Pandemics in Chicago-- Part 3: Cholera and Fort Dearborn

Continued from April 21, 2020.  Before I got on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Butler County, Pennsylvania.  You can catch up on the first two posts by clicking on the label Chicago below this entry.

Adam Selzer is quite knowledgeable about Chicago's history and its epidemics and pandemics.  He leads guided tours of cemeteries including one of the bigger ones called Graceland.

One of the epidemics that plagues Chicago in the 1800s was that of cholera.  Multiple outbreaks took place in the city in the 19th century.  He says the first major epidemic took place in 1832 (Chicago became a city in 1837).

It was brought in on a ship by Gen. Winfield Scott who arrived in town by ship with soldiers from the Black Hawk War. Dozens died as they occupied the old Fort Dearborn and Scott later said that the disease scared him more than any enemy because there was no way to fight it; he couldn't fortify his walls against it or even offer terms of surrender.

Fort Dearborn was the site of the infamous Fort Dearborn Massacre in the War of 1812.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza Butler Co., Pa., --Part 7: Remembering the Victims

In 2002, the Saxonburg chapter of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) spearheaded a campaign, led by Doris Herceg and Drenda Gostcowski, to designate the mass grave of the influenza victims in Winfield Township as a historic site.

They succeeded and in a ceremony at the site, Father Velerian M. Muchlik and Janet Pazzynski of St. George's Ukranian Catholic Church in Pittsburgh performed  a Greek Catholic service, respective of the victims' Eastern European heritage.

A granite cross was erected at the site to replace the original wooden cross, and a historic roadside marker was placed adjacent to the site.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza in Butler Co., Pa.,-- Part 6: A "Forgotten Epidemic?"

The epidemic faded from public memory almost as quickly as the disease itself vanished.  The deaths of servicemen in the Great War received far more attention than the deaths caused by the influenza.

Furthermore, on November 11, 1918, the Great War, known now as World War I in the U.S. and the First World War in Britain (hey they wouldn't have known about the second one back then) which overshadowed the influenza outbreak in western Pennsylvania (well, it was also in Chicago and in much of the rest of the United States in October that year).

This was kind of like the Civil War's Sultana Disaster which took place April 27, 1865, when the steamboat Sultana blew up while carrying several thousand recently released Union prisoners.  It is regarded as the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history with at least 1,168 deaths. But it was soon forgotten what with the end of the Civil War, Lincoln Assassination and the killing of John Wilkes Booth all occurring around the same time.

The Influenza epidemic of 1918 became "The Forgotten Epidemic" until various other outbreaks in more recent history brought back the memories.

I'm not so sure it was all that forgotten, but definitely this new coronavirus we're involved with these days has brought back the memory.  I was completely unaware of how hard western Pennsylvania was hit, though, until I came across the information about the immigrant cemetery in Butler County which started this thread.

And, there is still one more entry to go.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza in Butler Co. Pa.-- Part 5: It lasted a Month and Abated, But A Quarter of Population Got It and Hundreds Died

Elsewhere in the county in October,the epidemic continued to sicken people.but the number of new cases began to decline sharply.  By the beginning of November, the total number of cases reported in Butler County since the beginning of the epidemic  began exceeded 7,000.  However, the number of cases statewide  had fallen so dramatically  that the department of Health lifted the month-long ban on public gatherings.

The crisis, it seems, had abated  The influenza outbreak in Butler County lasted only a month, but nearly a quarter of the population contracted the disease and several hundred died.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza in Butler Co., Pa.-- Part 4: Working Together and the "Foreign Population"

Butler County's Red Cross chapter contributed money and resources to combat the epidemic.   They published articles in the Butler Eagle with information on prevention and treatment as well as advertisements requesting volunteer nurses.  Two local women, Clara Beach and Helen Campbell,  worked with the city's health board to recruit volunteers through a county-wide telephone campaign, calling over 400 Butler County residents and recruiting 31 volunteers by the end of the first week.

On October 21, the New Castle News in neighboring Lawrence County reported conditions in Butler County were worse among the "foreign population."  Among them were many immigrants coming in from Eastern Europe with no family members to care for them.  (See my earlier posts about the mass burial site for the immigrant dead in the county.  Click on the Butler County Pa label below to see them.)

Their employers, local industries from the Saxonburg area, buried the dead in a mass grave in Winfield Township.  Father O'Callahan, from the St. John Parish in Coylesville, administered the Catholic burial rites for them and commissioned a wooden cross made of railroad ties

1918 Influenza in Butler Co., Pa.,-- Part 3: Medical Help Arrives, Hotels and Tents

Already shorthanded by the war in Europe, the 1918 influenza outbreak in Butler County further depleted medical personnel, sickening nine nurses and a number of staff, and hampering their efforts to combat the disease effectively.  The Pennsylvania Department of Health sent a doctor and three nurses to help.

Meanwhile, the hospital neared full capacity and the city health board considered  requisitioning a hotel in the city as a temporary hospital.  Tents were sent to Butler so patients could receive open air treatment which seemed to improve their health.

By mid-October, however, the Butler City Health Board reported 3,000 cases since the crisis had begun, just a few weeks earlier.

I don't know about you, but this sounds all to familiar.

--Cooter

1918 Influenza in Butler County, Pa.,-- Part 2: The "Grippe" Spread Quickly, Very, Very Quickly

On September 23, 1918, Dr. Phillip E. Marks, director of  the Bureau of Infectious Diseases in Pittsburgh, seemed to shrug off the seriousness of this new epidemic, saying it was nothing more than an attack by  the "old fashioned Grippe" (the common name for influenza at the time)

He said, "If persons will take care to sneeze into their handkerchiefs, there will be no danger of the germs spreading."   That danger, however was becoming quite clear by the beginning of October, some seven days later as the influenza had enveloped Pennsylvania, that's how fast it was spreading.

By October 5,  Dr. W.L. Steen, Pennsylvania State Commissioner of Health,  ordered all public places of entertainment closed and prohibited all public gatherings.  Two days later, the Butler Eagle reported 139 new cases, bringing the total number of cases there to over 1,100.

Sounds Familiar, Doesn't It?  --Cooter

Influenza Epidemic of 1918 in Butler County, Pa.-- Part 1: In U.S. Started at Fort Riley in Kansas and Spread

From the Butler County Historical Society  "Influenza epidemic of 1918' by P. Schultz.

While thousands of men were being maimed and killed in Europe during WW I, even more so  were being killed world wide by an unseen foe.  The influenza epidemic of 1918.  It did not confine to Europe, but spread all over the world, infecting 20 to 40% of the earth's population and killing over 20 million.  Some 500,000 of those deaths took place in the United States.

The exact origin of it is not known, though first cases of it in the United States were reported from Fort Riley in Kansas in arch 1918.  It took six months to spread to Pennsylvania where it started in Philadelphia and spread from there to the rest of the state, reaching the western part of the state by September.

--Cooter

Influenza Epidemic Victims, Butler Co., Pa.-- Part 2: Immigrants

Just north of the West Winfield Township in Butler County, Pennsylvania,  is a silent, sobering place known as the Wooden Cross (or Black Cross) Cemetery.  In the early 1900s, many Polish and Slovak immigrants moved to this area in western Pa. to work in the expanding  limestone mine, sand plant, brick yards and tile works in the area.

However, in 1918, many of these men were exposed to  the influenza virus which turned into the worst pandemic ever in terms of those affected and those who died.

Many of these men died without a church, organization or family that would make sure they received a proper burial.  Like many immigrants of the time, these men had left their families behind and come to the new country to establish themselves.

At the same time, local, state and federal  governments refused to fund burials for them.  So, these men were buried here.

Influenza Epidemic Victims in Butler County, Pa-- Part 1.: The Black Cross

I came across this while researching for my Saw the Elephant Blog:  Civil War and felt it appropriate for these days of the "V".

From the HMdb, Near Cabot in Butler County, Pennsylvania.  This is in the western part of the state.

From a marker.

"Here are buried an unknown number of local victims of the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 -- one of history's worst  epidemics in terms of death.  In Butler County, the worst period was early October to early November 1918, with some 260 deaths in the county seat alone.

"Immigrant workers in the limestone and other industries are buried in this cemetery with one to five bodies buried in each grave.  A large wooden cross  long marked the site."

Otherwise, there was nothing to denote this as a cemetery.

--Cooter