Greetings All, While reading through the Stanhope Eagle paper of the 1890's there was first a typhoid fever epidemic 1892-93 then a black measles in 1894. This would account for younger people's deaths in this era. As for explosions at Hercules and other area powder works, they were not a rare occurence and occur to the present time. Stanhope Eagle newspaper published weekly on Wednesday Weds. 15 Nov 1893 - Mrs. STIDWORTHY, of Rockaway, sister to John BOSTEDO of Netcong, brought his mother to see him in his illness when she herself took sick and died of typhoid fever on Sunday. Weds. 6 Dec 1893 - John FOUNTAIN, formerly a resident of Byram but has removed some ten years since, died at Somerville on Thanksgiving day aged 83 years. His remains will go to Stanhope for burial. He was brother to Mahlon WOODRUFF's mother. Weds. 13 Dec 1893 - One of the young men of a near by town sat down the other day and wrote on the back of two postal cards. Then he turned them over and directed them. By mistake he placed the addresses on the wrong cards. The result was that a shirt factory in Trenton got a very polite invitation to go carriage riding, while the young man's girl was made frantic by receiving the following: "Please send me a sample of the stuff your shirts are made of." Weds. 25 Apr 1894 - Mary KNIGHT STRUBLE, wife of Dr. J. H. STRUBLE of Passaic, second daughter of John M. KNIGHT, proprietor of Stanhope House, died last Weds. at the age of 42 years from gastritis. Her sister Miss Nellie had been nursing her. Mrs. STRUBLE had lived here until her marriage to Dr. STRUBLE then they removed to Sparrowbush, NY. They later lived a while in Hawley, PA before locating to Passaic. Weds. 2 May 1894 - Mrs. Carrie J., wife of Henry C. HOWELL and daughter of Elias and Catherine E. CARTER of Dover, died at Pleasant Hill on April 25th aged 34 years. Weds. 16 May 1894 - Peter YOUNG, living on his farm near Budd Lake died Saturday last aged 77 years. Interment will be Stanhope Union. His wife had died from injuries caused by a fall last Autumn. His son, Andrew, and daughter, Mrs Thomas SCUDDER, are his only surviving children. Weds. 30 May 1894 - A new law has made material changes in the marriage reports from Camden and Warren counties. Phillipsburg had been a little Gretna Green where people would wander over from Penn. to be married there without a license. In Camden, the non-resident marriages had been running quite high, about 4000 - 5000 the past seven years. With the new law, non-residents will now be required to obtain a marriage license before being able to marry in New Jersey. Weds. 6 Jun 1894 - Mrs. Peter DURLAND, formerly of Hector, NY has been visiting with her brother, Abram SMITH near Hackensack. She's related to the old VANTYLE family and the DURLANDs. Her grandfather, Daniel VanTYLE being the son of Abram VANTYLE who built the house where R. D. CASKEY now resides, in 1796, kept a tavern there. He was a Rev. War soldier. He sold the house and farm to Robert CASKEY who descendants remain there today. Mrs. DURLAND reared six children, five still survive. Her husband left Hector under embarassing circumstances unknown to the family and over time, the family grew up and went to Kansas for home. Fully one third of the Stanhope school children are yet afflicted with the measles of a dangerous type. The measles have appeared on the Netcong side of the river and are rapidly spreading there. Hope this helps, Cathy