We can learn a great deal about ourselves and the present by remembering the past. Here’s the third installment of my chronological account of what happened in Berkeley during the 1918-19 “Spanish Flu” epidemic. The stories are largely drawn from the pages of the Berkeley Daily Gazette, Berkeley’s hometown paper. A pattern of writing about one week at a time seems to have evolved and is suitable; in that era the Gazette published Monday through Saturday and took Sunday off, so there are six daily issues I am reviewing for each installment.
Introduction
Our story is now in the third week of October, 1918. That was the week that official Berkeley started to get serious about the influenza epidemic, which had already arrived and gained a strong foothold. The coverage in this installment starts with the first official pronouncements on the local flu, then news related to the “Great War”, both internationally and locally, more influenza-related stories, and concludes with other news from the time to set the context, and obituaries of local flu-related deaths.
There are a number of stories I’ve copied in their entirety because they go into detailed descriptions of how both government officials and doctors viewed the epidemic. This is a long piece; it is two and a half times longer than the second installment which, itself, was twice as long as the first one.
Part of the reason for the increasing length is that as October, 1918, wore on more material about the influenza epidemic appeared in the newspaper. My intention is to give readers a great deal of raw material about Berkeley and its experiences in 1918, so the length has grown, accordingly. I am also not “reading ahead” much in the newspapers to give myself an omniscient sense of what is coming next; rather, I’m taking the papers one day at a time, just as we are experiencing the present COVID-19 crisis and the health, political, economic, and cultural impacts as they unfold.
Here’s a summary of what you’ll find in this installment:
- the world war continued in Europe and elsewhere, although there were increasing signs that Germany and its allies faced imminent defeat and diplomatic moves were being made by several belligerents to bring about an armistice. At the same time, there was vociferous sentiment in parts of Berkeley, and elsewhere, that the German army needed to be completely defeated before a cease fire;
- Berkeley—at least as portrayed through the eyes of the hometown newspaper—was firmly “patriotic” and Anglophile, and local war-related work continued unabated;
- the number of cases of Spanish influenza rose rapidly in the city, and elsewhere, and locals were waking up to the reality that the city was facing a possible epidemic;
- Berkeleyeans began to die both in and out of the town. For this week I found in the Gazette ten obituaries of those who died from the influenza. The previous week there were six;
- official orders closed many public facilities and limited public gatherings, but intentionally left open public schools, until an abrupt change of heart. Berkeley was a bit ahead of the State of California in this regard. Many locals started to change their routines and avoid or postpone public gatherings, while others apparently continued to go about their regular social events and activities;
- in an unsettling parallel to today’s conditions, medical authorities admitted they didn’t know the exact count of Berkeley influenza cases and didn’t have the resources to accurately update and track the local epidemic.
One interesting aspect of the local situation in October 1918 is that while public officials acted to close theaters, churches, and other gathering places in Berkeley and shut down large events, they specifically and strongly resisted closing public schools up to October 18, arguing that the influenza could be best identified among children through observing them at school and sending those who were ill to their homes. As you’ll see, there was pushback and doubt about this—the Health Officer refers to it when he says he must publicly respond to
“such a clamor for the closing on the schools”—but at least through the third week of the month, city and school authorities stood firm, until the situation rapidly changed.
Another fact to keep in mind is that medical services in 1918 still concentrated at home. You didn’t typically go to a doctor at a hospital or medical building. He (or she, since Berkeley had a number of very good women physicians in that era) came to you at your house. When someone was injured and it was not immediately life threatening, they were often taken home and a doctor called, or taken to a doctor’s private office rather than a hospital. The ill were typically be cared for by family members at home or, if the family was affluent, a visiting or live in nurse might be hired for the duration of the illness or injury. And, as we’ll see, this meant that many deaths, sudden or lingering, and including those from influenza, occurred at home, not in hospitals.
Berkeley in 1918 did have several small hospitals and care facilities—often called infirmaries or sanitariums—but they did not have the same role they have today of being the de-facto place for almost all medical consulting and treatment. Most hospitals, including Alta Bates and Herrick (then the Roosevelt Hospital) were located in large, old, mansions, not purpose built facilities.
There was no health insurance as we understand it today, and while some of the poor might receive free services at charitable hospitals or centers, if you were sick you were typically expected to pay upfront for the service and treatment from medical professionals. The University did have an infirmary, created after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire and overseen by a University Physician, where students could seek medical treatment.
Berkeley did seem to have good medicine for the time. There were many good private practitioners, good physical medical facilities—although small by today’s standards—and, as we’ve seen, University students had a form of public health care in their own campus infirmary. As I’ve written elsewhere, the flood of refugees into Berkeley after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire in San Francisco had galvanized locals to organize and support hospitals that could cope with large scale medical challenges. The University of California also operated excellent medical colleges and teaching hospitals in San Francisco that were still closely connected to Berkeley in that era.
There were also probably some ineffectual or out-of-date practitioners in the local medical community, and some possible charlatanism; one large facility on University Avenue was privately operated as a sanitarium that seemed to promise to cure cancer (and also do it without operations). Many medical “remedies”, advertised with grand claims but of dubious health value, were sold in local stores and by mail order. Although the relatively recent Federal Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 had started to rein in some of the worse abuses, there was still a powerful commercial incentive to make money off sickness with exaggerated or outright false claims for various nostrums and treatments; in this installment we’ll start to see some advertisers responding to the influenza by touting their alleged cures or preventives in the paper.
Although, then as now, the well-to-do consistently got better health care than the poor, there were vigorous efforts by civic-minded citizens to provide medical services for all, including a health center for the poor that had been opened with charitable donations in west Berkeley in 1916.
Finally, a note about nomenclature. The Gazette in 1918 and national media at the time frequently referred to the epidemic as the “Spanish influenza”. Today, this has fallen into vigorous dispute because of the real problem of promoting xenophobia by assigning national or ethnic names to diseases as, for example, Mr. Trump insists on doing by talking about “Chinese Flu” this year.
The name “Spanish influenza” came about, Wikipedia tells us, because “to maintain morale, World War I censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Papers were free to report the epidemic’s effects in neutral Spain…and these stories created a false impression of Spain as especially hard hit. This gave rise to the pandemic’s nickname, ‘Spanish flu’. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify with certainty the pandemic’s geographic origin.”
(It is interesting that the Wikipedia page for “Spanish Flu” carries a note that “it has been requested that the title of this article be changed to 1918 influenza pandemic”; there are hundreds and hundreds of comments posted by Wikipedia editors.) For my articles, however, I’ll continue to directly quote what the 1918 papers said—which was frequently “Spanish Influenza”.
All that said, on to the events of 1918…
Influenza Update
“Health Officer Closes Theaters” was the headline in the October 14, 1918, Gazette. I’ll quote the whole lengthy article here since it seems to be the beginning of official statements in Berkeley on the epidemic, and includes an early directive for how to respond to influenza in the public schools.
“Heath Officer Dr. J.J. Benton today issued orders closing all motion picture houses and other places of amusement, and prohibiting the issuing of dancing permits for the time being to prevent spread of the Spanish influenza. The order does not include the closing schools. Regarding the order, Dr. Benton made the following statement:
“The presence of influenza in Berkeley and the daily increase in the number of cases make it necessary, in my opinion, as health officer, to restrict assemblages as a prophylactic in the spread of the disease. In doing so, however, regard should be had of the actual possibilities of infection and its likelihood. In moving picture shows and like places of amusement and dances the actual promiscuous contact is very intimate and the possibility of contagion imminent. Therefore we think the public health will be greatly conserved by prohibiting the opening of such places of assemblage.
In the case of the schools, however, we have the children under intelligent supervision of the teachers, who have been instructed to note any sneezing or coughing among the pupils and to send these children to their homes and report such cases to the health officer for investigation, and not to allow said children to return until they have received a permit from that officer to do so.
In this way we believe the possibility of spread of the disease will be minimized among the children, whereas, if the schools be closed the children congregate at playgrounds or in the streets for play (as all children do), and communicate the contagion to one another, all control over them is lost and there is no possibility of ascertaining the prevalence of the disease among them.
The people of Berkeley are displaying, and naturally so, considerable anxiety regarding influenza, and I would advise that as individuals they avoid intimate contact with one another, do not congregate more than is absolutely necessary, cough and sneeze into handkerchiefs, and keep the nose and throat as aseptic as possible by the use of alkaline disinfectants, such as glyco thymoline, listerine, cytus, Dobell’s solution, etc.
One fatality was recorded today in the record of Spanish influenza in the city, when Mrs. Lena Higuera, 2400 Dwight Way, wife of Fred Higuera, died. Her death occurred at 4:00 o’clock this morning. The funeral was held this afternoon. It was strictly private.
(Was hers Berkeley’s first death in the rising epidemic? I’m not sure since I haven’t looked backwards in the earlier Gazettes. 2400 Dwight, where Mrs. Higuera died, is at the southeast corner of Dwight and Dana. That property was the long-time site of an older apartment building which burned in the 1980s and was replaced by a condominium complex that still stands today. I’m not sure if the apartment building was there in 1918—my recollection is that it looked like it was built during the great expansion of Berkeley housing in the booming 1920s.)
The article went on:
“There are about sixty cases of Spanish influenza in the city, according to Health Officer Benton. Dr. Benton said he did not believe there was any occasion at this time to warrant closing the schools.
Mrs. Higuera was 24 years old and a native of Utah. The family moved here three years ago from Salt Lake. Besides her husband, she is survived by a baby three years old.
Superintendent of Schools H.B. Wilson has given the following instructions to the principals of the schools of the city, regarding the necessary precaution to prevent the spreading of the Spanish influenza:
You must realize that we shall have to give the most careful attention possible to safeguard our schools against the inroads which are apt to be made upon the attendance by illness from influenza, and particularly by the fear which people have of the spread of this disease. Our health department advises, and I understand that this is the advice of the state department (of health), that we should exercise every possible precaution, but that we should endeavor by all means to keep the schools open.
Let me emphasize the following:
- By all means let the teachers give particular attention to keeping themselves strong and in good physical tone, that they may be able to go about their work with energy and (an) air of confidence. Under no circumstances, unless the conditions force it, show any alarm or uneasiness. This will enable you to maintain the confidence of the children.
- Whenever the temperature will permit it, ventilate freely and keep the children out of doors and in the air in all types of work where possible.
- Without allowing it to be evident, note carefully evidences of the usual symptoms of colds, such as the eyes watering, sneezing, coughing, etc. When these appear quietly excuse the child (and immediately exclude all other members of the family, allowing none of those under any circumstances to return until each presents a health certificate). Report each case to the city health office over the telephone, and likewise to the superintendent’s office, giving the name and address of the child.
- Dr. Benton advises, and I note that various communications from health authorities give similar advice, that just at this time all people should exercise particular care to have the bowels free, that elimination may be good and that is is a good precautionary measure to use as a gargle the following: Listerine, glyco thymoline or a simple solution made from a combination of boric acid, salt and ordinary baking soda and water. As I understand it, a teaspoon of salt should be put with half a teaspoon of soda—all of this to be put in such a quantity of water as to render it weak enough that it is not unpleasant to use either as a gargle or for irrigating purposes.
The Superintendent concluded:
“I need not tell you that I am very anxious, in the interest of keeping the schools open for good work and particularly in the interest of safeguarding the lives of our children, that we should give this health situation our very prompt attention without in any way manifesting any undue alarm over it.” (What are those suggested remedies mentioned by the Health Officer and the Superintendent? I can’t find a reference for “cytus” online. But Glyco thymoline seems to be a mouthwash patented in 1894. It’s apparently still around today—there’s even a company website, which says it’s “the original alkaline mouthwash and gargle,” produced by the Kress & Owen Company. The history section of the website displays a number of early advertisements including one from 1910 that says glycol thymoline was useful for “Catarrhal Conditions, Nasal, Throat, Intestinal, Stomach, Rectal and Utero=Vaginal.” “Dobell’s Solution”, according to dictionary.com is a “a clear, yellowish, aqueous solution of sodium borate, sodium bicarbonate, phenol, and glycerol, used chiefly as an antiseptic and astringent for the nose and throat.” Disclaimer, of course: I’m not trying to promote early 20th century medicine here; rather, I’m simply sharing some historical references.)
October 17 the Gazette provided more information on the schools in an article headlined “Doctors To Visit All Schools Daily”.
“Physicians appointed by Health Officer J.J. Benton will visit each school in the city daily, examining the children, and sending to their homes all who show symptoms of colds or Spanish influenza. Reports from the schools this morning show that a very small number of pupils were afflicted.
Dr. Frank Woolsey, who has been appointed examining physical for the Berkeley high school, reported that out of the 900 students in the high school examined this morning only four seemed to be affected with colds. An examination will be held each day and pupils who are ill or slightly ill will be sent to their homes.
Upon the advice of Dr. J.J. Benton, the board of education decided at a special meeting held yesterday afternoon to not close the schools. Regarding his attitude on the question Dr. Benton said this morning:
‘There has been such a clamor for the closing of the schools that I deem it wise to make a statement as to the policy adopted by the health department of keeping the schools open. This policy is in accordance with the recommendation of Surgeon General Blue and the state board of health of California. While the schools are open the pupils are under observance of intelligent teachers who, upon observing any symptoms of cold, are requested to exclude these children from the school until it is certain they are not showing the promonitory (sic) symptoms of influenza. Accordingly, the physicians of Berkeley have been requested to volunteer their services in this emergency to act as inspectors at each of the schools to determine whether such pupils be allowed to continue at school or be sent home. Those who are sent home will not be allowed to return until the physician in charge of the school attended shall have examined and found the pupil free from all possibility or (sic) transmitting the disease to others’.
And to carry out this arrangement the physicians appointed will make daily visits to the schools assigned them. Following is the list of those physicians and the schools to which they have been appointed.
High School, Dr. Frank Woolsey. Columbus, Dr. J.J. Benton. Emerson. Dr. C.H. Denman. Franklin, Dr. Ruby L. Cunningham. Hawthorne, Dr. J.F. Dibble. Hillside, Jr. E. Edson Kelsey. Jefferson, Dr. H.J. McNulty. John Muir, Dr. E.B. Hoag. Le Conte, Dr. R.P. Meads and Dr. A.L. Adams. Lincoln, Dr. E.G. Whitney. McKinley, Dr. F. Axtell. Oxford, Dr. J.T. McCormac. Washington, Dr. A.J. Sanderson. Whittier, Dr. H.W. Crane. Willard, Dr. J.W. Peck. Garfield, Dr. E.D. Moffett. Burbank, Dr. W.R. Boone. Edison, not appointed. Longfellow, not appointed.
Then, Friday October 18, 1918, there was an abrupt change of policy. The Gazette headlined, “Schools Closed in Effort to Check Spread of Epidemic”.
“The Berkeley public schools were closed this afternoon to check the Spanish influenza epidemic.
The following message was sent to the various schools of the city at noon today buy Superintendent of Schools H.B. Wilson: Since the Oakland schools and all public meetings have been closed upon the urgent request of the United States government, and since San Francisco has closed all meetings, and since it is probable that the state board of health will close everything in the state, the Berkeley schools will close this afternoon.”
That’s a particularly terse announcement that carefully avoids saying anything about Berkeley opinion on the closing; it’s simply a recitation of external reasons why Berkeley was being forced to close. Perhaps we can guess that the Berkeley health officer and/or the superintendent were still not convinced that closing the schools was the best course.
The article also noted, “All schools, theater and public meeting places in San Francisco were closed today by order of the city health board to prevent further spread of the influenza epidemic. The only loophole left in the order is the provision for special permits to hold Liberty Loan gatherings. The resolution was adopted b the board following a report of 743 new influenza cases and fifteen deaths. The total number of cases now reported in San Francisco is 2,867.”
The earlier, October 17, article about the Berkeley schools also outlined the flu situation on the UC campus, Berkeley’s biggest “school” by far:
“About five percent of the student body at the university is ill with the grippe or Spanish influenza, according to the information given out by President Wheeler’s office yesterday.
The report of the students’ infirmary at the university shows that 278 cases termed ‘respiratory’ by the physicians are being cared for either at the university or at designated places outside the university. This report indicates a decrease of eleven cases from the number reported the day previous. The university physicians report that the disease seems to be well under control and that the present outlook would indicate that there is little chance of a general epidemic at the university community. There is an estimated total of 75 additional cases among non-military students who are at their homes or are being cared for by other agencies than the university.
Cases are distributed as follows: In barracks “C” of the students’ army training corps there are 149 cases among members of the SATC and six cases among members of the naval unit. In the former building itself there are seven cases among members of the SATC, nine among cadets of the school of military aeronautics, six non-military male students, and twelve women students. At the Zeta Psi house, which has been taken over by the university for hospital purposes, there are 21 cases among members of the SATC and nineteen cadets from the school of military aeronautics. Thirty-seven members of the naval unit are afflicted, ten of whom have been lodged in Merritt hospital by the navy physicians. The remaining 27 are in their homes int he bay region, by permission of their offices.
According to the physicians in charge at the university, the cases are not severe. Some six or seven cases of pneumonia have resulted, but there of these being in any way severe.”
October 17, 1918, the Gazette reported that “the quarantine that exists on the school of military aeronautics has been particularly irksome to the graduates. Squadron 60 missed the usual ten-day furlough after graduation, and squadrons 58 and 59 returned from their furloughs only to be held up from proceeding to flying fields by the same influenza quarantine.
The YMCA, however, is seeking to offset somewhat the disappointment due to quarantine conditions. Wheeler Hall has been put at the disposal of the aviation school and the “Y” is putting on an entertainment each evening this week.
On Monday Charles Bowman Hutchins delighted the members of the squadrons 58 and 60 with his program of bird pictures drawn in crayon the screen as he talked, illustrated by the wonderful invitations of bird calls and whistling. Miss Weaver gave selections on the Irish harp. A Douglas Fairbanks picture, ‘The Americano’, was given Tuesday evening, and last evening the Garnet Holme players presented a one act playlet. These programs will be continued the rest of the week for the men kept in barracks by the quarantine.”
(This is sort of astonishing. Entire barracks of soldiers on campus had been quarantined from the flu. However, each evening, they were let out and allowed to gather in large numbers in the largest classroom on the campus which had been used during the day by regular students, some of whom probably had the flu.)
Despite the closure of Berkeley’s commercial places of amusement, the Gazette reported October 14, the same day, that Neptune Beach “the big Alameda amusement park was crowded from noon until late in the evening. Two thrilling finishes were seen in the girls’ and men’s races and the big crowded that lined the (swimming) tank and shore got full value of their trouble in attending. The beautiful weather has brought back crowds of miid-summer proportions…” Three days later there was another mention of Neptune Beach. “Neptune Beach continues to draw big crowds and the management continues to offer the best of entertainment.”
And,of course, many Berkeleyeans probably went to Neptune Beach, compromising the Berkeley ban on large entertainment gatherings.
(This feels reminiscent of today, when some cities are ‘sheltering in place’ while Spring Break revelers crowd some beaches in Florida. and, even in the Bay Area, people flocked to beaches and parks and didn’t always observe ‘social distancing’.)
And, notwithstanding a warning the same day, October 14, from Berkeley’s Health Officer against the possibility of the spread of influenza on playgrounds, and the subsequent inability to track down the source(s) Berkeley’s children were being organized for a national “Patriotic Play Week and Recreation Drive” starting October 21, 1918. “Every evening in the intermediate schools, programs under the direction of Superintendent Gustavus Schneider and his play directors will be given in which the children will have a part and the parents are to join, (there will) be community play nights, and patriotic features will be strong on every program. Thursday evening there will a large mass meeting in the high school auditorium, the program being planned for that evening to present some features never seen in Berkeley.”
The week would end with a city-wide gathering of school children from every playground for exercises and a pageant “on the Civic Center playground immediately opposite the high school. All in all, the paper said, it would be “the greatest week of play in the life of the city.”
The next flu shoe dropped October 15, 1918 and it had considerable import. “Churches Closed By Health Order”, the Gazette headlined.
“An order closing all meetings in Berkeley was issued this morning by Dr. J.J. Benton, health officer. The order is sweeping in its effect and will close all meetings of every kind. Only the public schools and private schools and the university may remain open, according to Dr. Benton.
All churches and church meetings will come under the ban.
Fourteen new cases of Spanish influenza were reported to the health authorities yesterday, which is the largest number of cases to be reported in any single day. The number of cases in Berkeley today, including those at the university, are close to 150, although the actual number had not been checked.
Warning against all kinds of congregations have been issued. Physicians say the disease is not highly contagious, unless one comes in contact with another’s breath.
Following the suggestions of Mayor Irving that all public gatherings be avoided, Gustavus Schneider, superintendent of playgrounds in Berkeley, has decided to postpone for a month the Week of Play which was scheduled for next week.
‘President Wheeler of the University of California issued an order last night postponing for an indefinite period all gatherings in the campus buiildings, other than regular class meetings.
The concert of the Berkeley Musical association, which was to have bene held in Harmon gymnasium this evening, is thereby postponed, as is also the lecture on “Democracy vs. Autocracy,” by Dr Charles Mills Gayley, also announced for this evening.
No public meetings may be held other than open-air gatherings in the Hearst Greek Theater.”
The Second Church of Christ, Scientist, announced it would hold an outdoor service “on the church lot, Oxford street, between Virginia and Heart Avenue” on October 16, to comply with the prohibition on indoor church services. “The services are held with the consent of the board of health.”
October 16, 1918, “At a meeting of the Board of Education at 1 o’clock this afternoon, it was decided not to close the public schools on account of the epidemic. Dr. J.J. Benton addressed the board, advising against closing the schools. He said the spread of the disease could be better prevented with the schools open, than if they were closed. He said physicians would visit the various schools each day and examine the students and any showing symptoms would be sent home.” A committee was appointed “to watch the situation closely and make recommendations from day to day.”
October 16, 1918, several local doctors responded to an appeal from the United States Public Health service for doctors willing to serve anywhere in California, Nevada and Arizona to help combat the flu. Five definitely said they would go, and “other physicians have signified their willingness to go if conditions become serious and if they are not needed at home.” They would be paid $200 a month and up to $4 a day for expenses.
In San Francisco, as of October 15, the number of reported influenza cases increased 378 in 24 hours, the evening Gazette issue reported. “All private hospitals were asked to refuse minor cases so that nurses can be released to combat the influenza. All patients of the San Francisco hospital are to be moved out and the institution used for isolation of influenza alone. Dance halls will probably be closed within the next 24 hours.”
All civilians “except those having business there” were barred from entering the San Francisco Presidio then, of course, a major military base not a National Park.
In New York there were 4,217 new cases recorded in one day, and 222 deaths.
October 15 “in order to limit the spread of Spanish influenza and keep it from making still further inroads on the nation’s war production the U.S. public health service under authority of the resolution just passed by Congress appropriating $1,000,000 to combat the disease has inaugurated a nation-wide campaign of public health education in co-operation with state and local health officers to teach the people of this country how to safeguard their health, keep themselves physically fit, and so help maintain the high standards of war production attained within the last few months.”
The Surgeon General had issued these recommendations.
“The disease now spreading over this country is highly catching and may invade your community and attack you and your family unless you are very careful. Influenza is a crowd disease. Therefore keep out of crowds as much as possible. Influenza probably spreads mostly buy inhaling some of the tiny droplets of germ-laden mucus sprayed into the air when ignorant or careless persons sneeze or cough without using a handkerchief. Therefore cover up each cough and sneeze. Influenza is probably spread also by the filthy habit of spitting on sidewalks, streetcars and other public places. Therefore do not spit on the floor or sidewalks. Influenza is probably spread also by the use of common drinking cups and the use of common towels in public places. Therefore shun common drinking cups and the roller towel in public places. If you feel sick and believe you have “Spanish” influenza, go to bed and send for the doctor. This is important. Don’t get up too soon, your heart feels as tired as your legs and needs rest. In all health matters follow your doctor’s advice, and obey the regulations of your local and state health office. All that has been said above about “Spanish” influenza is true also of colds, bronchitis, pneumonia and tuberculosis. Do your part to keep them away.”
The acting surgeon general of the army issued a similar, but more succinct, list: “avoid needless crowding—influenza is a crowd disease. Smother your coughs and sneezes—others do not want the germs which you would throw away. Your nose, not your mouth, was made to breath through—get the habit. Remember the three C’s—a clean mouth, clean skin, and clean clothes. Try to keep cool when you walk and warm when you ride and sleep. Open the windows—always at home at night; at the office when practicable. Food will win the war if you give it a chance—help by choosing and chewing food well.”
Despite the warnings about public gatherings, next to this article in the Gazette was a column thick with event announcements planned by local clubs that day or week. The Berkeley Piano Club was having a concert featuring Celtic and Italian songs. The Etude Club had a successful concert event. Mrs. William Colby was scheduled to address the Whittier (School) PTA about “the several different amendments to be voted on at the next election.” “All the mothers interested in their children and the school should make a special effort to attend these meetings.”
Charles Keeler was going to speak to the Plymouth Women’s Club about “The Creative Spirit in Child Education”, chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the Confederacy were scheduled to meet in private homes, and the McKinley (School) Mothers’ Club was planning a meeting with “an illustrated lecture on ‘Children’s Teeth’,” as well as entertainment by sixth grade students.
Only two events were announced as postponed: the Garfield PTA meeting; an “Old Folks Concert” scheduled for the Town and Gown Club on October 25. The latter “has been postponed on account of the Spanish influenza”, the paper noted.
The next day, however, four events including the DAR meeting, were announced as postponed. The warnings against gatherings were spreading and, in at least some cases, being heeded.
By Saturday, October 19, the cancellations were rolling in. The Berkeley Defense Corps postponed its regular meeting at its headquarters, “The Dugout” on Allston Way downtown. The Berkeley Intermediate High School Teachers Association postponed a meeting at the Berkeley tennis club “until further notice.” The University cancelled the Sunday “Half Hour of Music” at the Greek Theatre, a popular—and free—event for locals. “The decision is in line with the university policy of discouraging public gatherings as a precautionary measure against the spread of Spanish influenza.”
And the University Physician, Captain R.T. Legge, took to his bed at home on Benvenue Avenue “suffering from overwork and a severe cold.”
San Francisco’s health officer issued flu recommendations October 16. He noted “immunity to influenza is very slight; in fact, one attack seems to render the person susceptible to subsequent attacks…males and the more robust in the community are, seemingly, more susceptible, perhaps on account of greater exposure and indifference to the first effects of the disease.” “Prevention of the spread of this disease is not difficult if people will take the subject seriously, not only as individuals, but collectively enforce aggressive measures.”
Despite the containment efforts, Berkeley’s caseload continued to rapidly grow. Friday, October 18, 1918 Dr. Benton announced “the number of Spanish influenza cases in Berkeley are on the increase. Yesterday, 73 new cases were reported. Figures showing the total number of cases in the city have not been compiled, it was said, because of inability to secure assistance. A great number of cases have been reported, it was said, but there has been no one to check them up to determine whether the disease was actually…” (And there the article ends, in mid-sentence. Someone on the newspaper layout and typesetting staff made an error.)
In the same paper the Berkeley Red Cross chapter made an “urgent appeal for bedding for sick. (The organization) needs the following articles for its influenza cases in the barracks and the rest of Berkeley: sheets, pillow cases, atomizers, bath robes, bath towels, blankets, women’s and children’s nightgowns. This call is most urgent and any person able to donate any of these articles has been asked to bring them at once to headquarters, Oxford and Allston streets, which for the present is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Sunday.”
The next day, October 19, the local Red Cross announced that “on account of the great amount of emergency work undertaken by the local Red Cross at the present time, citizens who wish influenza masks are requested to make their own according to the following directions issues by the Surgical Dressing department.”
The Hillside Club Red Cross Auxiliary was already busy with an event to sew 200 masks “to be worn by those nurses in Spanish influenza cases” and promised that when volunteers showed up at the Club building to help, “as far as possible workers will be provided with masks to wear while working.”
The Red Cross specifications for gauze masks were as follows:
“From gauze 56 inches, cut 43 inches on the selvage; Divide into strips 9 inches wide; fold each strip into halves, ten into thirds making masks 6 thicknesses of gauze; turn in all four edges and stitch all four sides to hold firm (Selvage need not be turned in, can be sewed on the sewing machine or by hand.); Put three pleats in the 7 inch ends, the lower pleats deeper than the other two, to allow for the chin; attach a tape 11 inches long to each of the lower corners and one 13 inches long to each of the upper corners; place a black thread in the center of the mask to designate the outside.”
October 19, a front page article said “Nearly fifty new cases of influenza were reported to the local health office yesterday No total of the number of cases in the city is yet available. The state board of health yesterday ordered all moving picture houses and other theaters throughout the state closed as a precautionary measure against the spread of influenza.
The state board, however, recommended against closing churches and schools. In regard to the latter, the board said: ‘In the opinion of the state board of health, schools should be kept open whenever the teachers can be relied upon to immediately exclude any child appearing with symptoms of any sort of illness. The well children in schools kept open in this manner will be much safer from contagion than if the schools were closed and they were free to associate on the streets. Churches, likewise, should not be required to close.”
The third week in October also saw some entrepreneurs waking up to the possibility of making money from flu remedies.
The October 18, 1918 Gazette carried an advertisement that started out, “The constant daily increase of Spanish influenza reported by local physicians shows clearly that many people are failing to take the precautions necessary to avoid infection. For, while influenza, after its development, is sometimes difficult to cure, it is an easily preventable disease.”
The ad went on to recommend purchase of “famous Hyomei Inhaling outfits consisting of a bottle of the pure Oil of Hyomei and a little vest-pocket, hard rubber inhaling device…(it) is sold by druggists everywhere. Hundreds of people in Berkeley and vicinity keep a Hyomei outfit with inhaler on the bathroom shelf for regular winter use…If you haven’t one, go to the nearest drug store and get one today. It is the duty of every person, not only for his own sake but for the community to do all in his power to prevent further spread of this epidemic and to stamp it out.”
(A bit of online research indicates that this was a patent medicine with a 12% alcohol content that was marketed as a cure for catarrh, i.e. heavy mucus in the nose or throat.)
And elsewhere in the paper that same day there was a small United Press dispatch. “Chicago. Members of the Chicago Medical Society were discussing today claims advanced by Dr. Louis J. Pint that diphtheria antitoxin is an absolute remedy for so-called influenza.”
War News
“Crushing defeat of Germans Demanded” was a headline out of Washington October 14, 1918. An adjacent article noted that the government of Turkey had expressed acceptance of President Woodrow Wilson’s “14 Points” and asked for an armistice.
An Allied offensive in Belgium took back ten towns along a 35 mile front. By the end of the week an estimated 400 square miles of the occupied nation had been liberated. On October 17, the news reported a major breakthrough on the front, and the same day British naval forces landed and occupied the German submarine base at Ostend.
German troops were reported being withdrawn from Finland and the German Chancellor, Prince Maximilian, had reportedly resigned.
By the end of the week, it appeared that a pause to the war might be near. October 18 the United Press reported a parcel of warfront news. Austria was apparently “evacuating occupied territories”, and German U-boats attacking Allied shipping in the Atlantic had been ordered back to their bases.
Homefront
Berkeley’s strenuous efforts to meet and exceed its Fourth Liberty Loan goal might earn the city the honor of having a ship named for it, the Gazette reported October 14. By that date Berkeleyeans had purchased bonds worth $112,000 over the campaign goal. 17,417 citizens had made purchases by noon on October 13.
Chairman W.F. Morrish of the Liberty Loan Committee told the paper “there is every indication that a ship bearing the name ‘Berkeley’,” would be built by the Federal government. “This city still leads all others in the ship-naming contest,according to Morrish.” Morrish had previously implied that a Navy warship would bear the name Berkeley if sufficient funds were raised.
(Did this happen? I believe so. In late 1919 the “City of Berkeley” was completed. It was a cargo ship, not a warship, and had been built with Federal funding to expand the United States merchant marine to provide a strategic reserve of American-controlled carrying capacity. It was launched with considerable hoopla and made a first voyage in 1920 transporting grain from California’s Central Valley to the East Coast.)
On the UC campus, soon to be ravaged by influenza, a series of nine public lectures in the recently completed Wheeler Auditorium was announced. They would focus on “The Ideals of the Present War”. The first lecture, on Tuesday, October 14, 1918 would be given by Charles Mills Gayley, chair of the Department of English and one of Berkeley’s most ardent and eloquent Anglophiles. (And yes, Gayley Road that passes the front of the Greek Theatre where he used to give his “Great Books” lectures, is named for him.)
As you’ve read above, the lectures were almost immediately cancelled because of the flu.
A headline in the October 14 Gazette read, “Schoolmasters are Opposed to Peace”. It referred to a resolution by the Schoolmasters’ Club of California sent to President Wilson opposing an armistice “until the German army is completely defeated and destroyed.” (It’s unclear from the short article whether this Club was an association of teachers, or owners or administrators of schools.)
C.O. Schnoor, a realtor living at 1600 Todd Street “was rescued last night from a mob of infuriated citizens who threatened to lynch him”, the Gazette reported October 15. He had been accused by Fred Michelson of 1728 Alcatraz Avenue of trying to tear down a Liberty Loan poster. Schnoor said a corner of the poster had been hanging loose and it was his practice to remove loose or damaged posters.
Nonetheless, Schnoor was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace. He was held on $1,000 bond.
October 17, Carl C. Thomsen, 2708 Dana Street, “was carried two blocks through Emeryville…and dunked in the bay. Breathing heavily from the scare, and half drowned, he was finally released by the two hundred fellow workers who had dunked him. The demonstration against Thomsen was started by fellow employees at the Emeryville branch of the Standard Oil company, who claimed he had refused to purchase a Liberty Bond. Following his ducking Thomsen hastened to the bank and purchased a bond while the dunking party returned to work with a 100 percent card. Thomsen, assistant clerk at the plant, has been employed there a year. During that period the other workers claim he aroused their ire by saying he would like to see more Germans in the United States…According to the records of the Liberty Loan committee, Thomsen purchased bonds during the third bond campaign.”
The October 17, 1918, Gazette reported that “the Bethany Swedish Lutheran church of this city has established a record for patriotism, more than 25 percent of its membership now being in the service of the country, either in France or in camps in this country…Although most of the members of the church are foreign born, they are thoroughly American in spirit.”
Berkeley Related Deaths from the Flu
(Since many flu-related deaths of Berkeley residents or Berkeleyeans living elsewhere were individually reported in the pages of the Gazette during the 1918-19 influenza epidemic, I’ve decided to transcribe their brief obituaries when I find them so these individuals are not lost to history. The date at the end of each entry is the date the item ran in the Gazette. I have included deaths from pneumonia since it was often a complication caused by the flu, and since there were not tests in that era to specifically detect infection by a particular type of influenza. I am also not certain that the newspapers of the time didn’t periodically opt for calling a fatal illness by a term less fraught that “Spanish flu”.)
Besides Mrs. Higuera, reported above, here are the names from the week:
“Miss Alice Broughton, trained nurse, died this morning at the home of her brother, Coleman R. Broughton, 2428 Russell Street, of pneumonia, following an attack of Spanish influenza.
Miss Broughton was called to nurse a case of Spanish influenza and within a few days seven members of the family were stricken. The cook and all of the help in the home deserted her and she remained, caring for the seven patients until stricken herself.
For the last eight years Miss Broughton had made her home in this city. She was a woman of charming character traits which won for her the respect and admiration of all who knew her.
Miss. Broughton was a native of this state and was thirty-nine years of age. She was a graduate nurse of the Good Samaritan hospital in Los Angeles.
Miss Broughton was the daughter of the late R.J. Broughton, a prominent resident of Santa Barbara. She is survived by her mother, Mrs. R.J. Broughton, of this city; two brothers, Coleman R. and Clarence T. Broughton, also of this city, and one sister, Mrs. Frank E. Ely of Woodland.” (October 15, 1918).
“News had reached here of the death of Lieutenant Edwin McLaren Busser, which occurred at Camp Meade, Maryland, Monday. His death was caused by pneumonia, which followed an attack of Spanish influenza. Lieutenant Busser’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Busser, formerly of Regent Street, this city, were with him during his last illness. According to word received by Busser’s sister, Mrs. H.W. Whitworth of Oakland, this morning, Mr. and Mrs. Busser arrived at Camp Meade last Thursday for a visit with their son,who was recovering from an attack of grippe.They were told upon arriving that he was on the drill field, and going there they found that he had been stricken while at drill and returned to the hospital. Spanish influenza was quickly followed by pneumonia and his death occurred four days later.
Lieutenant Busser was a graduate of the Harvard Military School of Los Angeles and was a member of the class of 1920 of the university. He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, was affiliated with the Occidental Masonic Lodge of San Francisco, and was a member of St. Mark’s Episcopal church, this city.
In his youth, he was a member of the boy choir at St. Mark’s Episcopal church, and was a member of the first troop of Boy Scouts organized here. He attended the second officers’ training school at the presidio and, following his graduation, was made lieutenant in the 63rd infantry, and was a provisional lieutenant in the regular army.
Lieutenant Busser is survived by his parents and three sisters . They are Mrs. H.W. Whit worth of Oakland, graduate of the university in 1906; Mrs. C.H. Phillips of Los Angeles and Mrs. William King of Honolulu. Internment will take place in Arlington National cemetery at Washington, D.C.” (Wednesday, October 16, 1918)
“Mrs. Elizabeth Brown, wife of Claude Brown, both well known in University circles, died yesterday at the home of her mother, Mrs. J.A. Smilie, 825 Fallon Street, of pneumonia. Mrs. Brown was a former university student and was a member of the Alpha Thi sorority. Her marriage took place about a year ago. Mrs. Brown spent this summer in San Diego, while her husband was stationed at Camp Kearny. When he was sent east, she went to Oakland, and has been at the home of her mother. Brown was home from the east on a furlough during his wife’s illness.” (October 16, 1918).
“Mrs. Isabel Ashley Johnstone, wife of Rolph S. Johnson of Honolulu, died yesterday at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Ashley, 1521 Walnut Street, after a week’s illness of pneumonia, following Spanish influenza. Mrs. Johnstone and her husband arrived here two weeks ago from the north, where they had been spending a few weeks, and were guests of her parents.
Mrs. Johnson was well known here. She attended the university a dozen or so years ago, and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. She was a native of Honolulu, 34 years of age, and came here with her parents to attend the university. Since her marriage she had resided in the islands.
Mrs. Johnstone is survived by her husband, Ralph S. Johnstone, and two young sons, Wilson and Ernest. The children are in Honolulu. She also leaves her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Ashley; three sisters, Catherine, Dorothy and Anna Ashley of this city, and two brothers, George and John Ashley of Honolulu.
Johnstone will take the body of his wife back to Honolulu, where funeral services will be held and interment will be made.” (Thursday, October 17, 1918.)
“Carl Goll Petsch, a senior at the University, died about noon today at the home of his parents Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Petsch , 2604 Dana Street, of pneumonia, following Spanish influenza. Petsch was doing special work in chemistry at the university and was employed as instructor of the chemistry department. His death was the second from this department in two days. Kenneth Henry Coates, a special chemistry student, also 21 years of age, succumbing to the disease yesterday.
Petsch was born in Los Angeles, his parents coming here three years ago to live while he attended the university. He was the only child. Arrangements have not been made or the funeral services.” (Friday, October 18, 1918.)
Mrs. Gertrude Matzler, wife of Frank Matzler, died this morning at the family home, 1326 Peralta Avenue, following a brief illness of pneumonia. Mrs. Metzler was twenty-eight years of age and had been a resident of this city for the last six years. She is survived by her husband, and a five months old son. She also leaves her parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. Timm and a number of brothers and sisters.” (Friday, October 18, 1918.)
“Volunteering his services as a nurse during the Spanish influenza epidemic at Camp Beauregard, La., Richard Boss of this city, a member of Company H., twenty-ninth infantry, was stricken with the disease in three days time, and in another three days passed away. His body arrived in Berkeley this morning, accompanied by Sergeant Michael Fennell, and funeral services were conducted at Sunset View cemetery this afternoon.
Mrs. Boss and three year old son, whom his father had never seen, resident (sic) at 2418 Tenth Street. Boss has served in the regular army for a number of years. He was sent to Panama shortly before his son’s birth. Efforts were made by his wife to get transportation to Panama to visit him, but were unsuccessful. Since the outbreak of the war, Boss was sent to Camp Beauregard, La. He was 28 years of age.” (Friday, October 16, 1918).
“Dr. Rushmer Christianson of the U.S. Navy died at Vallejo yesterday of Spanish influenza following an illness of a few days, according to word received here early this morning. Dr. Christianson and his bride of a few months, who was Miss. Ruth Schaeffer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D.R. Schaeffer of 1646 Walnut street, have been living at Vallejo where Dr. Christianson was engaged in research work in medicine for the government. Dr. Chistianson was educated in the east. The body was brought to this city this afternoon for burial.” (October 19, 1918).
“Eugenia Thayer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Claudius Thayer, wealth residents of Salem, Oregon, died yesterday at the Hotel Claremont of Spanish influenza. Miss Thayer was stricken three days before, and died a few hours before the arrival of her fiance (sic), Edward Van Knoutt, a warrant officer in the Navy, who is home on furlough. Van Knoutt arrived in Oakland yesterday after seeing overseas naval service. Miss Thayer was twenty-one years of age and was attending the university. Funeral services will be held at Salem, Ore.” (October 19, 1918).
Other Berkeley news
Berkeleyeans had been protesting actions by the private East Bay Water Company which had assigned multiple service charges to buildings with more than one residential unit. October 15, 1918, the City Attorney received a ruling from the State Railroad Commission that the company “could not legally impose more than one service charge for each meter regardless of the number of flats or apartments served by such meter.” Excess charges were ordered refunded.
(Why did a decision about water come from the Railroad Commission? Because that body had charge of regulating utilities in California. There had been a major struggle during the Progressive era in the state to bring the railroads under effective public regulation. The Railroad Commission later became the state Public Utilities Commission.)
A “clever forger” had hidden in plain sight among the ranks of the Student Army Training Corps on the UC campus, the paper said October 16. He had shown up with apparently forged recommendations and documents indicating he was a British airman, and was duly enrolled. He then charmed and hook-winked some well to do locals and started passing bad checks at local banks and businesses, finally disappearing with approximately $1,000.
In early October, 1918, the City Council raised garbage rates in much of Berkeley as reported in my last essay. The garbage workers were quick to respond, asking for the rates to be increased more. “Minimum rates in the balance of the city are too low, they say”, the Gazette reported October 15.
Elsewhere in the nation:
“The most disastrous fires in the history of Minnesota” had killed at least 500 people in the vicinity of Duluth a October 14, 1918 story reported. Numerous small towns and settlements were burned by the fires which started in areas of peat “75 miles east of Duluth”. The conflagration burned “directly east”. “Other fires, originating in the north, encircled the head of Lake Superior.”
“Residents of those cities hurried east for refuge. Some were reported overtaken in automobiles. Trains, jammed to capacity, ran terrifying races with the fires leaping through adjoining timberlands. At Moose Lake, Minn., a score of people stood neck-deep int he lake overnight, fighting the flying brands…Thrilling tales were told here today of the heroism of members of the motor reserve corps and the home guards, who drove automobile trucks loaded with burned and suffering survivors along flamed-licked roads.”
The next day the news reports said the death toll might grow to 800 or more and 29 “towns and villages were wiped out or partially destroyed.”
The troop transport American, formerly the German liner Amerika, sank at her pier at Hoboken, New Jersey, on October 15, 1918. The location was simply reported in the press as “an Atlantic port”, presumably because of wartime censorship. The vessel had already made ten voyages to Europe carrying troops. In addition to the crew some 500 soldiers bound for France who had already boarded the ship managed to escape, jumping to the dock, adjacent barges, or into the harbor. Somehow water had started flooding through open ports on one side—many of them still open for coal loading, or to air out the fumigated interior—and the ship rapidly heeled over and sank at her moorings (the exact cause is still unknown today). Four soldiers and two sailors drowned. (The ship would be quickly re-floated and refurbished, and sail again to bring troops back from France in early 1919.)
I was amused to see a tiny Gazette headline on October 19 that read, “Gives Tin-foil for Use of Government.” For a moment I wondered what it referred to—perhaps anti-alien hats for public officials, donated by a lunatic? Alas, it was simply a mention that the Wrigley company had decided to temporarily wrap Juicy Fruit gum in waxed pink paper instead of foil, so the metallic material could be used for war purposes.
