Spanish Influenza in Central Aroostook County

What exactly was the Spanish Flu? It was a strain of HINI also known as the Avian Flu. According to a front-page article published in the October 17, 1918 edition of the Presque Isle Star Herald, “Uncle Sam’s Advice on the Flu: U.S. Public Health Service Issues Official Bulletin on Influenza,” the illness seemed similar to an influenza epidemic that was first reported in 1893 in Spain and that killed Spain’s monarch at the time, King Alfonso. The article explained that the “disease now occurring in this country and called Spanish Flu resembles a very contagious cold with fever and pains in the head, eyes, ears, back, or other parts of the body.” Though the disease was called Spanish Flu, it did not actually originate in Spain. German soldiers in WWI claimed that they saw the disease along the eastern front popping up all through 1917 and that it seems to have come from Asian countries. Another article in the same issue indicated more people had already died from the Spanish Flu than had from German bullets in the war.

This same large newspaper article further explained how the residents of Aroostook County should manage symptoms of the flu. If any symptoms arose, they were to go straight home to bed. The newspaper said “this will keep away dangerous complications and, at the same time, from scattering the disease far and wide.” Masking was also advised in this article. If mucus or sputum leaked out of the nose, mouth, or eyes, the article suggests great care be taken to collect these in gauze or paper napkins and then burn them so that the disease does not spread.

For such a small community, “The County had the  highest  reported death rate in Maine, according to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.” The 1920 Census Bulletin reported just five thousand people in Presque Isle, just four thousand fewer than are present in the 2020 census. The earliest documented case of Spanish Flu was documented in March of 1918 at Fort Riley, Kansas. It is thought that soldiers from Fort Riley, possibly brought back from exposure on the front lines in World War I. According to a 2020 article in the Bangor Daily News, the Spanish Flu claimed its first victim in Maine on September 23, 1918: William Lawry, a 36-year-old Augusta-resident, contracted the virus after visiting the Boston military facility, Camp Devens. It took just five days for Lawry to die from the disease after becoming infected, and some of the afflicted would die in just 3 to 4 days after the onset of symptoms. For a timeline on the Spanish Flu in Maine,  click here .

Figure 2: In this November 1918 photo made available by the Library of Congress, a nurse takes the pulse of a patient in the influenza ward of the Walter Reed hospital in Washington.

It took no time at all for the Spanish Flu to sweep through Maine. “By Sept. 27, more than 300 cases were reported in Portland. On Oct. 1, Bangor had reported 200 cases, and schools, churches, theaters and libraries statewide were ordered closed. By Oct. 12, hospitals from Biddeford to Bar Harbor were at full capacity, and by Oct. 16, Bangor’s board of health reported a low estimate of 787 cases of flu,” according to  Emily Burnham  in her 2019 article on influenza. Bangor was quick to support efforts to help pandemic victims wrote  Gabriel Kirkpatrick  in an article for Maine History. He wrote "hospitals filled rapidly and emergency facilities were opened to care for the overflow. At Eastern Maine General Hospital in Bangor beds were set up in the corridors, and a local Catholic girls’ school was used as an Annex”. Doctors were pressured to do all they could, and nurses worked around the clock in some parts of Maine to meet the grueling demands of medical care.

Rural areas of Maine were the hardest hit for many reasons. With a wide range of people spread out across the County and with the rapid spread of the disease, it could take days for a doctor to arrive at the bedside of the sick. Almost on the same day the epidemic reached Aroostook County, emergency medical camps were opened up. Emily Burham in her article explained “the epidemic had reached Aroostook County by Nov. 7, with the town of Caribou particularly hard hit.” Caribou, for instance, had few working physicians at the time of the pandemic and they were working around the clock after an emergency medical camp was created at the local Knights of Columbus Hall on November 7th. According to a Houlton Times article in October 16, 1918 edition, it was an Aroostook County doctor who was one of the two prominent physicians who identified the illness as the Spanish Flu: 

Figure 3: This image shows a makeshift hospital in Camp Funston, Kansas. The photograph comes from the  Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine.  Eventually, Presque Isle set up something similar in the President's house of the Aroostook State Normal School.

In 1918, unlike present day Maine, the Department of Health did not have the authority to close schools, churches, or workplaces. Only local districts, townships, and cities were thought to have that authority. By September 30, 1918, Augusta closed its public facilities, including churches, schools, and theatres, including the public library. By October 8th, Augusta extended this closure to all locations of amusement. On October 5, 1918, Lewiston and Auburn followed suit and closed “ the schools, churches, theaters, pool rooms, dance halls, business college – everything but Bates College and the wage-earning industries – to prevent the spread of Influenza." And in that area of Maine, which was thriving with factory industry at the time, it was also argued that no half-way measures would work and that both churches and factories would need to be closed as well. But consider, too, that this was at a time in history when wages for such closures would not be guaranteed for employees, and so many people would be out of work at a time when they would most need financial support for health care and everyday needs, like food and housing.   Click here  to see a poster exhibit of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic.  On October 3, Star Herald  reported that students, who attended schools in the southern part of the state and Massachusetts, decided to "wait until the epidemic subsides to some degree that the danger may be over" to return to their studies.

Aroostook County was the hardest hit of all counties in the state of Maine, suffering the deadliest casualties in the state. For Presque Isle, Maine, the first reports of Spanish flu deaths were printed in the  Star Herald on September 26, 1918 . Two soldiers, John Frazier and Spurgeon Scribner had died at Camp Devens in Massachusetts. Frazier's funeral was held on September 24, 1918; he was buried in St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery on Chapman Street. Scribner's body had yet to be returned to the area by the military and as such funeral arrangements had not been made. The deaths of these two soldiers was the beginning of the Spanish Flu pandemic in the Central Aroostook County area.

Figure 4: To the right is the gravestone of Pvt. John Frazier who died on September 22, 1918 at Camp Devens, Massachusetts. He died from the Spanish Flu.

The Fort Fairfield Review, Star Herald and Aroostook Democrat listed numerous illnesses and deaths from the Spanish flu in the fall 1918.  On October 3, 1918, Star Herald  reported that Herbert Orman Porter Gilman had died of influenza on September 27, 1918. He had been at Camp Devens since July 24, 1918. He most likely had been drafted because his draft registration card can be found on Ancestry. It described him as slender of medium build with black hair and grey eyes. It also stated that he was born in Massachusetts but lived in Presque Isle. However, the newspaper stated that he had lived with a Mr. Porter since he was 11 and that he had many friends. He was a member of the State Street Baptist Church and he was apprenticing with Waddell Jewelers to become a jeweler. In the newspaper column next to the report of Gilman's death is the report of the death of Mrs. Sophie Michaud Pelkey of Presque Isle from influenza. She left behind two children, parents, grandparents and many other relatives. Two of her siblings traveled from Massachusetts to attend her funeral.

The Star Herald then printed information about influenza near the announcement of Mrs. Pelkey's death. The article warned about how "the flu was purely an infectious disease spread by contact and close association." The article stated that family members should not drink from different cups and wash everything thoroughly. It also tried to make people feel better about the fact that getting the flu would not necessarily kill you.

In September and the first week of October, the newspapers were reporting the deaths of soldiers, but it also seems like people thought the pandemic was not yet at their doorstep. Within a week, the local papers were reporting just how much the Spanish Flu affected the towns in the Central Aroostook area.

The next week, on  October 10th , Star Herald questioned whether Presque Isle was ready for an outbreak of influenza. It notes that there were over 200 cases in Edmunston and the doctor there was sick as well. It also reported more deaths of people in Massachusetts who were from Presque Isle. Finally, it stated that the War Relief Train had been canceled due to influenza. And yet, people in town were still meeting at club socials and attending showers.

Figure 6: On  October 10th, Star Herald  questioned Presque Isle's preparedness for the influenza. You can read the article to the right.

T he Fort Fairfield Review  published a similar article questioning the impact of the Spanish Flu. It said "Spanish Influenza, which is probably just a good old fashioned version of the grip, is raising cain in Boston and other parts of Massachusetts. It is said to be working north so we may expect our share in Aroostook before long." It finished the article by saying go to bed early and try to stay healthy. The following week this article appeared in the Fort Fairfield Review:

The newspapers reflect that some people in the area were starting to realize the threat of the epidemic. As the article to the right reveals, they used the press to make their concerns known. The Fort Fairfield Review compared the death toll from the epidemic to that of the casualties from World War I.

By  October 17th , The Star Herald started reporting more on what to do if a person caught the Spanish Influenza. In an article called "Uncle Sam's Advice on Flu," the paper said to stay away from other people and to go home. By this date, the newspaper was also reporting the  indefinite postponements  of the Aroostook County Pomona Grange meeting which was to be held at the Aroostook Union Grange and the State Sunday School Convention which was to be held in Bangor.  On October 23, The Fort Fairfield Review  commented that Presque Isle was converting the Normal School into a temporary hospital to house all the influenza patients.

Figure 8: On  October 31st, the Star Herald  wrote an article discussing the Aroostook State Normal School having an energency hospital on campus. This is the article to the right.

The next day,  The Star Herald  commented that the potato market was slow and irregular because the government was not ordering as many since less transports were occurring due to the influenza epidemic. In addition, both papers mentioned names of people who had the illness, recovered from it or died from it. In some cases people did not die from influenza but from pneumonia which was a side effect of it. The following week,  Star Herald  noted that all churches, schools and places of entertainment in Eagle Lake had been shut down because of the rising number of influenza cases. Schools in Chapman were also reported closed on  October 31st  and it was noted that Lotta Grendell and her two children died of pneumonia that followed influenza.

In the  Chandler area , many people were sick and yet, the paper goes on to say that the family of Sidney Moran who was training at Camp Deven was home on leave. While the pandemic was becoming more serious, not all precautions were being taken. If people knew that men in Camp Deven were dying, why would the commanders of it allow service members to go home on leave?

As the fall continued on, schools, churches and places of entertainment started to close in order to prevent the disease from spreading. According to a  December 18 1918  article in the Fort Fairfield Review, rural schools closed down. The same article notes that, though there were “numerous cases in Caribou, but mostly outside the village, . . .the schools in the village are going on there as usual, although one of two of the country schools have been stopped.” Even by this day in history, Aroostook County already knew that the Spanish Flu was more deadly than the whole of World War I combined. With the deadliness of the disease so obvious by Christmas, Fort Fairfield closed all schools at the recommendation of the State Board of Health.

The author of the  article  that announced this in the Fort Fairfield Review stated that school closings were “ a preventative measure, not because there are so many cases of Influenza in our midst. Of course, opinion is divided as to the wisdom of this measure but the writer is very much inclined to favor it because the disease has proved so terrible that it is far better to err on the side of safety than on the other side. The meetings at the churches and some other places have been allowed to go on.” Though quarantines were not widely in effect, there was one arrest made in Fort Fairfield for Breaking Quarantine between March 1, 1918 and March 1, 1919 according to the  Fort Fairfield Annual Report . 

As schools and public houses closed around the County, masking mandates arose quickly, too. As 1918 was the height of World War I, the national spirit was civic duty. People were concerned of being seen as slackers, so when the American Red Cross put out a public safety announcement that read “the man or woman or child who will not wear a mask now is a dangerous slacker.” To learn more about anti-masking campaigns during this time click  Little.  Little is the last name of a person who wrote an article about it for History.com.

At the time, surgical masks were made of gauze and, though most people complied with the mandates, many counteracted their value by cutting holes in them to allow them to smoke a pipe. Additionally, many public officials were caught in public without a mask–particularly after the end of World War I. Just as with the Covid19 pandemic masking mandates, some people rose up against it, claiming they were “uncomfortable, ineffective or bad for business. . . And after the war ended, and there was no longer a sense that people should wear masks to keep the troops safe, some dissenters even formed an ‘Anti-Mask League in San Francisco, according to Little." 

Even after the virus had killed nearly 200,000 people in the United States, mask dissenters “complained about appearance, comfort, and freedom,” according to a 2020 article in the  New York Times . Though no known documentation of mask dissenters have been found in Aroostook County, the so-called “right to freedom” rose up all over the country and Mask courts were called to hold people accountable for refusing to wear their masks in public places. This is understandable considering the acceptance that microscopic germs were responsible for illnesses had only just come into fashion and only began to be accepted by the general public in the United States between 1850 and 1920. To find out more about this click on  Safespace .

Figure 11: The  image  to the right shows people who believed in the importance of wearing masks during the 1918 pandemic. The photograph was taken in California but it could apply to anywhere.

Because doctors were stretched so thinly around Aroostook County and the rest of the state, “some families fell back on ancient remedies, such as onion poultices and mustard plasters. Almost every household had a grandmother who was expert at this sort of treatment. One survivor from Medway” confirmed that the Bangor Daily News pushed a special Onion Poultice recipe to help ease the symptoms of Influenza according to Gabriel Kirkpatrick's article on the Spanish Flu in Maine. 

The Bangor Daily News, however, was not the only article to tout homemade remedies for the flu. The Star Herald allowed Johnson's Anodyne Liniment to be advertised. While not exactly a home remedy, there was no medical basis for this as a cure for Spanish Influenza. According to its packaging, Johnson's Anodyne Liniment could be used for the following: "coughs, colds, grippy cold, colic, asthmatic distress, bronchial colds, nasal catarrh, cholera morbus, cramps, diarrhea, bruises, common sore throat, burns and scalds, chaps and chafing, chilblains, frost bites, muscular rheumatism, soreness, sprains and strains." It's first ingredient was ether (alcohol derivative) so no wonder it helped some people; it might not heal them but it would make them sleep.

Figure 12: To the right is an advertisement for Johnson's Anodyne Liniment that was in the  Star Herald .

Another remedy that was advertised in local papers was Dr. True's Elixir. This elixir or "medicine" was made in Auburn, Maine. It was not a medicine for the flu; it was a laxative and worm expeller. To see a photograph of the bottle,  click here . This would have actually made things worse for patients because it would have dehydrated them since it most likely would have given them diarrhea. Other home remedies were spurred on by many local papers.  Quinine  and  camphor  doubled in cost from $2 to $4 per pound almost overnight. Neither of them would help cure influenza, but camphor would have helped ease coughing.

Though the bulk of the pandemic occurred in 1918, the illness continued to resurge, causing new pandemics and infecting millions for years to come. By 1920, Aroostook County had tired of shutting down schools and events or even wearing masks, but the newspapers continued to caution people about the dangers of the disease.

An  April 23, 2020 Bangor Daily News  article by Dan Marino, painted a detailed account of the 1920 Spanish Flu resurgence. Marino wrote that “the fight many residents had with the disease was studiously reported upon by The Star-Herald. Writers gave updates on the current conditions of those in the community in a way that seems unimaginable today: “Mrs. McQuaide, who was ill last week of influenza, is up around again,” read a page from January 2, 1919.

Marino continued to say that “many were not so lucky. The paper reported that several residents succumbed to the virus, and the flu’s reputation for killing  young  people was well-represented in the obituaries. Several examples of obituaries that Marino included in his article are below:

“Margot Brewer, 26, of Presque Isle and Mars Hill, died at the Hoyt and Wheeler Farm — where she had been employed — on Feb. 20, 1920. She left behind a husband and two daughters, aged 3 and 18 months, respectively. Described as a “faithful, painstaking mother,” she had seen her older brother die of the disease about a year before.

“Cynthia Perkins, 25 or 26, had been teaching in Washburn for only two weeks when there was an outbreak in the school. She contracted influenza, and then pneumonia, and was dead within days. Relatives from Castine traveled 200 miles to collect her  body ."

“Ruth McGlauflin was seemingly one of the youngest victims of the virus in the Presque Isle area. She was only 3 when she died on Jan. 6, 1919."

By 1919, it was clear that it was not just Maine soldiers who were dying of this awful disease, but ordinary people living throughout Central Aroostook County. The Spanish Influenza of 1918 and 1919 affected people in many ways and not just from making them sick. As noted before, potato sales suffered as transportation lines were not as secure as they had been. Just like today a disruption in the supply chain meant that people could have their livelihood affected. The video to the right, Spanish Flu and the First Amendment, does an excellent job of talking about how the Spanish Flu disrupted life in other ways than illness. While the video discusses the town of Bridgeton, Maine, it is still relevant because like the towns in Aroostook County, Bridgeton was also a small farming town.

Figure 15: Watch the video to the right to learn about the impact of the Spanish Flu on a small Maine town.