Brave New Year

Flu epidemic or no flu epidemic, young Harry Coons was going to have his usual birthday bash on New Year's Day — so said Harry Sr. and his wife, Mary, in late December as they issued invitations to many of their son's friends.

Others in Hobart sounded equally determined that the new year would be a new start. The Gazette's last issue of 1918 predicted that Dr. Clara Faulkner would allow the general quarantine to be lifted on January 1. Dr. Richard Mackey, Hobart's school board president, and George A. Fowble, school superintendent, announced that local schools would open on Monday, January 6.

This was in spite of the flu's being still "strong in evidence" in and around Hobart. The Gazette seemed to be wavering between optimism and accuracy as it reported that "generally speaking there is a lessening [of the flu] although there are several severe cases. There are now very few cases right in town but in some rural neighborhoods nearly every family is afflicted."

Nor had the flu stopped killing: it, or its complications, took Martha Wischmann Dewell, a 33-year-old wife and mother, the day after Christmas; on December 27th, Lillie Ruth Witt, just 14 days old; the next day, Cornelius Goodenow, a Civil War veteran one day short of his 81st birthday; and on New Year's Eve, 11-year-old Cornelius Carstensen.

Nonetheless, the brave plans went forward. Dr. Faulkner did indeed lift the general quarantine on New Year's Day — the same day that Harry Coons, Jr. celebrated his 10th birthday with 28 young friends in attendance. On the morning of January 6, Hobart's children went to school for the first time in over a month.

Two days later, near Ainsworth, Albert Hagerty lost his 25-year-old wife, Cora, to influenza.


Sources:
♦ "Ban Is Lifted." Hobart Gazette 3 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Ban May Be Lifted." Hobart Gazette 27 Dec. 1918.
♦ "Cornelius Carstensen." Hobart News 2 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Cornelius Goodenow, Veteran of the Civil War, Passes Away." Hobart News 26 Dec. 1918.
♦ "Deaths for the Week." Hobart Gazette 3 Jan. 1919; 10 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Harry Coons Jr. Celebrates His Tenth Birthday Anniversary." Hobart News 2 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Hobart Schools to Start Again January Sixth." Hobart News 26 Dec. 1918.
♦ "Influenza Ban Raised in Hobart Jan. 1, by Health Commissioner." Hobart News 2 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 27 Dec. 1918.
♦ "Mrs. Albert Hagerty Dies of Influenza Near Ainsworth." Hobart News 9 Jan. 1919
♦ "Mrs. Wm. Dewell." Hobart News 2 Jan. 1919.
♦ "Schools to Open." Hobart Gazette 27 Dec. 1918.