Recalling the flu epidemic of 1918
By Erik Pekar, Town Historian
Since the settlement of the Granville area in the late 18th century, there have been several outbreaks of major illnesses. More than a century ago, the 1918 influenza epidemic had the worst, most significant impact of any illness on Granville during the 1900s.
The exact origin of this influenza is not known, but two early locations were military bases in Texas, Georgia and Kansas in March of 1918. It disappeared but resurfaced even worse in August. By the fall of 1918, it had spread across the country, and onward to Europe.
The influenza made its impact in Granville by late September. In early October Granville merchants and community members realized that action had to be taken.
The evening of Oct. 12, 1918, attorney Clarence E. Parker gathered about 90 men in the Grange Hall on North Street, including the members of the village board. The topic at hand: plans to establish an emergency hospital in Granville to “combat the spread of the epidemic that is causing havoc throughout the country.”
Floyd E. Cole was chosen as the meeting chairman, and Parker as secretary. Many suggestions were made by those present, and all were met with an encouraging response. The men gathered voted to give the village trustees the power of arranging and running an emergency hospital.
Those gathered decided to use the Grange Hall itself for the emergency hospital and people were asked to volunteer to clean and prepare the hall to be ready for use at 8 the next morning.
The volunteers did their work, placing the second-floor hall and upper rooms on the third floor into good order. The hospital opened the morning of Oct.13 with nine patients. As of the morning of Oct. 17, there were 37 patients.
Three Granville area nurses were in charge of care; Mrs. Gertrude Beecher-Hall, Mrs. A. L. Beck, and another nurse from Albany, sent by the state Department of Health. At times Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Beck fell ill; Helen Roberts, Helen Sullivan, and Ira Gibbs managed in their place. Mrs. C. E. Parker was the general superintendent, with assistance from Mrs. R. F. Griffith and several others.
Miss Frances Noonan was in charge of the children’s ward, which was in one of the upper rooms. Some other women helped with food and laundering of patients’ clothing; Mrs. H. C. Adams and Mrs. S. A. Howland were heads of the cooking for the patients. Dr. C. N. White and members of the clergy of Granville village churches volunteered to act as messengers.
In the Oct. 25 issue, the writer of the article on the emergency hospital noted: “The women of Granville have been very good to respond to the call for help in both laundry and kitchen. … The hospital has been the means of saving many lives, and the self-sacrificing spirit exhibited by the men and women of the community will always remain a credit to Granville. Too much praise cannot be given any of them.”
A meeting was called by the village board of trustees, held at the Granville Methodist Church on Oct. 28. The meeting was done to assess the situation of the influenza and whether the emergency hospital should be kept open longer. It was noted that operating the hospital had incurred about $500 a week, $10 of which was rent to the owners of the building. Village health officer D.C. McKenzie reported that there had been between 900 and 1,000 cases of influenza in the village since the start of the epidemic, which resulted in 77 deaths. There were about 60 deaths from influenza in the town outside of the village; an estimate of town influenza cases was not reported.
As of Oct. 28, 1918, there had been 80 cases of influenza in the emergency hospital. Thirty-seven had been discharged, five had died and 38 were still patients. Ages of all patients ranged from six months to 59 years. All five patients who died had very bad cases of influenza when brought in. There was only one unoccupied bed at the hospital. The death rate in Granville was 14%, compared with the state’s 20%.
Several spoke in favor of continuing the hospital. The village board voted to continue the hospital until such a time that it was advisable to close it, from the opinion of the village health officer.
October 1918 turned out to be the worst month of the influenza in Granville. The situation was improving, and the Granville Board of Health decided to begin reopening public places which had been closed for a few weeks, ordered to do so during the worst days of influenza. Churches would reopen on Nov. 3, schools on Nov. 4; movie theaters and other “places of amusement” would reopen Nov. 8.
Decreasing numbers of influenza cases meant the emergency hospital was now oversized for the amount of patients it was serving. About the week of Nov. 8, the hospital removed to the Butler house on North Street. The hospital’s final day was Nov. 16; all remaining patients were moved to their homes. The surplus items left over were placed at the disposal of Helen Roberts, who was directed to give them to needy families as necessary.
A report on the hospital’s existence, including those nurses and community members who volunteered or donated, as well as the finances, was published in the Dec. 6, 1918 issue of the Sentinel. The total cost of the hospital was $2,178.54, roughly equivalent by inflation to about $40,220 in today’s dollars.
There was a sentiment among some that the emergency hospital should be made into a permanent institution. Such talks did not materialize into converting the hospital to be a continuing concern.
After the influenza died down, things went back to normal, people moved on and the 1918 influenza epidemic was confined to memories and the pages of history.
Years later in the “Main Street” column, Morris Rote-Rosen wrote that “no heroism on the battlefield of the war ever equaled the work of the local volunteers during the epidemic in 1918-1919. And there are many in Granville today [1957] who will recall it.”
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