How America Struggled to Bury the Dead in the 1918 Flu Pandemic-- Part 1

From the February 12, 2020, History site.

The terrifying, lethal influenza virus that swept across the world in 1918-1920,  history's deadliest pandemic, which claimed the lives of approximately 50 million people worldwide and 675,000 here in the United States.  Nearly 200,000 Americans died of it in October 1918 alone.

The sheer number of bodies overwhelmed undertakers, casket makers and grave diggers.  At the same time, a prohibition on public gatherings that included wakes and funerals compounded the grief of stricken families who could not properly mourn their deaths.

The mass mortality led to macabre scenes.  In Baltimore, the Red Cross nurses reported going to disease ravaged homes to discover sick people in bed next to the dead.  In other cases, corpses were covered with ice and left in bedroom corners where they festered for days.

Inundated  undertakers stacked coffins in funeral homes and even in their living quarters.  In New Haven, Connecticut,  six-year-old John Delano and his friends played outside a mortuary, scaling a mountain of caskets piled on a sidewalk, unaware of the contents inside them.  "We thought,  -- boy, this is great.  It's like climbing the pyramids."

--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

After World War I, 1919: 100 Years Ago

From the March 20, 2019, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1919, 100 Years Ago.

**  "Prof. John Adee, who is well known here as a Sycamore boy, and as a former and popular superintendent of  the Sycamore schools, is one of 30 superintendents of schools selected by  the government to go to France to teach the American soldiers."

**  "Names of several returning heroines and heroes known in DeKalb were included in the lists today in the papers.  Miss Celeste Firkins of Shabbona Grove and Miss Nellie R. Satter of Leland, who were with the Red Cross nurses of the Presbyterian  unit, arrived on the Mauretania."

--Cooter

The Bum Gave All in 1919

From the February 6, 2019, MidWeek  "Looking Back."

1919, 100 Years Ago.

"A big strapping fellow put in an appearance at the police station last night, and asked for a night's lodging.  When asked if he had any money, said he was broke, and that he had given $100,000 to the Red Cross, and had helped every other war cause with his money.

"The man gave his name as Fred Sturgeon of U.S.A. and after a night's sleep at the city hall, he was accompanied to the western city limits and given  the usual orders for such characters."

Hit the road Jack and don't you come back.

In Other Words, Vamoose!!  --Cooter

World War I's Ellington Field-- Part 2: Training the Pilots

In December 1917, the first  planes from Ellington Field took off and flew over Houston for a Red Cross benefit.  It was quite a sight and many people turned out for it.

During the war, the field served as an advanced training base.  By 1918, it had its own gunnery and bombing range.

For the first months of operations, Ellington Field had no pilot fatalities, but within a year that changed drastically.  By August 1918, it had the most pilot fatalities of any training base.  It also had many firsts, including:

First camp newspaper
First American aerial gunnery and bombing range
First "canteen girls"
First aerial  ambulance in American history

Before the end of the war, around 5,000 men and 250 aircraft had been assigned to the base

After the war, it was inactivated in 1920 with only a small caretaker unit remaining.  It was reopened in World War II.

--Cooter

The Tuscania Monument on Islay Island; American Monument on Oa

From the Welcome to Islay site.

The American Monument sits atop a 429-foot high cliff on the Oa Peninsula and was erected in 1920 by the American Red Cross.  It was designed by architect Robert Walked and commemorates the loss of two troopships, the Tuscania and Otranto in 1918.

It overlooks the exact spot where the Tuscania was sunk and is built in the shape of a lighthouse.  You can see it from most parts of the island of Islay.

--Cooter

Elva Red Cross and Afton Raise Money for WW I Effort

From the December 20, 2017, MidWeek (DeKalb County, Illinois_  "Looking Back."

1917, 100 Years Ago.

"The Elva Red Cross held a very pleasant and profitable meeting in the Elva Hall.

"A large crowd was present and the balance of Afton's quota of the war fund was raised."

For the War Effort.  --Cooter

SS Antilles-- Part 2: The New War Insurance Law

The S Antilles sailed from New York to France in a four ship convoy, arriving September 24, 1917.  The Antilles and another ship from that convoy, the SS Finland were torpedoed on their way back to the United States.

On 17 October, three days out of Saint Nazairere, France, the Antilles was torpedoed by the U-62 and reportedly sank in four and a half minutes.  There were 118 survivors and 67 deaths.

The survivors landed in France 21 October and were cared for by the Red Cross.

Those who died came under the new war insurance law that allowed payment of $6,000 to families of the deceased in installments of $25 a month over twenty years.

--Cooter

Death of Lt. William T. Fitzsimons-- Part 3: Served in Europe Before U.S. Entry Into the War

Historian James Heiman has written a book "Voices in Bronze and Stone: Kansas City's World War I Monuments and Memorials."  he has a whole chapter on Lt. Fitzsimons.

He was born April 18, 1889 in Burlington, Iowa, the oldest of six children.  Fitzsimons attended St. Mary's College in St. Mary's and then in 1908, transferred to the University of Kansas' School of Medicine, receiving his BA in 1910 and two years later his medical degree.

After a year of internship at St. Mary's Hospital, he spent 14 months studying surgery in New York City.

While still a civilian, he went to England as a Red Cross volunteer, arriving September 13, 1914, just a few weeks after the war started.  From there he went to Belgium to treat wounded civilians and soldiers, returning to the United States on December 10, 1915.

--DaCoot