THE STORY OF TWO DADS AND THE FLU

Oscar and Tillie Friedrich Ludwig on their wedding day, march 9, 1919. Photo courtesy of Bonnie Ludwig

I sat beside my dad, F.J. Armstrong, when he was an old man. This is what the told me about the flu.

In the winter of 1917-18, while the war was still going on, Cractic Wallace's body was shipped home in a coffin. A big sign in red letters was on the coffin "Do Not Open, Very Contagious Disease." It was influenza.

About two weeks before, a boy had been shipped home to Lutesville from Camp Funson. It wasn't the right body, so Wallace's parents insisted on opening the casket. Within three month's time, 18 people who had been at the funeral, died.

The Oft Doud family family was comprised of four: the wife, husband, boy and girl. Quinine, black draught, sienna tea, chamomile and Epsom salts were the medicines used.

all four of the Douds were sick. The boy and the man slept in one room and the mother and the daughter were in he other room.

F.J. (Dad, too young to be in the service) went every day to give them water, a little food, and to empty the chambers. One morning he went to the Douds' front room and waited on he men, then went into the back room. The mother and the daughter were dead. He had to tell the father. The father and the boy survived.

F.J. had to help lay out the dead. They washed them up and dressed them for the funeral. Coffins were bought for $25 or $50. These wee enclose din a pine box, which often had to be made. In the morning F.J. waited on he sick and in eh afternoon sharpened picks for digging graves. The picks were difficult to get sharpened just right. If they got too soft, they would blunt off, or if too hard, they would break. They had to be heated just right and dipped into the water just so long.

It took four men digging from seven in the morning to get a grave dug through the hardpan, silica of Marquand by four in he evening. Within a 10 mile radius, about 50 people died of influenza.

Oscar Ludwig, my husband Vernon's dad, lived about seven miles north of Jackson when the flu as raging. A neighbor told Oscar "You'd better get to Jackson. The August Friedrich family has the flu."

Now when he was single, Oscar was one who liked a good time. He raised horses and broke them for sale. At the age of 9, he drove the buggy to escort his for older sisters to parties. He danced with many girls, but this young Tillie Friedrich, with the long brown eyes, had stolen his heart.

He may have hitched up the surrey, but I am inclined to believe that he, desiring haste, rode his fastest mare.

All of the Friedrich family was down with the flu except V.C. and Tillie. V.C. said, "I'm not going to take the flue." an hour later he fainted.

V.C.'s life proved that the flu need not discourage a person. His lifespan was 1898-1997 -- almost 100 years.

Oscar found that Tillie had been taking care of the sick family and helping neighbors in need. She didn't believe she would take the flu because she wore a bag of asafetida around her neck, to ward off the germs.

All of Tillie's family survived the flu. The flu bug did not get Oscar and Tillie, either, but the love bug did. They were married March 9, 1919.

Bonnie Ludwig is a retired educator who lives near Jackson.