I spent an hour or two today, going through old issues of my hometown newspaper at the library. I researched the year 1918 and could see the pandemic spread, from week to week (we have a weekly paper). It started in September and I got through November, before I had to go home.
In our small town, of around 2,000 people young people were dropping like flies. For what appeared to be the entire month of October and at least the first half of November, deaths were numerous. News from a neighboring town of about 30 people, said funerals were a daily occurance at homes of the people of that small town for at least two weeks (I assume included the surrounding countryside). It appeared that many funerals were held at home….maybe it was the custom at the time? Or maybe it was because of the ban on public gathering.
One article talked about ordinances, allowing only 4 people at once, in the main street shops. Church services were suspended and many gatherings and meetings were postponed as well. There was some “normalcy” but for a couple weeks, it was clear that things were not good. It seemed to die down a little late October or early November, but re-emerged in November, albeit much more mild.
As I read through those, recognizing some long standing business names and historic figures, names many people in this area would still recognize, it occurred to me, that these articles would be very good presentation material, to any local leadership, if trying to convince them of a plan of preperation.
Some remedies were offered, but mostly rest (immediate bed rest) along with Vapor rubs (Vicks was mentioned specifically) was about all they could do. The did mention aspirin and some other “concoctions” I was not familiar with. If you were to tell your local leadership, that in the first stages of a pandemic, we’d be as helpless as those living in 1918 to stop it, it would seem to me to be good presentation material.
The second thing that occured to me, was that the mortatlity rate of Spanish Flu is usually listed at 2% or so which is bad, but better than 50%. It seemed to me, from my reading, that the mortality rate during September, October and November, was much much higher than 2%. In fact, 20–30% would not surprise me, from what I read.
It was an interesting read, for me, since I grew up here locally. You might find it interesting yourself…give it a try. If nothing else, the war info is very interesting. It was clear, that they were a great generation. I’m not sure we will do as well as they did, if/when we are faced with this.
Very interesting post. Thank you.
Good post. Great idea.
As far as mortality rate. I don’t think there was any real census data back then. The estimate is 2% since almost everyone got the bird flu (like any other flu) and some died of it (mostly young and healthy)…most lived though.
Even today its hard to put a rate % on it right now (should it become h2h). Could be 0.5% or could be 5% or 20%. Right now its 50% but we don’t know about people who got sick and never died (but didn’t know they had it and never reported it) and people who died from it (and never knew they had it and again never got reported). When it mutates it the norm is that it usually becomes less lethal.
correct me if I’m wrong….but i think the 1918 virus, when it became h-h, was a slightly milder version of what was to come, but then after a short time became more lethal. virus’s method of making sure it got around real good before it made a mess of killing off it’s hosts. and you’re right….without the testing capabilities we have now, it’s really hard to say how many in true numbers had it then.
and luv2…the norm back then (except for the time of the pandemic) was to keep the body at home until burial. called them ‘wakes’.
Microfiche issues were missing from about summer 1918 to summer 1919. Don’t know if the paper wasn’t saved or wasn’t published. I have to try another town next time.
I do think “bumping those old threads” up to current readers and community leaders might be interesting reading.
Have you seen “10 Days in Toronto”? http://www.curevents.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26742
I moved to a small town in South Central PA last spring. It is a really nice old town, and one summer afternoon my stroll ended up in the town’s cemetery. I like to read old tombstones, and noticed there were three next to each other from the same family. They were two brothers and a sister who died two days apart from each other, from 01/12/21 to 01/16/21. Their ages were 12, 16 & 21. I could just imagine the pain of the parents as they laid their children one after another in the cold ground. I remember thinking that for three young people like that to die within days of each other, they must have been victims of the Spanish Flu.
I went home totally down from my discovery, and my eldest son (he’s 28) took me aside to tell me about a National Geographic special he had watched about the Avian Flu - and he wanted to discuss preparations.
Talk about omens…
Called them “wakes” to give the deceased time to “wake” up if they were in a coma-like state. The idea being to make absolutely sure they were dead before burying them. Also, the custom of bringing flowers was so that it would be less likely that visitors would smell any decay during the wake period if indeed the person was, in fact, dead and starting to decompose. Sorry to be so graphic…
please, when you walk through historic material, can you keep an eye on how measures like closing schools,quarantine etc. worked on the number of deaths or cases ? Also, how the virus spreaded, how people caught it, from nursing for infected,breathing or touching or maybe even eating, how big the family clusters were. Were there many families with just one sick living together with others who didn’t become sick ?
They did not understand what was causing the illness nor how it was spread. (Wartime censorship did not help.) Many places debated whether or not to close schools, while deaths increased, or they merely suggested public gatherings or amusements be avoided -yet still held War Bond sales rallies.
In Toronto, the paper said it was not one of the must-report communicable diseases, so they hadn’t been keeping track nor informing other towns what was happening (until they all began to telegraph each other for nurses and doctors to be sent, because all towns needed help). When they cancelled schools, church services, theatres, public gatherings, often it was after they already had thousands sick.
Toronto Star asked people for their family stories of that pandemic: http://tinyurl.com/8j3rg
Funerals held at home. That would be a wake. Posssibly any funeral home couldn’t handle all the deaths. I remember visiting a momument maker with a relation, there was a large building in the cemetary where the bodies were stored when the ground was frozen. It was quite a handsome building, more like a chapel.
I too often stop by an old cemetary and read the names and ages and inscriptions, try to get a feel for their lives, if I do it again, if it turns warm, I’ll look for 1918–1919. I never did that. Its a good idea reading old archive material.
There is a cemetery, actually 25 seperate cemeteries side by side, in the Cascade mountains, an old coal mining town called Roslyn (Northern Exposure was filmed here). I have wandered through these cemeteries a few times in the last year or so, and the last time I went I was looking specifically for dates of death in 1918/19 and saw surprisingly few. I haven’t had a chance to look through this link yet, but almost all of these cemeteries listed are in that one wooded area
btw, there are some really nice pictures in the above link, if you like old cemeteries. My grandparents are buried there, and other relatives also.
Almost all of the burials in this town are listed in the link above, looking through it I am starting to see more 1918 deaths than I did wandering through the gravesites.
The local health department I work for was prepareing for a Pandemic Influenza Tabletop exercise. I went to our local library and researched the 1918 outbreak in our town. Newspapers at that time were a little larger and may have as many as 10–15 stories on the front page. Slowly, I started to see information about “La Grippe”, and then I noticed the obits page had more and more entries. They closed churches, funerals were 15 minutes long, and numerous homes were under quarantine. The one thing that did catch my attention was 2 adds, one was for Vicks Vaporub, stating that it would keep the flu away, the other was from a dry cleaners stating that getting your clothes dry cleaned would protect you from flu. We see those types of adds everyday, the one that jumps out the most is “Florida Orange Juice”, they claim that by drinking this you can avoid the flu this year. Can we imagine, the number of “cures” that would be availble during a pandemic.
Great idea to look at old papers! Do any of them mention shortages or rioting or civil unrest of any kind? It would be intersting to know this. Of course in 1918 there were far fewer people, even in the big cities and I would dare say that people behaved differently then too.
DEC. You just reminded me that I was at a church cemetary down south many years ago and noticed that whole families were buried side by side - all young kids including their parents. I remember now the year….1918. Did not make the connection then to a massive die-off due to the flu. Had never even heard of the Spanish Flu prior to all of this. I just remember feeling very sad that entire families had to watch one another die. Now gives me a shutter. Can’t imagine living in the U.S. with access to the highest tech medical equipment and care and hearing about young people, in good health, dying of the flu! Can you imagine what it will be like in other countries i.e. Africa. Has me very upset today as obviously it does everyone else on this site…..the system is very slow so everyone is “buzzing”.
I don’t know whether the way people reacted in 1918 will help us here. In those days people were far more self reliant and we didn’t have the culture of “nannying” that we have now. People were used to nursing their sick at home. They didn’t automatically expect their govt. to come running to pull them out of the mire when bad things happened. They were also used to living far more basically and with a lot less than we are today.
In the first world war in Britain they didn’t even have rationing - they had big shortages but you queued, first come first served and took it on the chin.
I think that a lot of the troubles that might arise will be because people are expecting to be rescued
Most, if not all of the sick were cared for at home. There was little they could do in a hospital in our area. There was no mention of any type of civil unrest or disorder. In fact, there was much patriotism at the time, because the war was ending.
Sporadic mention of “La Grippe” first appeared in September, from what I could see. October, in particular, it became widespread and deadly. There was mention of multiple family members getting it…caretakers in particular. But there were obviously caretakers who did NOT die, or even get the flu, from what I read. It was very eerie, as though some were stricken and some were not, with no rhyme or reason.
If Katrina didn’t shake them up about the government, nothing can. Katrina victims did get help, hotel rooms, housing. Just looking at a current Architectural Digest yesterday of Movie Star homes from the forties. Smallish homes with basic furniture that seem modest by our standards. Everything was on a smaller more modest scale. We are devourers, and it hasn’t been good for the planet, and it hasn’t been good for us. Comfortable and easy living, and it doesn’t require that much money to have a good life now, if you are frugal in habits.I haven’t spent all that much stocking up. About $200 accounts for it, but I’m not planning the full scale isolation for a long time. I’m just getting enough for a month or two. I am soothing away any anxiety that might arise by this modest outlay. If I feel that it is really ratcheting up I will do more. Until then I feel the Wiki is my canary in the coalmine, and I don’t feel at all stressed. Concerned, interested, but not stressed out.
Oh the reason I posted here. Spoke to the Town Historian and she is a 1918 baby, doesn’t seem concerned about the B.F. spoke to the man who helps her cut up the local papers. He too is a 1918 baby. All he knows about the l918 flu is that an uncle died. Evidently people just wanted to forget this, once it was over, you had survived. Neither of these two had the slightest curiosity about it.
luv2cmwork you mentioned in your opening memo that you wondered about all the home funerals, and not at funeral homes, was it a cause for no public meetings. It was common practice only up to recent time, to hold funerals in the home. If you recall the area of the older homes was called “home parlor” and it was an open area before and near the living room. My parents had funerals in the home for their young babies in the 1930s in that area. Funeral “homes” are also called “funeral parlors” that is taken from the area of the home. Just thought I would pass this along (my hobby has been death and dieing for a long time)
Gary Near Death Valley --- I’ve been down there many times, and for you to mention your “hobby”…brought a smile to my face! Just kinda ironic, I guess…
My moms into geneology and had noticed a bunch of male relitives that died state side 1918.
There definitely were families where some died and some in the same household never became infected. My great grandmother brought her sick brothers to her home and her baby sister who was a nurse to care for the brothers. All three died. However, my great grandmother, great grandfather and my grandfather who was about 16 lived in the house and never got the flu. My great grandmother was a fanatic about cleanliness and I just recently have come to understand why. It is also a fact that they did not talk about what they experienced. I now wonder if the memories were just too painful to discuss or if they wanted to shield us from the horror.
bump- anyone had time to find more local newspaper information?
(Or maybe we could ask current newspapers to do stories on what the influenza pandemic in 1918 was like in their locations?)
I just received a portion of news clippings from the Camden NJ Courier (later became the Courier Post). In 1918 there was a massive shipyard near Camden-New York Ship, which had brought in a huge number of workers. The clippings begin Sept 28 1918 to Nov 16, 1918; I have from 9/28 to 10/17/1918
9/28: 800 cases 4 deaths 9/30 5,000 cases- it was called a 7 day plague and death rate expected to be 1% 10/1 courts, schools, churches, theaters closed; 10/2 100 shipworkers sent to hospital 10/3 10,000 sick-General Surgeon said it was contagious; “many deaths” 10/4 another hospital opened-the second floor of City Hall. In time empty warehouses and rectories were used as hospitals. Trolley service reduced due to illness of the workers-now even more crowded. “Dread Influenza not New Scourge” 10/5 “deaths pile up”, drugstores swamped, 1300 employess out at one business, one family had 3 deaths; as the deaths are listed it is horrifying to see the ages; babies, 11,14 28 etc..few older people..YMCA, Moose,Elk clubs help care for sick 10/7 priests, doctors undertakers sick and dead-armory opended as hospitals 10/8 40 sick one one block-in the past 24 hours: 839 newly sick;at 11:00 AM total upped to 1379; 30 deaths; death total given=112-interesting: 6 from flu, 106 from pneumonia (talk about under-reported true CFR!) 10/10 365 new case in past 24 hours with 40 deaths
By 10/22- Board of Health to care for orphans and motherless-[there was a need for day care so the surviving fathers could go back to work]…There was a problem burying the dead: police and firemen were making coffins and undertakers could not keep up with the demand-the board of health had to issue an order that all dead to be buried within 24 hours of death.
This was not new ie all this covered in “The Great Influenza”, but to read the obits of the children, young men and women who lived in my area…brought the reality home…
HOMETOWN nEWSPAPER 2006 Cap lock was on, but this is news. One of our local papers headlines. Managing editor Phil Garber has written this week. Area not ready for bird flu pandemic. If this doesn’t empty a few supermarket shelves locally. They have a special on bottled water at the A&P I’m dashing over to see if anyone is paying attention. Only 5 days supply of food is mentioned, but its a start.Why distilled water is mentioned I can’t guess, but the word is getting out now. If people won’t pay attention, what can you do.I think its beginning to worry officials.
I was speaking to one of my patients—an old Army nurse, who during World War Two parachuted into Burma along with the rest of her medical team to care for the troops. She was a little girl during the pandemic, but the stories she related to me were absolutely chilling. She lost many members of her family, and what seems to come through, more than anything else in her stories was this incredible sense of helplessness, and therefore hopelessness. She was pretty specific at describing the medical symptoms, but what haunts her even now were the smells. She says she can still “smell” the flu.
I had to sit back and think that one over!
There is a guy who does “memorylane” columns in our local rag. I*’ll get in touch with him and see if he’ll do a story on my town’s (little city) experience in 1918. The death of millions some where else is so different than when the victims have local names and families.
It amazes me how this chapter (huge chapter) has been wiped from our memories?? It is weird beyond belief! How could we have “forgotten “ about the deaths of 50,000,000 people? There was nothing secret or far away about it. It was inescapably in front of everybody, everywhere. Did a great sleepiness fall upon the land?????
Why did I not hear about it until last year?
It is like a fairytale,
Jefiner at 02:22 — I don’t know if you’re aware that apparently the cytokine storm has a very distinctive smell - it used to be called the “foetor of smallpox”. The word “virus” is derived from the Latin for “poison” because by sniffing the wrists and forehead, a doctor of old could nail down the “poisonous” odor of smallpox.
Clark — I’ve puzzled by the amnesia about the flu myself. The ways I knew about it was because my grandmother and her sister had it, and were so ill that all their long, beautiful hair fell out. Then, when I was working one summer in Alaska, I saw a mass grave of flu victims — the locals said almost everyone in the village had died — weathering out into the sea. I put two and two together and have been highly interested in the flu ever since. It is to my eternal regret I didn’t go into it as a profession!
My grandfather certainly never forgot, even though his family came through intact. He told me stories that scared me (and scared him too, as he was certain it would come back, anytime and unannounced!) That is the only thing I ever saw Grandpa scared of. It may not have come down through our written history quite so well, but in our family’s oral history it has been very emphasized. Maybe it is the kind of thing that was only spoken about at home to avoid bringing up ‘discouraging’ memories in others?
Now it is considered a good thing in our culture to discuss our feelings and reactions, but from what I understand, people back then in general were more reserved. Plus, everyone went thru the same horrors, and they would have liked to forget. Even though they were never really able to forget, it would be easier to focus on going on with life if people weren’t talking about the epidemic.
America’s Forgotten Pandemic by Alfred Crosby.
Melanie thank you for the information, the book by Alfred Crosby. Just bought it for ($9.80 on line). Already read The Great Influenza by John Barry and looking forward to this one. The way I look at it, one of the best ways to study the future is by reading of the past. Some things hardly change from history,,,,just baby steps one way or the other. Thanks,
Crosby’s book is an excellent read and a fascinating study of the sociology of pandemic illness.
The 2% death rate is obviously a spin number. It reminds me of the days when in the Army I would hear these fantastic kill numbers from the various assult missions. Seems the multiplier was about ten to one. I’ll bet the divisor for the Spanish flu is about the same. Now days with our immune systems being so compromised we’d probably lose about half the planet.
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