Category: Uncategorized

Wilmington Needed Ambulances When the Spanish Influenza Struck

As the City of Wilmington marshaled its resources for the deadly struggle to alleviate suffering during the pandemic of 1918, branches of local government rendered unwavering service combating the so-called Spanish Influenza.  One of the most challenged governmental operations, the ambulances, toiled under great strain. The division’s never-ending, tough work made even tougher by unprecedented “heart-breaking calls” left the crews reeling. 

The City of Wilmington started contracting with the Phoenix Fire Company in 1877 to operate the emergency transport system.  Forty-one years later as the calendar turned to a tragic year, 1918, the Phoenix Ambulances struggled with a heavy workload, the City’s booming industries pushing everything to the limit to meet war demand.  Then once autumn arrived the virus crept into the City as doctors started reporting cases of a mysterious infection.  Some of these were so severe that they needed hospitalization.1  

Toward the end of September, a handful of emergency calls turned into an unimaginable influx.  Around the hospital at Ninth Street and Delaware Avenue, the ambulance gong clanged continuously night and day, the units hardly able to carry all the sick.  Consequently, people started pressing their automobiles into service, their mission being indicated by Red Cross flags, as they brought “men wrapped up in blankets to the hospital.” 

The calls surpassed what the City could handle so a plea to help the overburdened system went out on October 5, asking for assistance to increase medical transportation capacity.  The Fame Fire Company, another city volunteer firefighting organization, promptly put one if its wagons in service as an ambulance, the men removing the hose and placing mattresses in the bed of the truck.  And the police patrol unit was pressed into duty.

ambulances -- Wilmington Police
The Wilmington Motorized Patrol Wagon around 1915. (Source: Delaware Public Archives)

Additional units came from outside the City.  The Delaware College in Newark volunteered its vehicle, and the Board of Health arranged to use the New Castle County Hospital Ambulance stationed at Farnhurst, along with the “federal ambulance from the guards’ barrack.”2

The significantly increased force went to work immediately.  They made trips all day and night at top speed, without pause, one of the most frequent sights being “an ambulance dashing frantically up the street,” wrote the News Journal. 

Crewing the college unit, the first day, student Wayne Brewer, spent practically all-night Thursday carrying patients to hospitals.  Other students included Robert L. Barkley, Marion P. Boulden, L L. Cobb, Thomas W. Mulroony and J. J. Harold Kolhman, according to the Newark Post. 3

The Phoenix vehicles made 632 calls as of October 16, 1918.  George McVey and Joseph Bonifacino, Jr. chauffeured these wagons “on the day and night cruises of mercy and the attendant sights and scenes of the plagues harvest touched the extremes of human compassion,” the Morning News reported. “Their visits were often to homes containing the dead, dying and near dead in scenes of squalor where the healthy would be taxed to live. . . .They spoke of unspeakable sadness.” 4

Finally, on October 22, the Phoenix crew had its first quiet day in weeks, responding to only one call.  The men had worked hard the past three weeks, and the respite was a treat to them a reporter advised. 

The scenes that unfolded 102-years-old are unimaginable.  Here’s how the news journal described those dark, dark days: “In these stress times of war and pestilence this fact is not to be overlooked – that those who man the ambulances deserve no less credit than those overseas who man the guns.  In the trying day and night duty there had been no faltering or murmuring,” an Evening Journal reporter wrote.  They had “steeled their emotion of compassion so that it wouldn’t interfere with the course of their duty.”

The influenza severely hit the ambulance service as the volunteer crew did what they could.  At a time when people in the City stayed home to escape the virus, the ambulance attendants did what they had to – rushing into the homes of the sick and infected to offer aid.  

The next year, at the request of the Phoenix Fire Company, the Wilmington Police Department assumed responsibility for running the ambulances.  Beginning November 17, 1919, the police ambulance, a dark green Cadillac with a Red Cross on the side and the words police ambulance on the body, went into service.  The fire company sold the old Phoenix units, as Wilmington Police Chief Black appointed  Officers Graham and Robinson to serve as drivers and Grussemeyer and Norman W. Brown worked as police attendants. 

The strain the highly contagious virus put on Wilmington’s volunteer fire companies had been enormous.  But, the men enlisted on the very front lines of this deadly struggle in Wilmington had stayed strong, holding up under the constant pressure of unparalleled stress and uncertainty while constantly facing death.  Now, 102-years-later, it’s not unlike today as first responders all across the nation battle another virus.

For more on the Spanish Influenza in Wilmington See

Wilmington Nurses Paid a Heavy Toll

For more articles see the Delmarva Spanish Flu Archive.

Endnotes
  1. “Close All Public Places,” Evening Journal, Oct. 1, 1918[↩]
  2. “Delaware College Ambulance Helps in Wilmington,” Newark Post, Oct. 2, 1918[↩]
  3. “Delaware College Ambulance Helps in Wilmington,” Newark Post, October, 2, 1918.[↩]
  4. “Phoenix Ambulance Makes 632 Call,” Morning News, Oct. 17, 1918[↩]

Telephone Operators Were Essential Workers in 1918

When the Spanish Influenza struck in 1918, Delmarva’s essential workers paid a heavy toll serving on the front line of the struggle during the weeks the illness ripped across the Peninsula.  That autumn the nation already grappled with the burden of World War I, when the first contagious cases broke out here.

As the virus spread rapidly from Wilmington and nearby military camps to Cape Charles, VA, and every point in between on Delmarva, phone company workers stood out as a group of essential workers struggling to maintain vital services.  The war’s communications requirements had already taxed the system, considerably increasing demand on the wires.  Then, the pandemic added further to this heavy load. 

Operators hit by the flu

At that time, the network depended on operators working in tight quarters at exchanges to make connections for callers.  These “hello girls” sat in rows at switchboards, almost elbow to elbow with other workers.  Thus when the contagion started rampaging, the illness struck the central stations, depleting the ranks of operators at the same time sickness increased calls. 

A young twenty-year-old, night operator at the Newark Telephone Exchange, Lee Roach, died on September 29.  The Delaware College sophomore from Georgetown passed away at the college infirmary on that Sunday. The next day, the Student Army Training Corps escorted the body to the town limits, as the Newark undertaker transported the remains to Middletown to wait on the train for Georgetown. 1

By October 3, the Diamond State Phone Company seemed to have fallen victim to the flu as the company issued a plea.  With at least twenty-five percent of its regular operating force on the sick list, the shortage crippled service. This resulted in a handful of women remaining at their posts, though much fatigued from the overwork of keeping the busy Wilmington exchange “plugged” night and day.  To alleviate the problem, the company recruited “Inexperienced girls” to step in, and these hastily placed ladies did their best they could.  But, many subscribers “grouched” at them as they struggled to learn the process and connect callers.2

The Diamond State Telephone Company Switchboard in Georgetown in the 1940s (Source: Delaware Public Archives)

With the growing pandemic came more and more calls to the switchboards as additional families fell victim to the killer virus.  Plus, people became more or less afraid to mingle in public places, so they left their homes as infrequently as possible, but this too increased social and business transactions over the wires.  In Maryland, the phone company took out an advertisement pleading for people to refrain from making unnecessary calls while also begging for experienced operators to volunteer during this time of trouble.   

The Wilmington office also requested that only essential calls be made by phone.  The war activities in the city had already strained the service, but calls to doctors, hospitals, the ambulance, drugstores, and undertakers created a more considerable strain.  Many essential calls were being delayed as the operators connected conversations of no importance, the company reported. 3

overloading the exchange

telephone operators
To All Telephone User (Source, Baltimore Sun, Oct. 28, 1918)

As October slipped by, more reports arrived, indicating that the flu was crippling local exchanges in smaller towns around the Peninsula as many operators were quite sick.  Some of the local managers at these places also suggested that people only make necessary calls after 10 p.m. when a skeleton crew was on duty overnight.  The remaining operators worked heroically according to reports, but the task in city and country was burdensome, and at night, “these little girls throats are entirely exhausted.  The public should be willing to relieve them as much as possible,” a paper reported.

In Elkton, nearly all the operators at the telephone exchange were seriously ill, so the phone company brought in operators from Salisbury 4. A similar situation existed in North East, the virus sweeping the office there, causing the exchange to shut down for a couple of days. In Chincoteague, the virus hit all the local operators hard so the phone company brought in Miss G. M. Fisher of Temperanceville and Miss S. V. Davis of Salisbury to run the office. 5

The malady also curtailed work on the lines as crews were depleted.   A 27-year-old lineman, Frank N. Myer, installing long-distance wires through the Cecil County, died at Union Hospital during the first week of October.  His remains were sent home to Chicago. 6

Things are different today, as we are connected in so many ways.  But 102 years ago, the essential employees of the phone company performed heroic work, providing crucial communications with minimal disruption while doing risky work.   

When in Quarantine.

For more on the pandemic of 1918, see the Spanish Flu Archive

Endnotes
  1. “Obituary.” Newark Post, October 2, 1918. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88053005/1918-10-02/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1789&index=0&date2=1960&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&lccn=sn88053005&words=Lee Roach&proxdistance=5&state=Delaware&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=lee roach&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1.[↩]
  2. “City Death Rate From Flu Grows; Epidemic Grip Continues.” Evening Journal. (Wilmington). October 10, 1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/159913367/?terms=don’t+overburden+central.[↩]
  3. “Telephone Service Hampered Badly.” Morning News. (Wilmington). October 10, 1918. https://www.newspapers.com/image/159722342/?terms=telephone+service+hampered+badly+sickness+operators.[↩]
  4. Minor Locals, Cecil Democrat, October 26, 1918[↩]
  5. “Chincoteague,” Peninsula Enterprise, Accomac, Oct. 26, 1918[↩]
  6. “Deaths,” Cecil Democrat, (Elkton), October 5, 1918[↩]

Dixon Reappointed to the Historic District Commission

As a charter member of the Cecil County Historic District Commission, I have served on the panel since it was created in 1999.  As my current term expires this month, I was just notified that the county executive reappointed me to serve until March 2023.

The commission’s duties include making recommendations on applications for historic designation, to recommend that such designation be rescinded or amended, to issue or deny certificates of appropriateness for designated structures, and to inform and educate the citizens of Cecil County on the historic and architectural heritage of the County.

Cecil County Council Enacts

Press Release

March 3, 2020

Notice of Enactment

 On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, Legislative Session Day 2020-05, the County Council of Cecil County

Enacted:

Resolution No. 09-2020 Appointment – Historic District Commission – Michael Dixon and Patricia Folk. A Resolution to confirm the reappointments by the County Executive of Michael Dixon and Patricia Folk to the Historic District Commission, to a three-year term to expire March 3, 2023.

Votes for Women in Salem County

Winning the right to vote alongside male counterparts didn’t come easy for New Jersey women.   The 1776 New Jersey Constitution had enfranchised men and women who were worth fifty pounds.  But, this brief period of inclusivity came to an end in 1807 when the Assembly passed a law limiting suffrage to white male taxpayers 1.   Consequently, by the 1840s the ladies had started petitioning lawmakers, demanding the restoration of their former right 2

Statewide and local activism grew in harmony with the national movement, after the Civil War.   As determined activists pressured lawmakers in Trenton, the Assembly granted limited privileges to women in 1897, allowing them to vote in some local school elections.  So as New Jerseyians continued crusading to gain the broader franchise, Elmer and Pittsgrove Township held historic votes, ladies going to the polls six years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment created a universal franchise.

The question that faced Pittsgrove taxpayers was whether the school district should spend $14,500 to buy land and erect a four-room brick schoolhouse.  At this election on April 28, 1914, at the Pole Tavern School, the proposition was defeated by a significant majority.  All but 40 of the 230 voters opposed the outlay  3.  A month earlier, Elmer’s ladies cast over half of the 257 ballots in favor of a $20,000 appropriation for enlarging and remodeling the Main Street school.  “There was considerable local interest in the special election, especially because of the activity of the women,” the Woodstown Monitor Register observed 4.

votes for women
As the votes for women campaign got underway in New Jersey, this map shows where the campaign has had success. (Indiana State Library)

During this period, Equal Suffrage League’s remained active across the county.  In Woodstown, the group offered prizes for the best essay on “Why Women Should Vote” — The first prize was $5.  The judges were Mayor E. S. Fogg, Supervising Principal Shimer, Benj. Patterson, and Mrs. Joel Borton, the president of the League 5.

By 1913, suffragists in nine states had won battles, while in other places, they were slowly converting indecisive politicians.  Spurred on by these successes, New Jersey suffragists got a statewide referendum on the ballot, putting the decision in the hands of men at a special election on October 19, 1915.

As the summer of 1915 slipped peacefully by, campaigning for and against the amendment grew intense, and the women’s suffrage army marched across the Garden State.  That July, Salem County became the center of attention as the activist stepped sprightly into the area.  In Woodstown, members of the Equal Suffrage Association in gaily decorated automobiles arrived, seeking to find converts. 

A few weeks later, in Woodstown, the Rev. William Tatlack spoke about the justness of women voting. And Mrs. Laura G.  Cannon of California addressed the need for a lady’s influence to get good laws passed for better sanitation and conditions for working women.  The principal speaker, Mrs. Jennie C. Laws Hardy of Michigan, told about the success of equal suffrage in Australia, her native country 6.

With a rallying cry of “votes for women,”  Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association and Mrs. Cannon were on a two-day tour around the county 7.  Masterfully piloting their automobile, the  “Adelaide Victory,” along country roads there were “no delays or mishaps” as they visited “every town and almost every country store.”   Mrs. Aldona L. Dickeson of Woodstown, Chairman of the Salem County Equal Suffrage League, accompanied them.  Everywhere men assured the party they would vote favorably.  Daretown was out in full force to greet the tour, and   Friesburg gave a hearty greeting, people coming out in various conveyances to attend the meeting. 8 

At the Salem Courthouse, on a Tuesday in October Mrs. Robert Irving of Haddonfield made a convincing speech, capably handling questions fired at her.  That was followed on Friday by a speech by Mrs. Cannon, who had been here twice, winning the hearts of Salem people and converts to the cause, the Sunbeam remarked. 9

Dr. Annna H. Shaw, National President of the Woman’s Suffrage Party, arrived in Salem on the evening train from Pittsburg.  She was driven through the principal streets by several automobiles accompanied by many local Salem County Suffrage League members.  Afterward, she was taken to the home of Mrs. Robert Clarke Berry, who entertained Dr. Shaw during her stay in Salem.   While here, she delivered an impressive address on granting the franchise to women in New Jersey.  It was an appreciative audience that taxed the capacity of the historic courthouse on a Tuesday in September.  When she referred to men in laugh-provoking words that pleased many ladies present she received hearty applause. 10 

“You object that politics are so dirty, ‘keep the women out of it,” she said.  “When our houses, clothes, or children are dirty, do you send the women away?  It is the first time I have heard of women being kept out of anything because it is dirty.  Women have cleansed the world since the beginning of time.  Give them the ballot and they will clean up politics.  . . . .  Wherever women have had the ballot they have brought in laws safeguarding workers in dangerous occupations, they have worked to shorten the hours of labor not only of women but the man as well,” she continued 9 .

The churches of New Jersey observed Sunday, Oct. 17, 1915, as Woman Suffrage Day, the Elmer Times reported.  “Societies standing for reform and the betterment of mankind have lined up for woman suffrage. All the viscous forces, such as the liquor traffic, white slavers, gamblers, and exploiters of youth and virtues are arrayed against the measure,” The Elmer Times added.  At the Elmer M. E. Church that Sunday evening, Rev. George T. Billman spoke on Woman Suffrage as a moral issue. The Equal Suffrage League of Elmer, Daretown, and Monroeville attended. 11.  The Elmer editor also remarked that the “Times stood for full democracy and gave the cause of suffrage full support, keeping its columns open to the advocates of woman suffrage  12.

Speakers for the Votes for Women Campaign stopped at the Salem County Courthouse as the suffragists toured the County. (Photo by Dixon)

As election day neared, questions centered on whether Oct. 19, was a holiday, so Governor Fielder sought an opinion from Assistant Attorney General Theodore Backes.  The Attorney General’s Office ruled that a special election to consider constitutional amendments was not a general election so since it wasn’t a holiday the saloons weren’t required to close.   “The decision will be very displeasing to the suffragist because they are being bitterly opposed by the liquor men, and there will be a fear that wide-open saloons on this date may mitigate against a victory for the suffrage cause.” 13

The week before the election, some county papers assessed the situation.  The women in favor of equal suffrage have stirred up the county from end to end, and they gave very favorable reports of the outlook, the Woodstown Monitor Registered wrote.  However, the antis, chiefly located in Salem City, were confident the amendment would fail locally and in the state.  One of the enthusiastic antis declared that his side had canvassed Elsinboro, Quinton, Lower Creek, and Alloway and only found two women who wanted to vote, while the men said they didn’t believe in women voting. 8 

The Salem County Standard and Jerseyman reminded voters that this was a critical question so “every man should make it his business to vote yes or no on the subject.”  The editor said the paper had not taken any side of the controversy believing it was the proper course to allow the voters to express themselves upon this subject without any outside influence other than that put forth by the friends or opponents of the propositions. 14

To ensure there were no dirty tricks, the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association conducted schools for poll watchers and workers across the state.  Several were held in the county, one on Sept. 21st at the Borough Hall in Woodstown. 

The men of New Jersey decided not to grant women the right to vote by a big majority across the state on October 19, 1915.  In Salem County, the women lost by 395 votes (1626 to 1231).  Of the twenty precincts in the county, those favoring suffrage were: Alloway, Upper Penn’s Neck, Oldmans, Upper Pittsgrove’s 1st district, Upper Pittgrove’s 2nd district, Old Pittsgrove, Pennsgrove north, and Pennsgrove south.  Salem City’s majority against the amendment was 290 (Salem Standard & Jerseyman, Oct. 22, 1915).   “New Jersey was the first state in the Union to have female suffrage and will be the last one to re-adopt it, because the liquor and other interest fear the vote of women, remarked the Penns Grove Record 15

After its defeat, state law didn’t permit the amendment to be reintroduced into the Legislature for five years.  Since it had to be submitted to two successive legislatures for approval, an amendment was at least seven years off.  But women in the Garden State didn’t t have to wait seven years.  In 1919, Congress passed the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which declared no citizen could be denied the right to vote based on sex.  The New Jersey Legislature ratified the amendment in February 1920, making the state the 29th to do so.

The 19th Amendment became part of the Constitution on Aug. 26, 1920.  Thus, the presidential election of 1920 marked the first time the women of Salem County “had the experience of standing up alongside their men folks and voicing their sentiments as to who shall be the president of the United States,” the Salem Sunbeam observed.  Registration showed that there was nearly a doubling of the number of voters. 16  In Pennsville, Mrs. Charles Casperwod had the distinction of casting the first vote in the ballot box, and Mrs. William Kennedy the second vote. 17     

Notes: From an article originally published in the Salem County Historical Society Newsletter, Summer 2018 — “The Suffrage Army Marches in Salem.”

Also see

Delaware Treated to a Spectacle as Suffragists March Across Delaware

The Suffrage Army Occupies Harford County

Endnotes
  1. Lewis, J. E., Rutgers Law Review, Rethinking Women’s Suffrage in New Jersey, 1776 – 1807, (2011) [↩]
  2. E. R. Turner, “Suffrage in New Jersey, 1790 – 1807. Smith College Studies in History, Vol. 1. No. 4: (July 1916): 165-187[↩]
  3. Penns Grove Record, “Public School Proposition Defeated,” May 1, 1914[↩]
  4. Woodstown Monitor Register, “Elmer Women Voe in School Election,” March 20, 1914[↩]
  5. Penns Grove Record, “Woodstown Whisperings,” April 5, 1914[↩]
  6. Penns Grove Record, “Vote for Women Wanted: Equal Suffrage a Success Elsewhere, July 2, 1915[↩]
  7. Philadelphia Inquirer, “Suffragists Tour Salem County,” Oct. 5, 1915[↩]
  8. Woodstown Monitor Register, “Tour of Adelaide Victory,” Oct. 8, 1915[↩][↩]
  9. Salem Sunbeam, “Votes for Women Draws Crowd: Dr. Anna Howard Shaw Addressed Large Audience,” September 10, 1915[↩][↩]
  10. Woodstown Monitor Register, News at the County Seat., Oct. 8, 1915[↩]
  11. Elmer Times, “Suffrage Day,” Oct. 15, 1915[↩]
  12. Elmer Times, “Timely Topics,” Oct. 22, 1915[↩]
  13. Salem Sunbeam, “Special Elections Not a Holiday,” Oct. 1, 1915[↩]
  14. Salem Standard and Jerseyman, “Get Out a Full Vote,” Oct. 13, 1915[↩]
  15. Penns Grove Record, “Women Failed to Win: Penns Grove, Upper Penns Neck and Oldmans Voted for Women,” Oct. 22, 1915[↩]
  16. Salem Sunbeam, “Big Vote,” Sept. 24, 1920[↩]
  17. Salem Sunbeam, “Pennsville,” Nov. 6, 1920[↩]