Another beautiful day at Broadway Park with 18 Rotarians in attendance, joined by our guest Erika Lahti and our speaker, Chris Schuelke. Katie Johnson gave our invocation. There was some talk about peaches and our Rotary Minute was a much-used trivia quiz on our favorite fruit, with the answers to three of five questions remembered correctly.
Steve Leitte led off brags and fines telling us he had been provided a tour of a North Dakota missile site and the person knew John MacFarlane; Steve also reported that he had worked on the missile sites back in 1963 and 1964. The reference to seeing the missile site up close prompted Buzz Lundeen to recall John MacFarlane was the mayor of Langdon when Henry Kissinger came to visit to see what he was trading away; on a sad note, Buzz also stated Virginia Adams died that morning; her husband, Sam, was a long-time member of our club. Wally Cole paid for enjoying an extended stay by a daughter and family. Greg Darling, Zach Stach, Hal Leland, Mary Pettit and Ryan Welle put in for missing past meetings, with Ryan also thanking those who covered programs in his absence. Jake Hexum finished things off with a contribution for missing next week’s meeting, as he will be canoeing in the Boundary Waters.
Chris Schuelke, Director of the Otter Tail County Historical Society, gave a program on the effect of the 1918 pandemic in Otter Tail County. On September 30, 1918, Dr. J.V. Vigen, serving as the City’s Health Officer, issued a statement saying the Spanish flu (H1N1A), or “Spanish Grip” was not present in our City. The first known case in our country was reported on March 4, 1918, when an Army cook in Kansas contracted the virus. A local doctor then warned the U.S. Public Health Service about the disease, but the red flag was ignored. Within days, 522 were sick and by March 11th, it had reached New York. From February of 1918 to April of 1920 over 500 million people were infected worldwide, one-third of the existing population, with between 25 to 50 million of those dying.
The flu hit Fergus Falls shortly after Dr. Vigen’s assurances, with a significant drop in school attendance leading to the closing of public schools on October 9, 2018. On October 10, 1918, the mayor closed churches, theaters and places of amusement and prohibited all public gatherings within the city. Five days later Minnesota banned all public funerals and a day later banned political meetings. Cases in Fergus Falls grew to serious proportions the last two weeks of October, with entire families stricken, leading to a plea for volunteers to care for the sick.
Chris went on to talk about the effect of the pandemic at the State Hospital, which had gone without a morgue despite repeated requests for funding until 1914. Prior to the pandemic, in 1915 to 1917, the facility averaged 54 deaths per year; in October of 2018 alone, 54 residents died.
In the City, the flu appeared to be slowing down so schools reopened on November 4, 1918, but there was a 15% absentee rate; the virus returned with a vengeance in mid-November and the schools closed again. There was then a struggle between the mayor the health officer as to who had authority to close everything down. Having rescinded the mayor’s second shutdown order, the health officer than let the mayor’s shut-down order issued the next day stand, notwithstanding a ruling in his favor by the city attorney. (This was not the first nor the last time an attorney’s advice went unheeded.) By the end of November, the number of cases had levelled off and everything reopened in early December of 1918. Nonetheless, the virus lingered throughout the winter and spring of 1919.
The 1920 census indicated 50,518 were living in Otter Tail County (compared to 57,303 in 2010). In the first nine months of 1918, the County averaged 50 deaths per month. That number jumped to 170 in October, 157 in November and 86 in December. The estimate is that 235 to 285 Otter Tail County residents succumbed to the disease. (As a comparison, 200+ men and 13 women from our county served in World War I, with 87 casualties, 36 of those killed in action.)
Chris also put the pandemic in historical context. The U.S. had declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, with food rationing occurring in our country the first time ever. The war also saw the formation of the Minnesota Public Safety Commission, which started a campaign against immigrants, particularly Germans. The Daughters of the American Revolution requested the city to rename Bismarck Ave. to what became Washington Ave. and Scandia State Bank (at the current Mauk Jewelers site) was pressured to change its name to American State Bank. The flu then hit, but by the beginning of 1919, city leaders were again moving forward. That spring a proposal was made to put the armory and city hall under one roof and the Commercial Club proposed paving downtown streets and putting street name signs up. Then came the cyclone on June 22, 1919, with two-thirds of the city destroyed or damaged.
Chris always gives an interesting program, and this was no exception. He also told us the exhibit gallery (and I presume store) at the Museum has now reopened with hours Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The research library is still closed but people can still conduct research through e-mail. Traffic in the exhibit hall is all one way and interactive displays have been temporarily removed. They allow up to 10 people in on a rolling basis. They are also much more active on social media and Chris suggested we check out www.otchs.org. Missy Hermes is presenting “History by the Highway” on Facebook and there has been posted on YouTube a report on the quarantine history of our county. A history of all 62 townships is also available online. 
