100 years ago in The Saratogian
Sunday, Oct. 20, 1918. Mrs. Walter J. Lindsay of Schenectady has had more than her share of tragedy this fall. Her husband died of Spanish flu last week, and on her way to his funeral in Hadley today her daughter is seriously injured in a car wreck.
The Lindsays are being driven to Hadley by B. G. Grieeick in a rented Ford when the accident takes place on the state highway just north of South Corinth.
Walter F. King of 49 Franklin Street, Saratoga Springs, is driving ahead of the Lindsay car. King tells The Saratogian that he “was running along at a fairly good clip, twenty-five miles an hour or more” when the Ford “blew as a signal that the driver wished to pass.”
King turns his car aside so the Ford can pass him. “The Ford driver evidently miscalculated, however, for as he passed Mr. King’s car, he just clipped it, not enough to damage either auto, but enough to cause him to lose control of the machine.”
As King watches, the Ford zig-zags across the road before flipping, throwing all the passengers onto the road. All hit the pavement clear of the vehicle, and all but Winifred Lindsay are able to get to their feet. Grieeick, Mrs. Lindsay and another daughter, Ethel, suffer minor cuts and bruises, but King sees that Winifred is unconscious and obviously more badly hurt.
King and Grieeick take Winifred to the nearest farmhouse. From their “a message was sent to Corinth for a physician.” Winifred regains consciousness soon afterward, but “her condition was so serious that he was removed to the Saratoga Hospital.” Doctors there suspect that she may have some broken bones, but believe she’ll make a complete recovery.
After finding alternate means of travel, Mrs. Lindsay, Ethel and Greeick continue to Hadley for the 2:20 p.m. funeral.
Today is the first Sunday since the federal government lifted the order limiting nonessential travel on this day of the week. “Gasless” Sundays had been imposed as a wartime fuel-conservation measure.
“In spite of the fact that [this] was the first ‘gas’ Sunday there were few automobile parties through this section,” The Saratogian reports, “The heavy rain which fell the greater part of the day was responsible for this fact.” Whether the wet conditions were a factor in the South Corinth accident is unclear.
While rainy days are believed to make people more susceptible to the flu, Saratoga Springs city health officer Dr. A. Sherman Downs reports that the weather had no effect on the current Spanish flu epidemic. The number of new cases reported continues to decline each day.