Off the Editor’s Desk – 4-29-2020
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The walls are closing in!
The walls are closing in on me with this stay at home bit. But I agree that it is what we have to do to stop the spread of the Coronavirus. I am willing to wait a few more weeks to see if the sickness and deaths slow down.
Already, the deaths from the Virus in the United States is somewhere around 55,000 people. That is like killing off the entire city of Eau Claire, so let’s keep our behinds in that recliner reading the local newspaper.
But, watching the death toll and confirmed cases of the COVID-19 in the United States and world wide, I wonder why we have a quarter of the deaths and a third of the people infected worldwide? I have to believe that some countries are not keeping track or we are recording deaths of people that had the virus, but died from some other underlying illness.
Over the last week protesters are again out in the streets looking to have the local state governments suspend the guidelines for this quarantine so they can get back to work or play.
The governor of Georgia is opening up that state while protestors in Michigan are calling for the state’s governor to relax her rules. She has put in place that you can’t even buy garden seed and plant them. In the meantime Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (OAC), the 30-year old Congresswomen from New York is telling people that have been laid off because of the Virus not to go back to work. I think she will request money from the government to fund these people that will not go back to work.
There is a push within the Democratic Party that wants to see everyone on the government’s dole and thus the government can control us all, and take away our guns.
How does this pandemic compare to the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic (called the Spanish Flu) that spread worldwide? In the United States it was first identified in military personnel in the spring of 1918.
Compared to what we have today, the 1918 pandemic infected about a third of the world’s population and killed about 50 million people worldwide with some 675,000 being in the United States.
LeAnn searched the files of the Colfax Messenger and found these details of the pandemic back in 1918.
In the October 17, 1918 issue it was announced that in order to safeguard against the spread of Spanish influenza in Colfax, schools would be closed for two weeks. The Joy Theater also was closed and a ban was placed on the holding of church services and Sunday school and all public gatherings.
Two weeks later the newspaper reported that the Board of Health extended the school closing. “It was also deemed best to close the churches last Sunday and cut out the picture shows.”
In the December 5th issue it was reported that the “Colfax Schools will be open next Monday, after being closed for six weeks on account of the Spanish “flu” epidemic. Church services will be held next Sunday as usual.”
On January 8, 1919, it was reported “there have been no report cards thus far this year because of the closing of school and also because of irregular attendance due to sickness in the homes.
On November 21, 1918 the story in the Messenger states; “The sad news was received in Colfax last Sunday morning that Prof. G. A. Stenerson, former high school principal, had passed away in England, death due to Spanish influenza and pneumonia, contracted while aboard ship en route overseas. He was buried with military honors October 15, the remains being laid to rest in a military cemetery near Westchester, England.
Ole Thompson, residing in the Sinking Creek country, received the sad intelligence last Saturday evening that his son, Elmer, had passed away in France.
His death was due to Spanish influenza followed by pneumonia. The young officer left for training camp July 16.
Mrs. Pauline Winget died Wednesday, November 13, of pneumonia following an attack of influenza. Pauline is survived by her husband, two sons, Kenneth, age five and Body, age three years, her father and mother, one sister and five brothers.
In the Glenwood City Tribune of December of 1918 from the casualty list contained the name of Orrin M. Russell of Colfax who had died of the disease.
Checking back in the files of the Tribune Press Reporter, local government officials issued a ban against public gatherings in October of 1918 and reported there have been only a few cases in the area with none of them being fatal. But the ban was lifted and school resumed on December 2nd and by December 5 the influenza embargo was no longer in effect.
The first death reported in the local newspaper (October 31st, 1919) was that of H. J. Wall, 70, a former resident of Glenwood City, who opened a blacksmith shop here in 1890 and after retiring, moved to Summerfield, Florida where he passed away at his home.
On December 5, 1918 the Tribune received a letter that Mr. and Mrs. John Ohman from Malta, Montana that they and their children have just recovered from a severe siege of the influenza,
In the December 26, 1918 issue of the Tribune, three deaths are reported. A Mrs. Hugh Best died at her home in Downing of the influenza. David Patterson, a former Downing resident died in a hospital in Chippewa Falls and Burtis, the young son of Mr. and Mrs. David Patteson, formerly of Glenwood City died in Hudson.
Thanks for reading! ~Carlton