Glens Falls in 1918 — Flu epidemic reaches peak
Area pastors canceled church services and advised parishioners to pray at home for a second consecutive week on Oct. 13, 1918, as physicians said it appeared the Spanish influenza epidemic in Glens Falls had reached its peak.
“For the first time since the grip epidemic reached a serious stage in the city there were no night death reports up to an early hour in the morning at either the Glens Falls (Hospital) or the emergency hospital,” The Post-Star reported on Oct. 14, 1918.
At the start of the third week of the epidemic, there were 61 patients at the emergency hospital the Red Cross set up at the Glens Falls armory on Warren Street.
“While this is the largest number since the relief institution was opened, the outstanding point to consider is that the past two days have seen a decrease in the number of new cases,” The Post-Star reported.
The epidemic affected the entire region, with Horicon in northern Warren County and Whitehall in Washington County among the hardest hit.
Influenza deaths reported on Oct. 12 and Oct. 14 are as follows:
Oct. 11 — Mrs. James O’ Hearn, age 32 of Hudson Falls, leaving behind a husband and a son
Oct. 12 — Casquale Cornette of Cherry Street at 12:30 a.m. at the emergency hospital.
Oct. 12 — Ten-year-old Miss Helen Stafford of Hartford, whose father had died a few days earlier
Oct. 12 — Mrs. Jesse Carrier, age 25, of Upper Main Street in Hudson Falls, leaving behind a husband and one child
Oct. 12 — Mrs. Earl French, age 22, of Lower Dix Avenue in Hudson Falls, leaving behind a husband
Oct. 12 — Ruth, the infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Adiore St. Pierre of Baker Street in Hudson Falls
Oct. 12 — William Morency, age 27, of Preston Street in Hudson Falls, leaving behind a wife and two children
Oct. 13 — Corydon Smith, age 37, a department boss at the Fenimore plant of Union Bag and Paper Co., leaving behind a wife and seven children
Oct. 13 — Charles Purdy, age 33 of Hudson Falls, leaving behind a wife and two children
Other death notices, which were numerous, listed pneumonia as the cause of death or did not list a cause of death.
There was an optimistic report from South Glens Falls.
“Miss Beatrice Farington, Fairvew Street, who has been ill several days is improving. Mr. and Mrs. Fred Fish Jr., Main Street, who have been in bed for a week with the influenza were able to sit up yesterday.”
The conditions of Helen Fidge and sisters Marion and Doris Hamilton also were improving.
Hudson Falls Methodist Church published a poem in The Post-Star on Oct. 12, and encouraged its parishioners to contemplate it as they worshipped in their separate homes on Sunday.
“I have walked on the Mountain of Gladness. I have wept in the Vale of tears. And my feet have stumbled oft times, as I trod through the path of years.”
“Yet my heart has ever lifted its song of the thankful praise, to the God of all eternity, who has kept me in my ways. Though alone I tread the winepress, or kneel down in Gethsemane, though I ‘walk through the valley of shadow,’ my soul shall not be dismayed. For my God is the God of the fathers, the God of the unafraid!”
Click here and here to read previous posts about the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic in Glens Falls.
Post-Star reports referenced in this post can be found at the New York State Historic Newspapers website, a project of public libraries.
Maury Thompson is a freelance historian of politics, labor organizing and media in New York’s North Country. He lives in Glens Falls, N.Y.
