Category: Delaware

Wilmington Nurses Paid a Heavy Price Fighting the Pandemic of 1918

When the Spanish Influenza hit Delaware in 1918, the surge devastated Wilmington and overwhelmed city hospitals. With sickness everywhere that October, doctors and ambulances could not keep up.  Gongs rang continuously on the streets day and night as the emergency vehicles rushed the most critical cases to Homeopathic, Delaware, and Physicians’ and Surgeons’ hospitals.  This never-ending stream of sufferers quickly overloaded the City’s healthcare system. 

Once the sickest arrived at the hospital, the medical providers on the frontline of caring for the stricken, the nurses, faced grim danger grappling with the invisible virus.  The war had already thinned their ranks, but now on the homefront, they battled an added enemy. Nevertheless, the exhausted professionals struggled around-the-clock in chaotic, unpredictable conditions, under extreme pressure once the surge walloped Wilmington.  All they could offer was palliative care and the little relief that the pharmaceuticals and therapies of the age might provide while realizing they too could become infected, no matter how careful they were.  

A Plea to Help the Nurses

The first plea for help came from Dr. Robert E. Ellegood, president of the Wilmington Board of Health.  In this deteriorating situation, the City urgently needed nurses to care for the mounting caseload, he reported as the first two deadly weeks of October got painfully underway.  Anyone who could help in any conceivable way – trained or not — would be “a godsend by giving some exhausted nurse a chance to take a little rest.”   

Social distancing or personal protective equipment wasn’t an option for these early 20th century caregivers providing hands-on, bedside attention to the sickest people in the City.  Many of these unheralded heroes of these days fell ill, some dying while caring for patients.

Who’ll loan autos to nurses? (Source: Evening Journal, October. 3, 1918, via www.chorniclingamerica.loc.gov;

A Wilmington newspaper sketched out the hopeless situation in those early weeks of October, as the virus raged unchecked in the City.  It seemed like people in Wilmington were dropping dead everywhere, and surely in such desperate hours, these women, many young nurses in training, came to their own terms with the death that was all around them.  As the toll mounted for these practitioners too, the Evening Journal reported that three graduate nurses of the Delaware Hospital died, “from disease which they contracted while caring for patients.” 1

After sixteen harrowing days, there was a glimmer of hope for the clinicians.   On October 17, the Evening Journal said: “One of the best and happiest pieces of news in regards to the epidemic situation is that the heroic nurses who have been struck down while ministering to others suffering the influenza are now getting well and the number of sick nurses is rapidly lessening.” No more had been added to the “pathetic list of nurses who have died as gloriously as any soldier on the battlefield,” the Journal remarked.  In place of 36 sick providers, the Delaware Hospital reported only fifteen of their nurses on the influenza list, and none of those were critical.

Wilmington nurses at the Wilmington Hospital
Children’s ward at Wilmington Hospital, early 1900s. (Source: Christiana Care. https://bit.ly/2xKREHD)

Other city hospitals reported similar improvements.  The Physicians’ and Surgeons’ Hospital had only two nurses who were influenza patients, and at Homeopathic Hospital, none were sick.  Also, there had been no deaths from influenza among the Homeopathic Hospital nurses.  The State Hospital for the Insane reported that six nurses were on the sick list. 

As the dark pall slowly lifted in the second half of the month, the Superintendent of the Delaware Hospital, Barron E. Lyons, wrote that the outbreak “took one nurse after another until out of a quota of forty-two scarcely a dozen remained.  These had to care not only for the one hundred twenty usual patients in the hospitals but their own sick sisters as well,” he noted. “When our first pupil nurse died, not one nurse flinched or showed a sign of fear, but each kept on with her work as loyally as ever,” the October 19, 1918,  letter to the editor stated.

We should remember these women — many young student nurses or emerging professionals — and the sacrifices they made fighting for public health in Wilmington as a global pandemic raged unchecked all around them 102-years-ago.  Thus, as part of our continuing series examining the outbreak on Delmarva, we are compiling a registry of the nurses who made the ultimate sacrifice. 

The Fallen Nurses

Here is what we have developed thus far, and we will update this as more data is collected once the Delaware Public Archive reopens.2  

  • Anna G. Boemann – The Delaware Hospital class of 1915 graduate, Miss Bowman, 28, died Monday morning, October 14, 1918, at the hospital after a week’s illness from pneumonia   She became sick while caring for ill nurses.  Her home was in York PA and the paper noted that she was considered a splendid nurse. 3
  • Elsie A. Bogan – The Delaware Hospital Graduate Nurse (class of 1905) died on October 7, 1918, at her home at 4506 Harrison Street after a week’s sickness.  The 32-year-old had volunteered for overseas military duty but worked at the hospital while waiting for her call.  The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Paul J. Bogtan was buried in her white uniform and nurse’s cap at St. Joseph’s.4
  • Lille J. Campbell –  For 14-years, Miss Campbell was a visiting nurse with the Associated Charities in Wilmington.  At the end of October, she suffered an attack of influenza, and acute appendicitis followed.  While recuperating at the home of her sister at 2312 W. 18th Street, Mrs. H. W. Roberts, her condition declined.  So, the attending physician decided that the only chance of saving her was an operation, and he had her moved to the hospital.  Following surgery, the 44-year-olds weakened condition was against her, and she died on November 3, 1918.  She was laid to rest at Mt. Salem M.E. Church.  Because of her work in the City, she was well known and had a large circle of friends.
  • Martha Corbitt – The thirty-three-year-old nurse, worked as an occupational nurse at the Betheleheml Steek Works at New Castle.  Miss Corbitt died on October 26, 1918
  • Mary Anna Dwyer – The Delaware Hospital Graduate (class of 1918) died Sunday, October 13, 1918, in Delaware City at the home of a patient she was nursing.  The twenty-two-year-old had resided in Kennett Square, PA. 
  • Carrie Elvera Dybeck – This young lady, a 24-year-old student nurse at the Delaware Hospital, died on October 9, 1918, at her home in Hartly.  She was “a younger sister of Miss Ruth Dybeck, the nurse who had died from the malady a few days ago and had taken care of her sister during her illness,” the Evening Journal reported.. 
  • Ruth Dybeck –  A new student nurse from Hartly, Miss Dybeck, 28, had entered the Delaware Hospital to start her training on September 15, a week or two before the influenza surge hit Wilmington.  On September 25, she fell ill, and her sister, Carrie Dybeck, a student nurse with nine-months experience, nursed her through the sickness.  But at 5:30 p.m. on October 3, 1918, she passed away. 
  • Ethel Tammany –  Contracting her sickness while administering to the suffering of others at the New Century Club, an emergency hospital, she died on Oct.  9, 1918.  The twenty-two years-old graduate of the Delaware Hospital graduated in 1917 at the head of the class, a distinction she justly deserved. The “faithful worker” was laid to rest at Riverview cemetery.
  • Also, at least one physician, Dr. E. I Nichols, No. 1623 Mt. Salem Lane, died from influenza, which he contracted while treating epidemic victims.

The so-called Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918 resulted in about 794 deaths in the City, and it seemed like people were dropping dead everywhere.  Surely these untiring workers at a time of the greatest need had to come to terms with the death that was all around them in the Delaware hospitals. 5

The first Wilmington Hospital, Circa 1890. (Source: Christiana Care, https://bit.ly/2xKREHD)
For More on the Spanish Influenza Pandemic

This is part of an ongoing series on the pandemic of 1918. For more see our Spanish Flu Archive

Telephone Operators Were Essential Workers in 1918

Wilmington’s Ambulance Service Struggled to Keep-Up

Endnotes
  1. “Three Nurses, one Doctor Are Dead: Pneumonia Continues to Claim Many Victims in City and Vicinity,” Evening Journal, Oct. 15, 1918, https://bit.ly/2S70pCD[↩]
  2. State of Delaware, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death, www.familysearch.org, accessed April 24, 2020. [↩]
  3. State of Delaware, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death, www.familysearch.org, accessed April 24, 2020.[↩]
  4. “The Supreme Sacrifice,” The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review, Volumes LX and LXI, January to December 1918[↩]
  5. “What Red Cross Did to Stop Influenza Spread,” Evening Journal, Feb. 15, 1919, https://bit.ly/2S70pCD[↩]

Delaware Women on Juries for the First Time

laws of delaware, 1787
A 1787 Volume of the Laws of Delaware in the collection of the Indiana State Law Library

Although women gained the right to vote in 1920, they had to push for equal rights when it came to jury duty. The new voting privilege did not automatically allow them to sit on juries or hold office in many places. The Baltimore Sun reported: “Merely because she may help decide who shall be elected sheriff, court clerk, mayor or president it does not follow that she may also decide who is guilty of murder, arson, or wife-beating.” 1.

Many argued that the ladies were too delicate and needed in the home to be subjected to the unseemly business of the court.  After listening to shocking testimony, opponents noted that they would then have to discuss it with strange men behind closed doors.  Anti-suffragists asserted similar arguments during the long struggle for the franchise, raising the specter of women serving on juries as one of the many reasons for opposing votes for women.

A Wilmington newspaper sketched out the entitlements that came with the vote in the First State:  “Not only may women of Delaware be summoned for jury duty and be eligible for office holding in the event of ratification of the suffrage amendment is sustained, but they may be admitted to practice law at the bar of the state, the Evening Journal remarked. 2

Many in Delaware balked at this straightforward interpretation of the jury-qualification law.  For example, in anticipation of women voting and being entitled to jury service, the General Assembly considered a bill to cut grand juries in all three counties from 24 to 12 members each.  “We want to minimize the number of cold suppers while the grand jury is in session, said a friend of the bill. 3 

Once the nation ratified the 19th Amendment, the change perplexed some Delaware officials.  Two days after approval Attorney General Reinhardt delivered his opinion, advising that just as soon as they register to vote, they will be eligible for jury duty.  However, should there be no women’s names placed in the box used to draw the panel, “of course, there would be no women on the jury, but if their names are placed in the box and are drawn, they will have to serve the same as men.”  4 

Delaware Jury Commissioner John R. Lambson questioned whether or not the precedent established in some states of drawing women to serve as jurors would be followed here as the issue had not been decided by the jury commissioners. Adding that he was uncertain about the powers of the commissioners, Mr. Lambson said it might require special instructions from the court.

The first Delaware women to serve on a jury were called by Coroner Bullock in Nov. 1920. Mrs. Lillian Jacobs, Miss Katherine Livsey, Mrs. John Kelly, and Mrs. George Lord, of Wilmington, were summoned to sit as jurors at the inquest on the death of John J. Festing, a motorman of the New Castle Line of the Wilmington Traction Company, whose death was thought to have been due to falling from his car 5   Pleased with the jury, the coroner remarked that hereafter he would make mixed juries a regular part of his inquests. 6

The State delegated the selection process to jury commissioners, the members in New Castle County being Major Joseph C. Lawson and John R. Lambson. They put the names of qualified voters in a box and withdrew names for the various court terms. Major Lawson advised on Dec. 2, 1920, that no action had been taken to summon women as this was a matter for the State Judiciary to consider. When a reporter asked Judge Herbert L. Rice about this, he said the courts had not been asked for an opinion. 7

Delaware women on juries

Within a week, the United States District Court of Delaware drew two women for grand jury duty in the United States District Court for Delaware. The two Wilmington ladies, Mrs. Jessie Thomas Betts and Miss Miriam Worrell Webb were the first to serve in that capacity in the state’s history. However, women had already served on the coroner’s jury. 8

However, this question of being called on for jury duty was “causing much concern to thousands of women in Delaware who have been given the ballot,” the Evening Journal reported. “Women have served on juries empaneled by Coroner Bullock several times recently, and women jurors have served already in the courts of New York and other States.”

When lawmakers assembled in 1923, they struggled with sorting out the changes brought by the 19th amendment.  Senator Hopkins’ introduced a bill to permit women to be relieved from jury duty without being required to give any reason.  He also presented legislation requiring separate quarters for men and women when serving on a panel and separate bailiffs for men and women jurors when they stayed overnight. 

“Women are too sentimental for jury duty” –Anti-Suffrage argument, Kenneth Russell Chamberlain, 1915. Source: Library of Congress

These bills triggered lengthy, spirited debates.  Miss Sanworth, Chairman of the Democratic County Women’s Committee, addressed the senate, saying that women had asked for the franchise, and now all they wanted was equal opportunity.  “If called upon for jury duty, no matter how unpleasant that duty may be, the welfare of the government depended upon women doing their duty.  This was not time to ask for or to desire special legislation because of sex.” 9

Mrs. Florence Bayard Hilles and Miss Marie Lockwood spoke against the legislation at the request of Senator Ridgley. The present law giving the court the authority to excuse jurors who have a valid excuse, applying as it does to both, was sufficient. There should be no discrimination for or against women, the ladies noted. Mrs. Hilles added: “I belong to the National Woman’s Party, which exists for the purpose of taking out of the laws all discrimination against women.  Women are not asking for any discrimination in their favor.  They are merely asking that those against them should be stricken out.”  10

Senator Highfield favored the legislation claiming that under certain circumstances, women could not neglect their home duties or their duties to the children to serve on juries.  “I would like to ask if there is any man in this Senate who would want his wife impaneled on juries on certain degrading cases,” he inquired.  Senator Hopkins added that the women who spoke did not represent the sentiment of the women of Delaware.  Most senators took the same position, approving it with a vote of 12 to 4.  Senators Betts, Lutz, McDowell, and Walker voted against it.  11

In the House, Miss Laura Cune of Wyoming and Camden spoke on the floor.  Saying she was not only expressing her sentiments but those of hundreds of other women in the state, she noted that she had not been an advocate of suffrage because she forewarned of the attending evils of suffrage for women. It was forced on Delaware by the action of her sister states.  Miss Cune said there have been cases and will continue to be cases before juries that reek of filth in a mixed assembly it would be embarrassing for women and men to sit in such cases.  The bill does not curtail the privileges of women, she argued, as they can serve on juries if they so desire. This bill, she declared, was an outcrop of age-old chivalry which had always promoted men to guard their woman folks.  12

Representative Lord said he favored the bill but questioned the legality of it because women and men are equal before the law and the constitution, which provided that all citizens must do jury duty.

Delaware Law Complicates Path to Equality

The House passed the measure by a vote of 29 to 4.  Those voting against it were Representatives Allee, Carlisle, McManus and Lednum.  Representatives Little and Marr were absent.   (State of Delaware, “Juries,” Laws of the State, Jan 2, 1923, Vol. 34, Chapter 237, 679)), 13 

This new law complicated the path to equality in the jury box. It brought into question foundational elements of the jury system, the random selection of a fair cross-section and compulsory service.  It also created a recurrent battle in the General Assembly as “some women” sought to put “women of Delaware on an equality with men in every particular as far as the state laws are concerned.”

The collision of home duties with civic and judicial ones came again in February 1925. That year members of the Senate disapproved of any effort to compel women of the state to do jury duty if they did not desire to serve in that capacity by killing a bill that provided for the removal of all sex distinction for jury duty.  Senator Hardesty explained that the Legislature two years ago passed a bill giving women the right to decline jury duty if they desired.

In March 1929, Mrs. Florence Bayard Hilles and Miss Marie Lockwood spoke for a bill that would have placed women on equal footing with men as to jury duty.  14

Meanwhile, a report circulated that Mrs. Frances V. Buckson of Blackbird Hundred had been drawn for service.  But the sheriff’s office announced that Mrs. Buckson was not the person summoned “as only men are drawn, the law at present exempting women from jury service.”  The name pulled was Francis V. Buckson, a man’s name, but so far deputy sheriff McDowell who had the summons, had been unable to find anyone in that section of the county by that name.  The similarity of Mrs. Buckson’s name to the one drawn caused speculation in the hundred, the Sheriff explained 15

In Feb 1931, the General Assembly considered a bill to place women on the same footing as men for jury duty.  Supporters argued that they should be required to serve on juries under the same condition as men and that law should not allow them to be excused simply on request.  16

After this things proceeded quietly until World War II disrupted Delaware’s selection method. With so many men serving in the armed services or engaged in essential wartime production work, a shortage of prospective jurors existed.  As the pool of available candidates shrank, the jury board started drawing women for service, the first time in seventeen years, according to the News Journal.  This resulted in Mrs. Elizabeth Carroll White, of Brandywine Hundred being selected, but she elected not to avail herself as state law still permitted her to be excused from jury duty upon request.  17

Two Sussex County Ladies, Mrs. Ida J. Fox of Milton and Mrs. Elsie McGee Bryan of near Lewes were also drawn to serve as petit jurors for the term of Oyer and Terminer Court which was convening to try a murder case.  This was the first time women had been drawn in the history of Sussex County. 18  But they failed to see service.  Mrs. Bryan was excused for business reasons while Mrs. Fox although present, was not called.  19

In Kent County Jury Commissioner Walker L. Miffling and Wilbur E. Jacobs also decided to include women on the jury panels for the county courts because of the shortage of men.  Women thus far had never been empaneled in the county. 20

The “foolish man-made statute”

Marie T. Lockwood, the chair of the Delaware Branch of the National Women’s party, noted the results of the “foolish man-made statute of 1925 [1923],” which permitted women to be excused from court service for any reason.  “When women were given the right to vote in Delaware, with it came the right to serve on juries,” she wrote in a letter to the editor.  Because of this Delaware Statute of 1925 [1923], which you mention, women were permitted to be excused from jury service without having an excuse.  Now that men are scarce, being called for other purposes, the jury board at once tries drawing women and met with the results of this foolish-man made statute of 1925 [1923].  Jury service is part of the duty of citizenship.  One should not be excused when there is not a valid excuse.  Marie T. Lockwood, Chairman Delaware Branch of Nation Woman Party’s Middletown, DE April 15, 1942.  21

A bill to repeal the act of 1923, which excused women from being empaneled upon request, was introduced by Rep. Clarence E. McVey in 1945.  22  After the General Assembly repealed the old law, Walter W. Bacon signed it on April 19, 1945. (State of Delaware, Laws of the State, “Juries” Vol. 38, Chapter 253, 968))

Ladies and Gentleman of the Jury

But the inclusion of women in the draws continued to cause legal wrangling. Following a Grand Jury indictment of three Wilmington men two years later, the defense attorney argued before the Court of Oyer and Terminer that the “indictment was illegally constituted because of the exclusion of women.” Chief Justice Charles S. Richards wrote an opinion saying that while the drawing of women on juries is not mandatory, nevertheless, “they should be included at all times on the jury panels from which the jurors are drawn for both grand and petit juries.” Delaware had “lagged behind in recognizing the rights and obligations of women,” he explained.  She statute providing for Delaware juries embraced women as well as men and the jury commissioners should endeavor at all times to select those who are suited and qualified.  In view of the great change which has taken place in the activities of women in public life in this state as everywhere else, we think the “jury commissioners should not only recognize that they are liable to serve as jurors but should include them at all times on the jury panel from which jurors or drawn . . . in order that said juries may be truly representative of every class of citizen . . . .   23

For more on Women on Juries — See

Women in United States Juries

Part I (Delaware Women on Juries); Part II (Maryland Women on Juries — Under Construction).

Endnotes
  1. “Vote Not a Jury Permit,” Baltimore Sun, April 5, 1920, A5[↩]
  2. Evening Journal, Aug. 23, 1920 p 1[↩]
  3. “Levy Court Ripper for New Castle County,” News Journal, March 30, 1920.  P 1.[↩]
  4. Evening Journal Aug 28, 1920[↩]
  5. Evening Journal, Nov. 3, 1920[↩]
  6. Evening Journal, Nov. 15, 1920[↩]
  7. “Women Not on Jury List Yet, Evening Journal, Dec. 2, 1920, 7[↩]
  8. “Draw Women on U.S. Jury Panel,” Evening Journal, Dec. 9, 1920, 8[↩]
  9. Women’s Pleas Ignored:  Excuse Them From Jury, Morning News, Feb. 16, 1923, 1[↩]
  10. “Debate Over Jury Duty for Women,” Evening Journal, Feb. 14, 1923).),  ((“Why Excuse Women from Jury Service?”  Morning News, Feb. 15, 1923, 10[↩]
  11. “Women Free of Duty as Jurors, Feb. 16, 1923, 1[↩]
  12. Evening Journal, March 1 1923, 15[↩]
  13. “Women Need Not Serve on Juries If They Object,”  Morning News, March 1, 1923, 1[↩]
  14. “Women May Still Escape Jury Duty,” Morning News, March 9, 1929, 17[↩]
  15. “Women is not wanted as juror,” News Journal, Marc 5, 1929, 14[↩]
  16. “House Beats Bill Forcing Women on Juries by 9 to 23,” Morning News, Feb. 10, 1931, 1[↩]
  17. Woman is called for u.s. jury duty Morning News, April 10, 1942, 7[↩]
  18. “Sussex Draws Women for July Jury Duty,” Morning News, June 10, 1942, 13[↩]
  19. Laurel Man Gets Life in Sussex Murder Trail,” Morning News, July 8, 1942, 1[↩]
  20. “Kent to Include Women on Jury,” Morning News, December 8, 1942, 22[↩]
  21. Marie T. Lockwood, “Letter to the Editor,” News Journal, April 17, 1942[↩]
  22. “Bill for Judges Raises Presented,” Morning News,  Feb. 7, 1945, 2[↩]
  23. “Court Denies Motion to Quash Indictment by All Male Jury,” Dec. 23, 1947, 1[↩]

The Flickr Commons Has Many Old Photographs and Postcards

The ferry running between Pennsville, NJ and New Castle DE. Source: Boston Public Library, Flickr Commons

As a result of developing research materials for centuries many of the nation’s largest public libraries have vast collections of photographs and postcards from earlier times.  These items, which are helpful to those digging into the past, have always been available, safely preserved and stored away for visiting patrons.  But now access is greatly enhanced as many of these institutions implement online sharing platforms that support the organization’s mission by increasing access for education, research, and personal enrichment.

The Boston Public Library (BPL), following the example of the Library of Congress, is one of the institutions that has embraced this approach.  It has about 86,000 images on the Commons.  BPL’s photostream is organized into collections and sets. clustered by major topic and state.  It has many historical treasures, including posters, postcards, labels, sheet music, trade cards, and much more.   There are 189 Delaware and 380 Maryland postcards, for example.

The goal of the Flickr Commons is to increase access to publicly held photograph collections and provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge.

Check it out.  You will find images there that will catch your interest as more institutions find innovative ways to share holdings found in the “world’s public photography archives.”  Beyond making the images available on the Internet, visitors are invited to contribute to the public knowledge by adding tags and leaving comments.

———————–

Flickr, Google and Others are Out to Catalog the World’s Public Photo Archives.

The blog Indicommons has a lot of additional information about the the Flickr approach.  Check it out for details, but here are some points the site makes

  • “The Commons . . . expands creative freedom and enriches culture by pushing cultural media outside of the confines and limitation of physical media and by making this media available . . .”
  • “Participating institutions benefit from greater exposure of its collections through Flickr’s high profile and it’s large user base.”
  • “The Commons also allows participating institutions to harness the limitless power of the crowd to mine otherwise inaccessible data.”
  • “The Commons provides educators and their students a wealth of historical imagery and information from around the world. It also allows educators and their students to participate in the historical research and tagging.”

A Dover, DE postcard from the Boston Library

The Boston Library’s Flicker Commons

 

Milford Public LIbrary Digitizes Old Delaware Newspaper

The Milford Public Library has greatly increased the usability of an important research resource by digitizing its collection of local newspapers.   The new products, replacing the old, original microfilm, are not available on the web, so e-copies must be used on a computer workstation at the library.

The town on the line between Kent and Sussex counties had a strong Delaware product, the weekly Milford Chronicle.  It started publishing in 1883 and each week the editors’ packed the pages with fresh, insightful area news from the town and nearby neighborhoods.  When investigating downstate subjects, the strength and quality of this serial usually makes it one to check out for the pages are crammed with original, local news.   The library has carried the run of the Chronicle forward to present times.  A paper of more recent origin, the Beacon was also digitized.

These professionally scanned, high-quality images are valuable and join a growing body of digitized Delaware newspapers.  Thank you Milford Public Library.

Milford Chronicle
The Milford Chronicle at the Milford Public Library

The Milford Chronicle
The Milford Chronicle has been digitized by the Milford Public Library