Spanish Influenza

Local people who bought Chicago newspapers may have seen some mention of Spanish influenza in September 1918, but its first appearance in the Hobart papers came in early October with reports of the funeral of Arthur Wischmann. That young man had entered the military about four months earlier and was stationed at Fort Sheridan, north of Chicago, when he fell ill with influenza; pneumonia followed, and he died on September 27. His body was brought back to Hobart for a funeral with military honors, attended by some 30 members of Company K. At the request of his mother, who did not understand English, the Rev. E.R. Schuelke conducted the service in German.

The issues of the News and Gazette that reported on the funeral were strewn with evidence that Spanish influenza had become "almost epidemic" locally. Among the Hobart citizens stricken with it were Arthur Melin, William Halstead, William Wischman, Danny Shearer, Mrs. Henry Holler, Wilson and Walter Tolle, and Willard O. Halsted, who had been "quite sick" but now seemed to be mending. And those were just the ones who got into the social columns.

Dr. Clara Faulkner, as health commissioner, issued a plea to parents to keep influenza-stricken children out of school to avoid spreading the disease.

George Sauter and Fred Rose, Jr., tentmates at Camp Custer in Michigan, suffered indirectly from epidemic, as an army quarantine cancelled their leave and their planned visit home to Hobart.

The timing of the disease was most inconvenient: the fourth Liberty Loan drive had opened on September 28, and as we've seen, such drives involved door-to-door canvassing and massive public rallies. The News seemed to be trying to allay fear when it commented that the Spanish influenza was "the same old disease" that had sprung up every winter at various places around the nation for the past 30 years — only conceding that this time it took a "severe form." Meanwhile the Gazette positively urged its readers to go out: "Would you, Hobart citizen, like to have the 175 Hobart boys now in the service hear from home that they are not supported? … Go at once to the banks and do your full duty." Those who failed to subscribe for Liberty Bonds, it suggested, would be summoned to Crown Point to explain themselves to the Lake County Council of Defense.


Sources:
♦ "Bond Drive Still On." Hobart Gazette 4 Oct. 1918.
♦ "First Funeral of a Hobart Boy in Service Held Here Monday." Hobart Gazette 3 Oct. 1918.
♦ "Fourth Liberty Loan Drive." Hobart Gazette 23 Aug. 1918.
♦ "Hobart Soldier Boy Dies of Pneumonia." Hobart Gazette 4 Oct. 1918.
♦ "Local and Personal." Hobart News 3 Oct. 1918.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 4 Oct. 1918.
♦ "School Children With Spanish Influenza Should Remain at Home." Hobart News 3 Oct. 1918.