Influenza raged through Cobleskill – and the pages of the Cobleskill Index - in October 1918.
Then, as quickly as it flared up, it burned itself out.
In Cobleskill in 1918 there were 79 deaths – from all causes - for an average of 6.6 per month. October had 17.
In the Cobleskill Index, the word ‘influenza’ did not appear a single time in the period January - September 1918.
In October it appeared 89 times, peaking at 30 in the October 17 issue. The next month the total dropped to 43.
October 3, 1918: For the first time, the Index reported on the influenza, calling it “a serious epidemic” and a “dreaded disease,” and warning that it “spreads rapidly.”
The front page also had a letter from local boy and pharmacist Sgt. Fred L. Stilson, who was stationed at Fort Ontario in Oswego.
“I have been having the popular disease of the day. Quite a bunch around here are getting it…I felt bum all day Thursday, but didn’t want to give up.
“About five o’clock I took my temperature and it was 103½ so I thought I had better go to bed. Don’t worry about me for I’ll be all right in a day or two now. Fred.”
October 10, 1918: “Spanish influenza has now spread to practically every part of the country,” reported the Index.
“While the condition in Cobleskill is not alarming, our town has its share of influenza patients…The High School and all public places are open as usual…
“Physicians urge residents to go to bed and keep perfectly quiet for a few days and by doing so no serious results seem to follow the attack…
“Physicians state that about 400 are suffering either from the malady, or severe colds, in Cobleskill and vicinity.”
October 17, 1918: “Fewer cases of influenza in Cobleskill than a week ago,” read the hopeful Index headline, “Worst believed to be over and school and churches may re-open in about ten days.”
But the worst was not quite over.
“Undertakers, as well as physicians, have been busy men,” continued the Index, “Undertaker Berger having officiated at five funerals during a single day.”
It was also reported that the remains of Sgt. Fred L. Stilson “accompanied by the grief-stricken sweetheart and parents, arrived here Monday morning.”
October 24, 1918: “While scores of residents of Cobleskill and vicinity are suffering from influenza, local physicians seem to feel that the disease is on the decline and may have passed,” pronounced the Index.
“The cases hereabouts continue to yield readily to treatment where sanitary conditions are good and the physicians orders are carefully followed…
“Yet the conditions are bad enough to make one long for the day when the disease has burned itself out, as it has in other places and we can feel that the horror of the epidemic has drifted away.”