A black and white panoramic, aerial view of Camp Zachary Taylor in Kentucky. Camp Zachary Taylor. (Spelled) by placing soldiers in shape of letters] c.1919 [Credit: The Library of Congress] Lexington was not as hard hit as other areas of the state. It was, for example, significantly less hard hit than Louisville. However, the situation there, as across the state, was still serious. On October 6th, the Kentucky state board was forced to issue a state-wide proclamation closing all places of amusement, schools, churches and other places of assembly. Overall, the PHS said that the situation in central and western Kentucky remained good but...the situation in Carter, Breathitt and Harlan Counties and around the mining camps was bad. In Webster County, Doy Lee Lovan said that the impact of the flu epidemic was especially dramatic as it was combined with a smallpox epidemic there. One person from every house on his street died as a result of one disease or the other. In Pike County, Kentucky, a miner noted that It was the saddest lookin time then that ever you saw in your life. My brother lived over there in the camps then and I was working over there and I was dropping cars onto the team pole. And that, that epidemic broke out and people went to dyin and there just four and five dyin every night dyin right there in the camps, every night. And I began goin over there, my brother and all his family took down with it, whatd they call it, the flu? Yeah, 1918 flu. And, uh, when Id get over there Id ride my horse and, and go over there in the evening and Id stay with my brother about three hours and do what I could to help em. And every one of them was in the bed and sometimes Doctor Preston would come while I was there, he was the doctor. And he said Im a tryin to save their lives but Im afraid Im not going to.And they were so bad off. And, and every, nearly every porch, every porch that Id look at had--would have a casket box a sittin on it. And men a diggin graves just as hard as they could and the mines had to shut down there wasnt a nary a man, there wasnt a, there wasnt a mine arunnin a lump of coal or runnin no work. Stayed that away for about six weeks. The pandemic peaked in the fall of 1918 but influenza remained prevalent throughout the state during the winter and spring of 1919.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 22:40:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015