No Flu cases Sept ”˜18, 400 Daily Oct ”'18

Foreman Percy Gould & dog perhaps at Rosenquist Co., 1008 E. Franklin Ave.

By Sue Hunter Weir

Percy and Nellie (Carlson) Gould amongst 199 deaths in 3 months

On September 19, 1918, Dr. H. M. Guilford, Minneapolis”' City Health Commissioner, declared that the Spanish Influenza epidemic “does not exist in Minneapolis and never has.” That didn”'t mean that he didn”'t expect it to appear. He warned that it would probably reach the city later in the fall. One week later, on September 26, 1918, the Minneapolis Tribune reported the first case of influenza in Minnesota. Four days later, there were 150 reported cases in Minneapolis alone. By mid-October over 400 new cases were being reported in the city every day.

The early cases involved soldiers or military men in training. Soldiers were hospitalized at Fort Snelling while the men who were in training on the University Campus went to the University Hospital and those from the naval training program at Dunwoody were quarantined in the West Hotel. Men who had finished their training and were prepared to move to other military camps around the country had nowhere to go””influenza had spread to 43 of the 48 states and military hospitals were overflowing with sick and dying soldiers.… Read the rest “No Flu cases Sept ”˜18, 400 Daily Oct ”'18”