to the work of your fellow residents.
Gadfly’s modest goal, he says with a smile, is that everybody do a Bethlehem Moment — and that he lives to see it.
In the second next post you’ll find a brief information document about the project.
Gadfly’s looking to fill slots in June and July and August. And is ready to help you.
His mailbox is open: ejg1@lehigh.edu
Good graphics of Northampton County coronavirus spread
askthemayor@bethlehem-pa.gov
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
Remember to ask your coronavirus questions by noon today:
askthemayor@bethlehem-pa.gov
Northampton County coronavirus info
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
Lots of concise info on Bernie O’Hare’s Lehigh Valley Ramblings this morning.
What coronavirus questions do you have? Now’s the time
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
Press release
Mayor to Answer Questions from the Public
Monday, April 13
Now through noon Wednesday:
The public can submit questions through email at askthemayor@bethlehem-pa.gov until noon Wednesday, April 15, 2020.
Thursday:
Mayor Bob Donchez and Department Heads will respond to written questions submitted by the public on Thursday, April 16, 2020.
Friday:
The video response will be able to be viewed on the City’s website at www.bethlehem-pa.gov and other social media sites at noon on Friday April 17, 2020.
———–
1) How about nursing homes?
Last Thursday (April 9) and last Friday (April 10) Rachel Maddow made a compelling case that we should look carefully at our local nursing homes.
Google tells me we have 7: Cedarbrook, Holy Family, Country Meadows, Manorcare, Blough, Good Shepherd, Moravian Village.
The virus, of course, crashed into our consciousness with that senior facility in Washington.
Rachel’s point Thursday April 9 was that we have to look for local news coverage to find out where things are at their worst. She bets that you’ll find at least one bad case — desperate case, where the situation is seemingly out of control — in a local senior facility.
“The crisis of coronavirus ripping through American nursing homes and American long-term nursing care facilities — that is everywhere, that is ubiquitous.”
“The crisis in nursing homes and long-time care facilities will account for a huge swath of the American death toll unless something is done to address this systematically.”
“The most acute crisis for the most vulnerable people.”
Our local news tells us Genesis Healthcare, Lower Macungie, is the bad case Rachel said we would find: 7 dead, 53 residents testing positive, 26 staff testing positive, as of two days ago. That number doubled from the number 4 days before that.
And that’s following Dept of Health directives “to the letter.”
So here are some questions:
What’s the situation with our city nursing homes? Are any of our cases associated with the nursing homes? Is there any special plan, program, or monitoring involving them?
(Rachel recommended this web site. Tracks all counties in America. Lehigh and Northampton counties are “red” counties on the map — considered high number of cases.)
2) More on the ethnic breakdown?
See Councilwoman Negron’s powerful post from 5-6 days ago.
Much of the news last week was how disproportionate the number of cases was between white and people of color and lower economic classes.
Director Wenrich gave some statistics, but Gadfly was not clear on them. One listing did not seem to include Hispanics.
So other questions:
Can you elaborate more on the impact in the Hispanic community? Bethlehem population is about 30% Hispanic — what’s the proportion of Hispanics among the reported number of cases? Is information and instructions about treatment and other services available in Spanish? Are we reaching out to a community that may not be familiar with services or that might be worried about cost? Is there anything more we need do?
3) More on reporting procedures?
Bethlehem had 222 cases as of April 8:
How is that number arrived at? Only people who went to the hospital? Only ones tested? Do doctors report cases they think are coronavirus but for which people self-treat at home?
4) The status at hospitals?
Describe the situations at local hospitals: how are they doing for staff, equipment, gear so far? Beds? Can you give metrics? Is there an adjective that describes their situation?
What questions are you thinking about?
Bach beckons noon tomorrow
Latest in a series of posts on the Arts in Bethlehem
The Bach Choir at Bethlehem Presents:
Bach at Noon In Your Home!
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April 14, 2020 from 12 PM – 1 PM
You’re invited to an ONLINE watch party where we’ll present our January Bach at Noon concert in its entirety. The concert includes Greg Funfgeld’s informal, enlightening insights into the music, performed by members of The Bach Choir and Bach Festival Orchestra.
You can access the concert on The Bach Choir’s YouTube Channel or Facebook page, www.facebook.com/BethlehemBach
Alert! Opportunity to ask your coronavirus questions of the Mayor
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
As Gadfly writes, he does not see this on the City web site yet but no doubt soon will be. Great idea! Let’s take advantage.
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Outlining the Mayor’s press conference
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
Great idea! Glad the Mayor and team did this. Well done! Sorry it took Gadfly so long to get to it. What questions do you have? Anything not covered?
Press Conference April 9
31 mins.
Mayor Donchez:
— went over closings
— and tax extensions
— reminder not to flush wipes and paper towels
— suspended referrals to collection agencies
— gave thanks for people making masks
Kristen Wenrich, Bethlehem Health Bureau Director (min. 3:10)
— as of 4/8, 222 case, 1 death
— staff doing interviewing of close contacts
— 13% hospitalizations, compared to 10.8% in state
— positivity rate 18.8% compared to 17.2% in state
— 53% of our tested positive cases in age group 25-49 tested to 41% in state
— 37.93% of these hospitalized compared to 19% in state
— our 65+ age group is lower than state
— youngest case 11 months, oldest 95, average age for positive cases 46 years old, average hospitalized 54
— % positive in hospitalization by race: 57% white, 16% black/African American, 2.7% Asian (doesn’t add up to 100% — reference to a graph that was not shown)
— Hispanic/non-Hispanic: 43% non-Hispanic, 38.6% Hispanic, 18.7% unknown
— doing mapping of cases
— investigating case, acting as a resource
— homeless: portable toilets, handwashing, housing
— complaints are investigated
— models predict peaking locally this week
— community spread is occurring
— housing for medical workers best dealt with by hospitals
— work-sites investigated, for instance, Walmart Southside
— working with employers
Bob Novatnack, Emergency Management Coordinator (min. 13:20)
— no staff infected
— appropriate equipment being used
— all CDC guidelines being followed
— people are staying home, traffic is down
— food chains good
— people outside on Monocacy, fishing season open
— follow spacing guidelines
Alicia Karner, Director Community and Economic Development (min. 16:15)
— not issuing permits
— but ok for medical supply chain
— emergency permits ok
— projects at Wind Creek and Lehigh on hold
— will get federal relief funding
— businesses should apply for government programs
— events have been canceled
Mayor Donchez (min. 19:05)
— primary June 2, apply for mail-in
— projecting through today’s prism a $5-7m deficit
— Casino is biggest loss — $800/mo.
— freeze in spending
— hiring freeze
— furloughs and lay-offs last resort
— reviewing all projects, for example, may delay pool opening
Eric Evans, Business Manager (min. 22:43)
— all depts. working
— very little dialed back and some ramped up
— changing shifts in field crews, proper distancing guidance given
— lots of unknowns in budget
— Real Estate taxes (36% of budget) should be ok
— income tax vulnerable (15% of budget)
— Casino big item
— smaller impacts: amusement tax, interest income
— hiring freeze
— no furloughs at this time
— identifying projects to be put on hold
— no question a “punch in the gut”
— Rainy Day fund will help
— will have clearer idea by budget season in the fall
Did you folks suffer the great wind like Gadfly a short while ago? Can’t see some parts of his roof so not sure of damage there. But he has somebody else’s shingles across his yard. If you want to claim, bring proof of purchase and REAL-ID.
Good coronavirus info
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
1) Check out Bernie O’Hare’s Lehigh Valley Ramblings this morning.
2) Check out the video of the Mayor’s press conference last Thursday on the City web site.
A monster wind came down the Gadfly street as he is writing. Shingles flying. Flower pots as missiles. Gadfly has to check damage. Back later.
The Steel responsible for crowd banning in Bethlehem (and beyond), saving lives for profit
Latest in a series of posts on the Spanish Flu
“At the behest of Bethlehem Steel, Pennsylvania enacts the most stringent requirements for crowd banning in the entire country.”
James Higgins
Gadfly’s been walking you through a history (let’s call it a “pedestrian history”) of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic in Bethlehem via the daily issues of the Morning Call.
You may remember that the Flu “arrived” in the U.S. September 13 according to the headline in the Call, and in previous posts we have moved a month’s time to the apex of deaths from the Flu around the weekend of October 14-16.
It’s truly been a pedestrian history, but yesterday follower John Smith called Gadfly’s attention to the overview lecture “Bethlehem Steel, Industry, and the 1918 Influence Epidemic” by Lehigh Ph.D. James Higgins, an expert on the subject, on our local National Museum of Industrial History web site.
(Gadfly suggests linking to the lecture through the NMIH web site rather than the direct link below so that you can see several other interesting lecture/videos there, e.g., one on Martin Tower.)
Gadfly highly recommends this lecture, which is about 50 mins. long, with another 15 of Q&A.
Gadfly learned a lot about the interrelationship of Bethlehem, Bethlehem Steel, and the Spanish Flu — rather fascinating, actually.
- Gadfly knew Archibald Johnston was the first mayor of Bethlehem; he did not know that Johnston was also a Bethlehem Steel executive, a combination which enabled firm coordination with the city of the Steel’s desire to continue profitable war work by insuring a steady work force.
- Gadfly had never heard of Loyal Shoudy, the Steel medical director, who played an extraordinary role in the activities that produced a low death rate in the city.
- Shoudy and Johnston got the state to enact the stringent crowd-banning requirements in Bethlehem — “draconian measures” — which Allentown, for instance, resisted.
- The Steel completely set up and funded the emergency hospital at Washington School, Northampton Heights.
- Such Steel measures made it less likely that the sick workers — many single men living alone with no one to care for them — would die.
- There were house to house searches for the sick.
- There may be mass graves at St. Michael’s.
- The Bethlehem death rate was remarkably low.
- The Steel protected people because production meant profits — the motive was not altruistic.
Here are key outline cards from Higgins:
This ‘n that
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
1) Social distancing explained;
Gadfly likes the daily “Coronavirus update newsletter” (subscribe here) from the Washington Post for a . . . daily Coronavirus update.
Found this great video there yesterday.
This video of mousetraps and ping-pong balls makes crystal clear why social distancing works
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2) Great idea! “Chalk the Walk” community activity:
Neighbors in a nearby block are going to “meet” socially responsibly this evening to chalk their walks.
The invite reads: “you are encouraged to decorate your sidewalk with etchings, ‘art’, inspirational messages, appropriate humor, and anything else that will help brighten the concrete part of our connecting pathways!”
Beautiful!
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3) Tonight 7:30 Verdi’s Requiem:
Verdi’s Requiem with the
Allentown Symphony Orchestra
Saturday, April 11, 2020 at 7:30 PM
Watch the re-broadcast of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra performing Verdi’s Requiem this Easter weekend – Saturday, April 11, 2020 at 7:30 PM (and available through May 24). In light of the current worldwide pandemic, there has been no greater time than now to unite as one community and celebrate the joy of music. It is in this musical expression of Verdi’s deep sorrow and profound joy, we might find peace this Easter.
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4) May 9 Touchstone Theatre’s Young Playwrights’ Festival — now online
Followers may recognize that Gadfly is crazy about Touchstone and is trying to do more to support the local arts in general.
You can’t get more worthier (more worthier?) of recognition than their work with the kids from our elementary schools on this festival.
Support your (young) local artists!
Please plan to attend online. Donations welcome. That’s, donations welcome.
What was in the medicine cabinet?
Latest in a series of posts on the Spanish Flu
For perspective on our current coronavirus situation, we are following the entrance of the 1918 Spanish Influenza, that paragon of pandemics, into the minds and bodies of Lehigh Valley residents who got their news through the Morning Call (the files of the Bethlehem Globe are closed to us at the moment).
Though Hydroxychloroquine trips off the president’s tongue as easily as a Dr. Seuss lyric, we have no medicine for the coronavirus.
Neither did the Spanish Flu sufferers.
Early indication that a New York bacteriologist “discovered a serum” went nowhere, and the public health service in Washington was not able to recommend any “effective vaccine.”
The best medicine was prevention. Over and over again readers of the Morning Call in September and October 1918 were advised to cover your mouth when you cough, keep clean, watch the temperature, get fresh air, chew your food, wash your hands, pee and poop a lot, use clean utensils, wear comfortable clothes.
Especially, said the state health commissioner, “this is a time to let sunshine into the houses. Avoid crowded places, entertainments, churches where there are crowds. Keep in the open air as much as possible. Sunshine is what is need to keep in good trim.”
Ok, but what do you do if you catch the Flu?
There were, interestingly, a number of what we might call “over-the-counter” drugs pitched to Call readers: CHASCO-VIN, Father John’s Medicine, Vick’s VapoRub, the Hyomei Inhaler, Grejovan, and Smo-ko.
Of little value ultimately, of course: an estimated 675,000 Americans died of the Spanish Flu.
The smell of Vick’s VapoRub still wafts in Gadfly’s memory.
Slowdown in coronavirus cases locally
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
The City press conference with that important budget information covered in our last post also had some important health information.
Thursday’s press conference also included an update on Bethlehem’s coronavirus cases.
Health Bureau Director Kristen Wenrich said the city was up to 222 positive cases by Wednesday evening, with one death and 29 hospitalizations.
Bethlehem has seen a slowdown in the number of positive cases being reported. A couple weeks ago, the city was nearly doubling its case count every couple of days. On Tuesday, there was a less than 20% increase in new cases within the city.
“We are continuing to stress the stay-at-home order and how important it is. We don’t want people to get complacent,” Wenrich said.
Bethlehem budget takes a gut-punch
Latest in a series of posts on the City Budget
As the coronavirus shutdown drags on, Bethlehem is looking at a $5 million to $7 million budget deficit this year, driven significantly by a reduction in the host fee the city receives from Wind Creek Bethlehem.
The casino was expected to pay Bethlehem a $9.8 million fee this year, city officials said. But the fee is based on gambling revenues and the casino has been closed since March 15.
Mayor Robert Donchez, during a news conference Thursday, said the city loses more than $800,000 each month the casino is closed. If the closure extends through the end of April, that will amount to more than $1 million.
“There are so many unknowns. We try to make adjustments on particular line items, but it’s very difficult to do. We do not have any lead time on how long the casino could be shutdown,” said Eric Evans, the city’s business administrator. He warned the $5 million-$7 million deficit is a conservative estimate that could change in the coming weeks.
“We definitely took a punch in the gut with this. We are fortunate, in the last several years we have strengthened our financial position and rainy-day fund. By the September-October budget season we should have a clear idea of what damage we are facing,” Evans said.
Other line items in Bethlehem’s $80 million budget that are contributing to the projected deficit include a loss of earned income tax and amusement taxes paid by attractions like Wind Creek and ArtsQuest.
To stem the loses, the city has implemented a hiring freeze and is considering freezing the budget on major projects, Donchez said.
One option would be to delay the opening of Memorial Pool until next year. The 63-year-old flagship pool had been closed for $5.2 million in renovations and was set to reopen this summer. City officials could also delay certain infrastructure projects.
Bethlehem officials said they have discussed furloughing city employees but no decisions have been made.
The 1918 apex arrives in the Lehigh Valley
Latest in a series of posts on the Spanish Flu
For perspective on our current coronavirus situation, we are following the entrance of the 1918 Spanish Influenza, that paragon of pandemics, into the minds and bodies of Lehigh Valley residents who got their news through the Morning Call (the files of the Bethlehem Globe are closed to us at the moment).
Gadfly hasn’t heard the word “apex” so much since sophomore geometry.
For the first half of the month of October 1918 readers of the Morning Call were greeted each day with a steady stream of influenza death notices, sometimes 6-8 individual ones per page. A death on S. 4th St., one on N. 6th St., one in Catasauqua, one in Whitehall, etc. And often with descriptive information about job, family, funeral arrangements.
Then, on the morning of Wednesday October 16, under the matter-of-fact headline of “Deaths at Easton due to Influenza Epidemic,” readers were greeted with a list of 50 names arranged as simply and as clinically as if they were ingredients in a recipe: Frank Clayton, forty five, 627 Milton Ave.; Joseph Sparta, three months, 185 E. Canal St.; Pedro Fransciare, Phillipsburg; Walter Koch, nineteen, Nazareth. And so forth. 50 of them. One after the other. Without pause. Without a word of commentary. As if the number were too great to give each victim some individuality. As if there were only time now for bookkeeping.
Easton was reaching its apex of Spanish Influenza cases.
In this graph of the 13-month period between January 1, 2018, and February 27, 1919, done by a Gadfly faithful follower, we can see that there were an astonishing 93 Flu deaths in Easton October 14 — Easton’s apex.
The second weekend in October 1918 was, in fact, a good weekend to be out of the Lehigh Valley completely, for Bethlehem, too, we know, also reached its apex then.
Look at the research about burials at St. Michael’s cemetery, Bethlehem, done by Rosemary C. Buffington and published in the April 1 Bethlehem Press.
It took literally just one month from its “arrival” in the United States as reported in the Call September 13 for the Spanish Flu to reach and to wreak its greatest havoc in the Lehigh Valley.
We have all learned in the past days that for the coronavirus what we are seeing now is the result of something that happened two weeks ago.
One is tempted to say that Spanish Flu acted the same way. Social distancing was implemented October 3-4 at the direction of state authorities. And the curve of deaths started to drop approximately 10-11 days later.
One is tempted to say that social distancing worked.
Live from Bethlehem! It’s BAPL Online!
Latest in a series of posts on the Arts in Bethlehem
“Library”: from the Latin liber, book.
Do you remember when libraries were just books?
The small library tucked away just over the railroad hump in Lansdowne, Pa., during the 1940s and 1950s was as instrumental in shaping my mental and moral character as the Highland Ave. playground was in shaping my physical and social one.
There the building still is. Thank god it’s not a tattoo parlor or something. The spirit of the bun’d, bespectacled Miss Barrow must still reside beneath the eaves.
Our BAPL is not your grandfather Gadfly’s library. It’s so much more.
Would you join me tonight at the virtual library ?
Support your local artists!
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Out with the old, in with the new
The Gadfly invites “local color” photos of this sort
The Gadfly
Picture taken April 7
April 7
the day in 1854 about which Thoreau wrote, “Walden was dead and is alive again”
in our culture’s most powerful work of rebirth and renewal
Eerie similarities to our situation abound
Latest in a series of posts on the Spanish Flu 
For perspective on our current coronavirus situation, we are following the entrance of the 1918 Spanish Influenza, that paragon of pandemics, into the minds and bodies of Lehigh Valley residents who got their news through the Morning Call (the files of the Bethlehem Globe are closed to us at the moment).
Allentown and Bethlehem shut down during the weekend of October 4-6, 1918, at the direction of the state health authorities.
As cases of Spanish Flu rose, readers of the Morning Call would learn of school closings on October 9 and churches — the last hold-out — closing on October 12.
Social distancing was slow but eventually took hold.
The reluctance to give up on these sites is familiar to us. The arguments the same.
But the eerie similarities to our current situation doesn’t end there.
In paging through the October 1918 issues of the Call, we could be reading our own newspapers, listening to our own television news.
For we find a call for volunteer medical staff, enlistment of medical students, a re-enlistment of retired medical personnel, visitors banned from hospitals, and — of course, of course — an inability to fill the “urgent demand” for masks.
And ghoulishly analogous to our image of the refrigerator trucks clustering at hospital backdoors to handle the backup of corpses, in Easton “it was necessary for the prison inspectors to call for volunteers among the prisoners in the county jail to dig graves in the cemeteries.”
Dear Governor Wolf: those warehouse workers need help
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
Greg Cook served as a magazine editor with Better Homes and Gardens in Des Moines IA for 20 years before moving to the Lehigh Valley in 2006 as a freelance writer. He participates in the Appalachian Mountain Club, launched the now annual Monocacy Park Day, brought into being the Monocacy Creek Watershed Coalition, and tours with Vote Common Good.
Gadfly:
I had no idea we had these problems at the warehouses. Here’s the message I sent Governor Wolf. I need to think more about this.
Dear Governor Wolf,
Please read this plea from Bethlehem City Councilwoman Olga Negron about workplace injuries and the COVID-19 danger to warehouse workers in the Lehigh Valley. What can we do? How can we protect these workers? How can I help? Thank you.
http://thebethlehemgadfly.com/2020/04/08/yesterday-was-a-difficult-day-i-fear-for-my-people/
Gregory Cook
“Yesterday was a difficult day. I fear for my people”
Latest in a series of posts on the coronavirus
Olga Negron is a Bethlehem City Councilwoman.
What Councilwoman Olga Negron has been doing during this quarantine . . .
This is by far the hardest time of my work life ever! I work for a personal injury law firm, and most of the work that we do is workers compensation. With all the warehouses in the Lehigh Valley having people working 10-12 hours doing repetitive work and heavy lifting, people are getting hurt. One of my favorite parts of my job is doing “Know Your Rights” workshops. Latinos that come to the USA are trying to live “the American Dream”; they want to work and provide for their families. Many had professions back home (teachers, nurses, electricians, lawyers, doctors), and because they’ve not been able to dominate the English language well enough to get licenses or certifications needed to do their profession, they end up working in warehouses. For the most part, people are content to have a steady job, decent pay, and benefits, and now they fear losing it. On a daily basis, I deal with individuals that get hurt at work, and their rights are violated. Every day! They get hurt and are just sent to the infirmary many of these warehouses have on site. There, they are given a pack of ice and a couple of Tylenol and are sent back to the work line. That’s my usual everyday story. I serve as interpreter to our attorneys, I do the intake, and, since many end up getting fired, I help them connect with resources they might need (food stamps, Medicaid, food banks, rent assistance, etc.). Now, during COVID 19 era, there is a different story.
All our offices (we have 8) have been closed since March 16, and we are all working from home. We advertise on our local Spanish radio La Mega for over 16 years. We are using phone call redirect services: Mon to Fri 9:00 am to 5:00 pm when people call our 1-888-311-GANA, the calls go right to my cell; if I don’t answer, it goes to other co-workers until someone is able to answer. My boss did a phone interview last week at the radio, and my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Within 4 days I got 81 calls through this number. People are scared. Many in my community are not paying attention to the news and are confused with what’s going on. All of a sudden, their co-workers are testing positive for COVID 19, and everyone is scared. Many don’t have childcare, and way too many are testing positive for COVID 19. Employers continue to let people work elbow to elbow and not using any kind of PPE. I continue to provide them with the local police non-emergency number or state police number to place the complaint about the dangerous working conditions and continue to explain how to apply for unemployment.
Meanwhile I get to listen to their many concerns. Yesterday I got to talk with 3 individuals who tested positive to COVID 19, and the conversations changed a bit. They are scared, crying, coughing, and saying they fear for their co-workers as they will all end up with COVID 19 because they continue to work next to each other, touching the items they are working with and passing it to the co-worker standing next to them. Not wearing PPE . . . . Scared and wondering how they will get food once they finish what they have at home, wondering if they will get to live through this virus. While other calls were from individuals saying 3 co-workers tested positive for COVID 19 yesterday. They were told the employer disinfected the factory, and they are calling them to go back to work, but they haven’t changed anything in terms of PPE or distancing between co-workers. They are afraid and don’t want to go back. They are now being forced to choose between their job and their life!
I love my job, and I have always enjoyed being there for people when they need me the most, as well as educating them about their rights and fighting for justice. It has often been hard listening to what people go through to keep their job, but I have never felt so heartbroken before. Yesterday was a difficult day. I fear for my people. I will need to take a few days off just for my well-being. It has been hard listening to stories all day long. And if I don’t take care of myself, I can’t be there for anyone else. To everyone reading this: take care of yourselves, take this pandemic seriously, for your sake and for the sake of our community.
Bethlehem Moment: The Irish in Bethlehem
Latest in a series of posts on Bethlehem Moments
Bethlehem Moment 21
City Council
April 7, 2020
Councilwoman Grace Crampsie Smith
1403 Lorain Ave.
Bethlehem Moment: January 1, 1886, Bethlehem’s First Mayor is Irish
The first settlers to the Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem, in particular, were Scots Irish. That first wave of immigrants pre-dates the 1742 Moravians and arrived in 1728 to build the Craig settlement in Northampton County.
The pioneering spirit of the Scotch Irish Ulstermen caused them to be among the early movers and shakers because of their fierce patriotism and fighting spirit.
Between 1815 and 1834, Irish immigrants arrived just in time for the canal-building boom. The saying was that all you needed to build a canal was a pick, a shovel, a wheelbarrow, and an Irishman. A thousand Irish workers, with help from local German farmers, built the Lehigh Navigation Canal, finishing the 46-mile route that carried anthracite coal from the mines to market in record time. Irish workers were instrumental in building all the anthracite canals and later the railroads that ultimately replaced them.
The Irish famine years of the 1840s triggered further Irish immigration. In 1850, Irish immigrants made up more than half of the foreign-born residents of Pennsylvania.
How fitting that Bethlehem’s 1st mayor hailed from Ireland. Andrew Harford Boyle emigrated from Burtonport, Ireland, to New Orleans, then moved to Bethlehem when he attended Lafayette College. He was a successful engineer and merchant and was Mayor of Bethlehem for 27 years, from 1886 to his death in 1913. That’s even longer than Mayor Donchez!!
In 1900, prior to the expansion of the steel mills, the native Americans, Irish, and German immigrants dominated the population of South Bethlehem
Irish immigrants faced discrimination and were vilified as lazy, drunken, dishonest, and, as Catholics, un-American. The 19th century found most Irish immigrants and their first- and second-generation descendants at the bottom of the social and economic scale. “No Irish Need Apply” signs were frequently displayed. Strikes and violent confrontations between miners, steelworkers, and others against increasingly remote, wealthy, and autocratic owners did little to help.
However, those difficulties led Irish Americans to form strong community supports such as churches, parochial schools, colleges, social groups, beneficial societies, and political groups. These all helped promote many second and third generation Irish Americans into the middle class and into positions of social, economic, and political power in Pennsylvania and the nation.
In 1861, Holy Infancy Church was established as a parish in South Bethlehem and was the first Catholic church in Northampton County.
South Bethlehem’s first Burgess, James McMahon, a respected Irish citizen, had been an active participant in the organization of Holy Infancy.
Patrick Briody, an Irish immigrant who came to America in 1850 from County Meath, Northern Ireland, was also a dedicated founding parishioner of Holy Infancy Church. Briody was Superintendent of Furnaces for The Bethlehem Iron Company. In March of 1894, he was appointed Postmaster of South Bethlehem, with the Post Office located at the corner of 4th and Brodhead Ave. Briody was also a member of the School Board and was on the committee for building the Central High School, and Webster, Excelsior, and Packer schools.
Like him, many community leaders of Irish descent contributed to the community by the close of the century, including John Donegan, Charles Quinn, James Broughal, and Thomas O’Reilly.
In 1912, James Bonner, brother to my grandmother Grace Bonner Crampsie, moved to Bethlehem from the coal region town of Summit Hill. James’s parents had emigrated 
from County Donegal. James worked as an electrician at Bethlehem Steel as well as operated his own electrical business. James’s daughter Cynthia Bonner was born in 1935. Cynthia graduated from Liberty High School and joined the Air Force upon graduation from nursing school. Cynthia rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Air Force and served as an Air Evacuation Nurse in Vietnam and Director of Nursing at Howard AFB in Panama. She also assisted in the aftermath of the Reverend Jim Jones disaster. Later in life, she was exposed to the H1N1 virus which contributed to the downfall of her health.
In retirement she continued providing nursing services at Maher AFB and the county of Sacramento. She loved her country, her hometown of Bethlehem, and her Irish heritage. While she lived throughout the world, she always spoke fondly of her days growing up in Bethlehem, and Bethlehem was always close to her heart.
Bethlehem has been blessed with many Irish immigrants and their descendants contributing to our great city, and to those we are forever grateful.
In the present day, Bethlehem hosts the Celtic Cultural Alliance – an Educational non-profit organization that hosts the Annual Celtic Classic Festival and many other Celtic Cultural events throughout the year. The resurgence of Celtic Culture in the valley through organizations like the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Irish Dance Schools, and Scottish Pipe Bands made it a natural place to start one of the major Celtic Festivals in North America bringing almost 300,000 people annually to Bethlehem.
I wish to thank Joe McCarthy of Holy Infancy Parish and my good friend Timothy Briody, descendant of Patrick Briody, for their invaluable contribution to this Bethlehem Moment. And a special thanks to my cousin Cynthia Bonner for her selfless contributions in serving our country.
May the road rise to meet you on this Holy, sacred day as Irish Americans pay homage to their patron Saint, Patrick. [This Bethlehem Moment was originally scheduled for March 17.]
Slainte and Sith!!
“Without a shared history, we are not a true community.”
Highland Park identified
Latest in a series of posts on the Spanish Flu
Roy W. Schreffler owns a cemetery.
Gadfly:
I am pretty certain the Highland Park area at that time [of the Spanish Flu], is in West Allentown. You get there today by going on RT22 West, get off at 15th St., head south, you will pass through the Highland Cemetery on your way, corner of 15th & Roth.
Go here to download this map of Allentown from 1901, it’s a large file, so wait for it to download,
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3824a.pm007290/?r=-0.271,-0.133,1.553,0.93,0
You can see in the upper left corner, where 15th st. starts, they show a Trolley track. I show it below, and the red arrows show the route.
Not shown on this map would be this Highland area, likely a development area slated for future growth, far away from the Flu.
Now imagine getting on a trolley at 15th, follow it for 8mins to 8th & Hamilton, then head 14 more mins East to South Bethlehem.
The trolley crosses the Lehigh River on the little bridge in the map image, then along what is now Hanover Ave, past Central Park in Rittersville, then on to South Bethlehem.
This to me makes the most sense about the location of Highland Park.
Roy