Thursday, March 28, 2024

GRANBURY FELT PAIN OF FLU PANDEMIC

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The influenza weakened the young Granbury woman. Likely suffering from pneumonia complications, Sallie Maude Cherry died on Jan. 28, 1919.

She had just given birth to a daughter, Susie.

The tragic story of the young mother is similar to thousands across the country during that horrific time of history.

The flu pandemic of 1918-19, the deadliest in history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide — about one-third of the planet’s population – and killed an estimated 60 million victims.

The flu killed 675,000 in the United States, more than twice the number of Americans killed in battle in World War II.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has a long way to go to reach the death toll of the earlier pandemic. So far COVID-19 has killed 185,000 in the U.S. Does the following sound familiar?

In 1918-19 citizens were ordered to wear masks, and schools, theaters and businesses were shuttered.

Bodies piled up in makeshift morgues before the virus ended its deadly global march.

Late Hood County News writer Pete Kendall revisited the pandemic in a story he wrote in 2003:

“In the War to End All Wars, WWI, Uncle Sam crushed the Kaiser with a blend of intelligence, bravery and brute force.

“Nothing in uncle’s arsenal was remotely equal to the indestructible Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19.

“Total number of resulting Texas fatalities is unknown. Texas Department of Health records date only to 1929.”

Sallie is buried in Granbury Cemetery.

Her husband, druggist William Harley Cherry, rests beside her. He never remarried. He’d mourned for 39 years until he drew his last breath April 24, 1958.

“W.H. Cherry was one of the main pharmacists in Granbury and had the Cherry Drug Store for years and years,” late historian Mary Kate Durham once said. “The community really admired him. I’m sure he hired a lady to help take care of the house and new baby, but he reared the family on his own.

“Susie was the town’s baby. Everybody had a say in helping her grow up. She married someone from this area, but they went to the state of Washington to live.”

On Jan. 31, 1919 editor Frank Gaston wrote of the Cherry tragedy.

“It seemed the culmination of community sorrows when the word was passed by word of mouth and over the phones Tuesday morning that Mrs. W.H. Cherry had died,” he wrote.

“Her condition was considered much better a part of the past week, and friends were hopeful of her recovery, but this was not to be.

“Funeral services held at the Methodist church on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 were conducted by Rev. W.H. Curry, and her remains were followed to the cemetery by a large number of mourning relatives and family.

“Mrs. Sallie Maude Cherry was born and raised in Granbury and was 37 years, 5 months old. She was married to W.H. Cherry 19 years ago and leaves six living children.

“She was a member of the Methodist church from early girlhood and always ready to do her part as a good Christian woman, a friend to all with whom she came in contact, and was loved by one and all.”

The flu wasn’t as rampant here because of Hood County’s thin and dispersed population. The county was automatically “socially distanced,” local historian Karen Nace pointed out.

Nace, however, discovered more flu-related deaths than she first thought after researching death records.

In 1917 there were 49 deaths, none listing flu as the cause.

However, in 1918, there were 25 flu- and pneumoniarelated deaths. In 1919, 30 Hood Countians lost their lives to the flu, pneumonia and pulmonary TB tuberculosis. The next year, 1920, the number of flu and pneumonia deaths dropped to nine.

Nace said the flu hit all ages, “from babies days or months old to small children, school-age kids and obviously lots of adults.

“I found two cases where sisters were lost within days of each other.”

DIED AFTER RELAPSE

Granbury resident Henry W. Holmes thought he had recovered from the flu and went back to work, but he developed pneumonia and died in November 1918.

According to his obit, “Henry W Holmes died Tuesday morning at 6 o’clock at his home in Granbury. Mr. Holmes had, he thought, recovered from an attack of Spanish influenza and had gone back to work when he was seized with pneumonia from which he died.

“He was buried in the Granbury cemetery Wednesday afternoon at 3:00 o’clock, Rev WN Cherry, Pastor of the Methodist Church, conducting the funeral services. This is indeed a sad death. He leaves behind a wife, five children to mourn for him, besides numerous other relatives. They have the sympathy of all in their sadness.”

The pregnant widow, Annie Mae, had no job so she and her children moved in with her parents near Granbury.

She saw public office as a possible source of income and decided to run for county treasurer.

She won.

In 1925 Annie Mae Holmes became the county’s first female treasurer, an office she held for 11 years.

FAMILY SURVIVES

Hettie Lena Hayworth’s entire family was afflicted, but all survived. The family lived in Neri at the foot of Comanche Peak.

“Neighbors would wait on you,” the late Hayworth told Kendall in 2003. “They’d leave food at the door, but they wouldn’t go inside.”

The Hayworths were the luckier ones. Others weren’t so fortunate.

Kendall also wrote in the Hood County News, “Whenever the virus was present during that terrible fall and winter, it struck quickly, killed frequently, and left families decimated and devastated.”

Granbury Depot records and local newspapers were used to compile this story.

editor@hcnews.com | 817-573-7066, ext. 245

“The second epidemic of influenza struck Granbury good and hard about two weeks ago, and hardly a family has escaped...”

GRANBURY NEWS Jan. 10, 1919