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We can learn a great deal about ourselves and the present by remembering the past. Here’s the fourth installment of my chronological account of what happened in Berkeley during the 1918-19 “Spanish Flu” epidemic. The stories are largely drawn from the pages of the Berkeley Daily Gazette, Berkeley’s hometown paper at the time. Each installment covers about one week, or six issues (Monday through Saturday), of the Gazette.

I started with October, 1918, because the first cases of the influenza apparently appear ed in the Bay Area in September of that year, and it took some weeks for the local crisis to visibly emerge.


This installment took a long time to assemble and is the longest of the four to date. Not only were there many articles to transcribe, but new issues and subtopics in the health crisis came up as the month of October, 1918, wore on. In it the events of 1918 also begin to track more closely with the events of 2020, with disputes and confusion over several issues related to the influenza and its impacts.

Note: because of its considerable length, this installment covering one week is broken into three sections—A,B and C—for posting. The first and second sections report on events related to the influenza in the fourth week of October, 1918. The third section includes the obituaries of those who died of the epidemic in Berkeley that week, and contemporary news and information on other topics.

Introduction

We have now reached the fourth week of October, 1918, in Berkeley. The Spanish Influenza appears to have become “epidemic” in Berkeley, and precautions and reactions are occurring all over the city. 

The previous weeks had seen the closure of Berkeley’s “places of amusement”, the prohibition of indoor meetings or events, including church services—a major issue in Berkeley, a town that would later promote itself as “a city of churches”—and the reluctant closure of public schools, although supervised public playgrounds were explicitly left open. (There was some public dispute over whether church services should be prohibited and even some civil disobedience in that regard.) 

It appears that most businesses stayed open; there was, as yet, no widespread shut down of commercial activity. 

During the epidemic University and the City followed similar policies to fight the flu but imposed them at different times and by independent processes. The University was probably a bit ahead of the city in imposing quarantines and preventive measures, but the UC campus was also kept open with classes in session, a dramatic difference from today.  

The approaching end of the month saw a spike in flu cases, more than 200 a day on one day in Berkeley, a city which would record just over 56,000 residents in the 1920 Census. By the end of the week nearly 1,000 people in Berkeley were reported sick with the influenza, probably representing two percent of the population, at minimum. 

Berkeley people of all ages and backgrounds and stations in life died, both in Berkeley itself and while traveling, working, or serving in the military outside the city. Some prominent local figures came down with the influenza. 

As in previous installments I remember those who died by including their obituaries in full at the end of the article; for this week, alone, I found the names of twenty locals—either permanent residents, or UC students—who died of the influenza and complications from it, in addition to former Berkeleyeans who died elsewhere and whose names were reported in the paper.  

By the end of the week, October 26, 1918, a Gazette article would say that Berkeley had suffered 33 deaths from the epidemic to date. I think I have found and recorded in these articles, to date, obituaries for some 28 of them. 

The disease rapidly spread within single homes and some group quarters; one family had ten members sick. Some local services started to break down under the tide of infection, and a visible sign of hazard was imposed, the compulsory wearing of masks in public, both on and off the campus. 

In fact, during that week in 1918—just as is now taking place 102 years later during our current pandemic—there was a sudden major emphasis on wearing cloth masks, with everyone from city and county officials to the Governor of California urging the practice and some cities—including Berkeley and San Francisco—requiring it. 

Readers will remember that just a few weeks ago in our own epidemic we were being advised that masks were not essential and the best quality ones should generally be reserved for health care workers; now, we’re officially told that masks are essential outside, and in group settings like grocery stores, and cloth masks will do. 

In 1918, there was a similar focus on cloth masks as the epidemic spread, and some parties engaged in excess hyperbole; at one point, as you’ll see in this installment, a group of well-respected organizations including the local Red Cross, told locals that “A Gauze Mask is 99% Proof Against Influenza…Those who do not wear them get sick. The man or woman or child who will not wear a mask now is a dangerous slacker.” 

Local physicians and nurses were in the beleaguered forefront of the local 1918 response, as were charitable women’s organizations, including the Red Cross. Those groups indefatigably turned out volunteers, medical supplies, and expert volunteer services, and essentially took over much of the nursing and care of hundreds of sick Army cadets on campus. 

As I noted in previous installments, the general practice in 1918 when someone was sick was to care for them at home, with a doctor, and perhaps trained nurses, making regular house calls. Hospitals were less central, except on the UC campus where the University Infirmary cared for many sick students in group wards. 

That probably accounts for the fact that I haven’t found any parallel in the 1918 coverage to today’s major, and real, concern that hospitals will be overwhelmed with influenza patients. In fact, in 1918, there was even one announcement to the contrary. It was reported that on the UC campus—after the temporary conversion of a fraternity and four military barracks to flu wards—there was enough space to house patients. We must remember as well that in 1918 a hospital wasn’t full of sophisticated mechanical and electronic equipment; much of what could be medically be done in a hospital then to ease a case of influenza might be done almost as well at home, with competent nursing and regular visits from a physician. 

Medical measures to fight the flu were limited in 1918. As noted, there was much emphasis on gauze masks (which probably didn’t effectively keep out the tiny viruses, at least not to the extent promised) and on the value of “fresh air” which would have been a health benefit in general but was also sometimes erroneously promoted as a way to prevent catching the flu or a way to help cure it. 

In 2020, one of the issues involved with the COVID-19 crisis is whether and how numbers of those who have been infected can be accurately counted and whether all deaths from the virus are accurately recorded as such. In 1918 there seems to have been some similar confusion and doubt, even among health officials (who, in at least one local instance, said that some people who said they had contracted the influenza were suffering from “hysteria” instead). 

If you look at the obituaries I’ve included in these installments you’ll see that some are written for people who died of “Spanish influenza”, some for people who died of “pneumonia” (a complication of flu, not a virus itself), and a few link the two—i.e., the article might say something like ‘he died of pneumonia after a case of the influenza’. 

What does this mean? I think it means that in both 1918 and 2020 there is room for some ambiguity on precisely how many caught the influenza and how many died of it, but the broader parameters and spread of the epidemic are clear. 

As in previous installments I begin with a rundown of influenza-related news and events in Berkeley during that week of 1918, move on to news of the war and wartime “homefront” activities, and finish with the listing of obituaries of those locals who died of the flu, then brief notes on other news events of the day. 

Influenza 

As Berkeley entered the last week of October, 1918, a tiny second-column note on page two of the October 21 Gazette reported: “According to a report at the office of Health Officer J.J. Benton, this morning 238 new cases of influenza were reported to the office Saturday. There is now a total of approximately 800 cases in Berkeley, according to Dr. Benton. Three deaths were reported to the office yesterday.” 

October 21. “All persons making use of buildings on the campus of the university must wear masks of gauze as a precautionary measure in preventing the spread of Spanish influenza. This order was issued early Saturday by Pres. Benjamin Ide Wheeler of the university upon the advice of the state board of health and of the university physician. Placards announcing that the order goes into effect without delay were posted in all parts of the campus and in the buildings. 

The university auxiliary of the American Red Cross, with Miss Evaline Cutler in charge, is making 7,000 masks for use by students, members of the faculty and other persons entering the buildings on the campus. The masks are being distributed as rapidly as they are made by the women students of the University. Two distribution booths have been established in Wheeler Hall, one in California Hall and one in the University Library building. The masks consist of four strips of thin gauze and will be worn in such a way as to cover the nostrils and mouth.  

The order, as it applies to members of the Students’ Army Training Corps unit, the School of Military Aeronautics and the Naval unit, and other military schools will be enforced by Major William H. Brooks, M.C., the army medical officer in charge, who was especially detailed to the university. University authorities will require the enforcement of the order by non-military persons. The regular classes were held today and President Wheeler’s order will be enforced. The order, it was announced by the university, was issued as a precautionary measure. 

This article was paired with a piece headlined “Red Cross Sends Nurses to Aid Berkeley Sick.” It gives a useful perspective on the volunteer work going on in Berkeley to combat the influenza.

“The efficiency of the Red Cross organization and the way in which it can promptly and efficiently handle an emergency has been once more demonstrated by there part the Berkeley Chapter is playing in helping to combat the present influenza epidemic.Many activities usually carried out for the acquisition of funds and other purposes are suspended temporarily, and the capable women in charge are lending to this present emergency the same ability which has made a success of their other undertakings. 

In addition to the care of the cases at the SATC Barracks, the workers have turned their attention to relief among citizens. Every family which needs help is reported at once, by doctor, charity organization, the dispensary or neighbors, to Miss Edna Osborn at Red Cross headquarters. These names are at once handed to Mrs. J.U. Calkins, in charge of a committee of relief visitors, who investigate the conditions and needs of each family noted, and report back to Headquarters through Mrs. Calkins. Where a nurse is needed, Mrs. Charles R. Stone sends one from her list, and food is provided once a day at the expense of the Red Cross, by Mrs. F.I. Lipman, under physicians’ direction as to what is needed for the case. 

Up to this morning 49 families needing help were reported to Headquarters and cared for, the number of influenza patients varying from two to ten in one family.  

Cases in west Berkeley are handled with the co-operation of the Berkeley Dispensary. Eight nurses are sent every day from Red Cross Headquarters to the dispensary to be assigned to duty as needed. A record is kept at headquarters of all cases cared for and the kind and amount of help given. 

The great need now is for volunteers to help the Red Cross in this work. Nursing experience is not essential, as in many families the need is for other kind of work, such as preparing food, keeping the house in order, caring for the children and countless other home duties. It is not easy work and not as picturesque or romantic perhaps as working at the Barracks, but is is absolutely necessary and the committee at Headquarters urges all women who are willing to do this work to report at once to Miss. Osborn, at the Red Cross Headquarters. Prompt response on the part of the public will do more than anything else to stamp out this epidemic.” 

The Red Cross also the epidemic partially stymie its efforts to educate and enlarge the number of volunteer health care workers. October 22, it was announced “Red Cross Classes to be Suspended”. 

“Following orders issued by the Berkeley Board of Health to omit all gatherings of people until the epidemic of influenza is over, Red Cross classes in first air and home care of the sick under Dr. McVey and Mrs. Zeitfuchs respectively, will be discontinued until further notice. This includes classes now in session as well as those about to be organized.” 

October 22, 1918 the paper reported, “U.C. Women Make 8,300 Flu Masks”. 

“The University Red Cross unit completed 8,300 masks yesterday afternoon and work was started on a new rush order of 4,000 more masks. The cause is furnished by the American Red Cross and a charge of five cents is made for each mask.  

The masks worn by the SATC men will be collected every night at bedtime for the purpose of sterilization. Fresh masks will be distributed in the morning. This means that two masks must be made for each member of the SATC. 

Students are asked to take good care of their masks as only one will be furnished to each student. The masks are sterilized before distribution, by students in the Hygiene and Pathology Department. 

Students should observe the following regulations in regard to their masks. Boil mask for five minutes every night or dip in lysol solution. The black triangle is to be worn on the outside. When mask is taken off, fold with black mark on outside and roll up tight. Do not dangle by strings.” 

October 22, 1918. “Beginning tomorrow the Berkeley chapter of the Red Cross will have a limited number of influenza masks for sale at the information desk at Red Cross headquarters, corner of Allston Way and Shattuck Avenue.” 

October 25, the Gazette reported that students at Oakland’s Mills College—an all-women institution at the time—had sewn and sent 1,050 gauze masks to the Red Cross at UC Berkeley, and had subsequently been sent enough additional fabric “for twice this number”. 

October 22, 1918. “Dr. W.H. Kellogg of Sacramento, secretary of the state board of health, yesterday issued ordered to doctors, nurses, attendants and visitors within hospitals and homes where there are cases of Spanish influenza to wear gauze masks. The order was transmitted through the county health physicians. 

Members of families where there are cases of influenza and all persons suffering from colds in the head or acute coughs or showing other recognized symptoms of the malady also will be require to wear masks when indoors. Reports received here today show a total of about 33,000 cases have been reported since the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in California.” 

October 21, 1918 Army students at UC were restricted to campus. (This was not quite a firm “shelter in place” isolation order since the barracks where they lived were densely populated, and they could still roam around the large campus in groups and interact with the regular UC students.) 

“Until the influenza epidemic has abated no member of the Students’ Army Training Corps will be allowed to leave the campus, according to an announcement made yesterday. A strict quarantine has been ordered by the commanding officer and until further notice the student soldiers will be confined to the university grounds. Although it will be impossible to prevent the mingling of the men with the other students who are not under quarantine, it is hoped to localize the disease to a great extent by adopting these precautionary measures. 

Every effort to control the epidemic is being made by the university authorities. Although four hundred and sixty-eight cases of this and kindred diseases are now being cared for on the campus, the medical authorities state that they have every expectation that there will be no further increase in the number of influenza patients. Major W.H. Brooks, medical corps, United States Army, has taken general charge of the situation here. While there is no cause of alarm, say the physicians who are combatting the epidemic, every precaution to prevent its spread should be taken by the students of the university. 

The order of the president that gauze masks are to be worn to classes and in the library will be enforced for several days, until all danger is past. It is expected that this measure will be effective in stamping out the disease on the campus.  

Forty two new cases were reported yesterday, and seven deaths have occurred in the university community to date. The names follow: Miss Alma Gunderson (nurse), Kenneth Henry Coats, Carl Goll Petsch, Eugenia Thayer, Vernon Thurwell, Flores (sic) Pattee and Jose D. Dudero.” 

October 24, 1918, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to make wearing gauze masks compulsory in that city. 

The next day—and four days after the campus required masks for everyone—on October 25, 1918, the City of Berkeley followed suit.“The wearing of gauze masks as a guard against Spanish influenza became compulsory in Berkeley this morning when the city council passed an ordinance, designated as an emergency measure, requiring the wearing of the masks on the streets and in all public places. The ordinance is similar to the one adopted in San Francisco yesterday, except that the penalty for violation is greater. 

The penalty attached to the Berkeley ordinance is a fine of not more than $500 or imprisonment for not more than ten days in the county jail, or both. Violation of the ordinance comes under the class of misdemeanors. 

A section prohibiting expectorating on the streets is also contained in the measure. This prohibits anyone from spitting on the streets or in public places, and the penalty for the violation thereof is the same as for not wearing the gauze mask. 

The number of influenza cases in the city is diminishing, according to reports of the health office. Yesterday a total of 73 new cases were reported, off which number only 38 were from the city, the remainder being reported by the university physicians. There have been a total of 958 cases reported to date. Twenty-eight deaths have been reported.” 

As the week came to an end on Saturday, October 26, 1918, “six deaths and 194 new cases of Spanish influenza were reported yesterday to the health office. The jump in the number of cases is not considered alarming by the authorities, for they are cases, the health department says, delayed in reporting, and most of them are said to be old cases. It brings the total number of cases up to 1,152 however. The total number of deaths during the month from the disease is now 33.” 

October 23, 1918, Dr. Kellogg, head of the State Board of Health, was in Berkeley and told the Gazette that he “advocated the continuance of the use of gauze masks. He said great credit was due health authorities because of the rapidity of in which gauze masks had been popularized. He said that in addition to requiring that physicians, nurses and attendants in hospitals or private families wear masks, it was also compulsory for anyone suffering from a cold, or showing any symptoms of influenza, to wear masks. he said health authorities had authority to enforce the ruling. It was not compulsory for others to wear masks, he said, but reiterated that everyone was asked to do so.” 

October 23 there was a full page advertisement in the Gazette by the “Alameda County Relief Committee”, which appeared to be a conglomeration of government, civic, and business organizations. 

“WEAR A MASK AND SAVE YOUR LIFE!” it proclaimed. 

“The Emergency that now confronts our city is beyond the facilities of the Health Department. The Red Cross has come to the assistance of the Board of Health. Doctors and nurses can not be obtained to take care of the afflicted. You must wear a mask, not only to protect yourself but your children and your neighbor from influenza, pneumonia, and death. A Gauze Mask is 99% Proof Against Influenza. Doctors wear them. Those who do not wear them get sick. The man or woman or child who will not wear a mask now is a dangerous slacker. WEAR MASKS going to work, at work, going home, at home.” 

The ad ran opposite a newspaper article which noted that “Governor W.D. Stephens has called upon everyone in the state to wear a gauze mask on account of the influenza epidemic. His request follows:  

As an aid in winning the war, it is a patriotic duty for every American citizen to assist in preserving the health of himself and his fellow citizens. The health of our people and our nation is essential and vital to the end that we may have men and money to give to preserve the principles to which our nation stands committed. An unfortunate epidemic has attacked the health of the people of this and other states. It will not be disastrous. It will be overcome. It must not be ignored. It must be fought. Unless the people of this state support our authorities in their efforts to suppress this epidemic they are not doing their full duty either as citizens or as loyal Americans. Our health authorities advise it is imperative that all persons wear a gauze mask over the nose and mouth, thus presenting the spread of this disease. Compliance with this temporary edict means but little discomfort, and means a service rendered to our fellow-men and to our country. It it most essential it the health of our state. As a duty which each citizen can easily perform to our country and our state. I therefore earnestly request that this precaution and protection be followed immediately.” 

Did cloth masks work to reduce the spread of flu in 1918? That’s a relevant question given the sudden new emphasis on wearing masks in Berkeley, California, and the United States this week. 

I found this interesting observation in America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, by Alfred W. Crosby, published in 2003. 

“The wearing of ‘surgical masks,’ pads of gauze fastened over mouth and nose by strings tied behind the head, had been common, especially by medical personnel, since the first appearance of Spanish influenza. In its first Spanish influenza pamphlet, issued in September (1918) the USPHS recommended that those nursing flu patients wear gauze masks. Soon laymen decided that what was a sensible caution in the sickroom would be just as sensible in every situation. Gauze masks became a common sight in the streets and department stores of communities in the eastern United States. People could and did honestly believe that a few layers of gauze would keep out flu bugs, just as screens kept the flies off the front porch. 

The influenza virus itself is, of course, so infinitely tiny that it can pass through any cloth, no matter how tightly woven, but a mask can catch some of the motes of dust and droplettes of water on which the virus may be riding. However, to be even slightly effective during a flu epidemic masks must be worn at all times when people are together, at home and at work and in between, must be of a proper and probably uncomfortable thickness, must be tied firmly, and must be washed and dried at least once daily. Enforcement of such conditions is impossible and so the communities where masking was compulsory during the Spanish influenza pandemic almost always had health records the same as those of adjacent communities without masking.” 

There is another interesting side note here in medical history. Historians familiar with medical practices raised the possibility in a 2009 paper that at least some of those who died of influenza in 1918/19 could have been actually accidentally poisoned with aspirin. How? Aspirin was developed in the 1890s and in 1917 the patent expired, so much copycat production (what would be called “generic drugs” today) ensued, as well as extensive advertising of the benefits of aspirin by those who stood to benefit from its sale. In 1918 the military also started using aspirin as a treatment and the recommended dosages were much higher than levels of use that are considered safe today. And high dosages of aspirin can create pulmonary edema, fluid in the lungs, which was also a symptom of the flu. So, some speculate, a portion of the influenza deaths could have been caused, or hastened, by unsafe dosages of aspirin. Source: see this link for the identification of the research paper and an abstract. https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441 

Beyond what was happening on the front lines in local hospitals and the homes of the infected, Berkeley was experiencing other impacts of the flu in 1918. By late October, the mounting numbers of sick started to strain some non-medical services that depended on groups of people working closely together. October 25, the Gazette carried this announcement. “Owning to the telephone service not being up to the usual standard of efficiency on account of the Spanish influenza epidemic incapacitating many of the telephone operations, as well as increasing the telephone service, Fire Chief Rose has suggested that in cases of fire, the fire alarm boxes be used, instead of depending on the telephone to notify the fire department. In an order issued today, Fire Chief Rose states:

‘The influenza which is now epidemic in Berkeley has been the cause of the local telephone service not being up to its usual standard of efficiency, inasmuch as the operators are answering more emergency calls on account of the large number of calls that are coming in for the service of doctors and nurses. Owning to this condition Chief Rose of the fire department would urge in case of a fire breaking out that the fire alarm boxes be used in preference to the telephone in sending in the alarm. By so doing there will be no delay in responding to the same by the department. By using the telephone, in all probability, much valuable time would be lost, for the reasons as hereinbefore (sic) stated, and serious loss would be the result. The chief would further urge that the public familiarize itself with the locations of the boxes so in case it was necessary for the calling out of the department, no time would be lost owing to being not familiar with their locations. Following are the instructions to send in an alarm, Break glass in door, turn key to right, open the door, pull down hook once and let it go. Person sending in an alarm should stay at box until the arrival of the apparatus and direct the men to the location of the fire. Following are the locations of the fire alarm boxes.’ ” 

(A list of the locations of 81 fire alarm boxes was provided. Curiously, the numbering system started with 4-13, and ran intermittently up to 242; the numbers were in rising order, but were not consecutive; possibly they were numbered by some sort of district or geographical formula. 

A bit of explanation may be in order for those not familiar with older forms of electric communication. In 1918 if you used the telephone you first called the operator, who then manually connected your line to the telephone line you were calling; the operators sat together in front of switchboards which were physically real, not virtual. Fewer operators working because of sickness meant a slow-down in this necessary process to manually connect calls. Fire alarm boxes were just as described in the announcement; fixed locations around the city where someone could go to manually trigger a alarm signal would be transmitted to the fire department, which responded with engines sent to the location of the box—or the visible smoke, whichever was more obvious.) 

(continue to Fourth Installment, Part B, for the remainder of Berkeley news from the fourth week of October, 1918.)