September 24, 2018
This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.
Gaylynn
Childs, our retired Executive Direct stated in an article in the “Daily Union”
newspaper in 1998 that “one of Geary County’s least glamorous claims to fame in
world history occurred 100 years ago.
This was when the first recorded case of the Spanish Influenza was
reported at Fort Riley’s Camp Funston.
Because of
the close proximity of Camp Funston, this area was among those in the state hit
the hardest. Citizens pitched in and
without hesitation, assisted with nursing the sick and caring for many of the
soldiers, neighbors and strangers.
The flu
epidemic in Kansas hit its high mark about the first week in December of
1918. A total of 19,676 cases were
reported for that time period. By the
end of the month, the plague had run its course and more than 12,000 Kansans
had lost their lives. In the month of
October 1918, 2,800 had perished with a third of them being at Fort Riley.
Not less
than 10,000 businesses were affected by closing orders and flu bans. Agriculture suffered tremendously, because
the epidemic had come during the harvest season.
Dr. Alfred
Crosby, a medical researcher and historian recorded that “no disaster, no
infection, no war, no famine has ever killed so many in as short a
period.”
What did we,
as a nation learn from this experience?
Americans had come to accept that illness and death went hand-in-hand
with cold weather and winter. There were
few families who had not seen a child die from one of the infections scourges,
which ran through rural and urban communities.
Finally, our focus was on winning a war and the attention of the state
and the nation was turned toward sacrifice – doing what we had to do to get the
job done. We took the flu in stride, rolled
up our sleeves and nursed the sick, buried the dead and moved on.” That is the American and the Kansans way!!!
And… that’s
today’s story on “Our Past IS Present” from the Geary County Historical
Society.
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