"The Great Influenza", Spanish Flu, Quarantine and Corona Virus

I picked up some discarded books at the Rock Springs Library on C Street, Rock Springs, Wyoming last fall, included with the books I purchased was John M. Barry's book "The Great Influenza."  I had wanted to research the pandemic because I knew that Jennie Roberts Buxton(30) and  Joseph Jones(19) had died from the flu.  (there may be others, I need to do more research).  On 22 February 2020 I researched the Rock Springs newspapers looking for flu stories.  I searched the newspapers beginning 1 March 1918.  I finished reading through the microfilms on 25 February 2020.  I only searched the front pages of each edition.

It was educational and informative to read about the pandemic as I researched the newspapers because I was able to collaborate the research from the book to the local news where our ancestors lived.  (I still need to do further research  of the affects in Lincoln County, Wyoming and Des Moines, Iowa).  I had read in the book where the public was being warned about spitting on the sidewalks, so when I found the article entitled, "Spitting on Sidewalks Spreads Influenza" published 8 November 1919, I was able to put it into context of history.

During WWI when families of the Rock Springs area received letters from their soldiers, the family would submit them to the Rock Springs Rocket and the newspaper would reprint the letters for the community to read.  While I was researching the pandemic, I recalled reading something about someone being ill in one of the letters printed in the newspaper from one of the soldiers in our family.  I made a note to research that further, and here is what I found in a letter published in the Rock Springs Rocket, 4 October 1918:

"Jim writes from Colorado Springs and he is greatly pleased with the camp.  He says they have fine meals, with chicken and ice cream and cake for Sunday dinner.  He has been laid up with grip (sic) since arriving at the camp but is now better."

Jim is James H. Roberts(24) son of Isaac Roberts(10) and Janet Howie(16).  The last sentence where he states he was laid up with gripe was probably the flu, but many referred to it as gripe as the symptoms were similar.  In fact  I learned from reading "The Great Influenza", many doctors and scientists first diagnosed the Spanish Flu as the gripe.  So the assumption may be made that James H. Roberts contracted the flu when he entered training at the B.S.A.T.C. in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

It may also be presumed that Percy(28), son of Isaac Roberts(10) and Janet Howie(16), while serving overseas, contracted the flu from the following information printed in the Rock Springs Rocket 9 May 1919:

"Mrs. Isaac Roberts recently has received two letters from her son, Percy, who is now in Luxenburg with his regiment, the 108th Ammunition Train.  Percy was for a long time in the hospital, but is now fully recovered."  

Although the article does not specifically mention the flu, Percy was never injured  while in service, and with the flu being so prevalent it is a reasonable assumption and I have the quarantine photograph as a source.

I will keep you posted with updates as I continue to research the pandemic from the Spanish Flu, but I will leave you with one more lovely tidbit from the Rock Springs Rocket with the headline "TOWN TO BE QUARANTINED FOR SPANISH FLU" published 18 October 1918:

While I was researching, the Corona virus began to spread and I thought it a little eerie that I am reading and researching about the Spanish Flu pandemic as the Corona virus grips the world.  Currently, I feel I am living in a three dimensional world:  1-living the Corona virus 2020, 2-reading about world pandemics from a book printed in 2004, and 3-researching and writing about the pandemic of 1918-1920.