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Public Health Officer Led County’s Fight Against the Spanish Flu

When the Spanish Influenza appeared in Cecil County in the autumn of 1918, the man on the frontline of the battle here was Dr. H. Arthur Cantwell.  The young clinician, an alumnus of the Jacob Tome Institute, graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1906.  After interning at the University Hospital and the Kernan Hospital for Crippled Children in Baltimore, the doctor returned home to Charlestown to open a general practice of medicine and surgery in his mother’s home.

It wasn’t long before the office shifted to North East, a move that helped build the budding practice.  There the twenty-three-year-old worked seven days a week, treating every type of case imaginable, from minor distress to heart attacks, cancer, and gunshot wounds.   His colleagues in the medical fraternity in the town consisted of Dr. Phillip B. Housekeeper who received his medical diploma in 1868; Lewis F. Hamrick (1901), and T. A. Worrall (1870).1

Appointed County Health Officer

Months before the Spanish Flu struck, the county commissioners appointed the North East physician to a term as the Cecil County Public Health Officer.2   It was April 1918, months before the first bout of the Spanish Flu struck, a small outbreak occurring that summer. But the most serious wave lurked until autumn before it hit.  And there was a third less severe eruption that resulted in additional deaths early in the winter of 1919.

Months before the Pandemic struck, he was appointed to a term as the Cecil County Health Officer.

As an up-to-date graduate of a university medical school, Dr. Cantwell understood the era’s theories on contagions.  But like all medical professionals in 1918, he didn’t know that influenza was a virus as the science hadn’t developed that information. Thus, there was no vaccine, test, or therapy to treat this strain of influenza.  However, his knowledge of germ theory and the way microbes spread through droplets in the air was solidly grounded in the science of the time. 

Public Health Officer Monitors Pandemic

In the early days of the outbreak, news of the deadly pandemic swirling around military camps and large cities, the new health officer read newspaper accounts about the plague sweeping across the nation and studied whatever bulletins the Maryland Board of Health and U.S. Surgeon General Blue provided.    The clinician recognized that medical therapeutics could not stop the microscopic killer; only the public health measures of containment, good hygiene, isolation, and quarantine would reduce the suffering, something we now call social distancing.  This information he shared with Cecil’s old hands at medicine during County Medical Society meetings.   

“Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases – As Dangerous as Poison Gas Shells”. U.S. Public Health ad on dangers of the Spanish Flu epidemic during World War I. (Source: U.S. Public Health Service, via Wikipedia)

One State Health Department bulletin informed local authorities that an “extra-containment zones” had been established around government reservations in Maryland, including Aberdeen Proving Ground.  The emergency regulation established a five-mile boundary for containment, authorized the appointed of five additional deputy state health officers, and the publication of circulars with instructions on sanitary requirements for anyone in the zone. 

When the second wave struck here in September and October, the county’s physician, took charge as the contagion ripped across northeastern Maryland.  Dr. Cantwell was the point person responsible for protecting and promoting public health; never before in the history of Cecil County had the health officer been thrust into the forefront of a major community-wide health emergency, a global pandemic.

In these turbulent times, with the virus killing over 100 people here and infecting many more, he provided strong leadership at the helm of the emergency as people from the Susquehanna River to the Sassafras fell victim to the Spanish Influenza.  With the area in a near state of emergency, doctors being overwhelmed by the calls for help and nurses falling ill, he acted swiftly, promptly calling the shots that reduced the suffering in Cecil County. 

Dr. Cantwell Acted Swiftly

As the number of cases swelled, Dr. Cantwell hoped to stamp out the spreading germs with a quarantine. On October 2, 1918, the local Board of Health issued the order — all places where people assembled were to shutter their doors for an indefinite period beginning that Wednesday. In addition to shutting down schools, houses of worship, moving picture theaters, and all places of public assembly, the authorities also banned public funerals.  Struggling to keep a lid on things, he also arranged to have information printed that alerted the public to good hygiene practices that would slow the spread of the viral killer.

When the physician ordered the closure of public places, there were no complaints, even if most people didn’t understand the danger of influenza.  The streets suddenly grew quiet and still, with few exceptions, as the newspaper columns filled with obituaries. What we call social distancing now is all they had to prevent the spread of the viral killer.

Six days later, the Maryland Board of Health followed along, issuing a statewide directive. Noting that public gathering places where large numbers were likely to congregate played an essential part in the dissemination of the disease. The Maryland Health Officer added that as the virus showed alarming signs of assuming severe proportions, the situation called for serious measures. 

Finally, toward the end of October, the suffering and deaths declined.  And on October 27, the Cecil County Board of Health lifted the ban on public assembly, announcing that church services, schools, and public assembly could resume for the first time in several weeks. To a significant degree, Cecil County activity stopped or slowed for 25 days, but the people adjusted.

The staff of Union Hospital in the 1930s. Seated: Dr. H. A. Cantwell, Miss Mary Delancy, Dr. J. H. Bates, Dr. Winfred Morrison; standing: Dr. Milfred Sprecher, Dr. Richard Dodson, Dr. Vernon McKnight, Dr. H. V. Davis, Dr. Jacob Greenwald (source: Union Hospital — Celebrating the First 100 Years!) 3

For the annual report for the state, Dr. Cantwell reported that 2,073 communicable disease cases occurred in the county, in comparison to 264 incidents in 1917.  Also, his report indicates that there were 85 deaths in 1918.  Early the next year, there were about 25 additional deaths.4

After leading the county’s fight against this unprecedented pandemic, Dr. Cantwell resigned as the health officer in Dec. 1921, the commissioners appointing Dr. William G. Jack to the vacancy. 5

The clinician’s practice and reputation continued to grow in the decades ahead.  Instrumental in the continuing modernization of Union Hospital, he was the chief of surgery from 1921 to 1954.     

Providing Care for 50 Years

After decades as a caregiver, he had grown from the young doctor in town to the senior practicing physician in Cecil County.  On the fiftieth anniversary of tending to the ills of residents, more than 1,000 people packed the North East Elementary School, turning out to honor the respected caregiver.    On this special occasion Mrs. Mary Belle Heverin Reynolds, his first baby delivery on September 29, 1907, was present, as well as his first patients, Mrs. Curtis Reed and her daughter, Mrs. Frank Conway, Sr., of North East.  Mrs. Reed remarked that several people told her that it was awful taking her to a young doctor barely out of school.

Dr. H. Arthur Cantwell, the Cecil County Public Health Officer
This is your favorite Doctor, Dr. H. Arthur Cantwell, (Source: Morning News, June 11, 1956)

Dr. Cantwell recalled that his first operation was performed on John Benjamin’s father. “I was still in school and was on vacation when I was called.  He was accidentally shot while gunning.  He had blown away part of the calf of his leg.  After stopping the bleeding, we took him to the old Union Hospital where Dr. Mitchell permitted me to operate.  There is no comparison between medicines of today and that of yesteryear.  It is wonderful how the different drugs of today have caused the medical profession to progress,” he remarked.  ((“1000 Countian’s Honor Doctor Who Practiced for 50 Years.” News Journal. (Newark), June, 11, 1950.))

Dr. Cantwell, 89, died on December 20, 1972.  Part of his lasting legacy was leading the county’s fight again the Spanish influenza as the public health officer. 

For more on the Spanish Flu in Cecil County see

Women were the Caregivers During the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918

For the National Story see

“Spanish Flu, or Whatever It Is. . . .”: The Paradox of Public Health in a Time of Crisis

Endnotes
  1. Polk’s Medical Register and Directory of North America. 10th ed. Baltimore, MD: R. L. Polk & Co. Publishers, 1908. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924108425525&view=1up&seq=17.[↩]
  2. Cecil County Commissioners, Minutes of Meetings, April 9, 1918, p 75[↩]
  3. Union Hospital, “Celebrating 100 Years: Union Hospital, 1908 – 2008), p.27[↩]
  4. State Board of Health of Maryland.  Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Maryland for the Year Ending December 31, 1918.  10th annual report, Baltimore:  State Printer, 1918 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Annual_Report_of_the_State_Board_of_Heal/WWVfPgKK8esC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=maryland+board+of+health+1918&pg=PA214&printsec=frontcover (accessed April 6, 2020)[↩]
  5. “Town and County.” Midland Journal (Rising Sun), January 21 1922.[↩]
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Women Were the Caregivers During the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918

When the Spanish Flu of 1918 spread from the battlefields of Europe to North America, it struck swiftly with its devastating sweep across the nation.  Since treatments, vaccines, and antibiotics didn’t exist, the lethal contagion quickly overwhelmed the early 20th-century  healthcare system.  To aggravate matters, the Great War had thinned the ranks of medical clinicians, and many remaining practitioners became ill themselves.       

From the onset of the pandemic in Cecil County, the sick and ill relied on the ladies to provide palliative care.  They took charge of caring for the stricken in the “flu homes,” sitting up all night will ill family members and neighbors.  This day-to-day care in the sick homes required constant attention, providing the person down with the flu liquids and nourishment, keeping the room ventilated, making sure they were warm enough, and administering whatever remedies doctors could provide to alleviate suffering.   As the contagion rampaged across the county, the work was especially hard as frequently entire households became infected.   

Nurses Face the Ultimate Test

These young women made up the first nursing school class at Union Hospital.
The first nursing class graduates (1914). L to R: Mary King, Alice Denver, Stella Graves, Georgia Miller. Miss Graves died while fighting the contagion. (Source: Dorothy Robinson Collection at the Historical Society of Cecil County)

While women at home provided most of the care, some acute cases needed hospitalization, so they were admitted to Union Hospital.  This put the institution’s nurse, student nurses, matron, and orderly on the frontline, the war already having weakened their ranks.  Miss Maida G. Campbell, R.N., the superintendent, and three pupils, Adelia McGready, Ella Alderson, and Laura Storey, enlisted in the overseas service of the Red Cross.

The remaining group of emerging professionals, the eleven “pupil nurses,” provided the bulk of the institutional care.  These young, unmarried ladies in the training program exchanged their labor for free instruction that led to a nursing diploma.  In between caring for the sick during regular times, they occasionally attended physician lectures and received practical, supervised experience related to medical procedures, medications, and nursing care.  It was a bargain for the institution, a cheap source of labor.1    This band, the class of 1918, embarking on their chosen career encountered the ultimate test of their profession that autumn at the forefront of the desperate struggle, they too falling il.  They also heard about alumnae dying from the disease while performing patriotic duties in faraway places. 

Elkton’s new hospital also faced an unprecedented public health emergency.  For the first time in its ten-year history, admissions barely increased in 1918.  The managers attributed this to the reduced ranks of surgeons and the influenza pandemic, which incapacitated the nursing staff.  The virus also hampered recruiting for the training school2  

Spanish Flu Strikes Hospital
Union Hospital School of Nursing Class of 1918 during the Spanish Flu
The staff of the Union Hospital in 1918 (Source: Tenth Annual Report of the Union Hospital of Cecil County, personal collection)

To help alleviate the burden placed upon the severely overworked doctors and nurses of the country who were working night and day, U.S. Surgeon General Rupert Blue ordered health departments to mobilize all available resources for the national struggle on Oct. 15. Local Authorities should make use of untrained women to relieve overworked nurses, he advised.3

In the grim world turned upside down in 1918, when the deadly virus stalked victims, they met the dual upheavals — World War I and the virulent contagion sweeping unchecked across the land.   At the epicenter of this battle, the overstretched caregivers turned out to be the class minted by a pandemic.   Each was forcefully reminded of what a medical career meant — the personal sacrifice, the risk of death, and the shortage of help in an overextended healthcare system when the contagion raged out of control with no cures available.  These young nurses did their duty while facing great suffering, sacrifice, exhaustion, and risk in the grueling battles.  

Ladies on the Front Line

In this topsy-turvy world, a time of great dread and misery, women stood on the front line of this awful struggle, delivering care to family and neighbors in the home.  They lived through a global tragedy, one of the worst ever to take place. 

For more see

Not the First Time Cecil County was Shut Down

Salem County Shut Down During Flu Epidemic of 1918

Upcoming Articles

Part II – Cecil County Practitioners on the Front Line.

Part III — The Fallen Nurses

Union Hospital graduates of the school of nursing in 1914
Union Hospital School of Nursing Graduates in 1914. This was the first class to graduate. (L to R) — Mary King, Alice Denver, Stella Grave, and George Miller. Miss Graves died while performing her duties as a nurse during the epidemic. (Source: Dorothy Robinson Collection at the Historical Society of Cecil County)

Endnotes
  1. Admin. “Union Hospital Nurses Served on the Battlefield During World War I -.” Window on Cecil County’s Past, November 13, 2018. https://cecilcountyhistory.com/world-war-i/.[↩]
  2. “Tenth Annual Report of the Union Hospital of Cecil County.” Vol. 10. Elkton: Union Hospital, 1918.[↩]
  3. National Campaign Ordered, Capital Gazette: Annapolis, Oct. 15, 1918.[↩]
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Not the First Time Cecil County was Shut Down

This isn’t the first time that Cecil County has been shut down by a pandemic. In the autumn of 1918, a deadly virus, the so-called Spanish Flu, swept across the nation. As this grim situation unfolded 102-years ago, many public health officials advised that the spread of the disease called for drastic action, a general shut down. In voicing these professional judgments, the medical men added that only critical wartime work should go on, while other activities should cease for not less than ten days to minimize the possibility of further contagion.

This halt of business, they added, would give exhausted physicians fighting the deadly infection a chance to catch up with the overtaxing situation while better managing care for the sick.

These measures seemed extreme to many, the statements of public health officers being greeted with skepticism. The doctors countered that since so many people were being brought down by influenza that most activity would cease anyway due to community spread.

As the number of cases increased daily, Cecil County’s Public Health Officer, Dr. H. Arthur Cantwell, took decisive action to quarantine the virus, hoping to stamp out the germs spread. On October 2, 1918, the local Board of Health ordered all places where people assembled to shutter their doors for an indefinite period beginning that Wednesday. In addition to shutting down schools, houses of worship, moving picture theaters, and all places of public assembly, he also banned public funerals. Emphasizing the importance of this action, Hugh W. Caldwell, Superintendent of Schools, added that this action would check the spread of the Spanish Influenza.

the spanish flu
A message from the U.S. Dept. of Health in 1918 (National Institutes of Health)

That first Sunday, a striking, unrivaled silence fell on Cecil County, not a church bell ringing while on the streets few people, automobiles, or other vehicles were around. All across the county, meetings or assemblies were called off as places closed their doors to visitors. And as a new week got underway, Cecil County residents adjusted to the new normal and there was good cooperation, as public assemblies stopped and many business owners became gravely sick.

Six days later, the Maryland Board of Health issued a statewide order, noting that public gathering places where large numbers were likely to congregate played an essential part in the dissemination of the disease. The health officers added that as the virus showed alarming signs of assuming severe proportions, the situation called for serious measures.

Finally, toward the end of October, the suffering and deaths declined. And on October 27, the Cecil County Board of Health lifted the ban on public assembly, announcing that church services could resume for the first time in several weeks. With things returning to normal, Cecil County Schools Superintendent Caldwell added that schools would reopen on Monday, October. 28. He ordered the principals to secure formaldehyde for the schools, or if they couldn’t do that, they should completely air out the buildings. To a significant degree, Cecil County activity stopped or slowed for 25 days, but the people adjusted.

In some ways, the events we are living through during the pandemic of 2020 mirror the public interventions instituted here in the autumn of 1918 when the Spanish Flu struck hard. Today as our nation’s public health officials try to slow the spread of the coronavirus, we hear about quarantines, social distancing, sheltering-in-place, warnings not to gather in groups, and the shuttering of non-essential activities. While we may use different terms, these public health concepts were familiar to physicians in 1918 as the words and actions of these practitioners from different ages have the same goals.

To prevent the Influenza. (U.S. Public Health Service, via the National Institutes of Health)
For more on the Spanish Flu see

Cecil Grappled with the Spanish Influenza of 1918

Influenza Precautions Then and Now

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Cecil Grappled With the Spanish Influenza of 1918

One-hundred-two years ago, a mysterious killer, the so-called Spanish Influenza, came calling in Cecil County   Reports of the outbreak in northeastern Maryland first trickled in from Aberdeen Proving Ground in the middle of September 1918 as the virus took a deadly toll. 

Within weeks, the flu exploded locally, as the sickness got a firm grip on Cecil County, expanding at an alarming rate.  Ripping across the area, many residents became gravely ill, and an appalling number of deaths occurred.  Nonetheless, this wasn’t an occasion for panic public health officials stated, although the spreading disease called for drastic steps.1,2,3

Coughs and sneezes spread diseases. As dangerous as poison gas shells. Source: Cecil Democrat, Oct. 12, 1918

Local physicians on the home front for this fight braced for the battle with the deadly bug.  Throughout October, physicians kept on the move, rushing from home to home day and night while snatching brief rest periods.  They found it necessary to give daily attention to only the most critically ill as the medical men received more calls than they could handle, their ranks already thinned by military duty.  Also, many of the remaining doctors were incapacitated for periods as they too fell victim to the malady.    

Physicians warned that “precaution” was the best way to avoid the Spanish Influenza.  They advised not to congregate in crowded places, nor use common towels or drinking cups.  Also, people should wear clothing appropriate for the temperature, sleep with windows open as fresh air was a good germicide, and not allow oneself to become fatigued.  Regular habits, good food, and exercise were excellent preventatives, they concluded.4

 All Places of public assembly closed

Hoping to stamp out the spreading germs, the Cecil County Board of Health acted promptly, ordering all public places where people assembled to shutter their doors beginning Wednesday, October 2, 1918.  Such a quarantine, the shutting down of schools, houses of worship, theaters, and all public gatherings, was new, but people cooperated, newspapers reported.

That first Sunday, a striking, unrivaled silence fell on Cecil County, not a church bell ringing while on the streets few people, automobiles, or other vehicles were around.  Six days later, the Maryland Board of Health issued a statewide order, noting that public gathering places where large numbers were likely to congregate played an essential part in the dissemination of the disease.  The health official added that as the virus showed alarming signs of assuming severe proportions, the situation called for serious measures.5  

The pandemic also hit the patriotic campaign to sell liberty bonds to finance the war.  The drive was underway when the Board of Health shut things down, including several fairs, which involved having a squadron of airplanes fly over the gatherings.    

With shortages of nurses already existing across the nation because of the war, the burden on Union Hospital was particularly hard.6  A month before the outbreak, the institution’s superintendent, Miss Campbell, and three of the nurses, Miss McGready, Miss Alderson, and Miss Storey, enlisted in the overseas service of the Red Cross.  In October, it was reported that the hospital was full of patients while the virus incapacitated many staff members, reducing the institution’s ability to admit and care for the gravely ill.7  

Doctors, Nurses, Druggists & Undertakers

Others contributing to the brave, untiring fight needed to handle the crisis were overstretched.    Druggists compounding medicines for the afflicted labored long hours, but supplies of quinine, aspirin, and other essential drugs and patent medicines held out.   The undertakers of Cecil County were on the go day and night.  But the funeral directors reported shortages of caskets, the manufacturers being unable to keep up with the enormous demand across the nation.  And the pandemic filled cemeteries in its wake, the gravediggers digging so many graves that they were worn out. 

Many businesses shut down on account of illness.  The Jewelry store of J. J. Minster closed for several days while in North East, editor Geo. O. Garey up against the flu shut the publication down for eight days.8 This was the first time in its 36 year history that it had missed an edition.

On the Octoraro Branch Railroad, some freight trains failed to run because crews were ill.  Also, trains operated without mail clerks or express messengers in some cases, and section crews maintaining the rails operated with reduced numbers.9

As October faded into November, those in touch most closely with the epidemic – the doctors, nurses, undertakers, and druggists – noted that the emergency showed a marked improvement.10  These brave Cecil County caregivers had put up a heroic, untiring fight and they reported that “victory was now theirs,” few new cases being recorded.    And on October 27, the Cecil County Board of Health lifted the ban on public gatherings.

cecil county obituaries
Obituaries published in the Cecil Democrat by month in 1918. Once the Archives opens for research we will visit Annapolis and pull the death certificates from the pandemic here to provide more reliable data on the impact of the Spanish Influenza in Cecil County

For more information on the Spanish Influenza see part I — The Spanish Flu Shutdown Cecil County.

Endnotes
  1. “Hands of Death Still Sadly Felt, Influenza Epidemic Claims Many More Cecil County Victims,” Cecil County News, October 16, 1918[↩]
  2. Rising Sun, Town Pierced by Flu, Oxford Press, Oct. 17, 1918[↩]
  3. “Spanish Influenza, Is This Mysterious Infection a New Kind of German Offensive,” Midland Journal (Rising Sun), Oct. 4, 1918[↩]
  4. “Uncle Sam’s Advice on Flu, U.S. Public Health Service Issues Official Health Bulletin on Influenza,” Cecil County News, Oct. 12, 1918[↩]
  5. “All Meetings in Maryland Closed,” Cecil County News, October 6, 1918[↩]
  6. Union Hospital of Cecil County, 1918. Tenth Annual Report Of The Union Hospital Of Cecil County, Elkton, MD.. Tenth Annual Report. Elkton: Union Hospital of Cecil County, pp.25-27.[↩]
  7. “Nurses Wanted,” classified advertisement, Cecil County News, October 2, 1918[↩]
  8. “Minor Locals,” Cecil County News, Oct. 16, 1918[↩]
  9. Fighting the Flu, Physicians, Nurses, and Red Cross Workers Busy Day and Night,” Oxford Press, October 10, 1918[↩]
  10. “Cecil County Letter,” Cecil County News, Oct. 24, 1918[↩]
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Pandemic of 1918 Shutdown Cecil County

In the autumn of 1918, World War I was nearing an end, and Cecil County was looking forward to the doughboys returning home from the trenches of Europe. But no one was prepared for the crisis that was about to strike the home front. Hitting suddenly, the Midland Journal reported on October 4, 1918, that the Spanish Flu or “some other creepy, shivery, feverish, disagreeable malady was fairly epidemic in Rising Sun, numerous person, some very serious, were on the sick list.”

spanish flu or influenza
Illustration from Illinois Health News, October 1918 provides ways to prevent the spread of the flu of 1918. Source: Chicago Public LIbrary
Is This a New German Offensive

As this unprecedented epidemic swept across the nation and Maryland, the Rising Sun newspaper asked, “Is this new disease which has already killed hundreds and stricken thousands of our soldiers and civilians a new German war offensive 1? If not, how did it happen that this epidemic appeared so suddenly and extensively in such widely scattered cities and army camps throughout the country? Smitten as from a bolt from a clear sky, thousands of Americans have been suddenly prostrated in many widely separated parts of the country, during the past ten days, by a disease which is called, apparently for want of a better name, ‘Spanish Influenza.’”

“Naturally, under all the circumstances, there is much speculation regarding the maters,” the paper continued. “Perhaps because there seems to be a rather natural disposition to ascribe about everything that is perfidious in the world today to Germany, some have ventured the guess that the disease may have been introduced and spread by German agents. This theory is considered groundless and absurd, it seeming hardly conceivable that if Germany undertook an offensive of this kind, she would choose such a mild and humane sort of disease. Much more plausible explanation seems to be the fact that the recent cold snap caught the country entirely unprepared for such severe weather, and as a result of our unheated dwellings and the inadequate clothing, large numbers of people contracted cold. Regardless, there seems to be no occasion for special alarm or panic about the matter for the disease is evidently one which the American medical profession is perfectly able to handle and effective measures are being taken. 1.”

Despite the editor’s reasoning, the Spanish Flu invaded homes and businesses in every part of the county. In North East, the Cecil Star’s publisher, Mr. Garey, “fell under the influence of the flu, putting it [paper] completely out of business for eight days.” And since there was no help in the office, the North East publication missed an issue, the first time in 36 years 2

In Elkton, all the operators at the telephone exchange were seriously ill, so the phone company brought in operators from Salisbury 3. A similar situation existed in North East, the virus sweeping the office there, causing the exchange to shut down.

Spanish flu
As the Spanish Flu hit, a Wilmington newspaper reported that Elkton’s dead were without coffins. Source: Evening Journal, Oct. 16, 1918

As September faded into October, the situation was “exceedingly grave,” with numerous deaths occurring. “One of the distressing features of the epidemic was that so many deaths occurred throughout the county that it had been impossible for undertakers to secure caskets from the supply houses on time,” so funerals were delayed. In other instances, undertakers called on local carpenters to make caskets 4. At the West Nottingham Cemetery, Eli Coulson, the superintendent, reported that he had opened three graves daily for the past two weeks.

Spanish Flu Shutdown Cecil County

As this was going on, the Cecil County Board of Health took action to quarantine the virus. Dr. H. Arthur Cantwell, the public health officer, ordered that all schools, churches, moving picture theatres, and places of public gathering be closed starting on October 2, 1918. He also banned public funerals. Emphasizing the importance of the action Hugh W. Caldwell, Superintendent of Schools added that it was the hope that this action would check the spread of the Spanish Influenza.

Toward the end of October, the suffering and deaths declined. And on October 27, the Cecil County Board of Health lifted the ban on public assembly, announcing that church services could resume for the first time in several weeks. With things returning to normal, Cecil County Schools Superintendent Caldwell added that schools would reopen on Monday, October. 28. He ordered the principals to secure formaldehyde for the schools, or if they couldn’t do that, they should open up the buildings to admit sunlight and air for several days.

All schools, churches, moving picture theatres and public gatherings were ordered closed. Source: Midland Journal, Oct. 2, 1918, via Library of Congress Online Newspapers.
Notes:

Over the next week, we will share a few more items on how Cecil County coped with the pandemic of 1918

We will also compile a tabulation of those killed in Cecil County to develop a better idea of the impact of the virus. This will include a list of those that died during the pandemic.

Continues on Part II — Cecil Grapples with the Spanish Influenza of 1918

More on the Spanish Flu in Mid-Atlantic

Salem County Shutdown During the Flu Epidemic of 1918

When Death Came Calling Salem County Needed a Hospital

Endnotes
  1. Midland Journal, October 4, 1918[↩][↩]
  2. Midland Journal, October 18, 1919[↩]
  3. Cecil Democrat, October 26, 1918[↩]
  4. Midland Journal, October 25, 1918[↩]
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Horror at Childs Railroad Station

CHILDS, June 20, 1890  — Just after two o’clock in the morning the overnight Baltimore & Ohio Express Train, No. 114, bound for New York hurtled across Cecil County.  As the engine, baggage car, and two Pullman sleepers neared the Childs Station, it was going full speed, the throttle opened up to 55 miles an hour.

Seconds after passing the dark station, the engine rushed onto the high bridge that spans Blue Ball Road. There the connecting rod on the left drive wheel of the locomotive broke, the one end flying up and demolishing the part of the cab where Fireman John McNamara of Philadelphia was sitting.

The rod struck the railroader, hurtling him from the cab to the roadside.  Instantly killed, his skull was fractured, and both arms were broken.  Engineer J. P. Fitzgerald applied the airbrake, reversed the engine, and escaped injury by jumping behind the firebox.

Childs Railroad Station
The Childs Railroad Station, a circa 1912 postcard

In the first Pullman, seventeen passengers were asleep when the heavy car hurled down the fifty-foot embankment with a terrifying, shuddering jolt and bang. The heavy coach broke into two fragments as the sound of twisting metal filled the air, striking against a stone abutment.

Crawling out of the break created by the impact, all the passengers were more or less injured.  Chief Engineer Charles Ackenheil of the Staten Island Railroad was aboard this car, and he was thrown into the roadway, where he was found unconscious in a pool of blood. He was put on a train for Philadelphia but died before reaching there.  The wonder is how anyone could have escaped instant death, the Cecil Whig remarked.

The second sleeper left the tracks too and went over the bank at the edge of the bridge.  Sliding down the side of the steep hill, none of its passengers were injured.  It came to rest within ten feet of the residence of Pierson Matthews, where the wounded passengers were initially taken. 

Not realizing that the rear coaches had toppled off the high bridge at Blue Ball Road, Engineer Fitzgerald grabbed a lantern and started to search for his fireman. But to his horror, he found that the two passenger cars had toppled some distance down the steep drop. About the same time Conductor Robertson rushed back to the Childs Station to telegraph Philadelphia for urgently needed assistance. There a special train with surgeons was assembled and rushed to the scene to render medical aid. The injured were then moved to that City.

The wreck crew worked all night and early the next morning the track had been cleared and rail service was resumed.  But the Blue Ball Road traffic was still suspended by the debris that filled the gap between the rocks.  Coroner Litzenberg summoned a jury with Daniel Harvey as foreman, which rendered a verdict in the case of McNamara in accordance with the facts and exonerated the road from censure.

For Additional Photos

See on the Road to Providence

Source: Cecil Whig, June 21, 1890

Childs Railroad Station Timetable
The B & O Railroad Timetable from 1890 shows the service at the Childs Railroad Station and other spots on the line. Source: Cecil Democrat, June 28, 1890
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Elkton’s First Police Car

A few months after the Great Depression rocked the country, the Mayor and Commissioners of the Town of Elkton took a major step forward, purchasing a patrol car for the two-man police force. This was the first police car for local law enforcement in Cecil County, local dealer Warren W. Boulden selling the 1930 Ford to the town for $493.

A local newspaper, suggesting that Chicago gangsters should steer of Elkton, criticized the modernization of the department. “Although the Elkton Police may be short in number, they are now long on equipment. A year or more ago they were furnished with impressive-looking revolvers and Sam Browne Belts, and now an automobile in which to dash around. Certainly, Chicago racketeers and gangsters should steer clear of Elkton,” the Cecil Democrat editorialized.

In the photo (L to R) Mayor Taylor McKinney, Night Officer Albert Buckworth, and Chief George Potts proudly have their photo taken with the new vehicle.

elkton police car
Mayor Taylor McKinney (left), Night Officer Albert Buckworth (seated), and Chief George Potts proudly have their photo taken in 1930 with the new patrol car.

For More on the Elkton Police Department Also See

George Potts, Elkton’s First Police Chief

Chief Thomas McIntire Guided Elkton Police into the Modern Era

Notes and Sources:

A Cecil Star photo from the issue of Feb. 15, 1930. Photo in personal collection.

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Dr. Richards’ Port Deposit Hospital

Advances in health care in the late 19th and early 20th century, things such as antiseptic and aseptic surgery, x-rays, and laboratories, made hospitals indispensable for treating the sick and injured. Physicians needed the services of these institutions with their technical equipment, specialized personnel, and capability for around-the-clock care so treatment started moving from the home to the institution.

There were a couple of ways to launch these ventures, as the number of institutions increased rapidly across the nation. It was a public undertaking, operating as a nonprofit for communities such as Elkton and Havre de Grace. But in other places, proprietary hospitals, facilities created by a single practitioner (or a group), were established.

With the surge in demand for in-patient beds, Dr. G. Hampton Richards established a for-profit hospital in Port Deposit in 1923. That April, the doctor had “the old Murphy residence in Port Deposit remodeled and fitted for use as an up-to-date hospital,” the Midland Journal reported.

When the doors opened, it had 14 beds. Admissions increased so at some point Eli Selcer Sentman, a contractor, added the wing stretching along Center Street. This increased the capacity to 28 beds and provided the latest technology, including x-ray equipment, electrical appliances, and a surgical suite.

Over the years, the hardworking physician treated the sick and injured at the medical center, providing critically needed services in western Cecil County.

The closest hospitals were far away in Elkton and Havre de Grace, over poor roads. Thus, Dr. Richards saw many accidents and emergency admissions, as noted in news stories in local papers.

The doctor was giving a talk for “Armistice Day” at the Tome Memorial Church in November 1929. Feeling ill, he tried to leave early but collapsed outside and was rushed to his hospital. A hurried call alerted Miss Nesbitt, the head nurse, that the emergency case was on its way. She administered a hypodermic needle, sufficiently reviving the ill physician to some degree.

Dr. Brown of Johns Hopkins was summonsed to take over the treatment. He diagnosed the case as Angina Pectoris, ordering that the ailing caregiver remain quiet for practically three weeks, after which he would remove him to the Baltimore hospital.

Sometime early in the next year, he resumed his work, “even performing a large number of operations and risking a second attack for the benefit of the health of the community,” the Midland Journal reported.

But the doctor eventually announced he would close the place “where many sufferers “had found relief through the ministration of his surgical and medical skills and the care of an efficient corps of nurses.” It was hoped that some way could be found to keep the hospital open, the Midland Journal remarked.

But with his health in decline, Dr. Richards closed his Port Deposit hospital on August 1, 1930. He died on May 10, 1932.

He had graduated from the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine in 1908, coming to Port Deposit that year to establish his practice. Eventually, he associated himself with Dr. Clarence I Benson.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War I he entered the service. The surgeon was on the front in France for several months and suffered from a gas attack, which impaired his health. At the close of the war, he returned with the rank of captain, immediately resuming the practice of medicine and surgery in Port Deposit.

The papers reported that he died from Angina Pectoris in the 48th year of his life.

Dr. Richards Port Deposit Hospital

A postcard shows Dr. Richards Hospital in Port Deposit.

For additional photographs of Dr. Richards’ Hospital, see the album on Facebook.

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Times Passes at the Cecil County Courthouse Corner in Elkton

Elkton, Back to the Future — Oct. 21, 2015, was Back to the Future Day, and lots of towns celebrated in tribute to the 30th anniversary of the legendary Back to the Future film starring Michael J. Fox. In it Fox travels 30 years into the future, October 21, 2015.

All that talk about time travel reminded us of a message pinned on the back of a postcard we saw some years ago in the Historical Society of Cecil County collection.

The image showed the Cecil County Courthouse at the corner of Main and North streets in Elkton. On the back it said: “Purchased at Frazer’s Drug Store Saturday, December 21, 1935, 9:30 -p.m.; temperature 18 degrees F. Purchase made at the suggestion of my friend Ralph Jeffers and that we look at them again, December 21, 1965, to refresh our memory as to the appearance of the town, as of 1935. G. Reynolds Ash.”

Picture postcards are wonderful and often the messages scrawled on the back are important too. While we don’t have a photo of that corner in 1965, here is one we snapped on Oct. 21, 2015. This is about the way the scene would have appeared in 1965 (minus the cars).

The 18th-century landmark was demolished in September 1940 and the Doughboy monument was moved to the Armory.

Cecil County Courthouse in the 1930s
A postcard of the courthouse corner and the Cecil County Courthouse was purchased on Dec. 21, 1935

For additional photos of the Cecil County Courthouse and the courthouse corner see this album on Facebook.

Old Elkton Town Hall
The Cecil County Courthouse Coroner on Oct 21, 2015
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A Troubled Civil War Soldier — His Story

The Civil War cast a long, troubling shadow over the nation, the healing going on for generations.  In addition to the damage done to the nation, it also altered the lives of many young soldiers.  In the horrifying aftermath of this great conflict, those who returned home, having experienced carnage, bloodshed, and death, were changed people as they coped with the personal trauma of these experiences and memories.     

civil war soldier, James H. Andrews.
A Troubled Civil War Soldier, James H. Andrews, Spent Nearly 40 Years of his life in Jail. (Source: Adams County Independent, Aug. 30, 1907)

Whether the tragedies of some of these men were caused by the emotional trauma they experienced – having come face-to-face with gruesome scenes they could have never imagined —  or some personal affliction is hard to say. Still, worry-some behavior occasionally manifested itself in complex and troubling ways.  These unfortunate cases aren’t usually presented in the local narratives, but here is the tragic story of one troubled Civil War soldier.    

Born in Chesapeake City in May 1844, James H. Andrews served in the Union Army during the Civil War with credit for two years, according to newspaper accounts.  But after being furloughed to come back home to visit his mother, he overstayed his leave and was listed as a deserter at Wilderness, Va., in May 1864.  As he told the story, while returning to duty, he got drunk in Baltimore and was late returning but had no intention of “deserting the old flag.” 

A recruiting tent in a New York Park. (Source: National Civil War Museum of Medicine)

The war seems to have affected him, for sources said he became eccentric and unbalanced.  In 1869 officers arrested Andrews, and a jury convicted him of attempting to assault a young lady in the Chesapeake City Area.  After serving a one-year sentence, he was released but got into similar trouble in the Warwick area.  This time the jury declared that he was insane and unfit to be at large.  He was sent to Baltimore for treatment but soon escaped.  After that, he was returned to the Elkton Jail. 

Beginning a Life Behind Bars

james andrews enlistment paper
The enlistment paper for James Andrews. The 21-year-old enlisted on Aug. 18, 1862.

These incidents began life behind bars, mostly at the Cecil County Jail, except for the escapes he made.  When he fled, he usually headed to Washington or Annapolis to speak with the president or the governor about his military commission as a general and his pension.  Once, he was on his way to Annapolis to talk the matter over with the governor when a lawman arrested him for vagrancy.  This charge sent him to the Maryland House of Corrections, but there a fellow prisoner from Cecil County recognized Jim and notified Sheriff William J. Smith.  The sheriff soon had him back in the Elkton lock-up.  Another time, he was sent to an institution in Baltimore to treat his delusions, but he soon escaped there, only to be returned to Elkton. 

He ended up spending half of his life in the Elkton Jail, except for those brief jailbreaks.  The nearly 40 years was “the longest time for any person in the United States to spend in jail,” according to the Cecil Democrat.1  He occupied a cell on the upper tier of the jail and had it fixed up to suit his taste.  The old soldier was a great lover of pets and had white rats, white mice, dogs, cats, rabbits, and other kinds of pets and always took pride in dividing his food with them.  For years, he longed for a blacksnake but was unable to get one 2

Seeking His General’s Commission

Old Jim enjoyed writing letters.  Part of his delusion was someone trying to take his general’s commission from him and his veteran’s pension.  Those matters often occupied his pen.  But many others received letters, such as Magistrate Sasse of Wilmington.  He wanted the magistrate to put the wheels of justice in motion against Clint Mackey, Gus Johnson, Polk Racine, Old Sam, and the deputy sheriff.  “Don’t give any of them any bail, and you commit the deputy sheriff to jail, too, if he comes over to Delaware,” he told the official.

Sometimes the county commissioners received petitions. At one point, he asked the commissioners to free him as they had spent $4,000 to $5,000 on the old man and he was now ready to settle down.  At one point, he took a fancy that he was the jail barber, and for his services for shavings, soap, and towels, he billed the county commissioners $700. 3

Jim resided behind those bars when two prisoners were hanged.  Waters’ ghost wasn’t long in getting back to the jail, if Jim Andrews was to be believed, the Cecil Whig wrote.  He reported hearing someone in the vacant death cell late at night following the execution.  When the county hangman executed Alfred Stout in the jail yard in 1893, Jim became convinced the deputies were conspiring to hang him, too.  He immediately took to his pen and paper, outlining the full scheme hatched by the lawmen and requesting counsel.

Finally, in 1907, Sheriff Biddle recommended Andrews’ liberation with the inmate growing old and unable to support himself as his health failed.  When Sheriff Kirk assumed charge and learned about the “old man of the prison,” he too went to work to have the life-long prisoner released to spend his final days at the county almshouse.  “On Saturday night, the old veteran, for he was a veteran in the Union Army during the Civil War, was taken to the county home near Cherry Hill by Deputy Sheriff Myron Miller,” the Cecil Democrat reported 4.

Deputy Miller took the old man who had lived most of his adult life behind bars around town, allowing him to see now unfamiliar views before they headed to the poorhouse.  “To get out in the open world was almost a revelation to Andrews.  Although he had been familiar with the surrounding part of the county in his younger days and had attended many dances between here and Cherry Hill, the country seemed to be very strange to him.” 2

Troubled Civil War Soldier Pardoned by Death

The Cecil County Potter’s Field.

In Jail for nearly 40 years years, old Jim Andrews was finally “given a pardon at least by Death,” The Baltimore Sun reported on April 25, 1908.  He was about 74 years old.  “He served in the Union Army during the strife between the north and south and did credit to himself and country for about two years,” the Philadelphia Inquirer added.5

He is buried at the Cecil County Potter’s Field near Cherry Hill. Old Jim served under nineteen different sheriffs.  About seven years before his death, he suffered a stroke of paralysis, which left him in a more or less helpless condition. 

Endnotes
  1. Cecil Democrat, Aug. 24, 1907[↩]
  2. Adams County Independent, Aug. 31, 1907[↩][↩]
  3. Cecil Whig, Sept. 8, 1883[↩]
  4. Cecil Democrat, Aug. 24. 1907[↩]
  5. Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 18, 1907[↩]