Anna Flodquist died of pneumonia following influenza on December 18, her 20th birthday; she left a husband and a six-month-old baby. Two days earlier, a 41-year-old bachelor, Joseph Fox, had died of influenza.
And the family of Charles and Caroline Goodrich, still mourning the loss of Harold in France, now were hit with fresh heartbreak. On December 15, Cora Goodrich Fasel died of pneumonia following influenza. She had been born on the Goodrich farm southwest of Ainsworth in 1886; in 1908 she married Charles Fasel; they lived in Ross Township for the next eight years, then moved to Hobart. Besides her husband, parents and siblings, Cora left four children, all under the age of 10.
The quarantine was still in full force, with no hope of its being lifted for Christmas. It seems that the churches had not accepted Dr. Clara Faulkner's angry permission "to contribute to the spread of the epidemic" by holding public services; next to the listing of the week's deaths was printed an open letter to the public from a chastened Rev. A.H. Lawrence (pastor of the M.E. Church), who acknowledged no other way of communication, "[t]he churches being closed." After offering sympathy to those who had suffered illness or bereavement, he urged the citizens of Hobart to comply with the quarantine.
We are fighting an enemy of health that is not well known. … We do not know, and until it is discovered just what treatment is best, and what public policy is best, let us be loyal to the requirements and judgment of our health officer. … Not being free to observe Christmas in the churches as usual, let us make this Christmas a home festival long to be remembered. …He closed by asking to be informed about any family in need of a Christmas tree for their home celebration, and about any evergreen trees that might be donated.
Sources:
♦ "Deaths for the Week." Hobart Gazette 20 Dec. 1918.
♦ "Influenza Claims Three More Victims the Past Week." Hobart News 19 Dec. 1918.
♦ "Influenza Still Rages." Hobart Gazette 20 Dec. 1918.
♦ "To the Citizens of Hobart." Hobart Gazette 20 Dec. 1918.
3 comments:
Wow! Finally I stumble upon such exact info on the sadly early passing on my Flodquist relative's first young wife. Thank you so much!
Actually, her Flodquist husband was of the direct male line of my Pemer family. His great grand father was the younger brother of my paternal 3rd great grand father. They also had two more brothers, who all became crofters or farmers and ceased using the family name of Pemer in favor of the patronymic name of Davidsson after their father David.
On my branch the original family name was soon re-assumed, but on the Flodquist branch, Anna's father in law (whom she never met, he passed in 1904) didn't know or bother about the Pemer name and assumed the name of Flodquist instead.
"Flod" in Swedish means river or stream, and also high tide, "quist" or modern day spelling "kvist" is Swedish for twig. Most common surnames in Sweden are "frozen" patronymic names, Andersson, Carlsson, Johansson and so on, or this kind of nature names, combinations like Bergström (Mountain-Stream), Lindkvist (Linden tree-twig) and so on.
Pemer is an old German name, derivated from "Böhmer", a person from Bohemia.
Thank you for the lesson in Swedish surnames! Do you know anything about the surname Melin?
Here is a link to the full article about Anna Flodquist's death: https://flic.kr/p/yuEvr4
In my notes, I find this little item from the "Local Drifts" of the Hobart Gazette of October 5, 1917: "Canute Flodquist, who has been living at the McDaniel residence, and Miss Anna Carlson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Carlson, were quietly married last Sunday by Rev. R. Warren Main. The young couple will reside in Hobart at present. Mr. Flodquist is employed at Aetna."
Oh, sorry, I hadn't gotten any notification about you replying. Hmmm... Melin, or sometimes spelt Mellin, is probably mostly derivated from a name of a place. There are two parishes in Sweden called Mellösa, for instance. That's some Swedish name to explain how we pronounce, for sure. But if you start with Mel as in Mel Brooks, and... let me see now... if you imagine the name Lisa but replace the ee- (or eye)-sound with... well, I guess you could say the first vowel in the word or name Jersey. Put that modified version of Lisa behind a "Mel" and you would come pretty close.
Ah, you found yet another tidbit. And many thanks for the complete obituary! I've recently found and gotten in touch now with the descendants of that daughter who was six months old when Anna passed away, so I'm sure they will love to see it.
Actually, I got a picture from that relative of mine, which seems to most likely be of that young couple Canute and Anna Flodquist:
http://pemer.net/prob_Canute_Anna.jpg
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