Current events seem to bring history closer to home, as does walking through one month in Fair Haven during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Would we now be better prepared had we been more aware of our grandparents’ personal experiences one hundred years ago?
My grandfather’s first cousin, Libby Hills, grew up in North Fair Haven. She died from influenza at age 24, leaving her husband with two small children to raise. The names below are those I found today. In addition, Red Creek, Hannibal, Victory, and Cato had their own lists, with many connections to Fair Haven. News received from more distant places also affected families and friends here.
Do you know of anyone who became ill or died in 1918?
One Month in Fair Haven
1918 September 28 – Following a Wartime Liberty Loan Drive parade in Philadelphia, deaths rose to more than 4,500. Thousands more were ill there due to this public gathering.
Schools in Fair Haven and Sterling were closed, as was the Lakeside Movie Theatre in Fair Haven. Church services were suspended.
1918 September 30 – Rosannah Acre Garner died, age 74. West Bay
1918 October 6 – Maurice Hewitt died, age 26. Sterling
1918 October 7 – Mahalia Teachout died, age 60. Sterling Station
1918 October 8 – Nelson Adams died at North Fair Haven, age 17.
1918 October 10 – The Fair Haven Register reported the following cases for this week.
Miss Mabel Lyon
Cassius Wilkinson
Miss Ruth Vought
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Brown
Mrs. Mary Grant’s entire family and her sister, Mrs. William Kirkpatrick, who was caring for them
Charles Smith
Mrs. J. W. Harrison
William Wilkinson
Carlton Brown, who is now out again
Mrs. Floyd Salisbury
Maurice Cooper
Mrs. Elva Deans
1918 October 15 – Elizabeth Hills Carris was born and raised in North Fair Haven. She died from influenza in Rochester, age 24, mother of two.
1918 October 16 – Mrs. Oscar Moore, Herb Baggs and Jim Dates are all ill. Lida Bellinger has been caring for Mrs. Elmer Waldron on Juniper Hill.
1918 October 17 – John Switzer is ill. Mrs. Georgia Phelps is caring for her children, Beatrice Phelps, Clifton Phelps, and Mrs. & Mr. F. D. Rudd and their daughter Marion.
Netta Wilkinson, one of George and Nettie Wilkinson’s eighteen year old twin daughters, returned home to finish recuperating. She had been hospitalized in Syracuse suffering a serious bought of influenza. In Martville, Andrew Burgdorf is still very ill.
Also down with the flu this week.
Elmer Gibbs
Mrs. Stock
Victor Lyons
Wade Dominy,
Mrs. David Muckey
Ross Randle
Kathryn Smith
Arthur Hendrick
Floyd and Alton Hendrick
Mrs. Charles Kelly
Thomas Gray and daughter Verna
Walter and Fran McMillen
Harley Williams
Fred Gray’s entire family
John Demass and his entire family
Andrew Owens returned to his home in Martville feeling much better following treatment in Auburn.
1918 October 21 – Leland Demarest was stationed in Maryland near the army’s arsenal at Edgewood. Leland wrote a letter home to his parents. “My Dear Folks, I feel as if I were alone in the world tonight. This afternoon I had to take a truck load of ammunition to Edgewood… After supper I said as long as I was there I would go over to Detachment F and give George Ingersoll a surprise. But I was the one to be surprised… I went up to his bed but found it empty. I asked his friend where he was, and he said: ‘Why, George was taken sick last night and died this morning.’ George and I were good friends… I don t see why the best ones have to go…”
George Ingersoll was twenty-seven years old. He had had the flu the week before and was said to have gotten better. Edgewood, where he was stationed, manufactured chemical weapons. Some say George died due to accidental exposure to deadly nerve gas and that the flu was so prevalent there at the time that his cause of death was falsely entered on his military records as pneumonia brought on by the flu, rather than reveal the truth.
The Great War, as it was then known, came to an end three weeks later. The American Legion’s George Ingersoll Post in Fair Haven was named for him in 1921.
1918 October 23 – Adam Spade of South Lake Street died. He was sixty. Services were held at the home of his daughter, Nellie Deans.
1918 October 24 – No new cases of influenza reported locally within the past week, but many remained ill. Thirty-three year old, Mabel Lyon is recovering more slowly than others, having a critical case. Bessie Werner who has been aiding her mother, Jenny Jackson, on Lake Street left for Buffalo where her father, John Jackson, had come down with the flu. While Bessie was away, her mother died followed by her father.
1918 October 26 Saturday night – Fair Haven’s “motion picture house” opened again after having been closed due to flu.
1918 October 27 Sunday – Churches resumed services on this Sunday. Arthur Eno died on Eno Road near Martville. He was 21 years old. Dorothy Longley, age 23, died despite being cared for at a hospital in Syracuse. She was engaged to be married.
1918 October 31 – Jacob Decker in Martville has not yet recovered. He will die the following year. Mr. & Mrs. J. H. Schouten and their four daughters were all ill this week.
Schools were closed again after being reopened for one day. It appears the attempt to return to normal activities was premature.
The following was printed in the Fair Haven Register in 1918. So much of it sounds the same as we are just now hearing in 2020.
UNCLE SAM’S ADVICE ON FLU
Public Health Service Issues Official Health Bulletin on Influenza.
LATEST WORD ON SUBJECT
Epidemic Probably Not Spanish in Origin—Germ Still Unknown—People Should Guard Against “Droplet Infection”—Surgeon General Makes Authoritative Statement
Washington, D. C— (Special.)— Although King Alfonso of Spain was one of the victims of the Influenza epidemic in 1893 and again this summer, Spanish authorities repudiate any claim to Influenza as a “Spanish” disease. If the people of this country do not take care the epidemic will become so widespread throughout the United States that soon we shall hear the disease called “American” Influenza. In response to a request for definite information concerning Spanish Influenza, Surgeon General Rupert Blue of the U. S. Public Health Service has authorized the following official interview:
What is Spanish Influenza? Is It something new? Does It come from Spain?
“The disease now occurring in this country and called ‘Spanish Influenza’ resembles a very contagious kind of ‘cold,’ accompanied by fever, pains in the head, eyes, ears, back or other parts of the body and a feeling of severe sickness. In most of the cases the symptoms disappear after three or four days, the patient then rapidly recovering. Some of the patients, however, develop pneumonia, or inflammation of the ear, or meningitis, and many of these complicated cases die. Whether this so-called ‘Spanish Influenza’ is identical with the epidemics of influenza of earlier years is not yet known.
“Epidemics of influenza have visited this country since 1647. It is interesting to know that this first epidemic was brought here from Valencia, Spain. Since that time there have been numerous epidemics of the disease. In 1889 and 1890 an epidemic of influenza, starting somewhere in the Orient, spread first to Russia and thence over practically the entire civilized world. Three years later there was another flare-up of the disease. Both times the epidemic spread widely over the United States.
“Although the present epidemic is called ‘Spanish Influenza,’ there Is no reason to believe that It originated in Spain. Some writers who have studied the question believe that the epidemic came from the Orient and they call attention to the fact that the Germans mention the disease as occurring along the eastern front in the summer and fall of 1917.”
How can “Spanish Influenza” be recognized?
“There is as yet no certain way in which a single case of ‘Spanish Influenza’ can be recognized. On the other hand, recognition is easy where there is a group of cases. In contrast to the outbreaks of ordinary coughs and colds, which usually occur in the cold months, epidemics of influenza may occur at any season of the year. Thus, the present epidemic raged most intensely in Europe in May, June and July. Moreover, in the case of ordinary colds, the general symptoms (fever, pain, depression) are by no means as severe or as sudden in their onset as they arc in influenza. Finally, ordinary colds do not spread through the community so rapidly or so extensively as does influenza.
“In most cases a person taken sick with influenza feels sick rather suddenly. He feels weak, has pains in the eyes, ears, head or back, and may be sore all over. Many patients feel dizzy, some vomit. Most of the patients complain of feeling chilly, and with this comes a fever in which the temperature rises to 100 to 104. In most cases the pulse remains relatively slow.
“In appearance one is struck by the fact that the patient looks sick. His eyes and the inner side of his eyelids may be slightly ‘bloodshot’ or ‘congested,’ as the doctors say. There may be running from the nose, or there may be some cough. These signs of a cold may not be marked; nevertheless the patient looks and feels very sick.
“In addition to the appearance and the symptoms as already described, examination of the patient’s blood may aid the physician in recognizing ‘Spanish Influenza,’ for It has been found that in this disease the number of white corpuscles shows little or no increase above the normal. It Is possible that the laboratory investigations now being made through the National Research Council and the United States Hygienic Laboratory will furnish a more certain way in which individual cases of this disease can be recognized.”
What is the course of the disease? Do people die of it?
“Ordinarily, the fever lasts from three to four days and the patient recovers. But while the proportion of deaths in the present epidemic has generally been low. In some places the outbreak has been severe, and deaths have been numerous. When death occurs, it is usually the result of a complication.”
What causes the disease and how is it spread?
“Bacteriologists who have studied influenza epidemics in the past have found in many of the cases a very small rod-shaped germ called, after its discoverer, Pfeiffer’s bacillus. In other cases of apparently the same kind of disease there were found pneumococci, the germs of lobar pneumonia. Still others have been caused by streptococci, and by other germs with long names.
“No matter what particular kind of germ causes the epidemic, it is now believed that influenza is always spread from person to person, the germs being carried with the air along with the very small droplets of mucus, expelled by coughing or sneezing, forceful talking, and the like by one who already has the germs of the disease. They may also be carried about in the air in the form of dust coming from dried mucus, from coughing and sneezing, or from careless people who drool or spit on the floor and on the sidewalk. As with most other catching diseases, a person who has only a mild attack of the disease himself may give a very severe attack to others.”
What should be done by those who catch the disease?
“It is very important that every person who becomes sick with influenza should go home at once and go to bed. This will help keep away dangerous complications and will, at the same time, keep the patient from scattering the disease far and wide. It is highly desirable that no one be allowed to sleep in the same room with the patient. In fact, no one but the nurse should be allowed in the room.
“If there is a cough and sputum or running of the eyes and nose, care should be taken that all such discharges, are collected on bits of gauze or rag or paper napkins and burned. If the patient complains of fever and headache, he should be given water to drink, a cold compress to the forehead and a light sponge. Only such medicine should be given as are prescribed by the doctor. It is foolish to ask the druggist to prescribe and may be dangerous to take the so-called ‘safe, sure and harmless’ remedies advertised by patent medicine manufacturers.
“If the patient is so situated that he can be attended only by someone who must also look after others in the family, it is advisable that such attendant wear a wrapper, apron or gown over the ordinary house clothes while in the sick room and slip this off when leaving to look after the others.
“Nurses and attendants will do well to guard against breathing in dangerous, disease germs by wearing a simple fold of gauze or mask while near the patient.”
Will a person who has had influenza before catch the disease again?
“It is well known that on attack of measles or scarlet fever or smallpox usually protects a person against another attack of the same disease. This appears not to be true of ‘Spanish Influenza.’ According to newspaper reports the King of Spain suffered an attack of influenza during the epidemic thirty years ago, and was again stricken during the recent outbreak in Spain.”
How can one guard against influenza?
“In guarding against disease of all kinds, it is Important that the body be kept strong and able to fight off disease germs. This can be done by having a proper proportion of work, play and rest, by keeping the body well clothed, and by eating sufficient wholesome and properly selected food. In connection with diet, it is well to remember that milk is one of the best all-around foods obtainable for adults as well as children. So far as a disease like influenza is concerned, health authorities everywhere recognize the very close relation between its spread and overcrowded homes. While it Is not always possible, especially in times like the present, to avoid such overcrowding, people should consider the health danger and make every effort to reduce the home overcrowding to a minimum. The value of fresh air through open windows cannot be over emphasized.
“When crowding is unavoidable, as in street cars, care should be taken to keep the face so turned as not to inhale directly the air breathed out by another person.
“It is especially important to beware of the person who coughs or sneezes without covering his mouth and nose. It also follows that one should keep out of crowds and stuffy places as much as possible, keep homes, offices and workshops well aired, spend some time out of doors each day, walk to work if at all practicable—in short, make every possible effort to breathe as much pure air as possible.
“In all health matters follow the advice of your doctor and obey the regulations of your local and state health officers.”
“Cover up each cough and sneeze.
If you don’t, you’ll spread disease.”
More information:
YoutTube documentary on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
Thank you for this post. I am a granddaughter of Elizabeth Hills. Her loss was painful to many and lasted throughout the lifetime of my grandfather and my father. My father was five years old when his mother died and he blamed himself his entire lifetime for her death. His last memory of his mother was fighting with her because he did not want to take the quinine pill she was trying to give him to protect him from the flu. He was in his 60’s when he told me about his mother and I could feel his sadness as he shared the story. My Great Uncle Bill shared with many of us the horrible experience he had of just locating her body after her death because so many were dying. You could feel his sadness as he shared his experience. Our family was related to two other’s mentioned in the above story, Charles Smith and John Switzer.
It is important to be mindful of our past. There are so many lessons to be learned. The temptation to attribute it to specific areas has been with us throughout history.