Deja Vu – All Over Again

You can hardly go an hour these days without a news report, Facebook post, Tweet, or other reminder about the Coronavirus (COVID-19). We have all heard the importance of washing our hands, staying out of large crowds, cleaning and disinfecting surfaces of all kinds. Much of this we have learned (if we have been paying attention) from those who have come before us. They have also experienced masks and quarantines!

This blog post is a reminder of another kind. The world has been in this situation before — many times. And, in particuar, the voices of WVWC folks will tell us what life was like on campus during the 1918 Spanish Influenza.

---

1918

On September 30, 1918, the Student Army Training Corp (200 strong) was sworn in. They were here to study and to train for World War I. Here is the first part of the article. Click here to read the rest of it as well as the story about preparations for the S.A.T.C.

The day this article was published, October 7, there was also a notice that Chapel was not being held due to Spanish Influenza. On the 9th, the S.A.T.C. students went into the barracks under two weeks’ quarantine. The barracks were in the Gymnasium, with cots placed at a standard 18 inches apart. The mess hall was in the basement of the gym.

---

October 1918

A notice on page six of the October 21, 1918 Pharos mentions that the S.A.T.C. boys had donned gas masks, but that this did not prevent some flirting with the girls in the Hall.

Here are some of the other notices from that issue, which indicate that there were many students (and their families) who were suffering from this illness:

• About twenty of the Hall girls sent the week end at home hile the flu scare was on. Among them were Hazel Metheny, Vera Reitz, Faith Craig, Ruth Vn Camp, Pearl Robinson, Trella Linville, Bonnie Ray, Grace Wilson, Ada Vanderhoff, Alta Gatewood, Margaret Blair and Mary Shay.
• The S.A.T.C. men had planned a preaching service for Sunday evenig, also, but on account of the sudden outbreak of influenza in the barracks, their meeting was called off.
• Four cases of influenza developed at the Hall last Wednesday. Misses Orpah Haymond, Floy Gamble, Mary Maxwell and Louise Schaffer were the fashionable girls.
• All students are requested by college authorities to wear gauze masks in class rooms as a preventative of influenza.
• The Flu has not manifested itself much in the faculty as yet. Miss Ryder is the only one.
• Miss Irma Workman, ’17, who has been teaching at Sistersville High School, was at home last week – another victim of Flu. Three other members of the Workman family were ill of the same disease at the same time.
• Miss Pearl Grosse, ’18, has returned to her home while the Huntington schools are closed on account of influenza.
• Miss Anna Reger, ’15, who is teaching at Clendenin, is home while the epidemic of flu is so prevalent.
• Aubrey Carl Smith, ’18, answered the call of his country in July, when he went to Camp Meade to be trained for service abroad. And on October 7, 1918, he answered the last roll call in response to the Captain of all men. He was nearly 26 years old.

At the height of the epidemic and the quarantine, the Music Conservatory (which we now know as the English Annex) was turned into a hospital for housing those who were quarantined.The building you see in the background is the Old Gymnasium.

---

November – A Bit of Good News

---

December 1918

The soldiers may have recovered, but the Influenza lingered on. As World War I came to an end with the Armistice on November 11, the troops disbanded and their time on campus came to an end in the middle of December

The Pharos issue of December 15 indicated that WVWC students and faculty were still quite in the middle of the health issues of the day, including the only student death:

The Happenings column in that issue of the Pharos mentioned:

• Misses Virginia Arbothnot, Elizabeth Hartley, and Delphia Bond have joined the class that has the flu.
• Prof. Gotwald is able to be back to school after having the flu.
• There were five cases of flu in the Hall last week. The victims were Zillah Short, Lucille Ferguson, Marie Turnbull, MargaretSigaoose, and Gladys Herold.
• Miss Margaret Blair is in of influenza.
• Miss Pearl Smith, substitute for Miss Harding during her illness, is ill of influenza.
• Professor Ernest Stutzman, who has been very ill of influenza, is slowly recovering.
• Ernest M. Pritchard is able for duty after about ten or eleven weeks of illness. He is at Camp Lee, Virginia.

---

January – The Flu Goes On

The January 20, 1919 issue of the Pharos tells us this about students and alumni:

• Misses Carrie and Louis Boggs have returned to school after having been ill of the flu.
• Gladys Haught, of Mannington, who has been qite ill of influenza, is improving, but is not yet able to return to school.
• Ruth VanCamp has returned to school, after having had an attack of the flu.
• Alice Thacker is still confined to her home at Franklin with the flu.
• Louise VanCamp, Normal ’16, has had a severe attack of the flu.
• Anna Reger, ’16, has returned to work at Clendenin High School, after an attack of influenza at her home here.
• Floyd Ressegger, ’18, employed by the International Harvester Company at Akron, Ohio, is now at home recovering from an attack of the flu.

February

The February 3, 1919 issue of the Pharos tells us that it is STILL continuing.

• Pearl Robinson was very ill of influenza last week.
• John Post, who was in the aviation corps in California has received his discharge, and is now quarantined with flu.

March

The last mention of the struggles of the Wesleyan community with the Spanish Flu was in the March 31, 1919 issue of the Pharos.

• Dr. MacWatters, who spent the winter at Daytona Beach, Florida, recovering from a serious case of pheumonia following influenza, has returned to Wesleyan.

---

Lessons Learned: Keep Calm and Wash Your Hands

It is important to take precautions. But, this is by far not the first time the world has experienced global health issues. The vast majority of voices from the Pharos went on to have a positive impact on the world for many years to come.