Once again history is repeating itself

PART 3

“The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain. Citizens were ordered to wear masks. Schools, theaters and businesses were shuttered, and bodies piled up in makeshift morgues before the virus ended its deadly global march” according to History.com.

Once again history is repeating itself. Many people, especially historians, believe that we can learn from the past. In comparison to the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic, today’s Covid19 pandemic is also a new, highly contagious, viral, respiratory illness and little is known about it. According to scientists, good hygiene and isolation must be adhered to in order to combat this present disease.

History.com also has an interesting scenario about the 1918 Spanish Influenza. The website states that “Humphries, author of The Last Plague: Spanish Influenza and the Politics of Public Health in Canada, writes that victims of a mysterious respiratory disease that broke out in northern China in November 1917 suffered many of the same symptoms as those of the “Spanish flu.” Doctors reported that patients turned blue from a lack of oxygen, coughed up blood and suffered from fevers, headaches, pneumonia and shortness of breath. The highly contagious and deadly disease was particularly unusual in that it killed otherwise healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 40 by seemingly turning their strong immune systems against them. However, with no solid scientific evidence of the outbreak’s cause, local Chinese health officials labeled it “winter sickness.” However, many scenarios of how the 1918 flu pandemic started have surfaced in recent years. One is that it originated in the United States as was stated in a previous Historical Society article.

Consequently, when the flu hit in 1918, doctors and scientists were unsure what caused it or how to treat it. There were no effective vaccines or antivirals, or drugs that treat the flu. (The first licensed flu vaccine appeared in America in the 1940s.)

History.com also stated that “With no cure for the [1918] flu, many doctors prescribed medication that they felt would alleviate symptoms, including aspirin, which had been trademarked by Bayer in 1899—a patent that expired in 1917, meaning new companies were able to produce the drug during the Spanish Flu epidemic.” However, determining the dosage proved to be difficult.

The Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918 was extremely fatal to the population of Dickenson County. Many of the persons who died from the 1918 influenza were children or young people who never married. Many families lost several family members as a result of the Spanish Influenza. George and Ettie (Stanley) Perrigan lost three sons: Ira, Willard and Millard. Squire and Sarah Adkins two sons, Frank and Logan, died from the flu. Preston and Martha (Phipps) Mullins’ two daughters, Belva Lockwood Johnson and Alifare Mullins died. John and Sarah (Farmer) Deel’s two children, Ayers and May, succumbed to the flu.

Minnie Fleming, the daughter of John and Linda Barton, married Phillip Fleming on October 11, 1916. Just two years later, on October 25, 1918, Minnie died from the flu. She was survived by her husband, Phillip, and twin babies who were only nine months old!

At least one family lost seven members to the epidemic. The Keel family who lived near Clintwood experienced the death of six members of their family from influenza. The September 28, 1918, issue of the Dickenson County News reported that: “Bill Keel, of Isom, received a telegram Sunday night that his son, Walter Keel, died of pneumonia at the hospital at Camp Lee [Virginia].” Walter Keel was one of the sixteen men for whom the Dickenson Memorial, Industrial and High School was dedicated.

Members of the Keel family who died during October,1918, of the influenza were Cora, Columbus H., Rufus, and Willie.

The Big Stone Gap Post on November 6, 1918, reported that Hattie Keel Bryant [daughter of Mrs. Will Keel] died at the home of her mother. The newspaper stated that Hattie had been waiting on her mother’s family during their illness...”

Searching further we found in the November 16, 1918, issue of the Dickenson County News that “Mrs. Laura [Lura] Sanders, of Cranes Nest, Va., died Sunday night, Nov. 9th of influenza. Mrs. Sanders is a daughter of Mrs. Bill Keels, of this county, and she makes the seventh child of Mrs. Keels who has died of influenza within a month.”

A visit to the Company Cemetery on Brush Creek near Clintwood revealed that at least six members of the Keel family are buried there. The cemetery is located at the very top of a steep knoll in the middle of a cow pasture. The Keel family graves are secluded at the lower side of the cemetery away from the rest of the graves in the family cemetery. Six of the children of William J. and Louisa Mullins Keel who died of the flu are buried in the Company Cemetery. They are: Walter H. Keel; Hattie M. Keel Bryant; Cora Keel; Columbus H. Keel; Rufus Keel; and Willie Keel. The grave of Laura [Lura] Sanders was not found.

Family stories state that, since family members knew very little about the Spanish Influenza, they were afraid that the disease could be spread even after death and burial of their loved ones. Therefore, they buried their family members on the lower side of the main cemetery to isolate them from visitors to the family cemetery.

The November 2, 2018, issue of the Dickenson County News reported the deaths of those who died from influenza in Dickenson County during the month of October, 1918. A quick search of Virginia death records on Ancestry.com indicated that there were nearly 100 deaths specifically listing the flu as a cause of death.

The death certificates for the following people were found on Ancestry.com. The names were listed as closely as possible to the way they appeared on the death certificate.

Franklin Adkins, Logan Adkins, Tolby Anderson, Marrion Baker, Rosa Baker, Ted Baker, Lola Branham, Hattie Bryant, J. Newton Buchanan, Jay J. Carpenter, Leon J. Carpenter, Leonard Collins, Susie Collins, Ayers Deel, Lillie Deel, May Deel, Stuart Deel, Worly Dotson, Verna Edna Duty, Dollie/Lollie Fleming, Minnie Fleming, Miney B. Gentry, Arizona Hay, Joseph Hibbitts, Belva Lockwood Johnson, Columbus Keel, Cora Keel, Rufus Keel, Willie Keel, William F. Kelly, Carl Kelly, Norman G. Kelly, Ben Whetsel Kiser, Hobson Kiser, Johnnie Silas Kiser, Martha Kiser, Phoeba Kiser, Blane Laforce, Carl Laforce, Velveteen Lambert, Allie Lane, Manervia Lane, Female Lambert (age 10), Phoebe Long, Lousindy Lyall, Alsia Elizabeth Mann, Ed Mays, Delmon Moor, Annie Moore, Joe Moore, Helen Mullins, Alifair Mullins, Emanuel Mullins, Grover Cleveland Mullins, Lerer Mullins, Lorena Pearl Mullins, Lottie Mullins, Miles Mullins, Myrtle Mullins, Orphia Viona Mullins, Susan Emeline Parsons, Ira Parigin, Millard Perrigin, Willard Perrigin, William Price, G. W. Rakes, Ellen Robinson, Mary Rowe, P. E. Senter, Alex Smith, Huleh Smith, Edith Pearl Stallard, Cecil Stanley, Alta Jane Stanley, Franklin Stanley, Josie Phane Stanley, Lola Stanley, Sanders K. Stanley, Stela Stanley, Elcie Sutherland, Linda Swindall, Lena Velva Taylor, Dinwidy Vance, Leonard Vance, Linard Vance, Arvil Vanover, Bertha Whitaker Vanover, Draxie Vanover, Myrtle Vanover, Taze Whitt, Andy Yates, Foster Yates, and Truly Yates.

The issue of the Dickenson County News also listed names of other people who succumbed to the flu during the month of October 1918: Willie Combs, Draxie Damron, Denver Dotson, Minnie (Barton) Fleming, Emma Phoebe Hager, Frank Keller, Albert Lipps, Will P. Price, and Mrs. G. B. Taylor.

Only those names which specifically listed influenza as a cause of death were included above. A search of the Dickenson County Bible records from the 1935 WPA project listed several deaths which could have possibly been the result of the influenza. As researchers and genealogists, we feel that many of the deaths that occurred from either the flu or its complications during the epidemic were never recorded. Local family histories include many names of those who died that were not mentioned above.

Someone once voiced that if a person’s name is not mentioned after that person dies then it is as if that person never existed. We hope that the memory of those people who died during the 1918 Spanish Influenza in Dickenson County will live on.

As of Friday, April 24, 2020, Dickenson County had no confirmed cases of the new Covid 19 virus!

Because of the present Covid19 virus situation in our country, our office will be closed until further notice. For more information concerning any of our publications or books for sale, 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.