The 1918 Influenza Pandemic Amid WWI in Natick
Liberty Loan advertisement, The Natick Bulletin, October 18, 1918.
On Saturday, September 21, 1918, Natick held a grand celebration to support the “Fighting Fourth” Liberty Loan campaign and help fund the national war effort. A parade followed by “throngs of people” made its way through the center of town to dedicate the new Liberty Loan headquarters. Soldiers and town officials made speeches, a 24-piece band played patriotic music, and crowds cheered the sight of a small child clutching a Liberty Loan application. A reporter for The Natick Bulletin marveled that “Natick has [never] seen a cosmopolitan meeting of such nature, nor has it ever seen such a congregation.”
Six days later, the Bulletin reported that there had been nearly 300 cases of “The Spanish Grippe” in Natick and four related deaths. Since the Bulletin was published once weekly, the story praising the town’s grand Liberty Loan celebration and the report lamenting the number of influenza cases appeared side-by-side on the front page of the September 27th issue.
The week following the Liberty Loan celebration was grim in Natick as it was around the country. Natick’s Board of Health closed all schools, theaters, and libraries. Local societies and clubs were directed to postpone their gatherings. The state and federal government ordered all Liberty Loan events—indoors and out—to be canceled, too. The town’s new Liberty Loan headquarters was shuttered. At first, churches were granted discretion about whether to hold services, but it wasn’t long before they were ordered closed by the Public Safety Committee. Natick’s Board of Health advised residents: “Avoid crowds. Keep Warm. Stay in the Sunlight.” One local reporter said the guidelines were “easy to follow if the Fuel Commissioner will furnish coal and the Weather Bureau furnish the sunlight.”
Notice from Natick’s Board of Health, The Natick Bulletin, October 11, 1918.
The Leonard Morse Hospital was quickly overrun, reporting 45-50 new influenza cases every day. The war had already driven up prices on materials needed to fight contagious diseases, and there needed to be more nurses. When requests to the Emergency Health Board for additional nurses went unanswered, the hospital began recruiting and training local school teachers. Student nurses were called up, too. The hospital’s superintendent later praised the many nurses who rose to the challenge, noting that “at one of the most serious periods... [so] many of the employees were afflicted that the hospital was not able to care for the patients that it would have otherwise.”
Natick’s students attended only 48 school days during the fall of 1918—and there were no remote learning opportunities. The Principal of Natick High School pronounced the loss “disastrous,” the Superintendent reported: “The exigencies of war, conditions of epidemic, everything has conspired to interrupt and interfere with the customary progress of legitimate schoolwork.” Indeed, the disruption was so overwhelming that in February 1919, the high school newspaper featured an editorial lamenting the “extra amounts of work” and “long assignments” students faced to make up for their “enforced vacations.” The title of the editorial was: “Shall We Shirk?”
When the pandemic subsided, Natick’s Board of Health reported 1,623 influenza cases— about 15% of the town’s population. Indeed, Natick suffered far more cases of influenza than all other contagious diseases combined. In context, in 1918, the town tracked 18 contagious diseases, and the second most prevalent disease was measles, with 221 cases. The Board of Health did not report the number of influenza-related deaths but noted that influenza had also caused more deaths than all the other contagious diseases combined. During the height of the outbreak in September and October, obituaries became a regular feature on the front pages of the Bulletin. Nationally, more than 600,000 people died of influenza between 1918 and 1920; nearly one-third of those deaths occurred in October 1918 alone.
Image from “Uncle Sam’s Advice on Flu: United States Public Health Service Issues Official Health Bulletin on Influenza,” printed in The Natick Bulletin, October 11, 1918.
To be sure, the 1918 pandemic devastated Natick just as it devastated the nation and the world. But there is much to admire in Natick’s response to the influenza outbreak, too. Members of the local chapter of the Red Cross Society made more than 2,000 masks for the Leonard Morse Hospital. The Catholic Woman’s Club set up an emergency canteen kitchen and distributed food to 40 families affected by influenza daily. Residents printed “cards of thanks” in the Bulletin each week to acknowledge particular acts of kindness and support, especially after losing a loved one. More admirable still, Natick exceeded its goals in the “Fighting Fourth” Liberty Loan campaign, raising more than $600,000 in a town with a population of about 11,000. The sum was so noteworthy (in 2020 dollars, that’s 11,000 people giving over $900 each!) that even the Boston Daily Globe reported that Natick had truly gone “over the top.”
Think again about that Natick high school student who editorialized about shirking all the extra assignments—he concluded the editorial by encouraging his classmates: “If we work faithfully and learn as much as we possibly can of the lessons given us, we shall probably find that we slowly, but surely, will regain the ground which was lost by our enforced vacations....Let us take whatever comes our way with willing minds and cheerful countenances.”
Are you interested in learning more about the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in a national and global context?
Read: John M. Barry, The Great Influenza
Watch: American Experience: Influenza 1918
Sources:
The Natick Bulletin (September - December 1918)
Natick Town Reports (1918) Boston Daily Globe (September 28, 1918) The Sassamon (February 1919)