Tag: spanish influenza

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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[↩]