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The goal of this blog is to help readers locate their lineage and discover the forces that motivated them, and learn how they lived their lives--told in their own words in the BEHIND THESE MOUNTAINS trilogy, from the 1860s to the early 1930s. The indexed names will be published here frequently, along with an excerpt and a historical photograph if available. ** Scroll Archives at right.

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Thank you ~~ Mona Leeson Vanek ~aka~Montana Scribbler



Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Spanish Influenza: Settlers of Sanders County Montana: Vignette Vol.2 No. 5.

Vignette Vol.2 No.5
Resource: BEHIND THESE MOUNTAINS

1918-19 Noxon. Excerpt--Spanish influenza invaded every town in 1918, hitting almost every family through one member or another. No one had ever seen the likes of it before. Worse than any cold, or ague ever known, influenza decimated population the world over. It plagued Americans, Canadians, European countries, and everywhere it raged. And there was no known medication to cure it. One either survived "the flu", or died. Influenza was highly infectious and contagious.

The deadly illness brought dizziness, fevers of 100-104, chills, coughing, congestion, aching, lethargy, a dangerously slowed pulse and unconsciousness. Victims vomited and suffered weakness, pains in eyes, ears, head or back, and they hurt all over their body. It made eyes and insides of eyelids bloodshot and caused a discharge from the nose. Fevers lasted 3-4 days. Treatment: Go home and to bed at once. Drink water, use cold compress to head, and sponge lightly with cool water. Wear a mask when attending patient.

Desperate counties passed laws. trying to curb influenza's spread and Sanders County Independent Ledger told readers late in October, 1918,
"Emergency regulations providing for, among other things, the closing of schools, theaters and places of public amusement and prohibiting of public gatherings upon the outbreak of influenza in any Montana community."
Late in 1918 Noxon and all the little hamlets along the Clark's Fork River were hard hit. Harry Talmadge was making posts on Dry Creek for Jim Saint when the storekeeper, George Buck and his wife both got the "flu" and sent for Harry to tend the store. Harry said,

Harry Tallmadge, ca. 1916-18
"Sarah and I were living in a log cabin on Dry Creek. Buck had the post office in his store and I was sworn-in to work in it. I hated to go to Noxon, afraid I might bring the flu back to my family. But I went. They had two Spokane doctors in town. Mrs. Buck had pneumonia. They feared she'd die and, in desperation to reduce the fever ravishing her body, put her out doors in the snow, in a tent out back.
"I told one of the doctors I was afraid of taking the flu back to my family, handling all the stuff in the post office. He told me to get a fifth of whiskey and take a swallow of it once in a while. So I did."
Still worried that he might take the flu home to his family, instead of walking the five miles each night to their cabin, Harry stayed in the Montana Hotel operated by Mrs. Granville Gordon.

In the Montana Hotel. Mrs George Phillips, ex-wife of the NPRR telegrapher, and Elmer Angst, a 19-year-old man from Thompson Falls who had been living in Noxon working for Marion Larson, both died of the flu. But Harry never got it.

 
Montana Hotel in Noxon, Montana, ca. 1918. Courtesy Blanche
Gordon Claxton collection.

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Resource is also available free online @ Behind These Mountains, Volume II 

 
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