Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-02-21
Influenza In 1907
Terrible Mortality Caused During
First Visit to Charleston.
PEOPLE SUSPICIOUS then As NOW

Some People Connected the Dread Wis.
itation With the Appearance of a
Comet in the sky-Interestins Facts
Taken from the Old Records.
Charleston Sunday News.
Few articles which have appeared
in The News and Courier lately have
excited more comment than the repub-
lication last Monday Of DR.. Ramsay's
account of the influenza epidemic of
1907, which spread north and south
from New York like wildfire, at least
half the population Of Charleston be-
ing afflicted with it in the course Of a
very short period.
There is another contemporary re-
port on this 1907 epidemic which is
in some respects even more interest
ing than that of Dr. Ramsay. 1t, too,
was by an eminent Charleston physi-
clan of that day, DR.. Joseph Johnson.
Some extracts from it undoubtedly will
be welcomed by many readers; but be-
fore giving them perhaps there are
some who would be glad to know what
attention the epidemic attracted in the
newspapers at that time.
What tho Papers Said.
Comparatively, a great deal. 1t must
be remembered that in 1907 news
papers in general gave practically no
space to the publication Of local news
items. The Charleston papers were no
exception in this respect; the theory,
apparently, being that people knew
what was happening at home and that
the function Of the newspapers was to
inform them as to what was going
on at the various seats Of government
and Of. the statute of affairs in Europe.
. The four pages Of the Charleston
Courier in 1907 contained daily three
and one-half pages of advertise
ments and about three columns Of
matter devoted to a discussion Of
what was being done by Napoleon,
or at Washington, or by the state
legislature, or to the war cloud
then thickening. Six or eight inches
was the maximum given to Charleston
affairs; and that in general was taken
up with marriage notices and death
notices.
It will be understood from the fore
going that the fact that the prevalence
of influenza in the city was mentioned
at least five or six times during the
fall Of 1907 means that the epidemic
was a real sensation; even more so,
1t world appear, than in the epidemic"
fever, which likewise ragged at that
time, ia deaths occurring from it in
September.
First Mentioned October 15
The Influenza epidemic had started
in New York in August, 1907 accord
ing to DR.. Ramsay. The first mention
Of 1t in The Courier was on Thursday,
October Is. "The influenza" It stated,
"is becoming very prevalent in this
city," A week later, or, to be exact,
on Friday, October %, 1t was stated:
1.-THE influenza has become so preva-
lent that 1t Is supposed upwards Of
5000 persons are now afflicted with 1t
in this city. 1t has not. so far as we
can learn, been attended with any
mortality"
The next item which follows this
is interesting. Greatly as we have
been distressed during the past sum-
mer," It reads, with oppressive heat,
the ravages of an uncomfortable dis
ease, and the stagnation Of business,
yet under the blessings Of Providence
our planters have made more luXuriant
crops than in many preceding years.
and the weather continued remarkably
favorable for the gathering Of them
in"
Deadly in Havana.
One other quotation from the Cou-
rier before passing to DR.. Johnson's
narrative. On December 23, 1903, ap-
peared the following: 1--WE learn that
the influenza is now very prevalent
at Havana, and that 1t is attended
with a very considerable degree Of
morality"
In 1907 DR.. Joseph Johnson was
president of the Medical society OF
South Carolina. DR.. Johnson was the
father Of the late DIR. John Johnson,
long rector of the st. Phillips church.
He is probably best known as the au
thor Of Johnson's Traditions of the
American revolution.
At the anniversary meeting Of the
Medical society held on December "a,
1907, DR.. Johnson devoted his address
to a review Of the weather and the
disease of Charleston during the year,
the address being published by order
Of the society.
DR.. Johnson began his address with
an account Of the weather, comment
ing in detail upon the severity OF the
cold with which the year had set in.
"The changes in February and March,"
he says, were very great and sudden.
On the 9Th the temperature fell thirty
two degrees in seventeen hours, as ap-
peared by our dairy, and had probably
been lower, but had risen at s o'clock
in the morning, the usual hour OF OBJ
servation. On the 10th it had increased
twenty seven degrees in thirty one
hours, and many changes Of fifteen to
twenty four degrees are observed in
short periods during these months"
Charleston's Blacklist Month.
After a cold and backward spring
there followed an abnormally hot and
dry summer, and this was succeeded
by a long drought in the fall. The
"endemial fever" ragged and Septem-
ber was, from sickness and death, the
blackest month ever recorded in Char
lesion, there having been 328 inter-
ments, of which ia were from en-
denial causes, and at least one-fourth
of the inhabitants Established at 2S,-
600 in number) were affected with in