We have been exploring the 1918 influenza pandemic and its regional impacts. Last week we began comparing that epidemic with our COVID-19 epidemic to better und
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Prairie Lives
We have been learning about the 1918-19 influenza pandemic from its origins in Kansas; its spread across the nation, aided by the movement of troops during World War II; its mutation into a more deadly form over the summer; and its reaching our region in the fall of 1918.
October 1918 was an awful month in our region. The influenza epidemic raged, infecting hundreds and taking at least 46 lives. Although nobody could have known it at the time, October was the peak of the plague here. More sickness and death lay ahead in the next few months, but not on the scale of that dark October.
Prairie Lives
We have been learning about the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic from its origins in Kansas; to its spread across the nation, aided by the movement of troops during WWI; to its mutation into a more deadly form over the summer; to its reaching our region in the fall of 1918.
October 1918 was an awful month in our region. The influenza epidemic raged through the region, infecting hundreds and took at least twenty-six lives through October 17. The suffering and death continued through that month.
The Lyon County News-Messenger continued carrying front page coverage of October influenza deaths in its Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 editions.
Prairie Lives
We have been learning about the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic from its origins in Kansas; to its spread across the nation, aided by the movement of troops during WWI; to its mutation into a more deadly form over the summer; to its reaching our region in the fall of 1918.
The Lyon County News-Messenger first reported regional influenza cases in short, human interest entries called “Lyon County News-Notes” from contributors in townships and smaller towns as well as “Local Gossip” entries from Marshall. These local news briefs revealed widespread influenza cases by early October 1918.
Marshall’s “Local Gossip” section in the Oct. 11 edition reported multiple influenza cases, but ended with the reassuring words, “Marshall physicians report that the trouble is well in hand.” The situation was anything but “well in hand.”