May 15, 2020 • 11 mins
As we continue to live through the corona virus pandemic, Tom opens the history books for some lessons our country learned from the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 that he feels apply today.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I heard radio presents Tom Broke off now here. This
we been hearing so much with very good reason about
what is going on in our country and around the
world with this virus that everyone has now become familiar with,
because it is like an arrow aimed at our hearts
(00:21):
and our heads and our way of life. I'd like
to share with you, however, something that happened some time
ago in my home state of South Dakota. It was
a Spanish flu epidemic that makes this look like something
that we should have expected a long time ago. In
nineteen eighteen, in South Dakota, they were thinking that maybe
(00:42):
they'll have a bit of a difficulty because there was
some related deaths that had to do with influenza. Of
the one eighty nine possible causes of death influenza in
nineteen seventeen ranked In late September nineteen eighteen, newspapers ran
accounts of the flu spreading throughout major U. S cities.
(01:04):
South Dakota newspapers wrote of a flu epidemic in Boston, Baltimore,
New York, New Orleans, and Washington. Newspapers also ran daily
accounts from military camps where the flu was out of control.
The bodies of soldiers who died of the flu were
being shipped back to their home states. The spreading of
the flu and military camps was so out of hand
that the propost Marshal General E. H. Crowder canceled draft
(01:28):
calls in October. Stop and think about that for a moment.
And by December of nineteen eighteen, the total number of
deaths via the flu in South Dakota skyrocketed to one thousand,
eight hundred and forty seven. In South Dakota, the very
small population at the time, ranking influences the number one
killer in that state. Not surprisingly, ranking held for the
(01:51):
next two years. The flu accounted for of the total
number of deaths in South Dakota. Now, to think about
what South Dkota was like in those days. They didn't
have Zoom, they didn't have iPhones, they didn't have even
electronic phones in their houses. At that time. A few homes,
probably in some of the so called cities in South
(02:14):
Dakota had party lines, but there was no way of
having the kind of communication that we have now. So
people were dying in their beds and no one knew
what to do about it. The total number of deaths
via the flu in South Dakota. One episodes say the
one thousand, eight hundred and forty seven The scary thing
is that the Spanish flu hit South Dakota in early
(02:35):
October of nineteen eighteen, and then it just spread across
the state like a wildfower. The Department of Final Statistics
calculated its findings at the end of December. That means
a vast majority of the one thousand, eight hundred and
forty seven flu really to deaths occurred in just three months.
In this small state with remote areas between the houses,
(02:59):
town owns, what pastor cities, and wherever people lived. It
could not have been any more remote place. My wife's
grandmother lived on a ranch in western South Dakota, really
in a very remote area, and her job, she later
shared with us, was to ride her horse from ranch
to ranch and do the best that she could to
help the families, and that was not much, except to
(03:22):
try to bring them clean water and comfort them and
try to feed them. Some of the October and November
headlines of nineteen eighteen read triple funeral held at Mount Vernon. Recently,
seven double funerals were held at Lead fourth Death and
Murphy Home. Three die in one week. In Sioux Falls family,
(03:45):
a fourth lead teacher has died in the flu. Fight
for deaths in one family and faith, a brother dies
soon after his sister's death, and on and on and on.
In late November, the governor of the state of South Dakota,
Governor Peter Nor, who was well known and was one
of the state's best governors when history looks back, was
(04:05):
diagnosed with the Spanish flu himself. He was admitted to St.
Joseph's Hospital in Deadwood, South Dakota. I know you've heard
of Deadwood, having contracted the flu on a business trip
to Lusk, Wyoming. The Governor had a fever of one
and three degrees. Gratefully, however, he did survive. He was
released after spending a few days in the hospital. Throughout
(04:26):
the state, churches and theaters and schools and pool halls
and parlors and other public gathering places were closed indefinitely.
The flu escalated to the point that the Superintendent of
the southcot of Board of Health declared that in any
community where the disease is prevalent, public gatherings of all
kinds are now forbidden. Individuals who had any symptoms of
(04:48):
the flu were asked to refrain from any public gathering
of any kind. Public drinking cups, which were popular in
those days, and towels were prohibited. People were forbidden to
congregate it train depots, requiring patrons to buy their train
tickets just one person at a time. The Red Cross
was also employed in supplying nursing personnel, nursing supplies, and
(05:11):
performing such other duties as the public health officers shall
call on them to do. The University of South Goo
to close its doors in mid October to stall the
spread of the flu. In Rapid City in the western
part of the state, the mayor decree that all funerals
must be conducted in open air to prevent the spread
of the flu at funerals. Finally, in some cities, a
(05:33):
doctor's note was required as proof that you had fully
recovered from the flu, thus allowing you to walk in
public and resume your life. It would be safe to
say that the States went through a period of just
organized chaos. According to one historian. One of the best
examples was in Rapid City in the western part of
the state. The Home Guard, the equivalent of today's National Guard,
(05:55):
roam through the streets of Rapid City, finding and arresting
people who were not abiding by the city's newly created
sanitation laws. City residences were fined or arrested for spitting
on the sidewalks in Rapid City. As the local paper noted,
the Guard will be out in full force to see
that there are no breaking of the quarantine regulations. On
(06:17):
October seven, one Rapid City man was charged with flagrant
violation of the anti spitting ordinance. Even a Rapid City
police officer was arrested by the Home Guard for violating
the anti spitting wordinates and the customary fine of six dollars.
Not remember this was nineteen eighteen, and people did spend
a lot. They chewed tobaccos, and they chewed cigars, and
(06:40):
they spit no more. Keep yourself comfortably dressed, Eat plenty
of wholesome foods. That was the best advice that public
health officials could give. Keep your home well ventilated, have
plenty of fresh air in at all times. When you
get a severe cold and think you have Spanish influenza,
go home and go to bed. That was the best
(07:00):
that they could offer. Another newspaper mentioned plenty of fish,
air and sunshine are wonderfully hopeful in combating the disease
and in the hindrance of its spread. Huh. Also, it
was noted that small numbers of cures for the flu
and newspapers including Sasparilla pills, peppertron and fultways, honey and
tar were widely advertised, and of course they didn't no
(07:23):
good death as a result of influence that continued throughout
the state. The following year. In nineteen nineteen, there were
seven hundred deaths via the fluent of the total deaths
in the state, and in nineteen twenty, remember this is
two years after it started, there were five hundred and
fifty one deaths from influenza, ten of the total. It
(07:43):
should also be noted that several individuals contracted the Spanish flu,
but they died from pneumonia because their systems were so
compromised at the time. There are still several questions that
remained unanswered after all of these years. We know how
many people died of the flu, but we don't know
how many contracted the flu and then survived. According to
(08:06):
one historian, and overall view of the newspaper accounts forms
the opinion that several people contracted the flu a number
of people died, but several people then did survive. It
appears that you had two outcomes if you contracted the flu.
Either you died within three days or a week, or
you managed to live. The Spanish flu pandemic occurred in
(08:29):
nineteen eighteen. That was a long time ago, folks, and
it was a much different country, in a much different state.
In my home state of South Dakota, there were none
of the modern medical techniques that we now have available
to us. You couldn't even make a phone call in
most homes. You couldn't reach out to people because they
(08:49):
lived too far away from you. Hospitals were non existent
except in the slightly larger towns. Can you imagine what
it was like in those days. It was a kind
of reign of terror. Now, of course, we're going through
our own reign of terror, but at least we have
the very best scientists in the world working on it.
(09:10):
If only the political people will leave them alone, and
commentators on a certain network which I shall not name,
will leave them alone. Let them do their work. They've
been trained all their life to tell us the truth
about what's going on, and for us to call them
frauds is outrageous. This is the greatest crisis of my lifetime.
(09:31):
I'm now eighty years old and went to World War Two,
and we knew that we were prepared for World War
two and it would be an epic battle. But we
knew what the terms were. Here the terms change almost
every day. This is an enormous test for the greatest
republican democracy in the world. But it's a great test
as well for the American culture of finding ways to
(09:54):
work together. That this land of the Free must remember
that we have lived all of these years, back to
the seventeen hundreds because we found ways to work together
and find a destination that will preserve our land for
our children, grandchildren and beyond. There is nothing quite like
(10:15):
the United States of America. But it's under siege. And
as it's under siege, it requires everyone to deal with
a challenge truthfully and bravely, and not make up stories
about what caused it, and not carry guns to shopping
marks and say open or else. That's not who we are.
If it becomes who we are, it's a little more
(10:36):
than anarchy. And remember this, We're all in this together.
This is an epidemic that is not going through the
neighborhood by neighborhood and saying, well, they seem to have
more money, will leave them alone, or going through other
neighborhoods and saying, I kind of life, your pigmentation, Let's
leave them alone. This strikes everyone and we need to
(10:59):
link arms and link hearts and link attitudes about how
we're going to defeat it. I'm time broke off our
I heart radio and I hear this
I heard radio presents Tom Broke off now here. This
we been hearing so much with very good reason about
what is going on in our country and around the
world with this virus that everyone has now become familiar with,
because it is like an arrow aimed at our hearts
(00:21):
and our heads and our way of life. I'd like
to share with you, however, something that happened some time
ago in my home state of South Dakota. It was
a Spanish flu epidemic that makes this look like something
that we should have expected a long time ago. In
nineteen eighteen, in South Dakota, they were thinking that maybe
(00:42):
they'll have a bit of a difficulty because there was
some related deaths that had to do with influenza. Of
the one eighty nine possible causes of death influenza in
nineteen seventeen ranked In late September nineteen eighteen, newspapers ran
accounts of the flu spreading throughout major U. S cities.
(01:04):
South Dakota newspapers wrote of a flu epidemic in Boston, Baltimore,
New York, New Orleans, and Washington. Newspapers also ran daily
accounts from military camps where the flu was out of control.
The bodies of soldiers who died of the flu were
being shipped back to their home states. The spreading of
the flu and military camps was so out of hand
that the propost Marshal General E. H. Crowder canceled draft
(01:28):
calls in October. Stop and think about that for a moment.
And by December of nineteen eighteen, the total number of
deaths via the flu in South Dakota skyrocketed to one thousand,
eight hundred and forty seven. In South Dakota, the very
small population at the time, ranking influences the number one
killer in that state. Not surprisingly, ranking held for the
(01:51):
next two years. The flu accounted for of the total
number of deaths in South Dakota. Now, to think about
what South Dkota was like in those days. They didn't
have Zoom, they didn't have iPhones, they didn't have even
electronic phones in their houses. At that time. A few homes,
probably in some of the so called cities in South
(02:14):
Dakota had party lines, but there was no way of
having the kind of communication that we have now. So
people were dying in their beds and no one knew
what to do about it. The total number of deaths
via the flu in South Dakota. One episodes say the
one thousand, eight hundred and forty seven The scary thing
is that the Spanish flu hit South Dakota in early
(02:35):
October of nineteen eighteen, and then it just spread across
the state like a wildfower. The Department of Final Statistics
calculated its findings at the end of December. That means
a vast majority of the one thousand, eight hundred and
forty seven flu really to deaths occurred in just three months.
In this small state with remote areas between the houses,
(02:59):
town owns, what pastor cities, and wherever people lived. It
could not have been any more remote place. My wife's
grandmother lived on a ranch in western South Dakota, really
in a very remote area, and her job, she later
shared with us, was to ride her horse from ranch
to ranch and do the best that she could to
help the families, and that was not much, except to
(03:22):
try to bring them clean water and comfort them and
try to feed them. Some of the October and November
headlines of nineteen eighteen read triple funeral held at Mount Vernon. Recently,
seven double funerals were held at Lead fourth Death and
Murphy Home. Three die in one week. In Sioux Falls family,
(03:45):
a fourth lead teacher has died in the flu. Fight
for deaths in one family and faith, a brother dies
soon after his sister's death, and on and on and on.
In late November, the governor of the state of South Dakota,
Governor Peter Nor, who was well known and was one
of the state's best governors when history looks back, was
(04:05):
diagnosed with the Spanish flu himself. He was admitted to St.
Joseph's Hospital in Deadwood, South Dakota. I know you've heard
of Deadwood, having contracted the flu on a business trip
to Lusk, Wyoming. The Governor had a fever of one
and three degrees. Gratefully, however, he did survive. He was
released after spending a few days in the hospital. Throughout
(04:26):
the state, churches and theaters and schools and pool halls
and parlors and other public gathering places were closed indefinitely.
The flu escalated to the point that the Superintendent of
the southcot of Board of Health declared that in any
community where the disease is prevalent, public gatherings of all
kinds are now forbidden. Individuals who had any symptoms of
(04:48):
the flu were asked to refrain from any public gathering
of any kind. Public drinking cups, which were popular in
those days, and towels were prohibited. People were forbidden to
congregate it train depots, requiring patrons to buy their train
tickets just one person at a time. The Red Cross
was also employed in supplying nursing personnel, nursing supplies, and
(05:11):
performing such other duties as the public health officers shall
call on them to do. The University of South Goo
to close its doors in mid October to stall the
spread of the flu. In Rapid City in the western
part of the state, the mayor decree that all funerals
must be conducted in open air to prevent the spread
of the flu at funerals. Finally, in some cities, a
(05:33):
doctor's note was required as proof that you had fully
recovered from the flu, thus allowing you to walk in
public and resume your life. It would be safe to
say that the States went through a period of just
organized chaos. According to one historian. One of the best
examples was in Rapid City in the western part of
the state. The Home Guard, the equivalent of today's National Guard,
(05:55):
roam through the streets of Rapid City, finding and arresting
people who were not abiding by the city's newly created
sanitation laws. City residences were fined or arrested for spitting
on the sidewalks in Rapid City. As the local paper noted,
the Guard will be out in full force to see
that there are no breaking of the quarantine regulations. On
(06:17):
October seven, one Rapid City man was charged with flagrant
violation of the anti spitting ordinance. Even a Rapid City
police officer was arrested by the Home Guard for violating
the anti spitting wordinates and the customary fine of six dollars.
Not remember this was nineteen eighteen, and people did spend
a lot. They chewed tobaccos, and they chewed cigars, and
(06:40):
they spit no more. Keep yourself comfortably dressed, Eat plenty
of wholesome foods. That was the best advice that public
health officials could give. Keep your home well ventilated, have
plenty of fresh air in at all times. When you
get a severe cold and think you have Spanish influenza,
go home and go to bed. That was the best
(07:00):
that they could offer. Another newspaper mentioned plenty of fish,
air and sunshine are wonderfully hopeful in combating the disease
and in the hindrance of its spread. Huh. Also, it
was noted that small numbers of cures for the flu
and newspapers including Sasparilla pills, peppertron and fultways, honey and
tar were widely advertised, and of course they didn't no
(07:23):
good death as a result of influence that continued throughout
the state. The following year. In nineteen nineteen, there were
seven hundred deaths via the fluent of the total deaths
in the state, and in nineteen twenty, remember this is
two years after it started, there were five hundred and
fifty one deaths from influenza, ten of the total. It
(07:43):
should also be noted that several individuals contracted the Spanish flu,
but they died from pneumonia because their systems were so
compromised at the time. There are still several questions that
remained unanswered after all of these years. We know how
many people died of the flu, but we don't know
how many contracted the flu and then survived. According to
(08:06):
one historian, and overall view of the newspaper accounts forms
the opinion that several people contracted the flu a number
of people died, but several people then did survive. It
appears that you had two outcomes if you contracted the flu.
Either you died within three days or a week, or
you managed to live. The Spanish flu pandemic occurred in
(08:29):
nineteen eighteen. That was a long time ago, folks, and
it was a much different country, in a much different state.
In my home state of South Dakota, there were none
of the modern medical techniques that we now have available
to us. You couldn't even make a phone call in
most homes. You couldn't reach out to people because they
(08:49):
lived too far away from you. Hospitals were non existent
except in the slightly larger towns. Can you imagine what
it was like in those days. It was a kind
of reign of terror. Now, of course, we're going through
our own reign of terror, but at least we have
the very best scientists in the world working on it.
(09:10):
If only the political people will leave them alone, and
commentators on a certain network which I shall not name,
will leave them alone. Let them do their work. They've
been trained all their life to tell us the truth
about what's going on, and for us to call them
frauds is outrageous. This is the greatest crisis of my lifetime.
(09:31):
I'm now eighty years old and went to World War Two,
and we knew that we were prepared for World War
two and it would be an epic battle. But we
knew what the terms were. Here the terms change almost
every day. This is an enormous test for the greatest
republican democracy in the world. But it's a great test
as well for the American culture of finding ways to
(09:54):
work together. That this land of the Free must remember
that we have lived all of these years, back to
the seventeen hundreds because we found ways to work together
and find a destination that will preserve our land for
our children, grandchildren and beyond. There is nothing quite like
(10:15):
the United States of America. But it's under siege. And
as it's under siege, it requires everyone to deal with
a challenge truthfully and bravely, and not make up stories
about what caused it, and not carry guns to shopping
marks and say open or else. That's not who we are.
If it becomes who we are, it's a little more
(10:36):
than anarchy. And remember this, We're all in this together.
This is an epidemic that is not going through the
neighborhood by neighborhood and saying, well, they seem to have
more money, will leave them alone, or going through other
neighborhoods and saying, I kind of life, your pigmentation, Let's
leave them alone. This strikes everyone and we need to
(10:59):
link arms and link hearts and link attitudes about how
we're going to defeat it. I'm time broke off our
I heart radio and I hear this
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