when death took hold of Manchester NH

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Remembering when death took hold of Manchester

By JOHN CLAYTON, New Hampshire Union Leader Staff

Monday, Jan. 7, 2008

AN EPIDEMIC IS sweeping New Hampshire at this very moment - a rabidly

virulent outbreak of political fever and fervor - but we know it will

come to a blissful end on Wednesday.

That was not the case back in 1918 when a global pandemic of a

different kind created the most serious public health disaster ever to

befall the Granite State, and here in Manchester, that disaster - the

Spanish Influenza epidemic - will be the topic of discussion on

Thursday at 7 p.m.

The Manchester City Library is hosting that discussion, and it will

revolve around a book called " The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of

the Deadliest Plague In History, " by M. Barry.

" We chose this book because of the parallels to the avian flu that

everyone is so worried about, " said Basbas, who coordinates the

discussion group. " The Spanish Flu was so devastating and it hit so

close to home that a lot of people in town have relatives who died in

this epidemic. "

Death was everywhere here In The City.

Although early rumblings from large urban areas like Philadelphia, New

York and Boston had local health officials on alert, it wasn't until

Sept. 16, 1918, that " The Manchester Leader and Evening Union " first

reported that " Influenza Has Arrived Here. "

" First there is a chill, " said Dr. C.F. Flanders, one of the city's

oldest physicians in active practice, " then a fever with a temperature

from 101 to 103 degrees, headache, backache, reddening and running of

the eyes, pains and aches of the body and general prostration. Persons

thus attacked should go home at once and get into bed without delay. "

That story ran on a Monday.

McLaughlin was already dead.

The machinist from the Elliot Silk Mill had succumbed to influenza two

days earlier at the Elliot Hospital. The day after that first story

appeared, his wife, 31-year-old Susie McLaughlin, died at the family

home at 315 Young St., and 25 minutes later, Mrs. McLaughlin's sister,

Bertha Prescott - " 15 years of age and a sophomore at Manchester High

School " - also died.

The horror was just beginning.

From the very outset, doctors were stunned by " the rapidity of the

disease progression and the inexplicable death toll among the youngest

and strongest, " according to The New England Journal of Medicine, and

even while American doughboys were fighting and dying in Europe, an

unseen enemy was claiming 10 times as many Americans here at home.

Within a week of the first local influenza cases, the Manchester Board

of Health ordered that all schools and theaters in the city be closed,

as well as the public library.

It did little good.

The same day those measures were enacted, every hospital bed in

Manchester was filled - the Elliot, Notre Dame, Sacred Heart and Oak

Hill - and the scramble was on to accommodate more of the stricken.

The Knights of Columbus Hall on Hanover Street was offered up, as was

the Cercle National Club and the " dwelling house at Lowell and Pine

Streets owned by Halbert N. Bond. " To outfit those buildings, Mayor

Moise Verrette summoned furniture dealers to his office to plead for beds.

A similar plea went out to owners of private automobiles - a scarce

commodity in 1918 - to help transport the sick and dying to those same

hospitals, because the fire department was so overwhelmed.

The result?

Forty-one deaths in 48 hours from Oct. 4-6. Among those who died were

Lydia Falardeau, age 27, and Violet Falardeau, age 4, and Elodie

Falardeau, age 2, all of 815 Somerville St.

In response, the Manchester Leader published instructions " for making

gauze masks, which consist of eight layers of gauze measuring

six-by-eight inches. " Pool rooms were ordered closed. So were bowling

alleys, ice cream parlors and coffee houses, and city street cars were

ordered to operate with all windows open, regardless of the weather.

And the dying continued.

Health care officials cried out for more stringent preventive

measures. All but outdoor church services were prohibited, as were

public funerals. According to The Leader, restaurants were " ordered to

boil dishes for a period of 20 minutes after being used, and

industrial plants of the city are requested to see that there is no

coughing or sneezing without the proper use of handkerchiefs among

their employees. "

A special telephone hotline - dial 312 - was set aside for new reports

of influenza, and the Board of Health remained open 24 hours per day.

Absenteeism was so high in the mills - 30 to 40 percent on some days -

that production was stopped at the W.F. McElwain Co. and Amoskeag

Manufacturing. In desperation, city officials finally mandated the

closing of all " retail and mercantile establishments " (including

McElwain, Amoskeag, the Stark Mill and Hoyt Shoes) over the Columbus

Day holiday weekend.

By November, new cases of influenza began to subside here in

Manchester - some attributed it to the signing of the Armistice on

Nov. 11 - but those who had been stricken continued to die. There were

22 deaths in November, 46 in December, and 69 more in January of 1919.

In the United States, more than 670,000 died in a four-month period,

more Americans than in all the wars of the 20th century. There were

more than 2,700 deaths in New Hampshire - 527 of them in Manchester -

but misery continued to plague many survivors.

" Convalescence was often painfully slow, " according to " Influenza

1918, " a book by Lynette Iezzoni. " Feeble, recovering patients hobbled

like invalids, gasping for breath. Some remained stone deaf. Others

developed disorders of the heart, lungs and kidneys... and often not

just the body, but the mind remained feeble. "

And feeble explanations were all that emerged regarding the cause of

the scourge.

Was the Spanish Influenza hidden in Bayer aspirin and unleashed upon

America as a German plot? Did it come home on the boots of

trench-warfare veterans? Was it rats? Mosquitoes? Or perhaps God's wrath?

The questions persist.

Perhaps you'll find an answer on Thursday night. For more information

on the discussion regarding M. Barry's " The Great Influenza, "

call Basbas at 624-6560.

Clayton is the author of several books on Manchester and New

Hampshire, including the recently released " You Know You're in New

Hampshire When... "

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