[from “1918 Pandemic Influenza in Maine.” Maine Department of Health and Human Services.(edited for length and clarity)]*

Saturday, September 7

The first soldier at Camp Devens near Boston becomes ill with influenza.

Just 35 miles northwest of Boston this camp, like so many other military camps, was hurriedly erected in the summer of 1917, just after President Wilson and Congress declared war against Germany and entered the United States into World War I.

Built to hold a maximum of 36,000 soldiers, Camp Devens is crammed with over 45,000 soldiers, most have recently been assigned there from Maine and other New England states after the draft was expanded to include any healthy men ages 18 to 45 years old.

Nearly 5 million Americans now serve in the military, including 35,000 Mainers  and including almost 300 women nurses. As part of the American Red Cross Nursing Corps, 24,000 women are also serving in World War I.

Despite this recruitment, the military suffers from nursing shortages, and recruitment efforts are intensifying.

Saturday, September 14

Influenza epidemic starts in Boston among the civilian population.

Wednesday, September 19

Boston and nearby towns see shortage of street car services and closing of schools and theaters. 75 Boston policemen are home with the illness. The supply of the drug used by the War Department is exhausted for the civilian population.

Saturday, September 21

10 nurses from Central Maine General Hospital in Lewiston left for Camp Devens. 6,000 cases of Spanish influenza are reported in the camp today.The Boston Red Cross summoned nurses from all New England  hospitals to care for the soldiers suffering from the disease. An Auburn boy in the camp writes that the disease has spread through the entire camp.

Monday, September 23

Captain William E. Lawry, 36 year old secretary of the Maine State Senate, was stricken by influenza while visiting Devens, and died leaving his wife and two young children. 20% of 45,000+ soldiers at Camp Devens are ill with influenza.

Wednesday, September 25

Lewiston physicians believe that people here should not be alarmed over an epidemic of influenza since there is no local epidemic, just hard colds.

The Maine Department of Health has issued timely warnings about the disease’s transmission – that the disease is given off in secretions and transmitted by coughing, sneezing, and sharing of utensils and towels.

Relatives of men sick at Camp Devens flocked from New England to the camp in large numbers. Relatives of the most critical were allowed to remain overnight.

“America must put her home in order,” said Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson of New York City, secretary of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, speaking before a large audience in Portland. “The Government has called women into the munitions factories to work,” stated Mrs. Wilson,…“What kind of America is this? We are fighting for ideals abroad which we are refused at home.”

Thursday, September 26

Portland’s Mayor Clarke has called a conference to see what action is necessary to suppress the further spread of influenza. Theater managers, the superintendent of schools, Bishop Walsh, Bishop Brewster, and head of the Red Cross, Chamber of Commerce, Jewish societies, as well as members of the board of health, are invited. Portland’s Police Chief promised anti-spitting laws would be strictly enforced.

Elsewhere in New England, places of public assembly are closed. Undertakers are hard pressed to fill demands for hearses and carriages. Some cities forbid public funerals. Telephone exchanges in Greater Boston lose 700 operators through influenza. The telephone company requests that only essential calls be made.

Nearly 5,000 shipyard workers in Quincy are ill and all hospitals are full. A quarantine placed about shipyards in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Friday, September 27

Liberty Loan parades, to raise money for the war effort, were postponed because of public health concerns.

Dr. Leverett D. Bristol, the health commissioner of Maine, said the epidemic of Spanish influenza in this state seems to be increasing, he thought moving picture theaters ought to be closed as a preventative measure, but the schools should remain open. He noted that the state department of health has no authority to order the theaters closed, but the local boards of health could.

Private Philip Doyen, Jr. of South Portland, was detailed to accompany the body of a Waterville boy to his home city. Doyen was himself stricken by the disease on the way to Portland.  The epidemic seems to be the fiercest in Portland, Bath, Lisbon Falls, and some scattered areas all over the state.

Portland’s Health Officer, reported approximately 300 cases of influenza in that city. Four nurses have died from influenza there the past week, according to one local doctor, who said all public places should be closed at once.

Following a conference of 30 citizens in Portland Mayor Clarke’s office, 22 voted informally to close all places of public assembly. The State health director, was in favor of closing immediately places of general resort, or else the adoption of a gauze mask that everyone known to be afflicted with the disease should be compelled to wear in public.

Mayor Clarke quickly frowned on the latter suggestion. Lewiston Board of Health Chairman late Friday said, “To close the schools and theaters, or to in any other way suggest to the people that there is an epidemic here – for there most certainly is none.” He was speaking for many prominent business and professional men.

The suggestion made by the State Health Commissioner, that the theaters of Maine be closed, met with very decided opposition here – not an opposition inspired by commercial reasons, but a “genuine desire for the city’s good.”

Saturday, September 28

Governor Milliken formed a military unit of 15 doctors and nurses to be known as the Maine Unit, to be sent to Massachusetts to assist in the epidemic of influenza. A general appeal was issued for additional Maine nurses to volunteer to Massachusetts.

Maine’s Health Commissioner, said that although the epidemic of influenza is showing a gradual increase, he did not think people should be particularly alarmed or panicky, since it is raging worse in Portland.

The epidemic has struck Biddeford, Saco, and Eastport. The Commissioner sent letters to physicians urging them to be very careful to report cases of the influenza to the local boards of health, to keep track of the cases.

The United Baptist convention was to start in Augusta next week, but has been postponed for two weeks. The Portland Board of Health ordered:  “to conserve the public health it is ordered until further notice: After September 28th, no assemblage or gathering shall be permitted or held in theaters, moving picture houses, or dance halls within the City of Portland, and no other unnecessary assemblage or gathering of people shall be permitted or held within the City. Public schools shall also be discontinued.”

Portland Editorial: With the influenza epidemic reaching a stage where it has been found  necessary to close the public schools and theatres and forbidding all unnecessary gathering, would it not be a wise measure for the Mayor to request the trolley company to have fresh air since it is one of the best preventatives. The comfort of a closed car should not be important when the health of the community is at stake.

An active campaign of education in preventing the spread of grip or influenza was started in Lewiston Saturday following a meeting in Mayor Lemaire’s office in the 1892 City Hall. Printed instructions will be posted in factories, shops, stores, and other public places. Every means will be used to teach citizens how to fight this disease. Mayor Lemaire said that the situation depends “more upon the person himself than upon the board of health or the doctors. If every man, woman and child will follow the instructions we are having printed, there is no reason why the disease should spread. If every person who has the grip will take every possible means to keep from giving it to other people, it will soon be checked.”

Monday, September 30

Livermore Falls selectmen, board of health physicians, and the school board met to determine influenza preventive measures. They announced the Androscoggin County Fair is to be postponed. All public schools, churches, theaters, dance halls, pool rooms, and lodge room are closed until further notice. Maine’s Health Commissioner, notes Spanish Influenza has risen slightly in Maine, but is hitting Portland and Bath the hardest.

Additional resources

See also https://maineanencyclopedia.com/maine-influenza-october-1918/

Central Maine General Hospital  image.  https://www.lewistonmaine.gov/SlideShow.aspx?AID=7&AN=Robert%20R.%20Bedard%20Postcard%20Collection  (accessed March 27, 2020)

* “1918 Pandemic Influenza in Maine.” Maine Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/documents/1918-pandemic-flu.pdf (accessed March, 3, 2020)