By Bill Alley

The year was 1918. The initial euphoria that had greeted the declaration of war the year before had been replaced with the grim reality of battle: headlines describing the carnage on the front, daily casualty lists, and the grief that accompanied notification of loved ones lost.

Health officer E.B. Pickel, a prominent Medford physician, banned public gatherings in Medford in 1918. (SOHS number 15961)

By spring, the tide of war slowly turned in favor of the allies, but a new nightmare appeared on the horizon: plague. By October of that year, the Spanish Influenza would claim its first Medford victim and spark a citywide quarantine. By the time the disease had run its course in early 1919, it had claimed half a million lives nationwide.

The pandemic's beginning in the spring of 1918 appeared benign. A young soldier in Kansas sought treatment for cold symptoms. By week's end, over 500 soldiers exhibited the same symptoms.

The disease progressed stunningly fast. The first symptoms were generally mild and cold-like: sore throat, runny nose, aches. These were then followed by a rapid rise of temperature and sudden collapse. Many survived the initial onslaught of the disease but would then succumb to a relapse because they arose from their sickbeds too soon.

The Spanish influenza made its first appearances in Medford in the second week of October, 1918. Health Officer Dr. E.B. Pickel and Mayor C.E. ``Pop'' Gates issued a proclamation closing ``all places of amusements, theaters, moving picture shows, etc., churches, lodges, schools and all public meetings of every description, where people congregate -- same to be in effect until said epidemic has subsided.'' This ``safety first'' policy resulted in Medford being the first city in Oregon to impose such a ban on public gatherings.

The first fatality attributed to the influenza occurred on Oct. 23. William H. Barnum was admitted to the Sacred Heart hospital on Oct. 20. On the morning of the 23rd, the 35- year-old Barnum was dead.

The loss of Medford's first flu victim, and the increasing number of additional cases, led Mayor Gates to order a quarantine of all flu sufferers. Beginning Oct. 23, all residences where there was a case of Spanish flu were required to post a blue sign with the words "Contagious, Influenza" prominently displayed.

Sacred Heart Hospital, which had been opened in 1912, still had excess capacity. The sisters offered the city free use of the vacant top floor; all the city had to provide was the bedding and necessary supplies, many of which were supplied by the Red Cross. The entire floor was put under the direction of the county's public health nurse, Miss Rosetta McGrail.

By the second week of December, 150 cases of influenza had been reported, half of them hospitalized; four people had died in as many days. In a ``stormy'' session, the Medford City Council passed Ordinance No. 961, a highly controversial measure to combat the flu.

Ordinance 961 stipulated that all persons conducting business in Medford, or riding or walking the streets, would be required to wear a mask. Two council members, Dr. James Keene and Jesse Dressler, were vehement in their opposition to the measure. Most, however, readily complied with the new mask ordinance.

Until local Red Cross volunteers could manufacture a sufficient supply of proper masks, all sorts of masks, "from women's veils to handkerchiefs," could be seen on the streets of Medford.

Conditions had so improved by the first week of January1919, the unpopular mask ordinance was finally lifted. Only the ban on dancing remained in effect. The reasons for maintaining the ban on dancing appeared to be more moral than medical. "Upon one class of assemblage," Mail Tribune Editor George Putnam editorialized, "the ban should not be lifted however as a matter of public morality as well as public health. Reference is made to the uncontrolled and unregulated public dances, which are active agents in spreading moral degeneracy, frequently haunts for bootleggers and usually pitfalls for foolish girls and addleheaded women whose parents lack sense of responsibility and duty.''

With the flu mask ordinance repealed and the ban on public gatherings lifted, life began to return to normal. In spite of the loss of life, Southern Oregon could count itself fortunate that its experience with the influenza was mild. By the time the pandemic had run its course, over half a million Americans had perished; 10 times the country's casualties in two years of war, lost in a matter of months. Worldwide the Spanish Influenza claimed an estimated 30 million souls. No other pandemic in the history of man had been able to extract such a toll in so short a period of time.