Editor’s note: John Larson, director of the Polson Museum in Hoquiam, compiled this account from the pages of the Washingtonian, a newspaper published in Hoquiam from 1898 until 1957, most of those years as a daily paper. His two-part story concludes in Saturday’s edition.

By John Larson

Director, Polson Museum

The year 1918 is mostly remembered for the armistice ending World War I, the Great War that claimed millions of lives over four and a half long and bloody years. Yet 1918 was also the year that an invisible viral enemy invaded our home front, killing more Americans than were lost on the battlefields of France. Though worldwide pandemics are rare, we are now — after more than a century — living through one.

Examining how the 1918 influenza outbreak unfolded on Grays Harbor, (emblematic of what was playing out across the nation at the time), might help us better understand our current situation with COVID-19. Parallels include school closures, “social distancing” practices, the wearing of face masks in public, stretched hospital resources, limited understanding of the disease itself and daily numbers reports.

Wuhan, China, seemed a world away to most Americans when news broke late last year that a novel coronavirus had surfaced. The U.S. Army’s Fort Devens near Boston, Massachusetts, seemed just as distant to Grays Harborites when they first read of the influenza outbreak there in late September, 1918. On September 25 and 26, the daily Grays Harbor Washingtonian ran wire reports detailing what was happening. Devens, the hardest hit of several Army forts, had nearly 12,000 cases reported, while over 30,000 cases were reported at forts nationally. The Army suspended the draft in an attempt to slow the infection rate. At first glance the problem seemed confined to the military.

When news of the so-called “Spanish flu” first appeared in print on the Harbor, people here were distracted by local happenings in the headlines. Harborites were set to kick off the fourth Liberty bond campaign in an effort to fund the ongoing war in Europe. Locals were worried about the impact to transportation caused by three recent debilitating wrecks on the Grays Harbor Railway and Light Company’s street line. They pondered how to remedy the acute housing shortage caused by the swell of war workers engaged in building ships and running mills. And sweet-toothed bakers everywhere longed for sugar rationing to end.

Grays Harbor, however, would not remain removed from the ravages of the pandemic. The 1918 influenza virus was especially deadly among young adults in the prime of life. News arrived on October 5 that 27-year-old Sergeant Don Kellogg died at Fort McArthur, Texas. Kellogg, an Aberdeen native, enlisted in Hoquiam with the Army ambulance corps the preceding December. His army hospital work undoubtedly put him on the front lines of the outbreak and his sudden death was an absolute shock to family and friends. Kellogg’s death and a fresh cascade of wire-service influenza news spurred the Washingtonian to publish in that same issue an urgent warning from Washington’s state health commissioner T.D. Tuttle:

A good deal has been published with regard to the outbreak of Spanish influenza in our army camps and cities, especially in the eastern part of the United States. This disease is spreading very rapidly. We are frequently asked, “What is the probability of an outbreak of this disease in the state of Washington?’” My answer is, the disease is already here. It has not assumed epidemic form as yet. It can be prevented from assuming epidemic form only by the earnest, conscientious and intelligent help of every citizen of the state. It is not yet deemed practical to establish quarantine for this disease. This means of preventing the spread of the disease are so simple that they are usually neglected, but we urge them upon each citizen and ask each man, woman and child in the state as a patriotic duty as an effort to conserve man-power, and woman-power to practice the following simple precautions:

1. Never cough or sneeze without holding a handkerchief before your face.

2. Keep away from public gatherings and public places as much as possible. If necessary for you to go into crowded places get out as soon as possible.

3. If you have a cold, even the most simple cold, keep your face away from other people’s faces. Do not kiss the members of your family and do not breathe directly into other people’s faces.

4. If you have any symptoms whatsoever of grippe stay at home. Do not visit others or permit others to visit you. Keep your windows wide open so that you may have an abundance of fresh air. If you do not promptly recover, or if you feel ill, call your physician.

The above precautions are extremely simple and yet if you will only consider for a moment, you will realize that we are asking you to practice voluntary quarantine instead of trying to put you under quarantine by law. We are asking you as a patriotic service to actually go into quarantine and stay there until all danger of spreading the disease is passed. Should the disease become epidemic in your community, it will be necessary to close all places of public gathering.

Tuttle’s prediction that the virus was already in Washington proved true locally. The very next day news broke that 28-year-old Raleigh Gregg, a pharmacist at the Beckenhauer drug store, “died at his home in Aberdeen of pneumonia, which followed an attack of influenza, the first victim on Grays Harbor of the epidemic which is sweeping over the country. He had been ill only a few days.” Gregg left behind his wife, Lorene, and a young daughter.

Even before the pandemic hit the Harbor in October 1918, local newspaper readers were accustomed to frequent reports of injury and death, especially among young adult males who worked dangerous jobs in the woods and in the mills. In the same Washingtonian issue reporting Gregg’s death, readers also learned of young William Johnson, his hip crushed between two logs while working in a Polson logging camp. They also read about two Spruce Division soldiers, luckier than most. Privates Thompson and Northup recovered from injuries received by a delayed explosion at Camp C-1 on the Polson railroad north of Humptulips and were discharged after spending a week in the military section of the Hoquiam General Hospital.

On October 7 national news from Washington D.C. reached the Harbor that the American Red Cross would begin combating the rapidly spreading epidemic. Women were urged to enroll as nurses, Red Cross hospital supplies were redirected to fight the virus and volunteers were sought to manage households stricken with influenza. Surgeon General Rupert Blue “suggested to all state health officers that schools and places of amusement be closed, and public meetings discontinued where the malady becomes prevalent“ but federal authorities did not issue national orders to American citizens. Instead, much like today, the federal government ceded to state and local authorities to determine what precautionary measures to take.

Two weeks after the first national influenza reports reached Harbor newspapers, Aberdeen city officials closed theaters and banned public meetings. No cases had been reported in Hoquiam, however, so officials determined to maintain business as usual. Hoquiam’s school board took no chances though, closing all public schools on October 7 and ordering all children to refrain from visiting theaters or other public gathering places. Two days later Hoquiam’s Y.M.C.A. closed their gymnasium and the Army ordered the military annex at the Hoquiam General Hospital into full quarantine.

In Part 2, on Saturday, the number of cases grows, a report of an anti-flu serum leaves the hospital beseiged and people on the Harbor take to wearing gauze masks to protect themselves. In November, Germany surrendered, ending World War I, and in the immediate aftermath, restrictions on measures to reduce the spread of flu are lifted. But a devestating second wave would hit, overwhelming the local medical system.

Further reading and a PBS special

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html

Photos, letters, telegrams, government documents and more on the 1918 pandemic. A real treasure trove of extras

for the truly curious.

https://www.pbs.org/video/american-experience-influenza-1918/

A PBS special on American Experience.

https://crosscut.com/2020/04/meet-anthony-fauci-1918-washington

A short biographical sketch of a man who was a key figure in Washington’s response to the pandemic a century ago.

The Hoquiam General Hospital at 6th and K Streets treated hundreds of influenza patients in late 1918.

Construction on the new Hoquiam Red Cross Temple at 8th and L Streets (where City Hall is today) wrapped up in early November, 1918, just as the influenza epidemic’s first wave reached its peak on the Harbor. The Red Cross nationally and locally played an instrumental role in helping fight the spread of influenza.