The Spanish flu: A global tragedy that scarred Niagara
It was a human catastrophe of horrendous and agonizing proportions. Beginning in the early months of 1918, an influenza epidemic began to spread to virtually every corner of the planet, eventually claiming about 20 million victims.
The disease first appeared in the First World War European battlefields during April 1918. It was thought the pestilence was caused by the mud, squalor and confinement of trench warfare. During the following month, it swept across Spain, killing an estimated eight million people there. Since it was first officially reported in that country, the disease quickly became known as the Spanish flu.
By late summer, infected soldiers returning to Canada had spread the flu to our East Coast. From there it raced across the country with unbelievable speed. By the beginning of October, the Spanish flu was taking l,000 Canadian lives a day.
The virus attacked the respiratory system causing pneumonia, often killing its victims within one or two days from the onset of symptoms. Strangely, the young and healthy seemed to be the most vulnerable.
Niagara Falls did not escape. On Oct. 9, 1918, a notice from the city’s board of health appeared in the “Niagara Falls Review.” Referring to the flu as the “grippe,” the board ordered all cases to be reported to the medical officer of health. Any place where a case was discovered was to be placarded and “properly fumigated after the disease is abated.”
The announcement also stated: “Until further notice and from this date, all schools, churches, theatres, lodges, clubs, shall be closed and no public meetings shall be held.”
Because avoiding crowds was very important, most people stayed indoors as much as possible. If it became essential to venture outside, almost everyone wore a gauze mask over their face.
Newspaper ads from the local drug stores told of remedies that supposedly would lessen the symptoms. For example, Mcnally’s on Queen Street recommended grippe pills, cherry bark, analgesic balm and a tonic called Tanlac.
The Thorburn drugstores, in an ad dramatically headlined “A few precautions while the terrible disease is raging,” suggested people “fumigate well with formaldehyde candles, use plenty of germicidal soap in the bath and keep Listerine oil, eucalyptus and carbolic acid in the house.”
Ironically, while the Spanish flu was a major event in Niagara Falls and the rest of the world during the fall of 1918, the Review rarely reported any news on the subject. Possibly this was done to lessen the likelihood of panic among the city’s 12,000 citizens. Only once, on Oct. 15, is any statistic mentioned. In that day’s edition the following information was offered, “The situation in reference to the grippe is improving rapidly. In fact only 204 cases have been reported in the city and the percentage of serious cases has been exceedingly small.”
However, this would seem to have been a masking of the complete state of affairs here. It is known that our hospital, then on Jepson Street, was jammed with flu victims for many weeks. To handle the overflow, the basement of Jepson Street Baptist Church was turned into a makeshift hospital. (This building now houses the Christian Reform Church.) Local doctors worked around the clock to care for the stricken and horse-drawn hearses were
seen in the streets with much greater frequency than usual.
Astudy of the number of obit
uaries published during the autumn of 1917 compared to the number that appeared during the same period a year later indicates a dramatic increase in
1918. The study also revealed an interesting fact — the obituaries from the fall of 1918 never mention the cause of the death.
So, about how many people perished from the Spanish flu here? Because the Review from that era was of little help in answering that question, I had to find another source. It turned out to be Canada’s oldest funeral home — Morse & Son Funeral Home on Main Street.
There I was able to examine the firm’s old record books. (The only other funeral home here at the time, Russnell’s on Queen Street, closed many years ago.)
Fortunately, the records indicate both the cause of death and age for each of the individuals Morse & Son prepared for burial. During October, November and December 1918, there were 91 deaths due to influenza/ pneumonia. This compares to just two deaths from the same cause for the identical time period the year before. The overwhelming number of victims was between the ages of 20 and
40. Although the records are not available, it is obvious that Russnell’s would have also looked after the burial of a number of flu victims. So it is clear that there must have been at least 100 Spanish flu deaths in Niagara Falls.
Although people were still dying from the flu, by early November, the worst of the crisis had apparently passed in the city. A notice in the Review on Nov. 8, 1918, announced that Jepson Street Baptist Church had been “thoroughly fumigated” and was again open for services. The board of health allowed schools to reopen on Nov. 11.
The flu pandemic had brought about a tragic and frightening time in Niagara Falls.