Time Was

War moves things along. Inovations that were only on the drawing board can become a reality in a very short time.
It was like that with the automobile industry. Before the war, an automobile was a novelty, after it was a necessity. Let's look at the changes.
In 1915 purchasing an automobile got your name in the paper. We read on Oct. 29, 1915, “The Steinhart-Whitmore company are certainly doing business in the automobile line, the latest sales being two seven passenger Studebaker automobiles, one to Arch Montgomery and one to William Bell.”

All wars take a terrible toll on those who do the fighting. But those who they leave behind also experience life changing traumas. This was especially true during the 19th century and in to the 20th.
The role of women, that of domestic, keeper of the flame, raiser of the children was vital but paid nothing. When the bread winner was killed, the women who depended upon them found themselves depending on charity.
But in one place at least, that charity felt more like family, the Soldiers' Widows' Home.

Many people I know like to travel by train. It takes longer, but it is a relaxing way to travel and, for the most part, travel by rail is considered safer than driving.
Not so in the 19th century before instant communications, computers and double tracks. Today we look at a particularly bad one. Warning, some descriptions may not be for the squeamish.
This story takes place in the hamlet of Lorenzo, just west of Wilmington. It is located where Lorenzo Road crosses the tracks, and apparently looked then pretty much as it looks now.