This isn’t the first time Bluffton has experienced a pandemic. In 1918-19 the U.S. was hit with the influenza pandemic killing over 600,000 Americans. After so many deaths, the government had to close many businesses and schools as an effort to stop the progression of the flu.
The government decided to reopen everything after the progression of the flu seemed to stop. However, this didn’t last long when twelve people died from the flu in December of 1918 which caused the government to go under quarantine again.
Ron Lora, a history professor at the University of Toledo, said the government has been more responsive than they were in 1918 and 1919.
“Governments, state and national, are much more willing to respond today than in 1918. The United States had not yet entered an era of Big Government,” said Lora. “That began with the New Deal and World War II.”
There has been a lot of similarities between these two pandemics with the closing of school, businesses and sports cancellation. Lora says there are also some big differences between the two.
“The greatest difference we see thus far is the advanced state of medical knowledge today,” said Lora. “Viruses are known; they can be isolated, and their genetic sequence figured out. Electron microscopes were invented in the 1930s and enable us to actually see viruses. Vaccines can be devoted, though they do take time. If quarantines, self-isolation, and self-sheltering prove highly effective, perhaps the world’s total of deaths could fall far below the 50 million or more number often assigned to the 1918-19 pandemic.”
The Witmarsum covered the 1918 flu pandemic, which hit the Village of Bluffton in October 1918. The Oct. 12, 1918 issue included the following:
The ‘flu’ epidemic is closing in on us and all methods of prevention are being tried. The town is quarantined and all public meetings have been called off. The public schools have been closed and all places of amusement have been ordered to close up. The movies, pool rooms and all similar places are the first to be closed and will be closed for a very indefinite period. No church services will be held until the quarantine is lifted. The board of health has prohibited all loafing in the stores, so as soon as your business is transacted you are supposed to leave the place of business. The college has not been closed but no public meetings will be held in the college.
