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.

The front page stories of the Lyon County News-Messenger over the last months of 1918 were dominated by the end of the war in Europe and the policy debate over how to demobilize at home and shape a permanent peace with Germany. The Nov. 29 edition carried a front page reference to the epidemic in a Marshall School article reporting a one-day Thanksgiving break because of days lost to the epidemic. Marshall students, however, enjoyed a full Christmas vacation because they had lost fewer days than other area schools.

The paper’s “Lyon County News-Notes” sections on its inside pages continued their brief reports on the continuing costs of the epidemic across the region.

The Russell correspondent reported November 8 that influenza had returned with thirty-eight cases among students, leading to another closure of school and all other public places. The following week Russell reported the death of nine year-old Mae Henrietta Colby on Friday November 8 after a week-long struggle with influenza and pneumonia. Her family and classmates mourned her passing. The school resumed classes Monday, November 18. A few residents still struggled with influenza, but most were improving

Island Lake Township reported on Nov. 8 that school had resumed at Pleasant Hill that Wednesday after being out two weeks due to the epidemic. Island Lake continued to report families ill with or recovering from influenza through the end of the year, but no deaths.

The correspondent in Ghent reported the Ghent Public School, which the epidemic had closed in October, closed again during the week of Jan. 6, 1919 because of the large number of influenza cases in and around Ghent. A dance scheduled for that week was canceled for the same reason.

Balaton reported on Nov. 8 that, despite continued epidemic restrictions, three girls in the Swihart family were sick with influenza. The following week Balaton reported eight more influenza cases. The rooms above the First National Bank were cleaned and fitted as a temporary hospital with an attendant and nurse to care for patients.

Balaton finally lifted its influenza restrictions on Sunday Dec. 1 and its churches held services for the first time in eight weeks. Schools opened the next day after a six week, pandemic-induced vacation. The theater reopened Thursday, Dec. 5.

The correspondent from Amiret reported that Miss Louise Henle was unable to come from Tracy on Nov. 6 to conduct her music class at school due to sickness in her home. Two weeks later three Amiret families traveled to Tracy to attend Miss Henle’s funeral. She had earned the love of her students in two years as their music teacher.

The Green Valley correspondent reported that Mr. and Mrs. Jasper Caron traveled to St. Paul on November 11 to consult with a physician about Mrs. Caron’s influenza. She was admitted to St. Luke’s Hospital for what turned out to be a four-week stay.

The correspondent from Lynd reported December 6 that Mrs. Annie Sharratt was seriously ill with influenza and that many others were sick. Mrs. Sharratt died that same day at age fifty-three, leaving her husband, a daughter, and a son, who was serving in France. Her funeral was on Sunday, December 8 in the front yard of the family home.

Sodus Township reported nearly everyone who attended a school social on Dec. 17 contracted influenza, but that most were recovering. Later, the teacher in District No. 51, Miss Edith Johnson, entered the Marshall hospital for a tonsillectomy during the holiday vacation; contracted influenza while hospitalized; and died on Monday, Dec. 30.

The paper reported the tragic story of Marshall’s T.W. Murphy family. The Murphy’s went to Ivanhoe in early November, called by the illness of their son, Ed. He died Monday, Nov. 4. The father died of influenza the following Saturday. The mother also contracted influenza and died Wednesday, November 13. Another son died during the same week – the epidemic taking four members of one family within a week and a half.

The News-Messenger’s “Local Gossip” feature also carried news of epidemic illness and death in and around Marshall. Walter Loydett became ill with influenza while traveling and died in the Marshall hospital on Sunday, Nov. 3. Twenty-five- year-old Elgin Allen Rae died in Tracy on Friday Nov. 8 after a week of influenza and pneumonia. He had been the editor and manager of the Tracy Weekly Herald for two years and left his young wife, Dorothy, and son of 2½ years, Lyle. News notes over the last weeks of 1918 reported Marshallites returning from schools closed by the epidemic; retaining nurses or welcoming relatives to care for family members with the flu; or traveling elsewhere to care for sick family members.

Our region’s plague diminished over the end of 1918 and into early 1919, but it had caused sickness, disruption, and death across the region. It also had caused loss to us from a distance.

I welcome your participation in and ideas about our exploration of prairie lives. You may reach me at prairieview pressllc@gmail.com.