Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of The Friends 2020 Vol 2 | Page 26

Remembering an Earlier Pandemic

By Robin Hazard Ray Docent

T he COVID-19 pandemic through which we are living today has brought renewed attention to a prior pandemic : the Great Influenza of 1918 – 19 . How was Mount Auburn Cemetery affected by this earlier scourge , and how was that experience different from the pandemic of 2020 ?

Massachusetts was certainly among the states to be hit hard by the influenza . In the spring of 1918 , the first wave of the disease had passed through the country with barely a mention . But in September 1918 , the second , more lethal wave broke across the Commonwealth . Soldiers training at Fort Devens began to fall sick at alarming rates . The severity of the illness and its shocking lethality rate among young , otherwise fit men , was like nothing any medical men had seen before . On autopsy , the victims ’ lungs were found to be filled with thin , bloodtinged fluid . Like COVID , the “ Spanish flu ” ( as it was erroneously called ) starved the stricken of oxygen , leaving them blue in color and gasping for breath . 1
By the end of September , the flu had spread into Boston and surrounding cities and towns . The Cambridge Chronicle of October 5 , 1918 , noted : “ Cambridge has not escaped its full share of the grippe epidemic …. The schools and theatres remain closed , and public gathering have generally been abandoned until the scourge is over .” Over a thousand extra deaths occurred in Cambridge that year , compared to the year following . 2
The paper contained numerous death notices for those who died of pneumonia , following attacks of influenza , to be buried at local cemeteries . On October 19 , the Chronicle noted the passing of Ada Elder ( Lot 3730 Spelman Road , Mausoleum 367-1 ), who had died of pneumonia on October 11 . Her death notice noted that while “ Her career was in no way spectacular ,” she had “ risen above all difficulties ” and her “ unselfish , sunny character made a lasting impression on all those about her .” In Massachusetts overall for the year 1918 , the rate of death from influenza and pneumonia was a staggering 7.3 per thousand . 3
Yet Mount Auburn registered no sense of crisis over that troubled year . The MAC Annual Report for 1918 blandly observed : “ The labor situation has been difficult , but the grounds of the Cemetery have been kept nearly up to their usual standard . It has been impossible to obtain some of the bulbs desired and we have been obliged to use substitutes …. During the influenza , which prevailed in the Fall , our resources were taxed heavily , but we were able to care for all cases .”
Perhaps Mount Auburn , as a private Cemetery , had a more affluent clientele than Cambridge Cemetery or other local burial spots . Then as now , the burden of infectious disease falls far more heavily on those who cannot afford to stay safely at home .
1
Alfred W . Crosby , America ’ s Forgotten Pandemic : The Influenza of 1918 ( Cambridge University Press , 1987 ), 4 – 11 .
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2
Cambridge Chronicle , “ Less By 1000 Than In 1918 ” ( Jan 24 , 1920 ), 13 .
3
Crosby , 210 .