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A century ago, just as today, parents all across Wyoming Valley were preparing to send their children back to school.
But as they did in that late summer of 1919, a specter hovered over them.
A pandemic or worldwide epidemic of influenza – nicknamed Spanish flu – had devastated the nation. It had killed millions across the globe as well, and there was no certainty that it had run its course. In America, an estimated 675,000 people had died from influenza since it appeared early in 1918, while many more had been sickened.
But here is what really worried families. While previous disease outbreaks had been most damaging to the elderly and to people in poor health, the 1918-1919 flu was especially deadly on children and on adults young enough to have children in school.
“Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. “The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20-40-year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic.”
At the height of the 1918 infection, as many as 110 cases a day were reported in Wilkes-Barre alone. Countywide, more than 3,500 deaths were attributed to the flu that year. Emergency hospitals were opened in the South Main Street Armory as well as in Hazleton and Nanticoke. An estimated 2,300 children lost one or both parents.
How did the community handle the disease? In an era when vaccines and other preventives were unknown, isolation was the main line of defense. In 1918, the schools had opened on schedule in September, but then closed in early October as flu deaths spiked, remaining closed for two months.
By state edict, the churches, Sunday schools, theaters and saloons had also shut down. In fact, all events likely to draw crowds were ordered canceled. Funerals had to be conducted privately, and in a time when professional funeral services were not always used, such a backlog for burials developed that bodies had to remain in family homes for days.
Parents were told to keep their children off the streetcars.
In the words of the Wilkes-Barre Record newspaper, the epidemic had “created a condition of mind bordering on panic.”
By August of 1919, though, things were beginning to look up. In the city of Wilkes-Barre, more than 13,600 children made ready to begin classes. Newspapers were running the usual ads for school clothing and supplies. The school year got under way.
At the end of January, fears arose when several cases of the flu were reported in the city. As a precaution, the Red Cross began a registry of health workers to be called upon should a new emergency develop.
By mid-February, it began to look as if a repeat of the previous year was in store. More flu appeared, and local health authorities again warned people to avoid crowds. But that spike quickly subsided, easing fears.
“No quarantine restrictions were imposed,” said the Wilkes-Barre Record in its almanac, published at the end of the year, noting that in the end the flu was rivaled for biggest issue of 1920 by prohibition, “bolshevism” and the high cost of clothing.
School went on with no closure, and June graduations were held as scheduled. The mysterious flu that was so harsh on the young and healthy faded into history.
Amid the relief, though, was a sad realization: thousands of families had paid a terrible price.