The Spanish Flu was a major epidemic that affected the entire United States. Striking the American population almost overnight, the Spanish Flu raged indiscriminately attacking the heartland. Like many, Wichitans were unprepared  to handle this epidemic.  The disease spread from a Call Field airman and soon affected hundreds.   The amount of sick civilians in Wichita Falls quickly overwhelmed  the new  General Hospital. Government Buildings such as the courthouse were used to house the ill.

FUN FACT: Both authors, Joseph Hadwal and Laura Galbraith, became mysteriously ill while gathering research over the Spanish Flu. Please proceed with caution. 

The Spanish flu was an influenza pandemic which massacred global populations. Researchers estimate that “between 20 million and 25 million people” worldwide were “claimed by the Spanish flu.”[1] Many names are used to describe this pandemic. Such labels include La Grippe espagnole, the Spanish Lady, and the Purple Death. Despite the prevalent association between Spain and the disease, this flu did not originate from the Iberian Peninsula.[2] Medical researcher Radusin argues that association between the pandemic and Spain was “due to the complex war circumstances.”[3] Allied and Axis powers both engaged in censorship. Spain, a neutral power, possessed a greater freedom of press which and first reported on this deadly flu. [4] This epidemic first headlined in “Madrid’s ABC newspaper” on May 22, 1918. [5] The war powers did not emphasis the flu’s rapid expansion. Radusin states that “only favorable reports about the reduction in the number of deaths…were highlighted.”[6] The origins of the Spanish flu remain debatable. Researchers outline that this pandemic might have originated from China, the British Military Camps and even Haskell, Kansas. However, many researchers agree that the Spanish Flu crossed a “species barrier” and can be defined in three distinct waves.[7] The first wave occurred in spring of 1918. The second and third waves terrorized global populations respectively in the fall and winter of 1918. The second and third waves “caused the majority of deaths.”[8] The Spanish flu first appeared in Wichita Falls during the second wave. Newspaper sources suggest that the flu epidemic originated from “a newly arrived squadron from Cruthers Field in Fort Worth” in October of 1918. [9] Daily life was interrupted as city services were shut down to avoid further infection. Quarantines were implemented by the city and the Call Field Aviation Base. Overall, the epidemic lasted only for a few months and caused relatively few deaths.

The first reported case of the flu was diagnosed by the Call Field Health Officer, Major Curtis Atkinson.  On September 29, 1918 Corporal Greenwald “was taken ill on a train” to Oklahoma.[10] Medical experts such as Major Atkinson and the City Health Officer, M.A. Beckman, believed that they “could contain the flu.” Beckman stated that the “unseasonably warm weather” would prevent the spreading of disease.[11]  Educators were ordered to douse the schoolroom floors “with a five percent solution of carbolic acid” and that “furniture [should] be dusted with a mixture of kerosene and turpentine.”[12] However, these measures were ineffective to prevent the epidemic that soon arrived. On October fourth, “only five cases” of Spanish flu had been reported. However, by October seventh, 100 cases were recorded and “approximately 1,000 persons” were believed to be infected by October eleventh.[13] The first death of a civilian occurred on October eighth, which prompted “Wichita Falls physicians to plan a course of action.” [14] The “movie theaters, the oil [stock] exchange and schools” were closed.[15] Call Field also underwent “two weeks of confinement.”[16] Corporal Phillip T. Whittle was the first Call Field casualty of the Spanish Flu on October twelfth.[17] Major Atkinson states that “the boys began to come down very rapidly.”[18]

Spanish flu was characterized by two stages. Patients initially reported “aching joints, dry cough, running nose and possible diarrhea.”[19] The more lethal second stage was defined by the onset of pneumonia. The bacteria would take advantage of the weakened immune system caused by the initial virus. The pneumonia “caused people to turn blue from the lack of oxygen and cough up purulent, bloody sputum.” [20] Such discoloration earned the Spanish Flu the synonym of the “purple death.” The cyanosis usually started around the patient’s ears which then spread “all over until it [was] hard to distinguish the coloured men from the white.”[21] The Wichita Falls city officials distributed pamphlets from the United States Public Health Service which outlined these symptoms. The Spanish flu was stated to resemble “a very contagious kind of “cold” accompanied by fever, pains in the head…or other parts of the body.”[22]   The flyer stated that the fever causes the patient to experience a “temperature rise to 100 to 104” and that the “eyelids may be slightly bloodshot.” The pamphlet also described the Spanish flu as a bacterial infection called “Pfeiffer’s bacillus.”[23] Spanish Flu however, was a viral infection.  This misunderstanding arguably created additional difficulties in engineering an effective vaccine due to the different structures of bacteria and viruses. In addition, the flyer warned against dust and “careless people who spit on the floor” and suggested “to breathe as much pure air as possible.” Such ambiguous advice evidenced the heightened concern and the anxiety expressed by public health officials. This apprehension could be attributed to the helplessness health workers experienced trying to combat the indiscriminate progression of the Spanish Flu. The disease unusually affected most “healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 40.” [24] Typically, influenza affects mostly the elderly and younger children.[25] Many researchers’ today hypothesize that the unusual lethalness of the Spanish Flu was due to the virus’s unique ability to turn “the body’s immune system against itself.”[26]

The rapid increase of Spanish Flu cases caused the Wichita Falls General Hospital to become overcrowded. The general hospital had just been built and was considered a “modern [institution] of 30 beds.”[27] Physicians were given “more calls than what they could answer.”[28] This shortage of healthcare workers prompted city officials to call for members of the community with healthcare experience “to report to…physician[s]” to help administrate healthcare.[29] Pneumonia cases placed additional strain on healthcare resources. Physicians worked “day and night, almost without rest” in crowded facilities.[30] Medical science of the time noted the correlation between overcrowding and the “health danger” posed by pneumonia.[31]  Judge Harris volunteered use of “the upper floors of the courthouse” to place “influenza victims.”[32] The jury rooms were estimated to fit “as many as twenty-five beds” and were connected to “[l]arge bath rooms with hot and cold water.”[33] Several courthouse workers objected to the use of the building as an additional healthcare facility. Employees declared they “would stay away from the courthouse while the patients were there.”[34] However, physicians successfully argued that there would be “no more danger to the workers there than there would be” on the streets “where contact with numbers of people is likely.”[35] The employees’ concerns were not unfounded. The Spanish flu raged indiscriminately throughout North Texas. The 1918 oil boom drew many new residents to Wichita County. These entrepreneurs however lived in “tents and shacks” due to a housing shortage.[36] The overcrowding was believed to have exacerbated the transmission of the Spanish flu. If more houses had been built, “it would have been less difficult to handle the situation.”[37] Wichita County required an additional “500 to 1,000 new homes” to satisfy the shortage. [38] Burkburnett, the epicenter of the Wichita County oil boom, was reported to be “at a standstill on account of the epidemic.”[39] Despite the millions of dollars that awaited to be tapped, the only economic activity that occurred was the sale of “bottled drinks….at soft-drink stands.”[40]

Despite these poor conditions, the flu epidemic began dissipating by late October. After two weeks of confinement, Call Field was reported to be “anxiously…awaiting the lifting of the quarantine.”[41] The influenza was “confined to the barracks.”[42] Major Atkinson stated that “conditions [were] very favorable at the camp” and that the “pneumonia patients [were] doing well.” [43] The city quarantine was lifted by City Health Officials on October 27, 1918. Church services were expected to “be held in all churches Sunday and the motion picture theaters and other places of amusement [were] permitted to open on” October 28.[44] Cases of the Spanish flu continued to emerge throughout November. The City Health Officer, Dr. Beckman, stated that the flu was “not spreading rapidly.” [45] Personal hygiene was considered to be the best deterrent to further infection. However, on December 10, 1918 the Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution to recommend placing the “city under quarantine again” regarding “any public gathering until the influenza situation showed improvement.” [46] The Chamber of Commerce minutes revealed that the members voted unanimously to “see that proper steps [were] taken as soon as possible to close the schools…and all public meetings, as done during the former influenza quarantine.” [47] Yet the City Health Officer, Dr. Beckman, did not “order a quarantine in the city.”[48] Call Field reported that the camp was “very good, there being only a few cases of sickness.”[49] The city took “[n]o action of any sort toward closing schools.”[50] The influenza was not significantly mentioned again in the December papers of the Wichita Daily Times. The 1919 January publications also failed to headline any news regarding the Spanish flu.  The motives behind the Chamber of Commerce’s unanimous recommendation to quarantine the city remains unknown. The newspaper was crowded with articles featuring the ending of the Great War and the ensuing oil boom. Such excitement might have eclipsed the ending of the epidemic. Arguably, Wichita Falls escaped the Spanish Flu by December of 1918.

The Spanish Flu increased the Texas death rate by “275 Per Cent” in October 1918.[51] Statisticians recorded “8,996 deaths” and “69 per cent were [attributed] to influenza and pneumonia.”[52] Wichita Falls however experienced “a mild epidemic” in which only “[d]ozens…died during the flu siege.”[53] Unfortunately, no other record exists to further detail how many Wichitans actually died.  In a conversation with the Texas Department of Vital Records, all the medical records before the 1930s were stated to have been destroyed or lost.[54] The United Regional Health Care System, which eventually replaced the Wichita Falls General Hospital, also stated that no records existed regarding the Spanish Flu in Wichita Falls.[55] These research obstacles create challenges in attempts to contextualize the Wichita Falls Spanish Flu experience with that of the entire nation. Why did Wichita Falls experience a mild epidemic compared to the rest of the nation? Personal medical and hospital records might illuminate specific practices employed by healthcare workers which drastically reduced the mortality rate. However, in the absence of such records, Wichita Falls appeared to have missed the first and third waves of the influenza pandemic. The ensuing oil boom brought great wealth to the region. Wichita Falls on the home front “conquered the Spanish influenza and” could celebrate “another victory – the defeat of Germany in World War I.” [56]

Citations

[1] Peter Walton, “Spanish flu outdid WW I in number of lives claimed,” Canadian Medical Association Journal 148 (11) (June 1993): 2036.

[2] Milorad Radusin, “The Spanish Flu – Part I: the first wave,” Vojnosanitetski Pregled 69(9)(2012): 812.

[3] Ibid., 812.

[4] Carolyn Daer, Antoni Trilla, and Guillem Trilla, “The 1918 Spanish Flu In Spain,: Clinical Infectious Diseases 47(5)(2008): p. 668.

[5] Ibid.,  668.

[6] Radusin, “The Spanish Flu – Part I: the first wave,” p. 813.

[7] Mark O. Humpheries, “Paths of Infection: The First World War and the Origins of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic,” War In History 21(1)(2013): p. 59-58.

[8] Humpheries, “Paths of Infection: The First World War and the Origins of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic,” 56.

[9] “Flu Epidemic Took a Toll in 1918,” Wichita Falls Times, 29 February 1976.

[10] Ibid.,

[11] Ibid.,

[12] Ibid.,

[13] “When Spanish Flu Hit in 1918, Epidemic Closed Down City,” Wichita Falls Times, 28 February 1974.

[14] “Flu Epidemic Took a Toll in 1918,” Wichita Falls Times, 29 February 1976.”

[15] Ibid.,

[16] “Field Anxiously Awaiting Relief from Quarantine,” Wichita Daily Times, 20 October 1918.

[17] “Report 3 Deaths From Influenza Since Friday.” Wichita Daily Times, October 1918.

[18]  U.S. Library Of Congress, “Dr. Curtis Atkinson,” http://lcweb2.loc.gov/mss/wpalh3/33/3309/33090105/33090105.pdf  (accessed March 27, 2015).

[19] Peter Walton, “Spanish flu outdid WW I in number of lives claimed,” p. 2036.

[20] Humpheries, “Paths of Infection: The First World War and the Origins of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic,” 57.

[21] Milorad Radusin, “The Spanish Flu – Part I: the first wave,” 919.

[22] U.S. Public Health Service, Spanish Influenza: Three Day Fever: The Flu (September 1918), by American Red Cross Southwestern Division, Pamphlet, 28 September 1918.

[23] U.S. Public Health Service, Spanish Influenza: Three Day Fever: The Flu (September 1918.)

[24]Mark O. Humpheries, “Paths of Infection: The First World War and the Origins of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic,” 59.

[25] World Health Organization, “Influenza (Seasonal),” World Health Organization,  http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/(accessed March 27 2015).

[26] Mark O. Humpheries, “Paths of Infection: The First World War and the Origins of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic,” 59.

[27] “Wichita Falls Modern Hospitals Grow from ‘modest State’ 36 years ago,” Wichita Falls Times, 7 November 1975.

[28]“3 Deaths From Influenza Since Monday Evening,” Wichita Daily Times, 15 October 1918.

[29] “3 Deaths From Influenza Since Monday Evening,” Wichita Daily Times, 15 October 1918.

[30] “More Pneumonia Cases Developing From Influenza,” Wichita Daily Times, 16 October 1918.

[31] U.S. Public Health Service, Spanish Influenza: Three Day Fever: The Flu (September 1918).

[32] “More Pneumonia Cases Developing From Influenza,” Wichita Daily Times, 16 October 1918.

[33] Ibid.,

[34] “Court House in use for Patients With Influenza,” Wichita Daily Times, 18 October 1918.

[35] Ibid.,

[36] Minnie K. Benton, Boomtown (Quanah: Nortex Offset Publications, 1972), 20.

[37]  “3 Deaths From Influenza Since Monday Evening,” Wichita Daily Times, 15 October 1918.

[38]  “3 Deaths From Influenza Since Monday Evening,” Wichita Daily Times, 15 October 1918.

[39]  “More Pneumonia Cases Developing From Influenza,” Wichita Daily Times, 16 October 1918.

[40] Benton, Boomtown , 20.

[41] “Field Anxiously Awaiting Relief from Quarantine,” Wichita Daily Times, 20 October 1918.

[42] Ibid.,

[43] “Church Services Will Be Resumed Sunday Morning,” Wichita Daily Times, 24 October 1918.

[44] Ibid.,

[45] “Attendance At Schools Today Below Average”, Wichita Daily Times, 3 December 1918.

[46] “Ask Council To Place The City Under Quarantine” Wichita Daily Times, 10 December 1918.

[47] City of Wichita Falls, Chamber of Commerce, Minutes of  December 10th Meeting, [Wichita Falls, 1918]

[48] “No Quarantine Is Ordered By The Authorities,” Wichita Daily Times, 11 December 1918.

[49] Ibid.,

[50] Ibid.,

[51] “Death Rate For October Increase Of 257 Per Cent,” Wichita Daily Times, 26 November 1918.

[52] Ibid.,

[53] “Flu Epidemic Took a Toll in 1918,” Wichita Falls Times, 29 February 1976.

[54] Name Not Provided, Phone conversation with a record keeper, Texas Department of Vital Statistics, March 19, 2015.

[55] Name Not Provided, Phone conversation with a clerk, United Regional Health Care System, March 19 2015.

[56] “Flu Epidemic Took a Toll in 1918,” Wichita Falls Times, 29 February 1976.