From: Tom Lentz
Columbus
I was reading from my Dad’s (W. Carr Lentz, 1901-1994), autobiography, written in 1988, about the years 1917-1919. It is like today all over again. Carr remembers the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-19.
"The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 , closely linked to the war, touched here just as it affected the rest of the nation and world. Indiana suffered more than 3,000 war dead, the majority dying as a result of disease, chiefly influenza and pneumonia, contracted at home or abroad during the conflict. I remember the flu having its first devastating wave in the winter and spring of that year, and then returned with a vengeance in the fall. October of 1918 had the highest death rate of the whole pandemic. We heard that those infected in the fall got sicker and died faster than during the months of the first wave. We would hear of infections and deaths until March of 1919.
"This pandemic was awful, soldiers at Camp Taylor in Louisville died by the hundreds. Their bodies were shipped home accompanied by a solider. Our hired man and family had it. We never went close to them. I recall my father taking groceries and water to the back door for them. I remember face coverings becoming an essential article of clothing as we feared meeting anyone face to face. Not only was there an ongoing threat to our physical bodies, we suffered economically as the flu progressed with less production of needed grain an livestock, along with the closing of many stores and businesses. This all a result of fear, isolating, infection and death.
"I had a very dear friend, J. Edward Robinson. I had gotten acquainted with him in Charlestown High School. He lived near the Ohio River on a farm. He turned 21 that year and had to register for the draft. He was soon sent to the Arsenal Tech High School in Indianapolis for training. He almost immediately took the flu. His father got there before he passed away. Eddie told his father that he wanted to be buried in the uniform of his country. Eddie’s body was sent back to Jeffersonville. A funeral was conducted in a day or two t the Union Methodist Church. There were not many people there and we all sat around several feet apart. We were actually afraid of each other."
They say that history repeats itself. My father ended his remembrances of the Spanish Flu by saying, "We lived each day during that time in fear and uncertainty, we just trusted the Good Lord and tried to remain vigilant in all we did." I read that after March of 1919, the Spanish Flu seemed to gradually go away. I hope this one will, too.
