Jane Phillips: Kinston and the Spanish Flu pandemic - 1918-1919
I’ve read that 1918 was one of the worst years throughout recorded history. The First World War was raging in Europe while an unseen enemy, the Spanish Flu, was spreading across the earth. The illness began in the spring and seemed to subside during the summer months. It lasted until late 1919 and consisted of “waves” of varying intensity.
World War I claimed an estimated 16 million lives. According to the CDC website, it is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.
Initially, there was just very little dependable information. The general public felt that officials were not being forthcoming about the severity of the situation. But the leaders really knew so little about the virus. They just didn’t know for sure what to say. But many precautions were put on place including wearing a face mask.
The Spanish Flu hit hard and health systems were simply overrun. There were shortages of beds, supplies, doctors and especially nurses. Since there was no vaccine or cure, the most effective course of treatment was isolation and bed-rest. In many communities’ bodies literally piled up with no place to put them, and some families were forced to live for a while with deceased relatives still in the home.
It was learned Influenza spread when people were in close contact, so local health officers moved swiftly to close public schools and colleges, churches, theaters, fairs, bars, dance halls and public meetings. Stores, textile mills, and other businesses also closed. Employees were either sick, afraid of getting sick, or at home taking care of the sick.
Few communities escaped the pandemic, and even fewer had the resources to care for the sick. Hospitals were not large enough to handle all the patients, so temporary hospitals opened in churches, schools, and armories. Doctors were so busy they could not answer all of the calls of those affected, especially in farming communities. Many people in those days had no indoor plumbing. Health authorities told everyone to, “bury everything as deep as possible in the ground."
During its peak in October 1918, it’s been said there were only two kinds of people in the state—those who were sick with influenza and those who were trying to save them. The illness sometimes lasted seven to ten days. It hit suddenly with chills, a high fever, upset stomach, weakness, and other symptoms. Influenza struck without regard to class or race, but the majority of victims were young adults between the ages of twenty and forty.
Pregnant women had an especially hard time. I have found no source that Kinston experienced any effect during the first wave of the flu. The second wave of the virus was much more deadly and struck with a vengeance. The first victim of the Spanish Flu Pandemic I have found in Kinston was in late summer 1918. The victim was State Sen. William Durward Pollock. William was married to the lovely daughter of the late Gen. Robert Hoke who by the end of the Civil War had become one of General Lee’s favored generals. Pollock was a 56-year-old attorney, legislator, political leader, writer and renowned as an orator.
He was well known around town as well as the state. Mr. Pollock had traveled on “the Mullet Line,” officially the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, to Morehead City, a small fishing port at the time, to address a Liberty Loan rally. Upon returning home, he came down with a high fever. He was treated by his brother and brother-in-law, both prominent physicians. He had been so sick that when he died, he did not know about his newborn daughter. He is buried in Maplewood Cemetery.
In October the height of the Spanish Flu Pandemic was in full swing in Kinston. Three died that first week. There were some days when 15 to 20 victims died. Dr. Bud Hyatt set up an emergency hospital in the old Kinston High School on N. East Street near Vernon Avenue. All schools closed because of the flu. Each issue of the Free Press listed names of citizens who had died since the last issue. By mid-October over 2700 cases had been reported in Lenoir County.
Oct. 12, 1918: Dr. James Parrott Of Parrott Memorial Hospital opened that private institution to influenza sufferers and stated that all doctors were invited to send patients there. This move was a public-spirited one and elicited a complimentary comment from the town’s other physicians. One physician said he had over 100 cases on his list. North Carolina’s medical facilities typically “were overwhelmed by the masses of sick and dying.”
The Kinston Daily Free Press article, Oct. 14, 1918, at the height of the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918 gave good advice and it is still good advice today, “BE CALM! It is true we, along with the Nation at large, are facing a serious situation. Our hearts are torn because of the many sad bereavements in our midst. But this is no time to show the "white feather" or become panicky.
Let us be brave, looking to our Heavenly Father for guidance and strength. For He alone can give succor and comfort in a time like this. Let us not give up hope because the epidemic reaches us. Proper precaution has proven most effective in producing quick recoveries.
Let's be careful, calm and cooperative until the dark cloud passes.”
By the end of the third week, the white undertaker and his assistant were overcome by the flu and exhaustion. They had tended the bodies and buried dozens over the past three weeks. When they could go on no longer the colored undertaker volunteered at the white establishment and managed until the white undertaker was better. By the end of the month, almost 150 were dead. The deaths were now beginning to slow down.
A letter written by Evaline Hill in Snow Hill (located about 15 miles from Kinston) to her daughter on October 16, 1918. “I have never known the like in my life - so many sick folks.” Throughout the letter she refers to many friends, neighbors and family members being sick with the flu or had died with the flu. Among some of the names were.; Harrison, Wooten, Jones, Hardy, Sullivan and Sutton. Evaline tells of many taken Johnson’s Chill Tonic.
Members of my family that lived in nearby Jones County became very ill with the flu. Mama Jarman went to help her sick sister. A short time after she returned to her home she and her children came down with the flu. A kind neighbor would bring pots of soup and other food for them and leave it on a fence post. Papa Jarman was the only one that did not get sick while Mama Jarman almost died.
Finally, Mama Jarman and the children recovered and the memory of that time lived with them for the rest of their lives. By early November the second and worse wave of the flu in Kinston had passed. As lethal as the second wave was, mercifully it was short-lived. Approximately 20% of the infected victims contracted a mild case and recovered without much problem.
December saw another wave of the Spanish Flu as it made another visit throughout Lenoir County. Over 60% of the 200 residents of Caswell Training School were taken ill and many died. During the Christmas season illness and death had again spread about the community. There was a sadness that covered the town. Finally, by the end of December, the outbreak slowly improved. There had been several hundred cases bur fewer deaths than in October.
By the close of 1918, the worst months of the pandemic had passed. North Carolina soldiers in France had carefully followed reports of the flu at home through letters and newspapers. Many soldiers who faced death daily at the front mourned relatives who had died an ocean away from the war.
In April 1919, Dr. William Rankin, the Secretary of the State Board of Health and a noted proponent of health education, reported the death of over 13,600 North Carolinians from influenza and estimated that approximately 1,000,000 of North Carolina's 2.5 million inhabitants had caught the disease. Nationally, the disease killed almost 700,000, and some estimates suggest anywhere from 50 to 100 million died worldwide.
The tremendous death toll and sick victims of the Spanish Flu was a major factor in the need to update and modernize health services. Many new hospitals were built and health education became very important.
SOURCES: www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/Job Jarman Family HistoryEveline Hill LetterKinston Free Press (numerous articles)Influenza Outbreak of 1918-1919 by Steve Case, revised by Lisa Gregory, 2010 Public Health; Infectious Diseases; Influenza outbreak of 1918-1919; NC and Influenza (WWI); Public Health; Infectious Diseases WWI: North Carolina and Influenza by Tom BeltonNorth Carolina. The great pandemic: The United States in 1918-1919. United States Department of Health and Human Services The Health Bulletin. From the Spring of 1918 through early 1919NC Pedia WWI: North Carolina and InfluenzaSurviving the Blue Flu 1918 by Robert Mason
