A look at the history of flu in Nebraska
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BY MARK ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star
Officials base pandemic flu plans on what occurred during the deadly Spanish flu of 1918. Here’s an account of what happened in Lincoln and Nebraska:
Dec. 26, 1914
Camping on the dam near Emerson, Neb.
“This is our family group.
Ethel was 4 months old
Osker was 3 years old
Lee was 4½”
Osker, wearing dirty bib overalls, shyly holds his father’s hand.
Lee, wearing a quizzical look, stands before the Lincoln Awning tent.
Three years later, the Hiskey family will be devastated by the flu pandemic of 1918.
Mother, Edith, 26; father, Allen, 58; and Ethel, age 3; along with newborn Pearl Marie, age 3 months, will die over the course of 11 days.
The pandemic, known as the Spanish influenza, roared into Nebraska in late September 1918, predominantly killing young adults in their 20s and 30s.
Wyuka Cemetery records list nearly 400 deaths during the final three months of 1918. Many died in the horrible middle weeks of October.
In Lincoln, then a city of 86,000, the monthly tally of graves in October, November and December reached totals never again equaled.
Local mortality from flu was estimated to be about 2.5 percent, or 25 times deadlier than normal flu. One in four became in infected.
Worldwide, between 20 million and 100 million people died. Investigators now suspect that the virus — probably directly mutated from a bird flu virus — originated in Haskell County, Kan., moving with Army recruits to Fort Riley, Kan. where a mild outbreak was recorded in March 1918.
Flu next went overseas with U.S. troops, circulated in cramped and unhealthy war trenches, developing into a deadlier strain.
The first reports of flu deaths came from Spain, which as a non-combatant had no press censorship. This “Spanish flu” returned to the United States through the port cities of Boston and Philadelphia in early September on returning troop ships. From there it spread rapidly inland.
Records show it hit New York about the same time as Lincoln. It spread through London about two weeks later.
Physicians and grave diggers were overwhelmed. Commerce slowed.
By January, the worst had passed, although a trickle of flu deaths would continue into April.
With victory in Europe the flu was forgotten.
Except by survivors.
Osker and Lee, the surviving Hiskeys, went to live with Lincoln grandparents and grew up tough.
Oscar changed the spelling of his name. He was an unsentimental, somewhat ornery truck driver, said Oscar Jr. of Lincoln. He demanded their mother cook him three hot meals every day – no sandwiches — even on family vacations.
“He was a survivor,” said daughter Dorothy Flackman, also of Lincoln.
He taught his children to be workaholics like him, she said.
Brothers Oscar and Lee were estranged most of their adult lives, although the two visited in their later years, the children said.
In her family scrapbook, Flackman has only three pages of memorabilia devoted to her father’s life. That’s all that exists. Mostly, they’re pictures of trucks. “They were his whole life,” she said.
But even without memories of what the flu had done to his family, it’s possible to feel a mother’s grief, watching sickness take her family one by one.
Infant Pearl Marie Hiskey died first on Nov. 29.
She and Harley, age 3, lie next to each other in unmarked graves in the southeast corner of Wyuka Cemetery. Flackman believes three Hiskey children died. However, genealogical records on the Internet list two children and Wyuka has no record of Ethel Hiskey or of a fifth Hiskey grave. Harley and Ethel could be the same child, since the ages are the same and Ethel was once used as a name for boys.
Pearl and Harley lie about shouting distance from the unmarked graves of their parents.
Allen died Dec. 8, one day after his wife’s 26th birthday.
Edith died Dec. 10.
Their one-inch obituaries note she was the last of four to die and that two surviving boys were recovering from flu.
The four Hiskeys were buried in what then was “free ground.”
Concrete domes with numbers scratched on top once marked some of the graves. Today, most have disappeared.
Many families
suffer multiple losses
Around the Hiskeys in the same small section of cemetery are 119 others who died during the three-month peak of the pandemic. The others lie scattered throughout. In all, Wyuka lists 393 deaths occurring between Sept. 21, 1918, and Jan. 1, 1919. Of those, 97 have no age or birth date listed, including 17 “infants.”
Of the remainder, 100 were between ages 19 and 29, and 83 more were aged 30 to 39. While no proven explanation exists as to why young healthy adults were so heavily affected, some scientists speculate that inflammation from youthful immune systems rushing to attack the virus contributed by blocking air passages.
The Hiskeys weren’t the only family to suffer multiple losses in the fall of 1918.
Not far from Allen and Edith Hiskey lie Pearl Sharp, age 9, and sister Charlotte Sharp, age 2. Down the row a short ways are the graves of Mollie Klein, 26, and 3-year-old daughter, Alga. Next to them lie Katherine Derr, 33, and “infant son.”
The Adams County Democrat of Nov. 22 describes the triple funeral of Mildred Hopp, her child, and her brother John Schmer.
Harry Salyards, in a county historical society article, wrote that 31-year-old Patrick McCauley died at his farm home northwest of Hastings and his 29-year-old wife, Clotilda, died two days later. Fearful of catching the disease, nobody but family attended the funeral.
The couple’s three daughters were placed in St. Thomas Orphanage in Lincoln; two became nuns, Sister Rose Margaret and Sister Alice Marie. Youngest daughter Helen left the orphanage and married. Leonard, age 1, stayed in Hastings to be raised by a grandmother.
Newspapers downplay
story of flu outbreak
Lincoln newspapers of the time tell the story of the 1918 influenza pandemic — barely.
The flu arrived in Omaha sometime during the week of Sept. 21, according to the Census Bureau. It spread to Southeast Nebraska one week later and to the remainder of the state by the following week.
The headlines in Lincoln during the early autumn of 1918 reported the great progress of Gen. John Pershing on Europe’s battlefields. Across the country, said John Barry, author of The Great Influenza, news of the flu outbreak was downplayed. With the nation at war, emphasis was on keeping morale high.
The Lincoln State Journal first reported what would become known as the Great Spanish Flu in a 4-inch brief on Sept. 24.
Headline: “Shipyards struck by epidemic.”
The Page 3 story noted that Boston had closed its schools after 100 regional deaths.
The Sept. 26 Journal warned on Page 6 that people should take precautions against flu. Superintendent C.F. Chapman of the City Health Department downplayed fears: “This is not a new disease…. It is the same old ‘grippe,’ (Spanish for influenza) in some cases more virulent than ordinarily.”
It’s a theme he repeats, possibly in an attempt to dampen panic.
Weather Service records show it was a typical fall in Southeast Nebraska, with late September temperatures ranging from 75 to 45 degrees.
Throughout October, Chapman would describe the flu epidemic either as nothing extraordinary or on the verge of ending.
A 1965 article titled “Out of Old Nebraska,” found in the Journal-Star library, said: “The attack came on suddenly with a fever and profuse perspiration and within an hour the victim was hardly able to carry a small package. The end was often just as sudden. A middle-aged merchant at Holdrege was in his store in the morning, went home for lunch at noon … and the next morning he was dead.” Those who lived often took two or months to regain strength.
Ripped from
the headlines
Oct. 4: Flu makes the top of Page 1 for the first time.
“Influenza gains ground.” Boston has 30,000 cases.
Oct. 5: In a story: “Lincoln officials are not inclined to get alarmed.” No action would be taken over the “so-called Spanish flu.”
Oct. 8: Flu has taken hold in Camp Dodge, Iowa, where 996 new cases occur in 12 hours. There had been 46 flu deaths. And yet, “There is no need to close things in Lincoln.” Chapman says. “Local schools and churches are well ventilated … and the ill are not likely to force themselves to seek places of amusement.”
Oct. 10: Lincoln experienced 850 flu cases and 19 deaths between Sept. 28 and Oct. 9: About 500 flu cases were at the state university.
Oct. 12: The Lincoln City Council, during a Saturday noon meeting, declares a state of emergency, closing schools, churches, moving picture shows, pool halls and dances during the “present epidemic of influenza.” The state takes similar action.
Oct. 14: Chapman reports the city’s influenza controls have worked so well the “backbone of the flu has been broken.” Only nine deaths have been reported in the prior five days, he says.
Oct. 16: A “girl,” engaged to a local physician, succumbs to flu one day after arriving by train from Waterloo, Iowa.
Over the prior two days, 18 more city residents have died of the flu, which also has reached the state prison, sickening 300 inmates. Chapman complains that not all cases are being reported to officials.
Throughout this period, on the State Journal’s inside pages, appearing much like news stories, run advertisements for Pape’s cold compound and Kondon’s Catarrhal to prevent or cure flu. An ad for Vick’s Vapo Rub explains there is no occasion for panic. It advises, “Go to bed and stay quiet, take a laxative, eat plenty of nourishing food, keep up your strength.”
Oct. 17: News out of Omaha reports that Health Commissioner Manning has banned outdoor gatherings. Omaha experienced 12 deaths a day earlier plus 11 more at Fort Omaha. This same day, there is a small article on Lincoln’s “Wyuka situation,” in which idle laborers have been drafted to dig graves.
Oct. 21: The backbone of the epidemic is breaking, says a headline, but the story reports that flu has spread throughout Nebraska.
Oct. 22: There have been 4,000 Lincoln flu cases, 86 deaths from flu and 1,680 homes placarded, Chapman reports.
Oct. 23: The federal food administration decries as “Hun propaganda” rumors that the epidemic is caused by a lack of sugar. The day’s headline: “Influenza is decreasing.” Only 72 new flu cases and six deaths the preceding day.
Oct. 24: Headline: “Big increase in influenza cases.” So far, there have been 102 flu deaths in Lincoln. Statewide, the one-day tally of new cases hits 5,081 and the number of daily deaths hits 84. Prior daily tallies had rarely exceeded 2,000 new cases.
Oct. 25: The statewide daily tally is 3,971 new cases. Total cases in the state stand at 37,391. Out of Gordon, news that flu has hit Native Americans hard and 35 lay dying.
Reacting to the spread of the Spanish influenza in Buffalo County, people turned to home cures, wrote historian Gene Hamaker for the Buffalo County Historical Society. They made gauze facemasks and ate fried onions.
Oct. 26: Headline: “Spanish influenza has lost its grip.” Only 32 new cases and seven deaths in Lincoln, Chapman reports. To date there have been 113 Lincoln flu deaths.
Oct. 31: Headline: “Influenza is declining.” Only 21 new cases and 11 deaths. Death numbers will fall about one week after case numbers, Chapman explains. City’s death toll:133. State’s flu cases reported: 53,617.
State and city quarantines expire Nov. 2, due as much from wishful thinking as declining flu. The public erupts in celebrations as the armistice is signed Nov. 11.
The epidemic resurges in December. Officials from around the state meet in Lincoln Dec. 17 to answer the question: “What to do about the Spanish Influenza?” There have been 2,807 flu deaths since Oct. 1, it’s reported, although the true number is thought to be closer to 5,000.
Reach Mark Andersen at 473-7238 or mandersen@journalstar.com.
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