Seems Like We Have Been Here Before - The Spanish Flu

Schools Closed for Weeks During Spanish Flu Outbreak

This headline could have been taken from any media source during the first weeks of March 2020, however, it was from the Geneseo Republic in October of 1918. As you read this article it is amazing how the Spanish Flu outbreak and the reactions to it copy what is happening today with the coronavirus outbreak. As we can see here, the country made it through the Spanish Flu outbreak and we can do it again!

The title of an article one hundred years ago in the December 6, 1918 issue of the

Geneseo Republic announced orders from the local Board of Health by the way of

Geneseo Mayor Ott. The article stated, “ because of the many cases of Spanish

Influenza in our midst, it is deemed wise and for the general welfare of the

community to issue this proclamation ordering all the churches and schools closed,

forbidding all gatherings, entertainments, lodge meetings, social functions, public

sales on streets or otherwise. It is also ordered that all places of business in the city

excepting the drug stores, the two eating houses and physicians’ offices be closed

every evening at 7 o’clock. All pool and billiard tables must be covered and no

playing on them allowed. All children of school age must be kept off the streets

unless on an errand. All barbers, clerks, waitresses, and those who come in contact

with the public are urged to wear masks. All houses with influenza cases should be

quarantined and all cases of influenza must be promptly reported, that place cards

may be placed on the homes.”

Why would the town of Geneseo go to these lengths to try to stop the flu from

spreading? This was because the Spanish Influenza, as it became known, was one

killer of a virus. The Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 ended causing more

deaths in American than those that died fighting in Europe during World War I. In

the United States, some 675,000 people would die after coming down with the

flu. The outbreak began in March of 1918 at a Kansas army post were young men

were being trained to go overseas and fight in World War I. This strain of the flu

would spread quickly throughout the United States and last into the summer of

1919. During that time period . of the population in American would be become

sick, including President Woodrow Wilson. The group that was hit the hardest by

the Spanish Influenza were those people between the ages of 20 and 40. It was

reported that the flu could hit a person on his way to work in the morning and he

could become so violently ill to the point of passing away before the end of his

workday.

One of the problems with this type of influenza was that there was no treatment for

it and in some cases, if the person survived, it could take up to a month before the

person began feeling better. In the local newspaper they issued steps to help treat

someone who came down with the influenza. “You should get that person to bed at

the first symptoms not only for their sake but to avoid spreading the disease to

others. They should eat plenty of nourishing foods, remain perfectly quiet and do

not worry. The best way to treat someone ailing from the flu is to let it run its

course.” With these concerns, it was no wonder that the Maple City issued the

Board of Health warning to its citizens.

Geneseo would first witness a major outbreak in October of 1918 about the time

Chicago was witnessing a peak in its cases of the flu. Reports of the flu that month

made the City Council decide to close indefinitely all public schools in the city, all

public and social meetings including church and Sunday School sessions, lodge

meetings, movie picture shows, and the public library should remain closed until the

epidemic had subsided. That same month, the Geneseo Ministerial Alliance agreed

to co-operate with the City Council and canceled all services until the flu seemed to

pass. The Republic was running many updates on local citizens who were coming

down with the flu including “Elizabeth Weiss is also ill with the flu which she

probably contracted from her brother who became sick while he was home on

leave.” During the period that the influenza was hitting the citizens of Geneseo and

the surrounding area, the Republic updated readers to those who would die from

the disease. Alfred H. Stahl, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Stahl died in Liverpool,

England shortly after landing there with the 86th Division of the United States

Army. The report said Alfred succumbed to the influenza epidemic after coming in

contact with it aboard the steamer “Lapland” as it transported troops to Europe.

Another soldier from Geenseo to die from the influenza was Corporal Robert H.

Offerle who passed on December 6 1918, at Camp Polk Raleigh, North

Carolina. Robert was the son of Mr. and Mrs. W.A. Offerele and a 1917 graduate of

Geneseo High School. These men were just two of many who would die during the

influenza epidemic in and around Geneseo. A report in 1919 stated that 25,000

deaths were caused by the influenza and more than 1.6 persons in Illinois suffered

from the disease from 1918-1919. Reports about how the flu was hitting the Maple

City were even recorded in the 1919 High School Yearbook in their timeline

section. On October 11th they reported that the flu was getting pretty bad, quite a

few pupils were out with it, and they were thinking of closing school. Then on

October 14th the reports came in that the teachers were ordered to send everyone

home who had a cold and to open all windows to let in the fresh air. Finally, on

October 15th the school was closed at noon for a period of five weeks. The yearbook

then reported that on November 19th the flu was still raging on, “with none of the

pupils on the casualty list as yet and not much life anywhere in town.” Then the

town thought the flu had runs its course and on November 29th lifted the meetings

ban and opened churches and schools once again. However, the flu had not left

town, and by December 2nd the flu cases were increasing and the ban was placed on

the town once more. From December 3rd through January 1st, the school would be

closed and the high school building would be used as a hospital to treat those with

the flu.

On January 1st the school was back open and the number of influenza cases in the

Maple City were on the decline. After the outbreak and beginning on January 10,

1919 the high school held an extra session on Saturday to help make up some of the

missing time. Also, during January the Geneseo Collegiate Institute had called an end

to their home study classwork, which was instituted during the time of flu.

This was one time that the citizens of Geneseo wished they would not have been

like the rest of the United States and could have not shared the spreading of the

Spanish Influenza. The feelings about the outbreak came be summed up in a poem

published in the 1919 High School Yearbook:

The Flu

I’m cold, I Ache At school I’m dumb

I Shiver and shake; My mind is numb;

I cough and sneeze, I don’t talk well

I nearly freeze; Can’t even spell

My eyes weep tears, My recitations

My mother fears are hesitations

From the Geneseo Republic October 25, 1918

From the Geneseo Republic October 25, 1918

From multiple issues of the Geneseo Republic October 1918