Kewaunee County and the Spanish Flu: 1918

Flu makes headlines. TV newscasts and newspapers are rife with stories each fall. Notices of flu and pneumonia shots appear on nearly every drug store marquee in town while even grocery stores offer shot clinics as public health agencies and clinics run PSAs. That all comes after the CDC weighs in on what strain of flu is probable, and the manufacturers make a shot or spray best addressing what is coming. Flu is dreaded. In 1918 it was dreadful. It was called a pandemic, which to this day remains one of the greatest natural disasters the world has ever seen.

Sources of the 1918 flu were not isolated, and it was the war eventually called World War l that spread the flu all across the planet. Throughout the world, uncommon and distinctive measures were being taken to deal with the influenza and stem its spread. Leading the U.S., Wisconsin was the only state adopting public health measures that the public actually accepted, perhaps because its citizens were somewhat educated. By then, Wisconsin had been working for about 40 years to improve public health and fight infectious diseases.

In December of 1918, Wisconsin’s State Board of Health said the flu will “forever be remembered as the most disastrous calamity that has ever been visited on Wisconsin or any of the other states.” Between September and December, influenza and pneumonia killed 8,459 Wisconsin residents and debilitated over 100 thousand residents. To put that in another perspective, more Wisconsinites died during 6 months of flu than in World War l, Korea and Vietnam combined. And yet Wisconsin was lucky with a death rate of 2.9 per thousand. Nationally the rate stood at 4.39 per thousand. At a time when the newspapers carried so much war news, there was little room for anything else but the overwhelming numbers of obituaries. World-wide, over 50 million died.* Just as flu today, it was spread by coughing, sneezing and human contact, though, at the time, those causes were not always understood.

Those between ages 25 and 40 were most susceptible to Spanish flu, brought from Europe by returning service men. There was no gradual onset, ensuring that some were so quickly stricken that often death came within hours. Twenty percent of the infected got pneumonia. Half of that number was dead 48 hours later.

In the beginning teachers immediately sent students home when they reported not feeling well, but then schools were closed. It wasn’t long before all public gatherings and events such as movies were shut down. Public funerals and visitations in the homes of those who died from the flu were curtailed, though church funerals could be held with a minimum number of people in attendance. Marriages were also allowed to go forward but, as with funerals, few were allowed to attend. There were warnings against public coughing. Spitting in public was against the law and was said to be enforced. Even kissing was discouraged. Church leaders balked when it was suggested churches close. The flu was political.

In Milwaukee, where it was said that 20% of the population had the flu, newspapers tried to be positive by abandoning stories that would trigger fear in favor of those providing education and information. Stories from Europe said little about flu in war-torn countries, but much was written about it in neutral Spain, prompting the disease to be named Spanish Flu.

Residents of Kewaunee County died in their beds. Kewaunee County servicemen died in Europe and they died in the U.S. William Pfluger was at Camp McClellan when he died of pneumonia and bronchitis. Edward Mach was at Camp Custer, Michigan when he died of pneumonia. Private Koukalik died of Spanish Influenza at Fort McHenry, Georgia. Adding to the family’s grief was the shock of Koukalik’s eight year old nephew dropping dead upon viewing the remains. Frank Jirtle died of pneumonia in March. The Coast Guard and Sons of Veterans fired a salute over his grave. Henry E. Holtdorp (Holdorf) battled pneumonia for a week before he died in France in September. A small white cross marks his grave there. Louis Bull was stricken with pneumonia while he was working in a gas shell manufacturing plant in spring 1917. He wanted to be a soldier and never made it into uniform.

It wasn’t only service men. The flu didn’t forget anybody. Even doctors died. In some places bodies weren’t immediately buried because the grave diggers were also stricken. Anna Kochmich left teaching for nursing, entering the Reserve Corp of Nurses at Fort Oglethorpe in December 1918. She contracted influenza and died of pneumonia on January 19.

Kewaunee County registered 3,283 men, ages 18-45, in four drafts. Four hundred fourteen were inducted though there were exemptions. The number of servicemen who contracted the flu and lived is not documented. And, as in the Civil War, disease was a greater enemy than bullets.

*Depending on when articles and books were written, sources give a death counts from over 20 million to as much as 100 million. A consensus of authorities appears to be 50 million deaths, roughly 5% of the world’s population at the time.

Sources include the Algoma Record Herald, Kewaunee Enterprise, Door County Advocate, Kewaunee County Honor Roll, 1917-1919 and Wisconsin Women by Genevieve McBride, c. 2005.