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Flu of 1918 - Area residents recall big news item of their time
18 hours ago
By PETER GREER
greer@crescent-news.com
The greatest enemy America had to fight in the closing months of World War I was not overseas. It could not be arrested, imprisoned or killed.
Before it was through, it had killed 20-40 million people worldwide and more than 600,000 in the United States alone -- a higher domestic death toll than all 20th-century wars fought by Americans combined, with most of the deaths occurring between September and November.
It was the flu.
Diagnosed simply as influenza, this virulent strain crossed the country and the world in a matter of months.
"People were afraid it would be the loss of civilization as we know it," says Cheryl Kehnast, communicable disease coordinator of the Defiance County Health Department.
The great flu of 1918 was known to hit an apparently healthy person in the morning and by the end of the day that person would be dead.
While no one knows exactly how it started, the virus first manifested at Fort Riley, Kan., where military men burning cow dung the day before began to fall ill. As men who contracted the disease were sent overseas to fight, the illness spread across the world.
Fate was kind to 101-year-old Ida Steiner, who not only escaped the flu as a 13-year-old girl, but didn't entirely comprehend the severity of the pandemic while living through it.
"I didn't get it," she says with a smile.
Regardless, however, she did what she was told by health officials, even if she didn't realize how bad it could be. "We had to wear masks when we went outside," she says. "They were like surgical masks, they covered the nose and mouth." The masks, common sights during films of that period, actually were fairly ineffectual as health protectors.
"I also remember they closed the school for awhile," she says.
Also avoiding the flu was 99-year old Floetta Newland, who escaped the deadly bug with a simple preventative measure known then as well as now.
"My sister and I had flu shots," she remembers. "My oldest (sister) didn't; she was a schoolteacher and got sick. We brought her home and put her in isolation."
Flu shot or no, Newland's father took no chances with his daughters, keeping them away from home as much as possible. "We spent a lot of time in the cornfield with my father," she says. "We didn't get it. My sister recovered; she never went back to school teaching.
"We really didn't think much about it. Our father was very religious, he always taught us to trust."
Violet Onstott, 94, has more detailed memories of the ordeal -- in part, because she lived through it. "My cousin lived with us," Onstott recalls, "and we all got the flu. I didn't get it as badly as they did. I remember my cousin was in a chair most of the time."
Onstott, then 5, was unaware at first of how grim the situation could get, although she had no fear of dying. To her, at least, it felt more or less just like a case of the typical influenza.
"I never questioned what was going on," she notes, although she must have wondered what was happening when schools, churches and other public meeting places were temporarily shut down in town, and throughout most of the country, in an attempt to keep the disease from spreading.
Things changed at home, she adds. "My father kept a farm for the Edgertons," she says, referring to the family of town founder A.P. Edgerton, "and we didn't have electricity. We washed everything by hand, and we had to do that every day because of the (effects of) the flu. We **** our clothes inside the house. It was a frightful thing to do washing."
Although Onstott, her cousin and her immediate family survived the epidemic, at least one other family member wasn't so lucky. Hired by her father as a farmhand, her uncle Floyd Hinsch came to the house to work, got the flu and died there.
On the rare occasions when her family saw members of other families, the epidemic was the main topic of conversation, and the only way to check its progress was via the newspaper. "It was on everybody's mind," she says. "Everybody was going through the same thing, (and) you lived to find out what was going on."
Comparatively fortunate for this area was the fact that only some 80 flu cases were recorded in Defiance County during this time period, according to Kehnast. "There were some deaths, but it wasn't well-documented," she notes. "They didn't record it (as thoroughly) like that."
Kehnast believes that Defiance County came through relatively unscathed because the flu traveled around the country and the world, and local activity was relatively self-contained. The places hardest hit, she says, were "more heavily populated (with) more travel."
Some fear another flu pandemic in the present day.
It is recommended that residents receive flu shots -- particularly those such as the very young, the elderly or those with health problems.
But although Kehnast cautions that nowhere does it say that a pandemic such as the one 88 years ago could not happen again, the only way to deal with the flu from year to year, regardless of its severity, is to rest as much as possible, eat right and seek proper medical care.
"We stayed in the open air," Newland notes of the old days. "We drank milk and ate our vegetables."
Which only proves that nearly 90 years after the killer flu of 1918, the more things change, the more they stay pretty much the same.
Flu of 1918 - Area residents recall big news item of their time
18 hours ago
By PETER GREER
greer@crescent-news.com
The greatest enemy America had to fight in the closing months of World War I was not overseas. It could not be arrested, imprisoned or killed.
Before it was through, it had killed 20-40 million people worldwide and more than 600,000 in the United States alone -- a higher domestic death toll than all 20th-century wars fought by Americans combined, with most of the deaths occurring between September and November.
It was the flu.
Diagnosed simply as influenza, this virulent strain crossed the country and the world in a matter of months.
"People were afraid it would be the loss of civilization as we know it," says Cheryl Kehnast, communicable disease coordinator of the Defiance County Health Department.
The great flu of 1918 was known to hit an apparently healthy person in the morning and by the end of the day that person would be dead.
While no one knows exactly how it started, the virus first manifested at Fort Riley, Kan., where military men burning cow dung the day before began to fall ill. As men who contracted the disease were sent overseas to fight, the illness spread across the world.
Fate was kind to 101-year-old Ida Steiner, who not only escaped the flu as a 13-year-old girl, but didn't entirely comprehend the severity of the pandemic while living through it.
"I didn't get it," she says with a smile.
Regardless, however, she did what she was told by health officials, even if she didn't realize how bad it could be. "We had to wear masks when we went outside," she says. "They were like surgical masks, they covered the nose and mouth." The masks, common sights during films of that period, actually were fairly ineffectual as health protectors.
"I also remember they closed the school for awhile," she says.
Also avoiding the flu was 99-year old Floetta Newland, who escaped the deadly bug with a simple preventative measure known then as well as now.
"My sister and I had flu shots," she remembers. "My oldest (sister) didn't; she was a schoolteacher and got sick. We brought her home and put her in isolation."
Flu shot or no, Newland's father took no chances with his daughters, keeping them away from home as much as possible. "We spent a lot of time in the cornfield with my father," she says. "We didn't get it. My sister recovered; she never went back to school teaching.
"We really didn't think much about it. Our father was very religious, he always taught us to trust."
Violet Onstott, 94, has more detailed memories of the ordeal -- in part, because she lived through it. "My cousin lived with us," Onstott recalls, "and we all got the flu. I didn't get it as badly as they did. I remember my cousin was in a chair most of the time."
Onstott, then 5, was unaware at first of how grim the situation could get, although she had no fear of dying. To her, at least, it felt more or less just like a case of the typical influenza.
"I never questioned what was going on," she notes, although she must have wondered what was happening when schools, churches and other public meeting places were temporarily shut down in town, and throughout most of the country, in an attempt to keep the disease from spreading.
Things changed at home, she adds. "My father kept a farm for the Edgertons," she says, referring to the family of town founder A.P. Edgerton, "and we didn't have electricity. We washed everything by hand, and we had to do that every day because of the (effects of) the flu. We **** our clothes inside the house. It was a frightful thing to do washing."
Although Onstott, her cousin and her immediate family survived the epidemic, at least one other family member wasn't so lucky. Hired by her father as a farmhand, her uncle Floyd Hinsch came to the house to work, got the flu and died there.
On the rare occasions when her family saw members of other families, the epidemic was the main topic of conversation, and the only way to check its progress was via the newspaper. "It was on everybody's mind," she says. "Everybody was going through the same thing, (and) you lived to find out what was going on."
Comparatively fortunate for this area was the fact that only some 80 flu cases were recorded in Defiance County during this time period, according to Kehnast. "There were some deaths, but it wasn't well-documented," she notes. "They didn't record it (as thoroughly) like that."
Kehnast believes that Defiance County came through relatively unscathed because the flu traveled around the country and the world, and local activity was relatively self-contained. The places hardest hit, she says, were "more heavily populated (with) more travel."
Some fear another flu pandemic in the present day.
It is recommended that residents receive flu shots -- particularly those such as the very young, the elderly or those with health problems.
But although Kehnast cautions that nowhere does it say that a pandemic such as the one 88 years ago could not happen again, the only way to deal with the flu from year to year, regardless of its severity, is to rest as much as possible, eat right and seek proper medical care.
"We stayed in the open air," Newland notes of the old days. "We drank milk and ate our vegetables."
Which only proves that nearly 90 years after the killer flu of 1918, the more things change, the more they stay pretty much the same.
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