The Reading WCTU Fountain was dedicated to Frances Willard
READING, PA — These WCTU fountains, installed as part of the temperance movement’s campaign to convince men to give up stronger drinks, are still found in some cities and towns around the country. Thus since I was in Reading working on research questions related to how a series of turn-of-the-20th century progressive era social movements converged and developed in small east coast cities, I stopped by the drinking fountain.
The granite monument was placed in the center of the bustling industrial town by the Reading Woman’s Christian Temperance Union chapter in June 1904. This drinking fountain is particularly ornate, and it was dedicated to the national president of the WCTU, Frances Willard. It had been carved by Ernst Epp’s Central Granite Works in Reading.,
The WCTU Fountain on Penn Square in the center of Reading. — Aug 9, 2019
After that deadly killer, the Spanish flu, slipped silently into Delaware in 1918, a devastating autumn outbreak crushed the state’s health care system. By the middle of September, the pathogen started making considerable inroads in New Castle County, and in the waning days of the month, nearly a thousand Wilmington residents fell ill. This unchecked spread created a tremendous strain, crushing all parts of the early 20th-century health care system. However, in particular, the surge of the stricken needing around-the-clock inpatient care completely overwhelmed medical centers as beds filled up and officials scrambled to increase capacity.
In this two-part series, we examine the impact of the pandemic of 1918 on Delaware hospitals. It begins by exploring the inpatient system in 1917, the year before the virus staggered the state. The second part considers the direct consequences of the 1918 autumn surge and actions officials took to increase capacity.
When that unforgettable year, 1918, arrived, Delaware hospitals already suffered from a shortage of nurses and doctors as many caregivers were off serving the military. Moreover, hospital beds were in short supply, a condition that existed long before World War I. The city had three public hospitals and one proprietary (physician-owned) facility. In New Castle County, the Trustees of the Poor managed the County Hospital, a place previously known as the County Almshouse. Below the canal, two public centers existed to provide around-the-clock bedside nursing care, the “Milford Emergency Hospital,” and Dr. Bebee’s Hospital in Lewes. There were also a few federal and state institutions.
Delaware Hospitals in 1917
Presented in chronological order, this is a list of inpatient medical centers in 1917 with notes about the institutions.
United States Marine Hospital, Lewes – Located on the government reservation at Breakwater, the “Delaware Breakwater Quarantine Hospital” opened on October 20, 1884, under Acting Surgeon William P. Orr. It included a surgeon’s quarters, six patient beds, a kitchen, and a small shed. The Marine Hospital Service inspected arriving ships, checking for infectious diseases. By 1912, the American Medical Directory reported that the “United States Marine Hospital” had 32 beds. But sometime during 1917, the United States Navy took over the station as a base, as the processing of immigrants stopping there during World War I.1
The Delaware Breakwater Quarantine Station in 1895 2
New Castle County Hospital, Farnhurst – Originally known as the New Castle County Almshouse, the poorhouse opened at Farnhust in 1884. According to the Morning News, the legislature changed the name to the New Castle County Hospital in 1899, which pleased most of the Trustees as the institution had always been conducted more as a hospital than an almshouse. 3. Late in the 1890s, the Trustees of the Poor added a “pest house,” a separate building to treat contagious patients. The public hospital had 250 beds in 1917.4
Homeopathic Hospital, Wilmington – The first public hospital in the city started admitting patients on February 10, 1888, at Shallcross Avenue and Van Buren in the former Heald’s Hygeian Home. Originally envisioned to be a general hospital for all doctors, allopathic physicians objected to homeopathic doctors having admitting privileges, so funders established it as a homeopathic medical center. By 1917, it had 75 beds. When its door swung open to receive patients, it was the only hospital in Wilmington. In 1940, it was renamed Memorial Hospital.5,6
Delaware State Hospital for the Insane, Farnhurst – A center for the treatment of mental illnesses, the hospital was established in 1889. It had a capacity for 450 patients in 1917.
Delaware Hospital, Wilmington – With the homeopathic hospital flourishing and drawing many patients, allopathic practitioners decided they, too, needed a hospital. They purchased a lot at 14th and Washington streets and built a new 100-bed brick structure, which was named the Delaware Hospital. The first patient, James Sutherland, arrived on February 22, 1890.7
Dr. J. J Jones Private Hospital, Wilmington. Established in 1896 by Dr. John J. Jones at 1012 Delaware Avenue, Wilmington. By 1917 the private hospital had 30 beds.
Emergency Hospital, Milford, DE. Established in 1908, on the fourth floor of the Central Hotel, the medical facility, the first public facility in southern Delaware, received emergency cases that were not contagious. it had grown to 16 beds by 1916.9
Physicians and Surgeons Hospital, Wilmington – As the number of doctors increased in the city in the waning decades of the 19th century, many were not affiliated with either of Wilmington’s public hospitals. These unaffiliate doctors decided in 1909 to set up an open hospital, which they called physicians and surgeons. They bought a large home at eight and Adams streets, which they equipped and opened on December 20, 1909. The institution also established a training school for nurses, the first class graduating in 1915. By 1917, the facility accommodated 25 patients, and in 1921 Physician’s and Surgeon’s established the first contagion unit in Wilmington, putting an end to the longtime problem of what to do with patients suffering from infectious disease. Up to that time, contagious patients were either sent to the Farnhurst Pest Hour or quarantined in their own homes. In 1928, the governing association changed the name to Wilmington General Hospital, as this represented the institutional mission, “an open hospital for all people,” which also welcomed all reputable physicians and surgeons. On April 25, 1929, operations moved to a greatly expanded modern hospital at Broom and Chestnut streets.10
Beebe Hospital — The first hospital downstate, the proprietary institution opened in 1916.11
Once the surge slammed the state at the end of September 1918, the existing medical centers overflowed with patients, beds spilling into hallways and other spaces where ever they could be jammed. This forced physicians to save beds for the most gravely ill while others suffered at home.
Next (coming soon) — In part two, we examine how Delaware hospitals established facilities and took other measures to expand capacity.
For more on Delaware Hospitals and the Spanish influenza see the Delmarva Spanish Flu Archive
Endnotes
American Medical Directory. United States: American Medical Association, 1912. http://bit.ly/35f8Imn[↩]
Taylor, Frank Hamilton. The Hand Book of the Lower Delaware River: Ports, Tides, Pilots, Quarantine Stations, Light-house Service, Life-saving and Maritime Reporting Stations. United States: G.S. Harris & Sons, printers, 1895, Google Books[↩]
Trustees of the Poor, Morning News, April 27, 1899[↩]
Homeopathic Care Before it was Trendy,” Delaware Today, July 14, 2014, http://bit.ly/2MHqbxr[↩]
Homeopathic Hospital Association of Delaware, Thirty-FirstAnnual Report for the year ending November 15, 1918, in the collection of the Wilmington Public Library[↩]
Delaware Hospital, Twenty-Eighth and Twenty-Ninth Annual Report, 1917 and 1918, in the collection of the Wilmington Public Library[↩]
Delaware Hospital Annual Report, 1917-1918, in the collection of the Wilmington Public Library[↩]
American Medical Directory, 5th edition, 1916, 327, Hathi trust https://bit.ly/3pME0cg[↩]
Morning News, “P & S Hospital to be Wilmington General Hospital,” June 11, 1928. p 14[↩]
Helping Hand – Hospitals Had Many Changes, January 5, 1993, News Journal[↩]
Since I started researching the pandemic of 1918 two years ago, I have spent many hours online mining data and at archives analyzing death certificates, undertaker registers, physician statements, and health department reports. Once I have sifted through death records for an area, I frequently pause to visit the cemeteries to remember those who perished in that perilous time when there was no vaccine or treatment to protect people from the virus.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon in late autumn, while strolling through the Riverview Cemetery in Wilmington searching for victims, I paused at the headstone for Nurse Ethel Tammany. The twenty-three-year-old healthcare professional graduated from the Delaware Hospital School of Nursing in 1917 at the head of the class, a distinction she justly deserved, her colleagues at the hospital noted. “She had a bright, sunny disposition and seemed to bring sunshine into each room of suffering she entered. She was deeply devoted to her work, and the many doctors and nurses with whom she had been associated will miss her helping hand,” a published tribute added.
With a diploma in hand, the caregiver soon took a job at the Harlan Plant of Bethlehem Steel in Wilmington as an industrial nurse. The global pandemic clobbered Delaware the next year, and several emergency hospitals opened across the City to expand Delaware’s capacity for in-patient treatment. Miss Tammany started working at the New Century Club Emergency Hospital, helping alleviate pain and suffering. After becoming infected by the virus, she developed pneumonia and died on Oct. 9, 1918. Dr. John Palmer wrote that the “La Grippe” was the primary cause of death on the state certificate.
Ethel Tammany was laid to rest at the Riverview Cemetery in Wilmington. Her mother, father, three sisters, and two brothers survived her. She had lived at 2114 W. 17th Street, Wilmington.
About a quarter of the United States population caught the virus, 675,000 died, and life expectancy dropped by 12-years. With no vaccine to protect against the pathogen, people were urged to isolate, quarantine, practice good personal hygiene, and limit social interaction. That was all they had.
I will share more of these remembrances as I complete my fieldwork and visit cemeteries to remember the front line heroes fighting the global pandemic of 1918.
For more on Nurses & Others on the Front Line of the Pandemic of 1918 see
Opening of saloons may bring rush. (Morning News, Oct. 28, 1917)
Listening to the Delaware COVID-19 update on WDEL this Tuesday afternoon (11/24/2020), Governor Carney caught my attention when he said don’t come to Delaware for your alcohol!
One-hundred-two years ago, public health and police officials in Wilmington had a similar situation during the Pandemic of 1918. That October, Delaware authorities closed public gathering places, including saloons, taprooms, and taverns and those establishments remained closed for most of the month.
Saloons Thrown Open
Toward the end of October, the influenza eased so the Delaware Board of Health lifted the ban on public assembly at 1 a.m. Sunday, October 27. The reopening of taverns had to wait until Monday – this marked twenty-six days that the board kept saloons shuttered. However, a great deal of thirst had accumulated, as from early morning until late at night that Monday, John Barleycorn held sway in the City for the first time in nearly a month.
Once saloon keepers threw open the doors, people crowded around the bars. This rush was apparent anywhere one looked downtown, the spectacle of intoxicated men on streets being a common one. Officers booked over 100 lawbreakers in the lockup before midnight. The authorities likened the situation to the days when the powder plants at Carney Point were in the making, and the patrol wagons were loaded up with intoxicated men at the boat wharves.
Drunken men again fill police cells. (Source: Morning News, Oct. 30, 1918)
While these scenes unfolded, the police patrol wagon, which had remained idle for a couple of weeks took on a new lease on life. For a while it was thought that the “little patrol [wagon],” which had been undergoing repairs during the slump in business, would have to be placed in operation. But Patrolman Harry Foreman, the mechanic, not anticipating any rush in business, did not have it ready to roll. 1
After Wilmington’s barrooms opened, another problem developed. In Chester, Philadelphia, Carney’s Point, Camden and other nearby sections of New Jersey and Pennsylvania saloons were still closed because the quarantine was still in place, so thirsty people flocked to Wilmington. This influx of the visitors from Philadelphia seeking liquor was a menace to public health and morals, to say nothing of a nuisance as there were more intoxicated men on the streets than others. Consequently, the Board of Police Commissioners and Chief Black issued an order closing Wilmington’s saloon at 7 o’clock every night until these nearby places lifted the quarantines 2
Wilmington’s Mayor John Lawson felt the matter would adjust itself after the saloons opened in the neighboring states. And in a week or so it did as strangers stopped coming to the Delaware to “liquor up.” The other places had lifted the local quarantines in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Endnotes
Disciples of Bacchus Hold Day of Revelry,” Morning News, October 29, 1918[↩]
“Saloons Closed by Police Order at Seven o’clock,” Morning News, November 1, 1918[↩]
