Spanish influenza epidemic struck county in 1918

PART 2

Because of its location and the fact that only one railroad went through Dickenson County in 1918, it would seemed that the baby county of Virginia would have been saved from the Spanish Influenza epidemic. But a large crowd attended the county fair which was held October 2, 3, 4, and 5. When the flu struck, outside help was needed.

The compiler of this story found an interesting article in the November 15, 1918, issue of The News Leader about one person who came to Dickenson County to help with sick. That article stated:

“An . . . unusual compliment . . . fell upon the ears of Miss Agnes D. Randolph, executive secretary of the Virginia Anti-Tuberculosis Association . . . And she treasured it more than she would treasure praise from the highest quarters, for it emanated from one who spoke from the heart.
“The speaker was an old mountain woman of Dickenson County who knows nothing of the arts and wiles of polite conversation but who shines resplendent with the most sterling traits of character. Her tribute had the virtue of absolute sincerity without the camouflage of empty words.

“Miss Randolph was not without a keen sense of humor, but the quaint compliment which came to her provoked not the semblance of a smile, for it was born of a situation pathetic beyond words —- yes, born of one of those frightful tragedies of the Spanish “flu” which invaded the hills of the Southwest and claimed scores of victims.

“After rounding up her work as assistant director at the emergency hospital in Richmond, Miss Randolph was detailed by the state Board of Health to do investigation work in the counties of Dickenson and Buchanan. Her assignment was a nerve-wracking one which required courage, devotion, ability, and unlimited powers of endurance, for her mission took her to some of the most isolated mountain sections of the State where the “flu” was raging and where the people lived the simple life, without luxuries of any sort, and often without the ordinary comforts.
“In Dickenson Miss Randolph found conditions truly distressing, as the dread malady had come almost like a thief in the night and was exacting its toll of death in every quarter. Worse still, it rained incessantly and many of the people were little short of panic stricken.

“Wishing to concentrate her efforts where they would be most effective, she bravely ventured into a stricken home where every member of the family of eight was down with the grippe [flu]. What she found in this house, which in ordinary times was a fairly prosperous one, was indescribable.
“Three generations were ill. The grandmother — she who passed the strange compliment . . . — was perhaps the least sick of all; at any rate, it was she who feebly strove to do the nursing until Miss Randolph arrived. And then a hundred duties fell to the lot of the plucky woman who “ain’t no better” than the people to whom she ministered. She not only had to nurse the sick — and incidentally to control a delirious man — but to clean up, cook, feed the pigs and chickens, get the cow from the hills, and punish the children when they needed discipline.

Two of the patients died — the father and mother of the little ones — and then it became necessary to move the other sufferers to another house half a mile or so away. This was accomplished by lantern light at night and a flat car was the vehicle used for hauling of the sick. It was gruesome indeed, this nocturnal hegira [exodus], for behind the house remained the dead. And the only two pall bearers that could be found to “lay them away,” as the mountaineers say, for many were afraid to approach the afflicted home. To make things more depressing, the dogs on the place snarled and snapped hideously at the pallbearers as they bore off the corpses.

But Miss Randolph, though oft-times sick at heart, “saw everything through,” and she felt that she had received more than her reward when the old woman, at best a sensitive soul, voiced her gratitude in the language quoted - ‘I loves you because you ain’t no better than we folks is.’”

This was but one of the many sad stories that occurred in Dickenson County during the 1918 flu epidemic.

The 1918 pandemic was called the Spanish Influenza but most likely did not originate in Spain. History.com states that “Spain was neutral during World War I and unlike its European neighbors, it did not impose wartime censorship on its press.” Therefore, Spain was a leader in reporting the epidemic . . . Since Spanish journalists were some of the only ones reporting on a widespread flu outbreak in the spring of 1918, the pandemic became known as the ‘Spanish flu.’”

The Dickenson County News stated that “Although the [1918] epidemic was called “Spanish influenza,” there was no reason to believe that it originated in Spain. Some writers who have studied the question believe that the epidemic came from the Orient and they called attention to the fact that the Germans mentioned the disease as occurring along the eastern front in the summer and fall of 1917.”

The website, history.com, states that scientists today are still not “sure where the Spanish Flu originated, though theories point to France, China, Britain, [and even the] United States, where the first known case was reported at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas,” when, on March 4, 1918, a U. S. Army private reported to the base hospital complaining of symptoms of sore throat, fever and headache. By noon over 100 others were reporting the same symptoms.”

The same website reports that “The Spanish Influenza of 1918 infected an estimated 500 million people (or about one-third of the world’s population). The disease killed between 20 and 50 million people worldwide. The 1918 flu was responsible for 675,000 American deaths . . .”

Another website, www.historyofvaccines.org, gave the following statistics: “In 1918 the US population was 103.2 million. During . . . the Spanish Influenza pandemic between spring 1918 and spring 1919, about 200 of every 1000 people contracted influenza . . .”

History.com stated that “The Spanish Influenza pandemic first occurred in the spring of 1918 with symptoms as chills, fever and fatigue. The patients usually recovered after several days and the number of reported deaths at that time was low.

“However, a second, highly contagious wave of influenza appeared with a vengeance in the fall of that same year. Victims died within hours or days of developing symptoms, their skin turning blue and their lungs filling with fluid that caused them to suffocate. In just one year, 1918, the average life expectancy in America plummeted by a dozen years.

The 1918 influenza death toll along with a list of some of the names of people from Dickenson County who died from the 1918 flu will be presented next week.

Because of the present Covid19 virus situation in our country, our office will be closed until further notice. However, our patrons are asked to use the contact information below and we will provide services whenever possible. All of our newspapers articles are reprinted in the Historical Society’s Stories of Yesteryear booklets. Currently, Volumes 1-12 are available for purchase. For more information about this article, or any of our publications, or to make corrections or additions to an article, to purchase a local history book, or to inquire about a Historical Society event, please contact the Historical Society office at 276-926-6355, P. O. Box 52, Clintwood, Va., 24228, or dchs1880@gmail.com. If no answer, please leave a message (which includes your name and phone number) and one of our volunteers will return your call. Or contact Edith Faye Redden at 276-926-4117.